By Stella A. Estremera
Goin' places

I'M the worst person to try talking some religious sense into. I know my religion, I even lose it sometimes, and I don't care about others.

Let's just say, I've often been goaded into trying to out-religion the religious, I've decided to shun them forever and just focus on my God.

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And so, when I saw this coffeeshop across Chimes Department Store, the name "G12" didn't say anything about what it was.

The word "fellowship" also didn't stick into my memory.

All that stuck was coffee, acoustic and something more. And all that stuck was it was very new and no one has yet mentioned it to me.

The whole blurb I later learned was "coffee. Acoustic. Fellowship... it's more than a cafe".

Evening of that same day, I lassoed in Trish to join me for that coffee, acoustic and more... and found Trish puffing outside, stating an obvious fact: G12 doesn't have a space for poor smokers.

I looked up to re-acquaint myself with the sign and wondered aloud about the "fellowship" part.

"Ano kaya ang fellowship nila?" I asked. Trish doesn't have any idea, as we both wondered what G12 meant...

Inside, two tables were occupied by a considerably big group, like five to a table, while another one only had two people. They all had books with them.

We went straight to the counter to check out the food, which all looked enticing from the tarp displays outside.

I got the chicken liver in oyster sauce, because I've never, ever had chicken live in oyster sauce in my life.

Trish got spaghetti.

We topped this with Cafe Americano, Trish got the mild, and I got the strong.

Trish continued to hang out at the counter trying to check out what else the place offered, while I went to a vacant table amid three groups of young folk who were on bigger tables.

And that's when I found out why they all had books and what the fellowship was all about. G12 indeed offers fellowship among groups of young folks who were studying the Bible, sharing reflections, and stuff that make you freak out, especially when you're an unsuspecting coffeeshop customer.

Trish and I agreed to move to another table by the door instead, where we were not surrounded by the whispered Bible sharing.

Our curiosity peaked by then, I couldn't wait to go home and "google" what G12 is.

Here's what wikipedia has to say on G12: "The G12 vision, also referred to as Groups of 12 or Government of 12, is a controversial strategy for church cell groups and church growth. It is based on the idea that each person should mentor and raise up twelve disciples in the Christian faith, and subsequently each disciple is to mentor 12 other disciples."

"The idea of the G12 is to reach out and disciple every member and to hold every member accountable to Christ's teachings. The main leader would disciple 12 people, they would instate Christian values, teachings, prayer and ministry on a weekly basis until their disciples were ready to lead their own groups. Each disciple would find 12 new disciples and repeat the same process until there were 144. In both theory and example this process leads the church to grow exponentially, without losing accountability of Christian values due to the eventual size of the church."

Oh gee... no wonder they were so serious in there.

Let's just focus on the food and the coffee...

First to be brought to our table were complimentary... fortune cookies! Yippee!

The fortune, of course, was a passage from the Bible, and the cookie was good. It's really more of a barquillo wrapped around the piece of paper.

The chicken liver was yummy, but definitely not for a trying hard to diet flabby lady. It needs rice, LOADS of rice. But I was holding on to my decision to remove rice from my diet. It was sheer torture. But I'm telling you, the chicken liver is good and can feed another one (if both of you are not averse to rice), with lots of sauce to boot.

The spaghetti is for children, meaning, Pinoy style.

The coffee isn't strong. Even the strong coffee isn't.

But I swear, after tasting that chicken liver, I want to try the other stuff they're offering. I just tend to believe that whoever is in the kitchen knows his/her food.

And yes, having realized what G12 means, Trish and I just had to accept that the cafe will never have a smoking area.