A Chat with Bro. Vernie & Elvie Malunes

He used to tower above his colleagues in the ECME Bible School, always with his diminutive wife beside him. Discernibly much-admired for their genteel demeanor, yet remarkably for their love of ministry. There was sincere warmth in their propriety, for they ceaselessly radiated the love of God. As a tricycle driver plying the Binan route to support his young family, he sensed God’s calling impressed upon Him. This inner urging and God’s leading would eventually displace them from their far-flung province of Laguna, briefly leaving behind their only son Julius as they enrolled at the ECME Bible School in Iloilo City to abide by this vocation. Without a notion where God would lead them, they left behind all possessions and personal quest, in pursuit of His higher calling.

Shortly after graduation they were designated to start a church in Lipa, Batangas. For the first five months of pioneering work, they ventured into periods of prayer coupled with fasting. In due course, all their effort and sacrifices did not go to waste. No sooner would God hasten the expansion of this fledgling church, as he manifested His power and preeminence in signs and wonders. Miraculous healings and answers to prayers transpired. And what ensued was a spiritual awakening affecting this small locale. In effect many were won to the kingdom of God, most of them social misfits and outcasts, drawn by God’s grace and mercy unmistakably evident in their midst. From this modest faction, God did raise up men and women with a zeal for God unparalleled. There was a clearly identifiable fervency in their evangelism, so much so, that some recognizing their proclivity avowed themselves to full time ministry. From their ministry they sent three souls to ECME, one having graduated and started another work in San Jose, Bantangas and the other two in the process of training. Clearly through them, they would send out missionaries to the Harvest field in such short a span of time.

Through it all he has remained ‘His humbleservant.’ Not a hint of superciliousness in his comportment detected. For there is to a great extent much to be done in Batangas, traditionally a focal point of historical and cultural significance for Filipinos, where national pride and religion fuse. Yet though the soil be hard-bitten, the path strewn with hedges…he waits for the rain, and the harvest to come.