AT 3 a.m. on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, Hidilyn Diaz sent a text message to our founder, Bro. Bo Sanchez, thanking The Feast Family for praying for her.

By this time, the world already knew Hidilyn Diaz made history on Monday, July 26, 2021, as she won the first ever gold medal for the Philippines since our country has been competing for close to a hundred years in the Olympics. In the recent Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, she snagged the top place in the women’s 55-kilogram class, after she lifted a combined weight of 224 kilograms, breaking Olympics record in that category of the women’s weightlifting competition.

And, yes, among the first to whom she expressed deep gratitude for her victory is our Feast Family through Bro. Bo. That’s because Feasters prayed for Hidilyn before the Olympics. More on pages 6-7.

Actually, we have always been praying for Sis. Hidilyn. Yes, we call her “Sis” because she is a member of our Feast, and thus our sister in Christ. In 2014, a friend invited Sis. Hidilyn to The Feast which in interviews after her victory, she has well acknowledged as instrumental in her faith journey. Bro. Alvin Barcelona shares Sis. Hidilyn’s blessings at The Feast, pages 3-5.

Here, we share with you this Special Report on the success of Sis. Hidilyn, of The Feast, and above all, of our God of Victory!

All for His Glory,

Randy Borromeo

Feast Blessings for Sis. Hidilyn

By BRO. ALVIN BARCELONA

SIS. Hidilyn Diaz has been a Feaster since 2014 when she was just starting to compete in weightlifting events. She was invited by a friend to The Feast Bay Area at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) afternoon session, where I am preacher and she has been a regular attendee– even now during this Coronavirus Pandemic, via our online gathering we call Feast-at-Home.

She always asked to be prayed over every time she competed…

Then came her first big win– the silver medal in the Rio Olympics in 2016.

We invited her onstage where she gave her testimony right after her Rio victory. I prayed over her onstage as I had been doing for her offstage for years.

We prayed and claimed that in her next Olympics competition she would get the gold…And before the big event, led by Bro. Bo, we mounted online posters with the cheer, “Go Hidilyn!”

Loving Life

Sis. Hidilyn is an active Feaster, and she started serving at the Feast Bay Area afternoon session as among our ushers.

She even joined our Love Life Retreat for single members. Above, that’s her at the front row of this souvenir photo of the Love Life Retreat Batch 28.

Many times, we invited her to have dinner with us after The Feast. And as part of our pastoral care, we counsel her and extend actual help to her during her struggling moments.

She has become a close friend as we continued to disciple and pastor her… At right, here we are celebrating her birthday!

Where She Belongs

Feeling so blessed, Sis. Hidilyn mentions The Feast in media interviews as she claims that it is here where she found a strong relationship with God and where she feels she truly belongs.

In a recent interview, she recounts how she used to lack self-worth and thus she had no self-confidence. And then she says why she loves to be at The Feast:

“Nagustuhan ko kasi na-feel ko na belong ako sa lugar…

Yun ang kulang sa akin: na wala akong personal

relationship with God… Like, pag close ka kay God, nagsisimula kang mahalin ang sarili mo…nagsisimula ka na paniwalian ang sarili mo…sa mga ginagawa mo…na may goal ka nga…

Sis. Hidilyn continues to communicate with us regularly–before her actual competitions, asking for prayers, and right after she wins. When she eventually won gold at the weightlifting event in the Tokyo Olympics, she even sent a personal video to us thanking us for our prayers and support for her.

I just talked to her last Saturday (July 30, 2021) and she said she loves being called God’s Powerful Champion. Here, she is all smiles as Bro. Christian Aroza, co-servant at Feast P.M., declares her so.

Prayers for the Gold

The day before her competition at the Tokyo Olympics, Sis. Hidilyn sent a prayer request to The Feast… like this one she sent to Bro. Didoy Lubaton

Thus, led by Bro. Bo, the Feast Builders, in turn leading their members, prayed for Sis. Hidilyn, and cheered her up with posters mounted before the event.

Saying “Go Hidilyn,” from top left: Bro. Didoy Lubaton, Bro. JC Libiran, and Bro. Adrian Panganiban, here lighting a candle for Sis. Hidilyn’s success.

REWARDS

Aside from her Olympics gold, Sis. Hidilyn’s victory merited for her hefty rewards.

After her victory, she paid a virtual courtesy call on President Rodrigo Duterte who presented to her the Presidential Medal of Merit.

The Philippine Air Force where she served as sergeant promoted her to staff sergeant.

As of this writing, Sis. Hidilyn

Diaz has received whopping rewards— in cash—over P40 million and counting– and in kind, such us the pledge of Feast Builder, Dr. Ryan Capitulo.

Read on for the tentative list of her rewards…

Millions for a Winner

In his recent podcast Full Tank, Bro. Bo Sanchez says you too, can be

a champion. Here, he presents the qualities that made Sis. Hidilyn a champion:

… And God Will Do the Rest!

Bro. Bo says Sis. Hidilyn told him that she wrote her dream of winning the Olympics gold on her copy of the

Novena to God’s Love, a booklet which has blank pages where you may write seven dreams you wish God will fulfill.

Every Feast member receives a copy of the booklet which begins with a Novena prayer (right) composed by Bro. Bo.

Yes, it’s a prayer fulfilled for thousands of Feast members, including Sis. Hidilyn…

Aside from the Novena,

for good measure, she petitioned for the intercession of Mother Mary who did not disappoint her.

And so, in her hour of Victory, she shows her gold medal

and one other medal, the first

she clutched the moment she won

—the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.