JUBILEE EVANGELICAL CHURCH (JEC) CELEBRATES JUBILEE CHRISTIAN ACADEMY (JCA) SUNDAY

Top:  Jubilee Christian Academy (JCA) Strings Sonata members and adviser,
Mr. Philippe Prean Langcauon, and JCA Alumnus, Justin Yturzaeta
Bottom:  Jubilee Evangelical Church Pastoral Staff and Jubilee Christian
Academy Board members and Management Staff

 

Last March 8, 2015, Jubilee Evangelical Church celebrated Jubilee Christian Academy (JCA) Sunday.   The JCA Strings Sonata worshiped the Lord and ministered to the JEC congregation using their percussions, wind, and string instruments.  They rendered a special number to exhort Christians that we have a great and faithful God!  Listen to the short excerpt of the JCA Strings Sonata’s rendition of Christopher Tomlin’s “Our God.”

JCA Strings Sonata’s rendition of Christopher Tomlin’s “Our God.”

Justin Yturzaeta shared a powerful testimony of how God used a Christian school like Jubilee Christian Academy to help him find salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and grow in his faith.   You may download a full transcript of Justin’s testimony here.

Justin is an alumnus of JCA and valedictorian of batch 2013.  He and his batch mates topped the National Achievement Tests (NAT) among the Quezon City private schools when they were in Grades 6 and 8.  The batch ranked second in NAT when they were in Grade 10.  He volunteers as a member of the JEC Praise and Worship Team.  A sophomore at the Ateneo de Manila University, Justin is taking up BS Management of Applied Chemistry, with a minor in Education.  He is the Associate Vice-President for Product Innovation in the Ateneo Management of Applied Chemistry Association for SY 2014 – 2015.  He is also an officer-in-charge and the research-and-development department head of Kimikabuhayan, a project to alleviate poverty by helping communities establish and manage chemistry-based business.

 

 

TESTIMONY OF JUSTIN YTURZAETA

As I reflect upon my thirteen-year stay in Jubilee Christian Academy, I realize how each year in school contributed to my spiritual growth, and in the final years, my spiritual birth. Who I am today is largely influenced by the Christian education I have received from my alma mater. Jubilee has provided an enabling environment for my Christian faith, and now that I have seen how God has blessed me and touched me through my alma mater, I can’t help but pray: “Lord, I thank You for having me study in Jubilee.”

If my memory serves me right, I learned about the Creation way back in preschool. I still remember the very first verse I memorized in nursery: “Genesis 1:1 – ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’” I also remember some of the songs we used to sing in Kindergarten and these songs were actually Scripture: “This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24); “Arise, shine; for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1)

I probably did not understand what these verses meant, but at least I have them stored in my heart and mind, ready to be withdrawn with the help of the Holy Spirit when the time comes. When I have bad mornings, a verse echoing the joyful days of my childhood pops into my mind: “This is the day that the Lord has made. [I] will rejoice and be glad in it.”

As the years in Jubilee went by, I was given plenty of opportunities to grow in my faith, but I can’t really pinpoint when I exactly became truly spiritually alive. I’ve known about God since nursery, and I grew in my knowledge about Him. But it was sometime during my last school year in Jubilee when I started to know God personally, rather than just know about Him. It was a very powerful moment in my life, and everything that has been taught to me in Jubilee in the past twelve years made more sense. I started appreciating the quiet time and journal writing in school every morning. Before, especially in elementary, it used to be a tedious and mindless task—at least five sentences, I just wrote three, I need two more, “God is good,” “We must thank the Lord,” done. But during that moment of spiritual birth in high school, I started taking my devotions more seriously. I tried having a more intimate time with the Lord and tried to actually hear what God wants me to hear.

When it comes to larger things in life, my dreams, my aspirations, my visions, the school has also made a deep impression on them. The school vision ends with this powerful statement regarding the envisioned Jubilean: “His every role in life declares his deep commitment to live and serve excellently for the greater glory of God and the good of others.” All the years spent in Jubilee, all the years of Christian Education, Bible stories and Bible studies, praise and worship, retreats and quiet time, Bible integrations in the different subjects and school activities, culminate into a life lived for the greater glory of God and the good of others. Each day, I strive to become this envisioned Jubilean more and more, because I am saved to serve with excellence.

Now that I look back to my first day in Nursery, and see how the Lord has made me grow spiritually to who I am today, I can see the Lord’s faithfulness through it all and it is just so beautiful. And I know that He who brought me to life will be faithful in the years to come and will empower me to do good works for His greater glory and the good of others.

I pray that all of us, through the Lord’s strength, will be able to live lives for the good of our neighbor and ultimately for His greater glory.

Thank you very much for letting me share my testimony. Please continue to pray for Jubilee Christian Academy, for your faithful and earnest prayers make a great difference in the ministry of the School. May the Lord bless you as you have blessed Jubilee Christian Academy.

May God be praised for ever and ever.