BOOK REVIEW | A Book About God – But Also About People
BOOK REVIEW | Witnessing: Three Decades of Faith
Bukas Loob sa Diyos Catholic Covenanted Community-District of Davao
Edited by Nikki Gomez and Des Mendoza-Lopez
Published by BLD Davao Foundation, Inc., 2026
TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 6 July 2026) — Many anniversary books fail because they become archives instead of stories.
They list names.
They preserve photographs.
They recount milestones.
Useful, certainly. Memorable, not always.
Witnessing: Three Decades of Faith avoids that trap.
It tells the story of thirty years of Bukás Loób sa Diyós (BLD) Davao not primarily through dates and officers but through ordinary people whose lives were quietly transformed by faith. The result is a book that is simultaneously history, memoir, oral history, spiritual reflection, and community archive.
Its greatest accomplishment is that it reminds the reader that institutions do not endure because of constitutions.
They endure because people keep saying “yes.”
BRIEF SUMMARY
Published for BLD Davao’s 30th Foundation Anniversary, the book chronicles how a small gathering of seventeen couples and one widow in 1994 gradually became a mature Catholic covenant community serving not only Davao but neighboring dioceses.
The narrative unfolds in three movements.
Vineyard tells the institutional story—the origins, struggles, milestones, expansion, and leadership of BLD Davao.
Witnessing presents deeply personal testimonies of conversion, suffering, healing, vocation, and discipleship.
Pentecost reflects on the fruits of the Holy Spirit manifested through transformed lives, ministries, forgiveness, service, and hope.
Rather than reading like a continuous history, the volume resembles a pilgrimage where readers encounter one testimony after another, discovering that God’s work is often hidden inside ordinary lives.
MAJOR THEMES
1. Faith is built through perseverance, not perfection.
One recurring lesson throughout the book is that communities survive not because difficulties disappear, but because members continue serving despite them.
The editorial itself recounts illnesses, bereavements, publishing setbacks, historical verification issues, and countless delays encountered while producing the book—yet interprets these not as reasons to quit but as occasions to persevere.
The message is understated:
Faithfulness is often administrative.
2. Community is the Gospel made visible.
The strongest chapters describe community life.
Leaders traveling hours to mission areas.
Families opening homes.
Marriage Encounter weekends.
Word Sharing Circles.
People sleeping in makeshift dormitories while conducting retreats.
These stories reveal Christianity less as doctrine than as shared life.
3. Evangelization begins with personal transformation.
Nearly every testimony follows a similar rhythm:
Brokenness.
Encounter.
Healing.
Mission.
Rather than presenting dramatic miracles alone, the book emphasizes quieter miracles:
forgiveness, restored marriages, renewed prayer, service, humility. These may not make headlines. But they build communities.
4. Institutions matter because memory matters.
Perhaps the book’s most important contribution lies beyond spirituality. It preserves institutional memory. Communities often lose their history one funeral at a time. This volume prevents that.
Future generations will know not merely who founded BLD Davao, but how difficult those early years actually were.
LITERARY AND EDITORIAL ANALYSIS
From a publishing standpoint, this is considerably more ambitious than the average commemorative book. Several features stand out.
Excellent overall structure
The three-part organization—
Vineyard
Witnessing
Pentecost
mirrors spiritual development itself: planting, growing, bearing fruit. It is both biblical and narratively satisfying.
Strong visual identity
The coffee-table format succeeds. Photographs are not decorative. They function as historical evidence. The generous use of white space, archival images, call-out quotations, and symbolic artwork gives the volume dignity without becoming ostentatious. The consistent visual language reflects careful editorial planning.
One editorial decision deserves special mention: the use of call-out quotations throughout the book. At first glance, these appear to be elegant design elements that provide visual rhythm and breathing space between longer narratives. On closer reading, however, they reveal a much deeper purpose.
The editors shared that many of these brief reflections were gathered—often painstakingly—from members who had long since become inactive, had moved away from Davao, or were no longer visible in community life. The intention was not necessarily to invite them back, but simply to remind them that they remain forever part of the BLD family. The fact that so many responded speaks to the enduring bond they still feel with the community.
