Iligan City is rising up and moving forward. But one cannot just forget the trauma of going through a life threatening situation, or the pain of losing loved ones. It is something that cannot be easily erased by just receiving relief goods or by an opportunity to start anew.

Understanding this need, LifeBox sent two teams of LIFE Coaches to the city of Iligan last January to provide outreach efforts and crisis counseling, specifically to the students. Our LIFE Coaches helped the young people cope up with their present situation and bring back hope to the students in the long run.

With the help of Operation Blessing and Victory Iligan, LifeBox was introduced to Iligan City East High School-Hinaplanon, a high school in Iligan City with a student population of about 800, 90% of which were directly hit by Sendong.

Eighty first year students from this school received counseling from the LIFE Coaches. For the first time, all of them got the opportunity to freely express their thoughts and emotions towards the tragedy. It was a pleasant sight to see these students being lightened up again as they removed one by one the heavy emotions and baggage that they have been carrying since Typhoon Sendong happened. Nine teachers also underwent the same counseling. “Nagpapasalamat ako sa LifeBox dahil pinakinggan nila ang nasa puso ko tungkol sa dumaang bagyong si Sendong. Kung hindi dahil sa kanila hindi ko mailalabas ang saloobin ko,” Iba, one of the students who received counseling, shared.

Filled with joy after the counseling!

An engaging event was also conducted inside the school where sixty of the first year students attended. The students had fun as they participated in the games prepared for them. But more than bringing fun, LifeBox used this opportunity to speak life to the students. Ian Daguman, a LIFE Coach from LifeBox Novaliches, gave an encouraging word to them about the hope we all have in Jesus. And what was once a picture of fear in the students’ eyes were completely replaced by peace and joy knowing that there is always hope even in the midst of a devastating situation if we only put our trust in Jesus.

Several more opportunities to meet with these first year students in a LIFE Group setting followed after this. Each day that has passed, the smiles in the faces of these students grew bigger and bigger. This is just definitely the start. We are looking forward to send more teams of LIFE Coaches in the next weeks to plant more seeds of hope to the hearts of the students.

“In behalf of Iligan City East High School-Hinaplanon, I would like to thank LifeBox for sparing your time to help develop the students again, the confidence despite of the turmoil. And I believe LifeBox had encouraged the students to rise up above the negative situations that they have experienced. And I hope that there will be another sessions that the LifeBox will offer to the school in the days to come,” Mrs. Nila Villaver, principal of Iligan City East High School-Hinaplanon said.

For a city to be completely healed from a tragic experience may take time, but we are glad to see it coming from one student, one day at a time.

As a student, I was not excellent in my academics. I was satisfied with just getting passing grades, although I really wanted to finish my studies and get a degree. When I graduated from high school, I was expecting that my mother would send me to college right away. Unfortunately, I stopped studying for two years because of financial problems. I felt so rejected and discouraged.

I was a working student for almost four years to support my studies. But God is so faithful that He blessed me with a scholarship!

When I was in second year college, I was invited to join a LIFE Group by one of my close friends in school. I started attending and became more and more interested in the topics that we discussed. LifeBox made an impact in my life. I was able to share my deepest secrets that troubled me from quite some time. All the bitterness in my heart were gone because I became bold enough to share them to people who I believed would neither judge nor condemn me of my past. Indeed, God transformed me from being “rebellious and rejected” into a woman of victory. I am now secured with my identity in God. He never left me when I was helpless and hopeless. He led me to the right path where I should take.

Through these students in our LIFE Group, I saw how God works in the life of each and everyone. I am blessed to be part of this group!

Through the guidance of my LIFE Coach, I had an opportunity to lead a LIFE Group inside my campus. I also learned to set godly standards. I’ve learned to love and respect my fellow students and my professors. Best of all, I am now close with my mother and do my best to honor her every day.

Leading my own LIFE Group gives me the opportunity to learn from the lives of other people.

I also learned not to give up despite of varied circumstances. I’ve realized that I should live by promises not by situations. I’ve learned to believe and not to doubt.

Kathrine Ley Napolitano is a fourth year student taking up Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English at Technological Institute of the Philippines – QC. She is a LIFE coach of four LIFE groups in her campus, secretary of LifeBox TIP QC and running for cum laude.

First is to pray for her. We can never underestimate the power of our intercession, and the power of God to open and change hearts. Proverbs 21:1 says “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” Trust the love of God for your friend. Commit her to Him.

