CTK PPC Celebrates Christmas with Fun-Filled Evening
In gratitude for their unselfish service to the CTK community, Fr. Steve Zabala invited the members of the Parish Pastoral Council and other members of ministries, mandated organizations and renewal movements to the CTK Christmas party, held Friday evening, December 14, after the 6 pm mass. Like last year, the event was a resounding success as fun, laughter and good fun rocked the Social Hall of the Parish Formation Center. Organized by the team of Fely Ong, who took care of the food arrangements, Elise del Rosario who organized the program, Jean Francisco who contributed to the stage decor, Maan del Rosario, Irene Robles, and Teri Floro, who worked on the games, and Leila Banico, who took care of the invitations, the party was marked by song and dance performances, games, and raffle. Nearly 300 devoted servers of Christ the King Parish – lectors & commentators, extraordinary ministers, greeters & collectors, altar servers, ministry heads and core team members, mandated organization officers and members, renewal movement officers and members, village and BEC coordinators – were in attendance.
Fr. Jojo Gatdula gave the welcome remarks, including the prayer before the appetizing Christmas dinner.
Like last year, young and talented violinist Nicky Maza, a volunteer of the Mustard Seed Ministry whose dad Bong Maza is a Knight of Columbus as well as EMHC, gave a highly-applauded violin performance, starting off with ‘What Child is This?’ followed by ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, and then ending with her unique rendition of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’. This was followed by a dance number by the Youth Ministry dance team.
Fr. Steve gave a short message before giving a public citation to CTK security guard Roger Pacis. Last December 4, Beth Montecillo and Mia Peñaflor, both MBMG, counted the 6 pm mass collection. Later that evening, Mia realized that she might have left her handbag in the rectory, with the collected cash that was going to be deposited in the counting room the next day, plus her own cash and checkbook. So around midnight, Mia asked the guard to accompany her to the rectory because she was going to look for her handbag. The guard asked her the color of the bag and whether it had a checkbook, to which Mia replied that it was blue and yes, it did have a checkbook. That was when the guard, Roger Pacis, revealed that he found the blue bag along the driveway and it had been run over several times before he could pick it up. Mia was so relieved and she thanked the guard profusely. And because of guard Roger Pacis’ vigilance and concern, the PPC officers recommended a special citation which Fr. Steve unhesitatingly endorsed.
There were several games conducted by game creators Teri Floro, Maan del Rosario and Irene Robles. The first game, Merry Christmas Cheer, was a variation of Wowowee’s hit game Hep Hep Hooray. The third game, Christmas Carols Galore, was conducted by table, and involved each table singing a different Filipino carol until all the songs were exhausted and the last table to sing won. Clearly, the game hit of the night was the hula hoop pass-along game, Up Down Over and Under, where three teams, forming long lines of 15 each, passed the hoop under and over through every person in the team. Fr. Steve even joined the game. Emceeing the games were Louie Padrinao and Althea Geronilla.
A special song number medley was provided by Fr. Steve Zabala, which was followed by a song by the clergy tandem of Fr. Steve and Fr. Jojo Gatdula, also a singer in his own right.
The second and last dance number was by the core team of the Sunrise ministry, dancing to a pasa doble tune.
The food was good, the games were all highly entertaining, and the song and dance numbers were memorable – nothing else was needed for a CTK Christmas party. Fr. Steve formally closed the evening by thanking everyone who came and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.
