Thank you Lord for Today

Thank you Lord for a wonderful day today:

• Thank you for the privilege of sharing your word to United Bethel Church and the great things you are doing through Chi Alpha. Thank you for allowing me to share the unspoken lives of the young people that were touched by You.
  
• Thank you for a wonderful time spent with my family. We celebrated my birthday celebration today. I thought of celebrating it today with them rather than Tuesday so we could spend more time together. Thank you for a sumptuous meal which was worth the wait, and for a good movie (Bourne Legacy ... I'm proud of my country).
  
• Thank you for my loving and supportive wife. Loving family and friends.

"By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News." - Eph 3:7

"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." - Eph 3:16-19

"Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." -  Eph 3:20

Late lunch at Banana Leaf, Robinson's Place Manila. Food was superb!

Same pose, much clearer, but my eyes are closed!

At the movie house waiting for our time to see Bourne Legacy. 

Ramblings that started in death

This week, the dad of one of my wife's best friend died. My wife and I are close to this family. It's always sad to see someone pass away, and the thought of how much grief and pain this causes the deceased's loved ones. A lot of thoughts going through my mind about the topic of death.

I am reminded how short life is. If the Bible has set the average life span of a person is more or less around 80 years old. Then almost 40% of my life is already spent and I have 60% life ahead. It's still much time to create memories with the people you love. I thought to myself how God is so good in the past, especially the last 10 years of my life. I can't wrap my mind around the idea of how much more can God surprise me in the next decades of my life. 

Now there's a thought in my mind that I have to make the most of the moments of my life. I've been thinking about what should my next 10 years be spent on. I'm glad that I was able to process myself turning 30 (you can read about this in the previous entries). Some of the ideas that are playing around my head ... taking another course like business administration or education ... starting up a business ... get more learning. I also thought about family. Most probably around this next 10 years God would already have sent us an angel. Something I have been silent about. But just as Mary and Joseph, I just keep these desire in my heart. God knows my heart. He knows what is best for us.

Thinking about the brevity of life I think about the need to always create memories. Make life meaningful. Collectively meaningful to you and the people you love.

I thought about my parents. They are in their mid-50s now. How much longer would I be able to spend time with them. I have to be careful about concluding to myself that certain seasons have passed. When I was a kid, I loved my parents. At youth, we look for other sources of love and acceptance. But it's amazing how our parents love us nonetheless. As a young adult this love makes a full circle, we are drawn back to our parent's love. There is an awareness to make up for lost time. Then you get married, and now your heart shifts to your wife. And I think it's the seasons of life. My point is, when you still have the time to love them tangibly, do not hesitate to do it. Because there will come a time when priorities will change.

I am always tempted to be fatalistic. To dwell on the thought when I and the people I love will be gone. I have a post here of the intro montage of the Disney movie Up, always makes me cry. I think it's the melancholy in me that always thinks about the finish line. It's funny that I look at life in chunks. That definitely makes life really short. Five decades can easily be counted in one hand, but five decades times 10 years times 365 days will be a long time coming. I have to constantly remind myself, just as the saying goes, live for the moment. Cheer up. And don't be too serious all the time (Patrick are you listening?) Take time to be silly. Take time to get to know people and make friends. I am reminded by the words of Jesus himself, "Who would by worrying gain a single day in his life?"

In the last few weeks I've been struggling about something. I am seeing a clash of myself and my calling. Most people know me as a minister. But I have to look at myself when I am not in front of the crowd. How am I nurturing my natural relationships with family and friends? This is something I am baffled about myself. When in public, I can be sincerely charismatic and all, but in private, I retreat to my inner self. I become shy, quiet and seemed unconcerned. I am especially more conscious of this now that I am usually away from my church (unlike before when I have time and opportunity to nurture relationships in church). This morning this thought was magnified when the sermon was about loving one another. This is something that I miss being constantly connected to one church. I thought I need to improve this aspect of my life. Not that I am not loving person, I think I am and a few close friends would say so, but I feel I need to improve in initiating and expressing in tangible ways this love in the other people. Sorry if this might have shocked you. Yes, I'm not perfect. I'm also a work in progress.

This makes me think about my own passing. What would the people say about me? Did I make an impact in someone else's life. Of course, the most important think is what God thinks about how I spent my life. But nevertheless, it matters to me how my life have become a blessing to another.

It's time to sign-off for the day. If you got to read until this portion congratulations for staying with me, despite these sporadic and scattered thoughts. May you have a wonderful week ahead.

Day in the Life: Parents

Yesterday we decided to visit my home church BFGFC for sunday service. We were blessed by a very practical and timely message by our pastor on How to be joyful always in the Lord. This was also the first time we visited after we were commissioned to missions by the church.

Our primary purpose though in visiting was to see our parents. Because this weekend and the next, we will be staying straight in Makati because my in-laws are abroad on the first week and I will be going to Batangas on the 2nd week. I know that they appreciate us staying home at least once a week. In fact early after marriage we use to stay more in Caloocan. But now that I have a job in ortigas and Nette's got her clinic in Makati. It's more practical to stay in Makati during weekdays. In fact we do miss our house in caloocan because we have the house to our own.

