Christmas Blessing

With all the weddings that we attended last year and this year I almost forgot to tell you about one of the blessing that God allowed us to experience was to help my friend give birth. I was her lamaze partner because her husband is working abroad as a seaman. My friend Ate Jing is the person who is always there for me and Carlo whenever we need help. So I think it's just right that it's time for us to return the favor. Kahit walang favor I am willing to help her kahit ano. We attended 3 sessiond to learn lamaze and after that we need to pass an examination in order for us to get a certificate. Praise God we passed. We were expecting her to give birth December 28, 2008 but she started having contraction December 21 - 23. During those times we'll receive a call from her and we'll bring her to St Luke's. Then after 6 hours the doctor will send us home saying it's not yet time. Imagine yung pagod, puyat at frustration naming tatlo everytime they will send us home. On December 24 we slept all day to recharge and also prepare for Noche Buena. We went to Fairview at my mom's house to celebrate Christmas and be with my family because we have a little reunion. At 10pm we received a txt from Ate Jing telling us to go to St Luke's and it is time! It is our first time to celebrate Christmas at the hospital but it was an unforgettable one. The baby was born December 25, 2008 at 2pm. Her name is Jihanna Melisse Linga but we like to call her Baby Girl (inspired from Annabelle Rama's movie)

5 minutes before Christmas eve

Carlo feel na feel ang Father's waiting lounge

There she is!

after cleaning mukha siyang bulldog dito

straight from the delivery room

with Tita Janna

with Lolo Tom

with her mom Ate Jing

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.