Second is to be with her. Just be with her. Let her talk when she wants to talk. And if not, be the one to share your life so when time comes that she’s now ready to share her life to you, she will know that you will be there for her. People like her have trust issues. She doesn’t open up because she’s not sure who she can trust. But when you show her you can be trusted, and that you love her without judgment, she’ll crack open eventually. Trust is the key. And when she trust you enough to open up to you, that will be an exciting opportunity to lead her to Jesus, who is the most trustworthy person she can have!

Eva Fesalbon is a LIFE Coach in LifeBox Quezon City. Seeing changed lives sustains her passion. She loves eating and hanging out in non-expensive places like Sunken Garden and  Isawan ni Mang Larry in UP Diliman. Follow Eva’s thoughts at www.twitter.com/evafesalbon!

I used to think that happiness could be found in hanging out with my friends, getting drunk, and wasting my time and the hard earned money on vices. I had a mindset that graduating from Nursing was my ticket to money and success. Then the time came when I needed to stop schooling and face the reality that my family could no longer provide for me.

My dreams and future shattered before me. I was hopeless, sleepless, and depressed.

One day I was introduced to a LIFE group. Having a LIFE Coach helped me realize my purpose and potential to make an impact . Being part of a LIFE Group was an avenue for me to learn from my mistakes and from what others are sharing as well. That’s when I started thinking about my ways. Little by little, I was able to learn to say no to drinking and pornography—and give them up altogether. Other people in my LIFE Group helped me realize that there’s more to life than money, success, and vices. They encouraged me to make the right decisions in my life.

With Jay Ravelo, my LIFE coach.

LifeBox helped me see beyond the facts and believe for the impossible in my life. True enough, I was given the opportunity to go back to school. I prepared for my classes and asked my friends to tutor me if I needed help, especially with Accounting subjects. From an average student, I became an academic achiever; from a regular student, I became the president of the Student Council.

I am thankful with how LifeBox has equipped me for this chapter of life, as the President of our Student Council. Making decisions for myself is easy, but making decisions for the student body is something else. I’d rather have people disagree with me than compromise integrity. It is important that as leaders, we set the temperature, and know what to come against. This humbling experience broadened my understanding on what really serving is, taught me humility, and take time to listen to criticism. This honing season of my life taught me to be sensitive towards what is needed, give value to what people say, and put things in perspective.

As a leader, it motivates me to see people going out of their comfort zones and actively participate towards the vision of achieving greater results as a team.

Leadership is everyone’s calling, It’s irrevocable. It doesn’t require recognition nor position. It’s simply standing for what is good and taking initiative from there on. To change the destiny of this nation we need to stand and fight for the truth.

Mark Gonzaga is a graduating BSBA-Financial Management student in Arellano University, Pasig City.

Dazed and confused in high school.

That’s why I will never forget how God used my LIFE Coach, Ate Ysa, to make an impact in my life. I met Ate Ysa in the dormitory where I live in. Nobody really liked hanging out with me before, but she was so kind and warm-hearted to approach and talk to me. I felt the genuine concern and love from her knowing that she’s befriending me not because she wants something from me but because of her overflowing love for others. Once she invited me to a weekly youth event of LifeBox. The topic discussed during that time was so relevant in my life that I couldn’t resist it anymore. Tears were flowing down my face, and there was a strong tug in my heart to let go of all my insecurities and fears in this life. I decided to put my trust in God that time.

With my LIFE Coach, Ysa Reyes. Ate Ysa was still a student in UP Diliman when we first met.

Learning to put my trust in God is the greatest pivotal moment in my life thus far. He flushed out my unfriendly and harsh demeanor and showed me the meaning of having a life lived for Him. I eventually learned how to deal with people of different personalities. I also learned how to forgive quickly those who hurt me. I realized that friendships bloom and last when Jesus is put in the center of it.

Today, my heart goes out to those people who are in need of real friends. Just as how God used my LIFE Coach to help me change for the better, I also want to do the same to other people through blogging and leading my own LIFE Group. It is to my joy to see how people are also changed, one day at a time. I am also now serving as the Executive Secretary of LifeBox in University of the Philippines Diliman. I never thought that I, once demeaning and harsh, could ever be placed in a position where I have to deal and interact with so many people! I am very thankful because I wouldn’t be able to do anything close to what I’m doing now, if it weren’t for God and His great plans for my life.

I am thankful that I have found true and real friends in these students who are also members of LifeBox UP Diliman.

I’m Princess Lapitan, but I prefer people to call me Cess. I’m a 4^th year Broadcast Communication student from Lyceum of the Philippines. My course gives a hint that I am an outspoken person. Talking to people, reading books, surfing the internet, and writing take up my time when I’m free from school works.

