“You are highly favoured,” Pastor Jaspher Radoc Abela exclaimed while talking to Good News Macau at a local cafe in Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro earlier this month.
The Filipino Christian minister was in town to promote his first book, “Crystals of Grace”, which details his journey of faith and serving at churches, including his time in Macau as the pastor of a Pentecostal church called Highly Favoured Family in Christ International from 2013 to 2015.
He, along with his wife and two children, went back to his native Palawan Island in the Philippines in December 2015, continuing his pastoral calling there. Since then, he has been dreaming of writing a book that includes all his time being overseas, including in Hong Kong.
That plan only began to be realised in the past year, with the help of his two children, taking nearly half a year to finish it.
“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to do this,” the 44-year-old father said, crediting his children for the book.
Now that Crystals of Grace is completed, Abela is ready to share his story beyond the Philippines.
The book, written in English, talks about the Abela family’s life, journey and their everyday experiences “filled by God’s favours”.
Abela said the book “is not my idea, it’s God’s”. He added, “Not all plans will succeed but if it’s [part of] God’s plans … it will come true.”
He first launched his book in Palawan earlier this year, even getting a promotional event held at an SM mall – one of the country’s biggest and most famous malls – there.
He visited Macau on 5 September and toured around some churches to promote Crystals of Grace, before going to Hong Kong on 13 September to do the same thing with the churches in the neighbouring SAR. Abela has since returned to the Philippines.
To get a copy of the book in Macau contact Ps. Jasper R. Abela directly via his Facebook page. (Kaira Sam)
Photo: Good News Macau/Gilbert Humphrey
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