Seen in that light, the quotations function almost like a printed reunion. Members separated by geography, time, circumstance, or silence find themselves standing once again alongside pioneers, leaders, and active servants. Each brief testimony becomes a quiet affirmation: your story still belongs here.
It is rare for a design element to carry both aesthetic and theological weight. In Witnessing, the call-out quotations achieve precisely that. They beautify the page, enrich the reading experience, preserve voices that might otherwise have been lost, and quietly proclaim a truth that every faith community hopes to live: those who once walked together remain, in some enduring way, part of the same family.
That is both good editing and good pastoral imagination.
Multiple voices, one mission
Nearly twenty contributors participated. Remarkably, the editors manage to preserve a coherent spiritual tone while allowing individual voices to remain distinct. This is difficult. Collaborative books often sound fragmented.
This one rarely does.
Historical value
The early chapters documenting the beginnings of BLD Davao, expansion into neighboring dioceses, and recollections from pioneering members elevate the book beyond devotional literature.
It becomes an important local church history.
Future historians studying Catholic lay renewal movements in Mindanao will likely find this volume indispensable.
What Makes This Book Special
Its greatest strength is authenticity.
The stories rarely feel manufactured.
People admit fears.
Leaders acknowledge uncertainty.
Editors openly describe production struggles.
Members recount hardships before describing grace.
That honesty makes the faith more believable.
Readers trust stories that include scars.
Areas Where the Book Could Grow
Every significant work also leaves opportunities for improvement.
1. Stronger historical context
Readers unfamiliar with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal or BLD’s origins may occasionally feel disoriented.
A short introductory chapter placing BLD within Philippine Church history would have enriched the narrative.
The current book assumes that readers already know what Bukás Loób sa Diyós (BLD) is. For longtime members, that assumption is reasonable. But fifty years from now—or for a Catholic in Cebu, a student in Manila, or even a foreign researcher studying lay renewal movements in Southeast Asia—the opening chapters may feel like joining a conversation halfway through.
Before introducing BLD Davao, the book could first answer three fundamental questions:
- What was happening in the Catholic Church that gave birth to communities like BLD?
- Why did lay covenant communities emerge in the Philippines in the 1970s and 1980s?
- How does BLD fit within the broader history of the Church?
That historical “zoom out” would make the succeeding chapters even more meaningful.
2. More chronological integration
Several testimonies overlap chronologically.
Occasional timelines connecting personal stories to organizational milestones would improve continuity.
This is actually a suggestion about narrative architecture, not about adding more history.
One of the strengths of Witnessing is its many heartfelt testimonies. However, because the book moves from institutional history to personal testimonies, readers sometimes lose track of where a testimony fits within the thirty-year journey of BLD Davao.
A simple timeline appearing at the beginning or end of each major chapter would solve this elegantly.
For example:
Example 1
At the beginning of
“Tribulations, Resilience, and Grace”
BLD Davao Timeline
1994
First Marriage Encounter Weekend
Founding of BLD Davao
17 couples and one widow begin the community
1995–1996
Living Word Groups established
First regular worship gatherings
Formation of early servant leaders
1997
Recognized as a Full-Fledged District
1998
Mission begins in Mati
Story begins here →
Ed Pacana recalls serving in the first Marriage Encounter weekends, sleeping in makeshift dormitories, and responding to God’s call despite family sacrifices.
Immediately the reader understands:
“Ah, this testimony happened during the pioneering years.”
Example 2
Suppose the next testimony concerns Digos.
A timeline could appear like this.
Timeline
1994
Founded
↓
1997
Full District
↓
2003–2006
Expansion ministries
↓
2010
Prayer groups in Digos strengthened
↓
2013
Discipleship formation expands
↓
Story begins here
The community in Digos grows from a handful of families into a District-in-Process.
The reader now sees that this is no longer the pioneering chapter.
It belongs to the expansion chapter.
Example 3
Suppose a testimony concerns COVID.
Instead of simply beginning with the personal story:
Timeline
1994
Community founded
↓
1997
Full District
↓
2014
20th Anniversary
↓
2020
COVID pandemic
↓
Online worship begins
↓
Virtual pastoral care
↓
Story begins here
“Our Circle never stopped meeting…”
Again, the testimony becomes anchored historically.
