Celebrate joy!

Taking a quick break from the devo and travel posts lately and just letting my thoughts run and pour over this (digital) space! I feel like 2017 went by too fast, don't you? We are now on the last two months of the year! But I take it as a good thing, you know what they say, time flies when you're having fun! It was my first time to go to Prayer Mountain last Wednesday and as I was sitting there surrounded with the lush forest and bamboos (and many mosquitoes lol! it's part of the experience), and I was going through my faith goals for the year... I am amazed how God has been so faithful in my life.

Connect Have you ever seen someone so passionate for Jesus? We say we're passionate but then you look at Paul and we start to rethink our answer to that question. What was the craziest, most passionate thing you did for Jesus? For Paul... he who was beaten, put in prison, faked death his way to go to yet another missionary journey... all the while writing letters to the churches, never failing to correct, encourage and build them up in the faith.

How can someone  so powerful Hold someone so small How can someone  so good Embrace someone so evil How can someone  so beautiful love someone so unfaithful I hope to someday understand the breadthe the width the depth of Your love I hope to one day grasp Your infinite goodness Your immense strength Your magnificent power I see specks Shadows Hints Of Your love for me Right now It is enough My heart is settled It is finished I am complete. Words by Joy Buena Illustration by Donna Tan

Connect The light turned red and the little girl, without even looking at the incoming traffic, crossed the street with confident strides. Seconds after, she emerged to the other side holding her lollipop with her right hand and her father's hand with her left. She didn't need to look at the traffic lights, she just follows where His father will go and she knew that she will be alright.

There are days when I just really feel tired. Sundays are our busiest at church and last Sunday, while I was figuring out what's wrong with our ID system, and I was eyeing the laptop and asking it what's wrong with you in my mind -- a woman approached me. She asked me what type of Christian church is our church. I smiled with whatever smile I could muster and said that it's born again. This is me that day.

"The standards are high because the stakes are high" - this truth told by Pastor Joe Bonifacio resonated to me the most at the last Teachers' Summit. And almost immediately, the picture of me drinking alcohol 2 years ago came to mind. (NO PHOTOS TO SHOW HERE) SO, I DRINK (USED TO) Yes guys, before I became a full time staff, I drink. I actually enjoy it more because it's an activity shared with friends over stories and jokes and I am a friends-person. (Is there such a term? lol! But you get what I mean, you're a person who goes out of her way just to spend time with her friends!)

There are days when I wake up and the first thing I do is compute. Excuse me, my math-hating self, lol! But the worrier in me finds herself whipping up a small notebook and she starts jotting down her expenses for the month as she tries to budget it accordingly. Said girl found herself waiting for the elevator in her apartment one morning and as she waits, she looked up in the sky and she saw 3 birds flew by. If there is one thing that arrests her, it's the beauty of nature -- one that speaks volume without doing anything. Nature says so much by just being there. It doesn't try so hard to be beautiful, it just is. The view from the apartment -- seconds after the birds flew overhead. And it was that moment that she realized how small her worries are compared to the magnitude of her God. Why spend all these time thinking of how to make ends meet, when her God supplies the trees its light and water for the day? When the birds of the air are fed and find shelter from t...

I know, it's been a long time!  Xin Chao! That's hello in Vietnamese! :) I have learned 4 basic phrases when we were there and the entire 10-day experience was a life-changing one! Grateful for the opportunity to see God's hands and heart for this nation. Here are excerpts of my written thoughts when we were in Vietnam. I wrote 3 parts of it, here's the first one: September 28, 2016 Wednesday 11:57am Kathy and I are sitting here in the buffet area of Western Hanoi Hotel where our TenDays team is staying at. We resolved to write down the things that have been happening for the past 6 days we are in Vietnam . God has been so faithful and amazing! We are overwhelmed on how He is opening our eyes to see the landscape that this nation is in… First impression doesn’t last, I’ll tell you that. We thought that we would just be engaging students, and one of our fears is that the people here would be aloof to foreigners given their history, but they are so open!...

It's already August! Time really flies! We're more than halfway through 2016 and our days have been packed for the past month in the ministry. There were several times when I had to push back or altogether cancel my plans with friends because something always seems to come up. This is what happens when adult-ing run in with childhood. Haha! I'd like to stress though that it's fine to be a kid from time to fine and we should never lose that balance between work and fun. Balancing work and fun can be another term for setting a rhythm in our lives. At church, we were taught that there's a certain rhythm to the things that we do. Rhythm is like a pattern, a trend in the things that we choose to do in a period of time. But in order for a rhythm to work for us, it has to be purposeful and it has to be clear to us and to the team that we are part of.

