First Year Anniversary

I would like to praise God for giving us grace and for being faithful to our marriage! One down and an eternity to go!!! Yehey!!!

Carlo and I decided to celebrate our anniversary on christmas break since our office is giving us a two week vacation. But if you know my husband he always have a way to surprise me. For our anniversary it's a dinner to Paris!





On the day of our anniversary (December 8) he treated me to a dinner to Paris, France. Paris is one of the places that I am praying for that someday God will provide for us a vacation to see the city of lights.

Can you guess where is this?








My husband brought Paris, France to our home :-)
Isn't he creative?














Because it is in Paris we also had wine actually it's strawberry wine (with a very very low alcohol content) and Pasta.












We would like to thank the three girls from my Discipleship Group who helped Carlo to make the surprise possible. Thanks Cherry, Diane and Charisse for cooking and preparing the house to look like Paris.


We had fun especially them...



disclaimer: the wine is actually like a juice lang... pero mukha lang silang lasing.

Birthday Nov 16, 2008

I thank God for His faithfulness in my life for 29 years! Wow how time flies so fast. These are things that made my birthday special...

Because my birthday is on a Sunday my husband gave me a ministry break. Meaning, I won't be thinking about church or discipleship on that day. We still went to church and thank God for being good and great in my life. I am really blessed to have a husband like Carlo. He really knows how to make me feel special. Actually even if it is not my birthday he will have ways to make me feel special. He is really a lifetime birthday gift for me from God!







At church my discipleship group also prepared a video for me. I had fun watching it kahit na hindi na surprise pero okay lang kasi pinaghirapan nila yun. I am blessed to see how they are growing in the Lord. Seeing them seeking God first will be the best birthday gift that they can give me.











Last Thursday one of our faculty ladies at IGSL asked me if I can take pictures of their November party. Our faculty ladies usually meet once a month and always ask me to document their party. So I went there as a photographer but I was surprised that it was actually a birthday party for me. They gave me a Priscilla shower themed party. It's a shower party for a new wife. They showered me with lots of advices, gifts and laughs.

Me with the  Faculty Ladies
 

with my gifts

With all these things my birthday is already complete...but God gave me a super Bonus to conclude my birthday these year. If you know me, I love taking pictures, so for the past three years I was praying that God will provide to upgrade my Fujifinepix camera to an entry level DSLR camera. This year my husband challenged me to seriously pray and save money for it. I asked my uncle and grandmother from the US if they can donate ng konti kasi medyo kulang yun na save namin, so a day after my birthday when my grandmother arrived from the US she's carrying my new baby!

My husband said that this will be his birthday, anniversary, valentines, birthday and anniversary gift to me hehehe actually there's more...

I am still getting used to it kasi di pa kami gaanong magkakilala. Pero I promised my officematesm churchmates and relatives na wala nang magiging pangit sa amin sa friendster, facebook at multiply. Praise God!

Happy Birthday talaga to!

Our little school's missions celebration

Here in IGSL we also have what we call our little school. The school is called Achievers International School. This is where our students' children go to school and it is inside IGSL. To give you a background I got these from Ate Theresa Huculak's blog

For many years we have been aware children's education is one big struggle faced by IGSL parents who come from other countries. Schools are expensive, kids struggle with learning in both Tagalog and English, parents worry about their kids' safety, and local teachers cannot be expected to cope with kids struggling with cross-cultural adjustment. The parents made a proposal to put up a cooperative school run by them for their kids. We use the Alpha and Omega home schooling curriculum and done in a group home-schooling environment.Everyone is so much happier with this new situation. The kids learn English quickly, the teachers understand their unique struggles, the school is right on campus, and we are able to keep expenses down. (We charge P18,000 per child per year.) Most subjects are taught in the classroom, but the parents teach two subjects at home to their own kids -- Bible and National Language. In past years we discovered that IGSL children are often weak in their own language when they return home. So now they have to keep up with their studies in their national language -- that's an AIS requirement.

To give you an idea how much happier they are now studying together here are some of the pictures that I took yesterday culminating their missions month. The kids were grouped into three countries with their corresponding missionaries.

Group I: Country(Myanmar)  Missionary (Adoniram Judson)

Teacher Becki with some of the kids from group I.

Passport to enter Myanmar

Ate Theresa with our tour guide.

This is Lovi though he is wearing a Burmese costume, he is from India.

Group II: Country(China)  Missionary (James Hudson Taylor)

Esther from Vietnam is explaining to us the 11 journeys of Hudson Taylor to China

Bethel from the Philippines wearing her cute Chinese hat.

Group III: Country (India)  Missionary (William Carey)

PR from Zamboanga, Philippines as our tour guide
William Carey loves insects

Young William Carey repairing shoes for a living

The tempo is their mode of transportation in India

Skits

Ate Gerri Miller gave a message about Carrying Jesus' light and us being the light of the world

World Wide Day of Prayer and Missions Fair

One of the perks of working at the International Graduate School of Leadership (IGSL) is that you can experience different cultures in 1 day. Last October 7, 2008 we had our World Wide Day of Prayer and Missions Fair. We had a whole day to pray for people around the world who need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Aside from praying we also had our missions fair where in we had the opportunity to get to know more about the countries of our students. We have booths, performances and of course fooooood from the 19 countries represented.