This is me last summer at Ignite 2011: The LifeBox Campus Conference - the biggest gathering of student leaders from all over the country.

Speaking of schoolwork, I wasn’t the kind of student who exerted effort in my studies. If I will use a word to describe me, it would be “mediocre.” I didn’t pay too much attention to what my teachers were saying in class. I was too busy talking to my seatmate or even to the person two rows away. And instead of working on my assignments, I just copied the answers of my classmates. If I didn’t like the way teachers handled our class, I would talk behind their backs and even curse them. This was how terrible I was as a student before I got connected to LifeBox and met my LIFE coach.

When I was in fourth year high school, I attended a LIFE workshop thinking that it was a session for scholar wannabes (I was a scholar hopeful that time). After the seminar, they invited me to be part of a LIFE Group. Ate Tina, my LIFE coach, told me that I was a leader. She also said that I could be excellent and choose to be honest all the time. Hearing these for the first time gave me the impression that this person is kidding me. A leader in me? No way! I hated responsibilities. An excellent and honest student? She’s kidding, right? I didn’t believe her, but she didn’t give up on me.

Soon, I realized that my LIFE coach was right. I realized that I had leadership. I could be excellent, give my best and be truthful in everything, and trusting God above all. From then on, I started to change my ways. I give my professors the respect that they deserved, the same way I did with my parents. I take my studies seriously, standing with my conviction that cheating is a no-no, and setting as an example to my friends and classmates.

One of the best things I love about being part of a LIFE group is meeting these LIFE Coaches who became my mentors.

From being “mediocre,” I am now a dean’s lister and the Sports Editor of our university paper. I’m giving out my best in everything and at the same time doing the right thing. I’m now  leading my own LIFE Group in Muntinlupa Science High School and volunteering in LIFE workshops.

Meet my LIFE group in Muntinlupa Science High School!

Change is not an overnight process. It takes time. Nothing is impossible in those who trust. At the end of the day, change is the only thing that is constant. Just believe.

A second chance starts by forgiving the person who offended you and you can forgive someone by realizing that you have been forgiven yourself. It may be hard to accept but everyone deserves a second chance – not because we think they do, but because God says they can have it. Yup, even the most evil person in the world who would do completely unforgivable things! Go, forgive and experience a life of freedom!

LifeBox Bacolod hosted a leadership seminar on September 21 to train and equip sixteen student senators, or members from the student council, from the University of St. La Salle Bacolod. This was held in preparation of a Bacolod-wide “Senate’s League Conference.”

University of St. La Salle Senators understanding the real meaning of being a "leader."

Through the leadership seminar, LifeBox Bacolod took the opportunity to build up these student senators to be more effective leaders by coaching them in the aspects of governing oneself, serving others, and learning how to follow. “The leadership seminar conducted by LifeBox helped us to set our hearts and minds for the Senate’s League. It trained us how to run the program,” Deni Joguilon, one of the student senators of University of St. La Salle said.

LIFE Coach Hannah Frofunga facilitating the leadership seminar.

With the determination showed by the student senators of University of St. La Salle to be better at leading, surely they have passed on a great example to their fellow student leaders who attended this year’s Senate’s League Conference. “Most of the students [who attended the Senate’s League Conference] were inspired. They were also refreshed and was reminded of their purpose as student leaders in their campus,” Deni shared.

Personality Development and Human Resource (PDHR) is a 3-unit subject designed by LifeBox in partnership with University of Makati to teach the students practical life skills and equip them with values and timeless truths.

For this semester, the fourteen sections of students who took this class are from the College of Business Administration (CBA), Center for Performing and Digital Arts (CEPDA), and College of Nursing.

Coach Robert Gonzales, one of the teachers of PDHR class, encouraged the students to make a difference and aim for success.

LifeBox also acknowledged three students each from the fourteen sections who showed and exemplified excellence, leadership, and servanthood during the course of the class by giving them awards.

Aside from the seven hundred students who successfully completed their requirements in their PDHR class, what LifeBox truly celebrates is the opportunity to see how a 3-unit subject can make a lasting change in a life of a student and the privilege to work with University in Makati in teaching and honing their students for a better future.

Before the culminating activity ended, a video presentation was shown to the crowd where three of the PDHR students shared how their lives were transformed through the help of PDHR. Check out this video!