We learn soon that they have an afternoon church meeting. We planned to spend time with them in the mall. Clearly my parents are sad that we can't be togeter for some more time. We too am sad that it was so. I discover the reality of growing up. Once a person marries his attention is now to his wife. I'm glad that my parents have brought me up in a way that I desire to see them still as an adult married person. But I realize our time with our parents is not forever. So while you have time and still single, make the most to love them and serve them.

Day in the Life

I'm here right now at the ICI Office. See my work is shared by three organizations of the Assemblies of God US. Waiting for Ptr Sur and the XA team to finish their meeting and we'll have lunch later. 

Woke up today a bit sore, everyday I wake up lacking energy, but today is more prominent. Anyway, the weekend has flied so fast. I felt I didn't have enough rest that the weekend provides. Saturday I stayed longer at the clinic to wait for my wife to finish. We went home around 7PM via LRT. Sunday morning I preached for the last time in our daughter church in Valenzuela. They have already been informed of our transition. After my preaching, before the pastor closed in prayer, he informed the congregation of our transition, pausing abruptly to hold back his emotion. I didn't expect that kind of appreciation and the impact I had with them. But it's a breather to feel appreciated and validated of our work. They prayed for me and my wife. My wife has low tears. I told them, it's OK, we will just be around, we're still in the Philippines. But still, I will miss them. The feeling is like crashing your hard drive, you forget some files that are in there, but when the time comes when you need it, you realize you've lost it forever. That's how it feels when you realize your decisions have many effects unexpected and unwanted. But still, we have to move on.


After church, we went with my parents to SM North to have lunch and grocery. This is why weekends feel so short. I miss my time with my parents now that I am married. I think it's just normal. It's like finding reasons to be with them, and even creating reasons to be with them. It's not that I'm like a mama's boy or papa's boy, but I am want their fellowship.


The video footage and presentation of our wedding came a few weeks ago. It's just last week that we had the time to view it. It is a testament of how God provided for us. It was a miracle. And this is the promise I can hold on to when I need it.

First Move

Tonight I started to move some stuff to our house. Our house meaning us Netty and I.

FYI, my parents' house is a three floor building/house, we stay on the third floor, the second has smaller space where the kitchen and dining area is, kinda like a mezzanine, and the ground floor is the car park. At the back of our house is another set of rooms where my grandparents once lived, and that's where we are going to be staying as we begin our life together. I would like to see it as a totally separate space from my parents though much of its separate-ness is how we respect each other's boundaries. I admit that I'm far from being an expert about the subject, I might even eat my own words. But that kind of set up is what works for us for the time being.

So like I said, I made my first move. I brought down maybe 60% of my books in the house. I realize I own a lot of books and I might have to give away some of them. For a while I've been wanting to bring down some movable stuff downstairs and clear the area of things that have no relevance to us, but it was harder than I thought. First, every time I tried to move my stuff, my mom would say the house is still dirty and needs to be dusted and cleaned. I thought, what's the point of dusting it now, when after a few days it will accumulate dust again. She would say, that's why it's not wise to move now. I think that sometimes she is just delaying me from moving my stuff down because of denial that I am going to be married soon, but maybe that's just me. But I feel that this is something that's very significant for me, to somehow, assert what's left of my independence (a small portion of it already went to me staying in the same GPS coordinates as my parents).

Frankly I don't know where to begin to make our house our own. The house has two inner rooms and a middle living area with kitchen and sink. Not bad but I so wanted to renovate it. That's why a few days ago I downloaded a freeware called Google Sketchup where you can make a plan of your house and build design it (Sketchup goes way, way back our college days, first heard it from JP, and first time to use it now). My dad arranged for us to meet a freelance carpenter who could make the changes I want. Then again, it takes a lot of skills and courage to assert the changes you want versus my parents' suggestions. But I can see it, I can envision it how Netty and I will make this place our home. I am praying that with the right provisions, we will be able to start this project when we return from honeymoon.

Ramblings (Day in the Life portion is over)

Somehow, that episode of starting and planning and designing our house brought back a lot of thoughts to me about my college degree. What if I pursued that career? Somehow doing those plans and designs brought me satisfaction. I felt somehow my dad was living his dream, even for a while, that I'm putting my degree to use. But then again, perhaps this is because I am in a survival mode financially with the wedding and all that. But I can foresee that family life is not a walk in the park, I need to be responsible to build my family's security. Now family comes second to God.

I'm rambling now. Second to God. I'm reflecting now that I have my own family which comes second to God. It forces me to divide the love for God (worship) part and work for God part (ministry). And now it challenges me to assess: what I use to view as one big ball of worsh-istry or minis-ship, now when it's separated from the other, what has truly been left of my God-worship. I have come a long way.

Despite my thoughts (or fantasizing) of pursuing my architectural accreditation, I am still haven't forget my call. And God has once more proven that, that He is my shield and my great reward (that's why the previous post). I don't want to fit in anyone's shell but God's. Lord, more than ever, please direct my path.