Philippine Booth
Food from around the world


Kyrgyzstan booth


Vietnamese Dance

From India

Korea

 

A home theater gift

My husband and I have a prayer notebook to list down the things that we need to buy and the things that we want to have. That list is like our guide to be good stewards of God's blessings and avoid compulsive buying. We also want to make sure that we pray over the decisions we make. If ever we have an extra money from our salary, we check our ‘to buy’ list. But if we'll receive something as a gift (love gift, general support, etc.) we will go to the ‘wants’ list. "wants list" is also for those things and dreams that we cannot buy or I may say impossible to have at this moment.  I always look forward for the opportunity that God would allow us to go through the "wants list" because it means that we received a special gift from Him. As for the ‘needs’ list God has been very faithful in providing them.

 

One of the things that are on the want list is a DVD component because my husband and I love to watch movies, tv series, and listen to music.  But I added from the criteria dapat may FM and AM band. Sabi ni Carlo ibibili na lang daw niya ako ng radio sa divisoria na may AM and FM kasi wala na raw ganon ngayon. Pero yun ang gusto ko eh. Dahil wala naman kaming pera, lagi na lang kaming nag wi-window shopping sa mall o kahit saan kami mapuntang lugar na may appliance center. Sabi namin para pag may pambili na kami, alam na namin ang bibilhin namin.

 

Last month we received an extra gift dagdag sa money namin to buy the dvd component pero we found out na di pala enough yung money namin. So after three weeks of going to Trinoma nakakita kami ng, hindi lang DVD component, but a home theater, 5.1 channel speakers, subwoofer, kumpleto sa kaboom! On sale at sakto sa money namin tapos ang bonus pa don may AM/FM. We decided not to buy it right away kasi baka di naman will ni God. So we prayed about it while always checking on it everytime nasa Trinoma kami, kilalala na nga kami nung salesman don. We really want to be good stewards of God's blessings kaya ayaw namin na gastos lang ng gastos. But we remembered what Kuya Jeff Miller our mentor sa couples discipleship group namin na sin daw yung gastos ng gastos at sin din daw yung ipon ng ipon. I can't remember the verse that he used when we were discussing the topic about money pero yun ang sabi niya.

 

So we ended up buying the home theater and came home happy. I can't believe na kahit wants talaga pag-ginusto ng God binibigay niya.

The Potter's Wheel

We all know from the Bible that God is the Potter and we are His clay, but last Friday our Discipleship Group in our office discovered about the Potter's Wheel.

The potter's wheel was one of mankind's earliest inventions and has changed surprisingly little in the last 6,000 years. A potter's wheel id not one wheel but two.

Primitive potter's wheel were made of stone. A disc-shaped stone was notched in the center to fit over a pointed pivot in the center of the lower stone. A nudge of the potter's toe set the lower wheel in motion, which rotated in the upper wheel. The upper wheel was where the potter shaped his clay.

Before using the wheel, a potter must knead his clay to rid it of impurities and air He "wedges" it---slicing it in half and slamming the halves back together to force out air bubbles. When he feels the clay is ready, the potter places a container of water at his workbench  ( to keep his fingers wet) and turns to his wheel.

The potter next throws the ball of clay down on the upper wheel. Then he sets the wheel in motion and surrounds the clay with his hands, forcing it to the center of the wheel head. Now the potter must "master" the clay, making it responsive to his touch. He applies pressure at the base of the clay ball, causing it to rise up in a sort of rounded cone. Then he pressed the top of the clay with his tumbs or the palms of his hands. Repeating this three or four times increases the flexibility of the clay and increases its strength.

At this point the potter  "opens up" the clay ball by pressin his thumbs into the center, gradually hollowing it out. Applying pressure with his fingers, he evens out the thickness of the cylinder walls. Finally he shapes the clay into a vase, a pitcher, or whatever he chooses.

As the terms force, master, and throw imply, clay is not always easy to work with. Often a partially formed object will disintigrate into a shapeless heap of clay---perhaps because a tiny stone was overlooked when the clay was worked. The potter must begin to knead the clay again. Or he may dislike the way a pot is forming and sweep it off the wheel in disgust.

Jeremiah 18 describes God as a potter having trouble at His wheel because His people refused to obey Him.

" I have but shadowed forth my intense longing to lose myself in the Eternal and become merely a lump of clay in the Potter's divine hands so that my service may become more certain because uninterrupted by the baser self in me." - Mohandas Gandhi

Overflowing

"If we give the impression that the main effect of Christianity is to make us miserable, then it is not surprising that ninety percent of the people are outside the Christian church.