My dad is finally out of the hospital! He was discharged 2 weeks ago and we couldn't be happier because he has been praying and praising God since. It's a picture that I couldn't describe apart from it is only by God's grace that THAT happened. We have been praying for the assurance of my dad's salvation for years and this was the year that I just knew it would happen. I remember telling friends and prayer partners, "feeling ko talaga this year na yun." And God really does make the impossible possible and His ways will always be higher than our ways.

With more than 10,000 leaders and interns, the 2016 Discipleship Conference took place at MOA Arena last Saturday.

Bishop Juray said this: "Faith makes sense with a good God." It makes sense because who would be at ease to trust in a God who has moodswings, whose standard of right and wrong is relative, and who could be making bad decisions? Can you imagine what if our God is not good? You wouldn't know when it's the best time to pray and talk to Him... You will always be tiptoeing around God's feelings because He may be having a bad day and you wouldn't want to be the recipient of His wrath simply because He is in no mood to dispense His blessings. You also wouldn't know how He will answer your prayers because He may be showing favoritism to the other person and He is partial to evil and wrongdoings...

The 3-day Teachers' Summit has been such an amazing experience... With 500+ volunteers of Victory Kids Ministry across the Philippines, a great revival has come upon each and every one of us. The moment that He provided for the summit's registration fee of the summit, I knew that He wanted me to be at the event -- maybe it's to tell me something, or to ease my worries, or just to jolt me with energy and excitement as I peel myself away from the routine-like way of worshiping Him... Whatever it was, I knew I was growing in anticipation as the summit drew closer :)  "Edi Wow!" - Victory Greenshills reprezent!

Ask Filipinos 5 years ago whether they celebrate Thanksgiving, and you would probably have gotten a shrug... Fast forward to 2014, and you soon find yourself looking at photos of relatives and friends celebrating this festivity in social media. And what's not to love about this season? It's all about looking back and being thankful for things big and small. It's a quick shout out to the world saying, " It's not so bad after all - the good things always outweigh the bad in the end! :)

There are but a few things that would make a woman giddy with excitement aside from snagging a new pair of shoes. I swear, just the idea of buying myself a pair awhile ago was making me squeal with delight. :) Now that's Christmas is just around the corner, sale kung sale   talaga everywhere!!! So today, my agenda was to buy myself a good pair of rubber shoes for gym next week (yes, nagbabalik-loob na po ako).

Woke up this morning with a bad case of cold so this is like an involuntary free day for me at work. Sunday mornings are great, but Monday mornings mean that I get to have the  house all to myself, so I can read and write peacefully. Whoopie!

They're candid, cute, energetic and yes, sometimes they test your patience and they seemed to be assessing just how loud your voice can get to get your point across... who am I talking about?? KIDS!! Spending time with these kiddos bring smile to my heart like nobody else can. ...and as ironic as this sounds, they have taught and reminded me on a lot of things that we have forgotten as grown ups. :)

Shoe business is kind of slow lately, but if there's one thing that I am thankful for - it's that friends and old customers come back to me for orders when I need it the most. You see, I need to earn back the travel spending I've done over my last two trips so this small biz is helping me with all my expenses (which grows together with your age) and savings. :) So thanks girls! Some people are not too keen on having their pairs delivered after 2-3 weeks (since SMFW specializes in made to order shoes), but friends and loyal customers of SMFW come back to get their comfy and affordable flats, especially when the heavy rains have left us with wet and ratty pairs of office shoes. Glenda has soiled 3 of my flats! That's the typhoon aftermath for some of the shoe-loving populace... Better the shoes than people, right? :P

Just sneaking in a post to share how God has been good to me all my life :) Somehow, no matter how much I try or anyone tries, I haven't felt loved and I couldn't love the way God loves me. When I talk to people and I try to describe God's love, every analogy falls short... simply because His love is just so much more intense and it's unconditional. For this post, I want to share the role that love plays in allowing God to be the Lord of my life. :) When we talk about Lordship, it usually entails a sharp intake of breath and begrudgingly opening our hands to release something that we have held on for too long... but Lordship can also be a natural response to what is already made complete in us. Lordship, at its best, is an expression of love. :)

Watching wedding videos is one of my guilty pleasures. That's why when someone makes them with so much artistry and skill, I am floored to the point that I have to share them. <3