Integrating Personal Stories
Another elegant approach is to end each major historical chapter with a box entitled:
Meanwhile…
1994
“Ed and Leclec Pacana had just completed the first Marriage Encounter.”
1997
“Jing Abella recalls wondering whether the community would survive.”
1998
“Buddy and Fe Ayag began the difficult trips to Mati.”
2014
“Alex Pobre describes rediscovering his calling through community service.”
2020
“Circle shepherds learned how to care for members online.”
These brief “snapshots” weave individual lives into the larger organizational story.
Why this matters
As a memoirist, I sense readers remember people more easily than dates. Historians, on the other hand, need chronology. A well-designed timeline satisfies both.
For Witnessing, this would allow readers to see two stories unfolding simultaneously:
- The institutional story—how BLD Davao grew from a small prayer community into a mature district with outreach across the Davao Region.
- The personal story—how God was quietly transforming marriages, families, vocations, and individual lives at each stage of that journey.
The result is a richer reading experience. Instead of feeling like separate chapters placed side by side, the organizational milestones and personal testimonies become interwoven strands of a single narrative—showing that every milestone in BLD Davao’s history was ultimately built upon the faithful “yes” of ordinary disciples.
3. Deeper reflection on social mission
The book beautifully documents interior transformation. It could devote additional attention to how that spirituality influenced society—poverty, education, peacebuilding, family life, local communities, Mindanao.
Readers increasingly ask not only, “How has faith changed believers?” but also, “How has faith changed the world around them?”
4. More voices from younger generations
The pioneers understandably occupy center stage.
A fuller inclusion of younger disciples would demonstrate how the community’s legacy continues into the future.
Personal Reflection
As someone who has spent years documenting institutions, communities, public service, families, and memory, I found myself appreciating this book for reasons beyond its religious content.
Every generation eventually faces one question:
Who will remember us accurately?
Organizations usually preserve minutes. Rarely do they preserve souls. Witnessing attempts exactly that. It records not merely events but emotions. Not merely achievements but conversions. Not merely leaders but disciples. The book reminds us that history is ultimately written not only by historians.
It is written by grateful people.
Who Should Read This Book?
This volume deserves a readership wider than BLD itself.
It will especially benefit:
- Members of Catholic renewal communities
- Parish and diocesan leaders
- Students of Philippine Church history
- Researchers of lay movements
- Families seeking faith-centered reading
- Editors producing institutional histories
- Anyone documenting community memory
It also serves as an excellent model for anniversary publications.
Many organizations should study how this book balances history, testimony, design, and spirituality.
Final Assessment
This is not merely an anniversary souvenir.
It is an act of stewardship.
It preserves thirty years of faith before memory fades.
It honors pioneers without idolizing them.
It celebrates grace without ignoring struggle.
Most importantly, it reminds readers that the Church grows not only through bishops, priests, or institutions, but through ordinary believers who quietly continue saying yes to God across decades.
In an age fascinated by spectacle, Witnessing: Three Decades of Faith offers something more enduring: the quiet heroism of faithful lives.
That may ultimately be its greatest witness.
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
A beautifully edited, historically valuable, spiritually authentic chronicle that deserves a place not only on the shelves of BLD members but in the documentary heritage of the Catholic Church in Mindanao.
(Marriz B. Agbon is a writer, former journalist, and retired business and public policy executive. He began his career with the San Pedro Express in Davao City and later wrote for the Inquirer Mindanao. He went on to serve the chamber of commerce movement, collaborated with the Mindanao Economic Development Council, represented the Mindanao private sector in the National SMED Council, and helped organize the Mindanao Business Council during its formative years. His later work in government focused on renewable energy, biofuels, and agricultural development, where he continued to promote policies that balanced economic progress with long-term stewardship. Today, he writes on Mindanao, public policy, aging, faith, and everyday life through various online platforms including MindaNews. An avid student of the Catholic faith, he draws quiet inspiration from the teachings of St. Josemaría Escrivá, believing that holiness is found in the faithful living of ordinary life.)
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