Last October 7, seventy-eight students from Jesus the Risen Savior School – De La Salle High School experienced what to them is “the best recollection ever” as LifeBox Muntinlupa spearheaded a whole day recollection held at the school grounds of JRSS.

The recollection started off with an “Amazing Race” where each team of students worked together in finishing each obstacle waiting for them in different activity stations which tested both their physical ability and team work.

The students of JRSS who are so determined in finishing the Amazing Race activity!

While the morning session was loaded with a rush of fun and excitement, the afternoon session on the other hand was filled with opportunities to be encouraged and learn great lessons in life as LifeBox Muntinlupa LIFE Coaches Hero Magno and Sybil Galano walked the students through understanding their purpose and true identity in Christ.

LIFE Coach Hero Magno imparting life lessons to the guys in the afternoon session of the recollection.

With the booming success of the event, Grade 6 students of JRSS expressed that they began looking forward to entering high school because they are excited to join and be part of LifeBox as well.

If you are interested in partnering with us in bringing fun and life changing events in your campus, you can email us at info@lifebox.ph or call 817-1212 loc. 518. We are excited to co-labor with more schools in making events that will be significant and memorable to the students.

LifeBox Alabang held its first Educator’s Assembly on Saturday, September 24.  Three hundred seventy educators and other members of the academe from different parts of Metro Manila gathered together at the Victory center in Alabang to honor these men and women who continued on investing in students’ lives.

LifeBox salutes these educators for dedicating their lives to invest in the future of the students!

Senator Gregorio Honasan, Educator’s Assembly main speaker, encouraged the educators to take part in building the nation for the next generation. He said, “I have a family. I have five children, two grandchildren, one coming in January. When I hold my grandchildren in my arms, I am bulletproof, I am shock-proof, I am anti-magnetic. You can confront me with anything. It will not matter because I see in them the future. As I see all of you holding your children and grandchildren in your arms and thinking about other Filipino children and grandchildren and how hard we must work to ensure and secure [them] is what to me represents a better future.”

Senator Gringo Honasan challenging the educators and members of the academe to pray and work hard in building our nation.

Princess Lapitan, a fourth year student from Lyceum of the Philippines – Manila, also shared a testimony. From being a mediocre student, she learned to embraced excellence after attending a LIFE Seminar and is now one of the dean’s listers in their class—proof of what impact we can make in a life of a student and perhaps, who knows, one day even to the future of our nation if we take our chance of building them up and preparing them for life.

Princess Lapitan, 4th year college student in Lyceum of the Philippines, sharing how her life was changed after attending a LIFE Seminar.

The Educator’s Assembly paved way for our educators to have a new sense of significance in their work, as well as in the opportunity to educate and train students.

We’re excited to partner with more educators in preparing students for LIFE!

If you would like to partner with us in training students and preparing them for life, you can email us at at info@lifebox.ph or call 817-1212 loc. 518.

LifeBox Quezon City partnered with Musmos Ateneo for a Leadership Training Seminar conducted last September 23 at Ateneo De Manila University’s Matteo Ricci Up Balcony with twenty four student volunteers present.

Musmos is a sector-based organization in ADMU reaching out to the urban poor kids from Katipunan and Cubao through activities like play therapies, story telling, leadership training seminars and talent enhancement programs. For the organization’s last formation activity for the first semester, Musmos invited one of LifeBox Quezon City’s LIFE Coaches, Joey Molina to give a talk on character as an important element in leadership.

Joey Molina imparting LIFE to Musmos Ateneo volunteers.

The talk introduced the students to what character is and how self-discipline, conviction, and integrity are important factors that influence our character. “It made me realize how I shouldn’t be focused solely on building up my skills, but how I should develop my character as well in order for me to perform better in whatever I’m doing,” Jerai Orellano, one of Musmos Ateneo student volunteers, said.

The students ended with a positive note, being encouraged to remember the famous Ateneo phrase “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” and take into heart what it means—that in everything we do, we do it to glorify God who created us.

After the talk, Musmos Ateneo volunteers discuss in groups what they learned from the talk and how they intend to apply it in life.

“As a leader of my organization, people look to me for advice, for consultation, for almost anything. With that, it’s really important for me to evoke true character. From the talk, the value of integrity and consistency definitely reemerged. I want to be able to consistently walk my talk to be able to lead and inspire others, especially the kids. This talk definitely reinforced that,” said Janine Chiong, coordinator of Musmos Ateneo.

Janine Chiong (L), Musmos Ateneo Coordinator, together with two other Musmos volunteers handed LifeBox QC LIFE Coach, Joey Molina, a certificate of appreciation.