While browsing on Facebook last week, my attention was caught by a series of reels featuring Arun Gogna, a highly engaging preacher who, I realized was, like me, a Bosconian from Don Bosco Makati.

Arun’s style is light and breezy. His main pitch is easy to recall. We need to have a personal relationship with God. Jesus our Savior is merciful and overflows with love for each of us. In every step we make, God touches our lives and makes it meaningful.

He is married to Dr. Lallaine Lucas-Gogna, an orthodontist. The couple lives in Parañaque, Metro Manila, with their two children, a daughter named Andrea Helene and a son named Yohan Gabriel.

After many years of working together as co-preachers, Bo Sanchez stepped aside and tapped Arun to assume leadership of The Feast community. Here are excerpts from his poignant note:

“Arun, thank you for the sacrifice of accepting the burden of shepherding God's people. You bravely took over my leadership role two years ago and made my happy retirement possible. For this, I'll always be grateful. You're leading so much better than me, I should have passed on my leadership many years ago. It's an honor serving with you and doing life together.”

Indeed, Arun has gone a long way from the start of his ministry in a parish charismatic community. He relates: “We organized the top leaders from the Light of Jesus Family chapters of Alabang, Parañaque, Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, and Laguna.”

The formation of the servant leaders and their teams ensued. Aside from discipleship, their focal points of attention were finance, production and marketing. Prayer and faith were the building blocks. Arun recalls holding a Jericho Pray-Over of the leaders on top of a building, and responding to the needs of an ever-growing community. Today, Arun’s community converges at the Bellevue hotel and the Festival Mall in Alabang.

Let me share with you a sampler of his memorable reels. There’s a real-life vignette between a father and a son entitled Loving God with Everything from Arun’s book entitled Happy Secrets to an Obedient Life.

Arun narrates how a teen-age boy sought and obtained permission from his dad to attend a dance party with friends. The young lad promised to come home at one o’clock in the morning. But he must have enjoyed the company very much as he stayed out past his self-imposed curfew, before deciding to head home at 3 a.m. To his chagrin, the front door was locked. But a few moments later, it was opened by his dad. Instead of scolding him, his dad laid out a mat and two pillows for them to sleep over at the doorstep of their home.

By such act of compassion toward his son, the father was emulating the Lord of Divine Mercy’s humility.

A gifted communicator, Arun uses simple tools to convey key messages. For instance, he used a rope to illustrate the ways in which parents guide their children through different stages of maturity.

Wearing a controller’s hat, parents permit their children to socialize and develop bonds of fellowship and trust with friends during their teenage years. When the children finish college and start working, the degrees and scope of freedom that they enjoy are increased. At this point, their parents wear a new headgear, the coaching hat. They tell their children about the implications of eventually choosing lifetime partners.

Arun assures parents: “Babalik din sila at mamahalin kayo.” (Your children will come back and reaffirm their love for you.) The key lesson is this: the only way to hold on to your children is to let them go, trusting that God will guide them and keep them in the right path.

In another reel, Arun walked down memory lane and recalled his wedding to his erstwhile girlfriend Lallaine.

“Nung pinapanood ko yung magiging asawa ko na magmamartsa patungo sa altar, tinanong ko ang aking sarili: Bakit kaya niya ako nagustuhan at pinili? (While watching my wife-to-be marching down the aisle, I asked myself: Why did she like and choose me to be her husband?)

“I realized then that I did not define her by her weaknesses; I defined her as the person I have loved for four years and will continue to love forever.”

Above all, Preacher Arun counsels the flock: Trust in the Lord Jesus and repose your faith in the Almighty, for He gives rest to the weary, solace to the aggrieved, mercy to those seeking forgiveness.

Indeed, it’s pure joy to watch and learn from Arun Gogna, the happy preacher.