Pastor Hildegarde “Hilda” Lumabi graduated from Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in 2016 with a Master of Divinity degree. She enrolled at APNTS the same year she started her full-time pastoral role at the Evangelical Friends church inside Robinsons Homes, Antipolo City. Hilda still pastors the same congregation today. She jokingly testifies that having already graduated, thus being free from time-consuming writing of numerous papers, she has more time for her ministries. Feeling empowered and bursting with ideas, she even stays at the parsonage in order to be able to devote time to the people in her congregation and implement her plans for the local church.
I recently visited her congregation on a Sunday. As requested, I preached a sermon entitled “Discerning God’s Direction.” I could sense that the church is at an important crossroad. The sanctuary is filled with people, and they have to expand their building if they wish to accommodate more people. The congregation meets at a rented facility inside a subdivision. The building is well-built, with Sunday School rooms and an office. The people were very hospitable to my family and exceptionally responsive to the Word. I was impressed at how even the young people were so attentive in listening to the sermon. The congregation is multi-generational, which is also quite a delightful surprise. The number of youth and young professionals also indicates that the church is assured of a good future.
Pastor Hilda was full of enthusiasm as she shared what she has been doing since her recent graduation. I was truly amazed how such a single pastora could be so involved in many things. Since 2015, in addition of pastoring her congregation and being a student, she has been travelling to Capiz to plant a church. On her next trip there this summer, she will organize the group into a formal congregation as the people are ready to start a building project. Immediately after the group is organized in Capiz, she plans to start church planting in the neighboring province of Antique. Moreover, she started a fellowship in her home town in Taguig in 2017, which is two cities away from her local church. The group there is now meeting regularly. Currently, her local church in Antipolo is also committed to several outreaches in Dalig, Hinapao, and St. Bernice Subdivision. When asked how she could accomplish all of this, she responded, “Excellence in ministry requires faithful connection to the purposes of God. It is His agenda to be known and be lived out by the church, particularly in bearing fruit. In everything, remain in Him.” (John 15:5).
Hilda is extremely thankful to APNTS for the equipping she received, and she is very generous in her evaluation, especially of the faculty. In fact, as I listened to her, I kept asking myself, “Were we as faculty really this good?” I cannot remember anyone who is more generous in complimenting APNTS than her. She wrote, “I am grateful to the Lord for the lives of my professors during my years at APNTS. Your teachings and encouragement meant a lot to me and is of great help in my ministry.”
Currently, Pastora Hilda is the only member of the alumni from the Evangelical Friends, a split group from the Religious Society of Friends (or Quakers). This may change in the very near future. As a chairperson of the Philippine Evangelical Friends International Ministries (since 2015), this year, she has successfully convinced her denomination in prioritizing the education of their pastors. As a graduate of APNTS, she sees the importance of theological education and has been an outspoken advocate of pastoral training in her denomination.
Pastora Hilda is a woman of vision and godly aspirations. Let us pray for her as she continues to pastor her congregation, plant new churches, and be involved in the leadership of the Evangelical Friends. May her dreams become reality and the labors of her hands prosper. Submitted by Dr. Dick Eugenio.