'Miserable Christians,' they say, 'look at them!' And they add that they have life, they have joy, they have fullness. Shame on us Christian people!

But it is not merely a question of saying shame on us.

What a terrible responsibility is ours if we are so misrepresenting this 'glorious gospel of the blessed God' (1 Timothy 1:11).


We are meant to be witnesses to all people that we are filled to overflowing.


We are meant to show the truth of the psalmist's words: 'My cup runneth over!'
(Psalm 23:5)."

-Martyn Lloyd-Jones

A heart's longing

"Eternal Father of my soul,

let my first thought today be of You,

let my first impulse be to worship You,

let my first speech be Your name,

let my first action be to kneel before You in prayer....

 Yet let me not, when this morning prayer is said,

think my worship ended

and spend the day in forgetfulness of You."

~John Baillie

Harris and Chari's Wedding

Last Saturday one of my closest friend since college got married. I was overflowing with happiness seeing her walking down the aisle . I was keep on repeating these words to my mind during the ceremony, "Who would have thought......?"

Who would have thought na ang mga bading na tulad namin noong college ay makakahanap ng mga tao---as in tao na totoong lalaki na mapapangasawa. Bukod sa taong lalaki, God's perfect choice pa sa amin. Charri and Harris

Madami na kaming napagdaanan ng bading na ito. We were blockmates sa UP, boardmates, orgmates (UPCB CCC) and within CCC magka ministry pa kami ang unbeatable na WIN ministry. Chari and I with Nesti, Vaneknek and Ceasar (WIN Ministry).

Si Chari ang kasama ko noong first follow-up 1 appointment namin with Ate PI na halos isang linggo din naming pinagtataguan. She was my witnessed noong naliwanagan ako tungkol sa assurance ng aking salvation.

with our blockmates and boardmates

I was privileged to be the one to first hear her sing. Medyo insecure pa siya noon kasi sabi niya mas magaling daw kumanta yung kapatid niya kesa sa kanya. Sabi ko naman kumpara sa akin grabe may potensiyal siya. Every morning maririnig mo boses niya sa CR namin di dahil sa nag pra-practice siya for a concert kundi dahil malamig ang tubig. After sometime di lang sa banyo namin naririnig boses ni Chari, naririnig na namin siyang kumakanta sa Juan Luna Audiorium sa UP, Kantata sa church at unti unti nadi-discover na ng mga tao ang pagiging SOUTH-east ASian songbird niya.

We also had some share of tears during college, mapa Math 11 man yon, family problems at pati na rin financial. Minsan parehong sabay na di dumating ang allowance namin dahil trained kami for survival, makikita niyo na lang kami sa daanan papuntang Engineer's hill na kumukuha ng talbos ng sayote for dinner. But we've survived. We survived a lot of struggles and becuse of those experiences mas lalo naming nakilala si God and began having a burden to also impart these to other people. Kaya hanggang sa CCC pareho kami ng ministry, Evangelism. We've also shared a lot of fun as in lots of fun. Give us a topic and we can tell a story or an experience that we had about that. Don't start us about CAT---as in Melon's cat Prince Charles! Grabe mahaba habang kuwentuhan to.

After college medyo nagkalayo kami pero pareho pa din ang tibok ng puso, to follow God and glorify Him wherever He will bring us. Nagtrabaho ako sa ISOT (Seminary ng CCC) at siya naging staff ng CCC. After eight years, eto na kami nabiyayaan ng God ng mapapangasawa and to Live happily ever after!!!!

My wedding - Her wedding

Who would have thought huh? Only a Sovereign God.

Congrats Harris and Chari!

My Thailand, Laos and Singapore Trip

Another Wedding

Last Saturday, March 29, 2008 was the long awaited wedding of our long long time friend/officemate Ate Jing and Kuya Meynard.

Katulad din namin simple at maiksi ang wedding pero masaya!

Congrats!!!

Christmas party in January

   
        Last December the only event that mattered to me is my wedding day. Because of that I didn't had the time to arrange a christmas party for my Discipleship Group (DG) in our church. So I told them that we will just have our Christmas party on January. Last Saturday, January 19, 2007, we had our Christmas party. Siyempre may exchange gift din!

        Part of the legacy that I wanted to share to my DG is the habit of journaling events in their lives. I told them that the journal is not like a vault that we can keep our secrets but it is also one of the ways that you can see what God had done or will be doing to you life. A spiritual autobiography not for other people but for you to see and recognize God's movement in your life. For the past ten years that's what I've been doing, journaling my journeys with God. As a Christmas gift I gave them a journal. But because I am kuripot, I decided to give them materials for their Do-it-yourself journal. Everyone of them enjoyed making their journal and from now on I hope they will make it a habit to account the things that God will be doing in their lives.

Sayang 4 of them cannot come

Feeling Art Angels

Kikay Journal for Kikay Nice

Charisse busy choosing her cut outs

A sentimental art for a sentimental Cherry

Finished products!