Pursuit Manila: The First Gathering

The First Pursuit Manila Gathering, class picture yay!

So THIS HAPPENED, and I know it’s about time I blogged about this, right? After all, for the past 2 weeks many of you have emailed me and expressed your curiosity about Pursuit and asked me details about the next gathering, and I feel horrible for not being able to answer all of you right away.

The truth is, I have a templated response that I can just send to answer your questions. But you all are amazing, and you’ve opened up to me and shared to me beautiful stories and thoughts that deserve more than a few copy-pasted sentences. So if you happened to email me recently about the Pursuit Community, do know that I’m sooo blessed by your email and I’m replying to you with answers before this week ends.

That said, I want to share what happened to the first Pursuit Community gathering because I know it will answer some of your FAQs. And of course, I want to share my joy and my excitement in what the Lord has so far done, and what He’s yet to do in this little community of ours. :)

The first gathering

On January 24, 16 women came to the first ever Pursuit Community gathering, and I was blown away. The fact that 16 of us showed up (there could be more but we’re maxed out at 15 heads) is already mind-blowing for me, really.

Sure, Karen and I came to the venue with some art materials, print-outs, some take-out sandwiches and a bag of groceries and paper cups; but the truth is, we were as clueless as everyone else. I didn’t really know what to expect, except that God was going to do something great. And He did, and it was more than great, because that’s just the kind of God He is. He doesn’t disappoint. :)

The easy part was coming to the first gathering and knowing that we already have one thing in common—we all are passionate about Jesus. Some of us are mothers, some are photographers, a few are Sales Executives who make time for crafts at night, others are bloggers, stylists, business owners, singers, artists. We’re all different but we all speak this same language—worship. 

So we started with worship,

and everything just flowed from there.

Ehem, that’s my husband, and yes Pursuit is for women. He’s just very supportive. ;) 

Allison lead the group in singing, and as our worship filled the room and God filled our hearts, the ice was broken and we suddenly turned from strangers to sisters.

That’s the first thing you have to know about Pursuit Manila. We love to worship. :) And we’re going to worship and pray for one another and talk about what God has been doing in our lives, and in our businesses, and in our creative pursuits every time we meet.

We shared our “One Word” for the year,

Words like seek, love, surrender, move, pursue, focus, cultivate, arise, excellence, essential, passion.. Words that we committed ourselves to be and to guide us as we pursue our God-given calling and passions and dreams this year.

We ended our sharing time with the acknowledgement that whatever our ONE Words may be, they all should be hinged on THE Word of God. :)

and then we worked on our vision boards!

Needless to say, since everyone is an artist in her own rights, the vision boards came out oh-so beautifully! Some of my favorite ones:

Shout out to Julianne, Denise and Elaine for these beautiful, frame-worthy works of art! :)

We took lots of photographs! :)

Much thanks to our *ehem* resident Pursuit photographers that day, Jaime Espadilla and Elaine Subido, for capturing these beautiful moments.

Ahh, priceless, priceless moments.

We ate sandwiches and krinkles and popcorn!

We munched on what Karen and I called “DIY” food; everything bought from the next-door mall an hour before the event. :D Well, everything except for the yummy krinkles which were lovingly sponsored by Playtime Cakeshop!

We closed the day with full hearts and tummies, passions reignited and tanks filled, ready to take on this year with our faith and “one word”s on our sleeves. Bonds were formed, new friendships built, and most of all we went away with a clearer picture of what the Lord made us for.

Our challenge for ourselves is to be more brave in talking about our faith and glorifying God in our creative pursuits. Through these gatherings and through our online channels, our prayer is that our passion for Him will shine through, so that people will know that it is only by Him and through Him that we create.

If you want to be part of something like this, there’s room in the Pursuit Community for you! Sign up in the subscribe form on the sidebar to get updates about Pursuit, or email me at rhizaoyos [at] gmail.com to know about the future gatherings.

We already have a date set for the February gathering, we shall make announcements soon. :)

To know more about the Pursuit Community, visit the site.
To know more about Pursuit Manila, this page is a good place to start.

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Much gratitude to Playtime Cakeshop for the generous supply of krinkles, and Art & Sky for our loot of discounted washi tape! May God bless you tenfolds. :)

Photographs grabbed from Elain’s camera, plus Karen and my IG phones.