Ferdinand “Ferdy” Cabiring, who served as a bishop in one of the Philippines' largest megachurches and traveled all over the country to raise money for underprivileged students, passed away on April 1, the day after Easter. He was 58 years old.
This nickname, “The Running Pastor,” describes not only Cavilling's epic race, but also how he lived his life and served as an evangelist. For his 38 years, he served as a vocational minister of Victory Christian Fellowship, which has approximately 150 locations in the Philippines. On average, the Victory Metro Manila chapter he led had more than 75,000 participants every Sunday.
For the past two years, his focus has been on teaching victorious leaders to evangelize. Whenever he received an invitation to teach, his answer was always “yes,” said his assistant Faye Bonifacio.
“He was a maximizer,” Bonifacio said, noting that Kaebling had a habit of taking short naps while parked at gas stations between long drives. “He liked to drive, so he did a lot in a day.”
Hours before her death, Kaybilling had parked her car at a gas station after visiting church members at a hospital an hour away from her hometown of Cuyapo. It was probably for a rest before heading to the next destination. There, staff found his lifeless body and rushed him to the hospital he had just visited. Mr. Koebling died of a heart attack.
“He was a serious man of passion, drive, and conviction,” said the founder of Every Nation Churches and Ministries, a charismatic organization with churches and campus ministries in 82 countries. Steve Murrell, Victory's founding pastor, wrote: Instagram post. “For 40 years, he has been involved in every important decision made by winning leaders.”
Born on September 8, 1965, Kaybiling lived in the rice-producing region of Central Luzon. His father was a farmer and his mother a school teacher. According to his autobiography, Keibling was one of six children and grew up “nominally” a Seventh-day Adventist, influenced by his mother's faith. Run: Endure the pain, stick to your faith, and finish the race.. After graduating from a Catholic high school, he moved 160 miles south to Manila to attend Adamson University, where his immediate family paid for his tuition and allowances. He planned to become a civil engineer and work abroad to support his parents.
However, his plans changed during his sophomore year in 1984, the year of the civil war against the first President Marcos, when he joined the evangelistic movement of the US-based Maranatha Campus Ministries led by Rice Brooks. That changed when I joined. That night, Brooks emphasized John 3, saying that unless one is born again, one cannot enter the kingdom of God. “If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?” Mr. Brooks asked his students.
“As he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ with unstinted passion and conviction, I felt like I was standing before a torrent of truth,” Cabilling recalled in his book. are doing. During that encounter, he decided to give his life to Christ.
Later, one of the American missionaries invited him to be baptized at the pool of a nearby hotel. Cable agreed and the American lent him a pair of shorts that were too big for him. He remembers “clinging on to my shorts dearly for the rest of my life, lest I lose them in the baptismal waters.”
A few days later, he was introduced to Murrell and taught the new believers the basics of the Bible. When a short missionary trip to the Philippines ended, Murrell and his wife decided to remain in the country. They, along with Cavilling and other college neophytes, founded the church in 1984, originally called Maranatha Christian Fellowship. In 1991, they changed their name to Victory Christian Fellowship to emphasize Christ's victory over death.
Ernie Suson, one of Victory's early members and later one of the church's pastors, said Kaevilling was always assigned to give the altar call. Murrell preached, and then engineering students were called to give a short gospel presentation. “He had an evangelist in him,” Murrell said.
After earning his degree in engineering, Keibling decided to become a chaplain at Victory University. In 1991, he married Judy Pena, another early Victory member, and he became campus minister. Together they helped found a new branch of Victory Church.
“Fadi was a diamond in the rough when we started,” writes missiologist Jun Escosar, Victory's first paid staff member. “But instead of selfish ambition or seeking fame, we saw steady growth and a passion for learning.'' Victor Neil Pelion, a former leader at Victory Church, said Keibling hated the title. He said it took years for the church to persuade him to be ordained as a bishop of the Victory Church, as he was a Christian.
The victories grew rapidly as the church focused on bringing small group discipleship, a key element of its outreach strategy, to Filipino students on campus. These young Christians invited other students, their siblings, and parents, and the church grew in numbers until thousands gathered in churches across the country every Sunday.
Rico Ricafort met Cavilling when he was a sophomore in college. “There may be many guides, but not many fathers,” Ricafort said at Cavilling's memorial service.
Ricafort later became Victory's pastor and, along with Cabilling and several student leaders, founded the campus ministry Youth on Fire in 1994, which spread to many colleges and universities across the Philippines. The late pastor also worked to share the gospel with Ricafort's parents and siblings.
Leah Lunt-Martin, a former campus minister who also met Cabilling in college, described him as a “relationship-based disciple-maker.'' She remembers him spending a lot of time with his students, responding to their requests to preach the gospel in class, and being there for them when they needed it.
“I was in my 20s when my father passed away,” Lanto Martin said. “He was one of the first people admitted to the intensive care unit with us. Then he prayed for my father.”
In 2015, Kaybiling, an avid ultramarathon runner, ran a race across three major Philippine islands to raise about $36,000 for the Real LIFE Foundation, an organization she chairs that supports underprivileged students. I decided to run 1,350 miles across them all. To celebrate his 50th birthday, he set a goal to run 50 miles a day for 44 days. Judy attributed his new obsession to a midlife crisis.
At 2 a.m. on September 5, 2015, Kaybiling started his run in Maasim, the southernmost town in Mindanao. He drove through dangerous areas of the island, including the area now known as Davao de Oro, where rebel groups are active. He ran even though his left ankle and foot began to swell to the point that he felt “extreme pain with every step.” He said that on the ninth day he “couldn't force himself to get up and continue.”
“Even so, I never thought of quitting,” he wrote in his book. Cabling's solo race drew national headlines because only six other people participated. When he arrived in Manila, just past the halfway point, two of the Philippines' most prominent broadcast journalists accompanied him as they covered the historic Roxas Boulevard along Manila Bay. He became known as the “Running Pastor” of the Philippines.
On October 26, 2015, he completed the final leg of the race in Aparri, the northernmost town of Luzon. In total, he exceeded his goal and raised $55,000, providing scholarships to more than 200 students.
That single-minded attitude can sometimes lead to friction. Murrell described Kaevilling as a man of “humble audacity” and emphasized that most of those who knew him have experienced that audacity. Some of the Victory Party leaders pointed out that the late evangelist was too strict and harsh, or had a tendency to go too far. Ricafort said that unlike those who use the sandwich principle (surrounding criticism with positive affirmations) to correct others, his mentors provided him with “all pure meat.”
Much of Cabilling's time was spent serving a growing church and campus ministry, and teaching pastors and leaders about evangelism. He preached at two events in two different states on the same day and made time to preach by phone and virtually at the same time.
Judy said that despite her husband's busy schedule, they sometimes had “loving communion” (translation: conflict). “He always had to do everything within one day,” she said.
Looking back now, I understand why. “God only gave him 58 years to live, so he didn't waste any time.”
Cableling is survived by his wife of 33 years, Judy; She is a daughter and a son. and two grandchildren.