Hi, my name is Ivan Picazo.
After graduating in UP Diliman (UPD) with a degree in Communication Research (cum laude), I worked with companies including ABS-CBN, Makati Shangri-La, and Anthony Pangilinan's BusinessWorks, Inc.
However, after five years, I knew God was already calling me into full time campus ministry. I believe God wanted me to play a part in what he is doing all over the world through Every Nation Campus -- helping students get to know Jesus more and helping them understand and apply the Biblical values of leadership, integrity, faith, and excellence.
Although I was fully aware of the sacrifices such a career shift would entail, I also knew that God's call is the only thing that can bring fulfillment, joy, and faith. And so in 2012, I became a campus missionary assigned specifically to reach out to the student athletes of UPD.
In order to be relevant to the students I will be catering to, I knew I also had to look the part. Because my heart was to reach out to the more edgy students in the campus, I decided to grow an afro and get an earring! Haha.
After some time, I was assigned to lead our ministry in the whole UPD campus. In the five years that I have been serving God and the students, Jesus has always been faithful. He has helped our ministry grow, and in this campus alone, we now have more than 100 Victory Group (VG) leaders this academic year. Our VG members and leaders in UPD who reach out to their classmates and friends total more than 600 students. God has been faithful.
By the grace of God, we are able to reach many students because we diligently go where the students are, we lead VG meetings in the campus, mentor students one on one, listen to their problems, and build genuine relationships with them. We do this rain or shine, in any and every season, inside the campus, because we take seriously the Great Commission.
And as God is adding more students to lead, we cannot do it alone.
Ministry partners help make the Great Commission and discipleship happen by praying for and by financially partnering with a campus missionary like me.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Romans 10:14-15