Celebrate joy!

Here’s a scenario: You find yourself seated beside your college friend whom you haven’t seen and talked to for years, what types of questions do you ask? “Where do you work now?” “What do you do?” “When did you move?” I am not a fan of small talk but you have to start somewhere, right? So when I found myself in the same scenario a few days ago, I began asking the questions above. The answers were quick to come from my friend, stating each statement in a matter-of-fact fashion. But then I asked her: “Why did you decide to resign from your previous job?” She had to think about it for a few seconds before finally answering me. And it was an awkward and almost-uncomfortable silence because I knew I was getting deeper into her life. She answered anyway, and somehow I was able to see far deeper than what the eyes can see, and I start to see her heart and her needs.

So this happened last Saturday night! :) Thankful to everyone who made it possible, to God for giving us good weather and a starlit sky as our backdrop and of course, to my fiancee (naaaks!) who managed to pull off a beautiful proposal that caught me by surprise.

In this season, God has revealed to me His wisdom and His ways which are always higher than ours... God really is full of surprises.  Would you believe that last June, wala talagang ganap mga bes, so I was already asking God,  "Lord meron po ba talaga?"  It was the kind of prayer that honestly makes me a little bit shy to admit. Anyways, wasn't I supposed to be secured and complete already in Jesus? So why should I even be asking and making these requests? But apparently, and as is always the case,  God was already working behind the scenes, weaving a story  when all the while I felt like the lead in a rerun series called, " Kala mo lang meron… Pero wala, wala, wala" haha! They say that every story has two sides, so I'll tell you mine and I'll tell you Dennis’… Hopefully you will see how God moved and made our story to what it is today... Ready? Mahaba to… you have been warned.

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.

Connect When I was a little kid, my parents promised that we will stay in a nice hotel as a family and I was so excited as I waited on the fulfillment of that promise. Days and weeks passed, and no matter how much my parents really wanted to fulfill that promise, they just couldn’t find a common schedule to make that short trip a reality.

Connect In a sea of billions of people, it is amazing how God sees and cares for us in a personal way.  He has taken so much care in the details of who we are, even before the moment that we were born. The way we talk, the way we see things, the way our personalities are wired, who are parents are going to be, the people we will meet along the way... So it makes one wonder, how is it that the creator of the universe would care for a speck in the universe like me?

Yes! That's right, after a year of hospitals, sitting in clinics, going through chemotherapy... my dad is cleared of cancer! We were declaring God to be cancer-free after his last chemo session last year but the doctor detected something in his lungs last December. And we have to wait 3 more months to find out what exactly is that in his lungs because it was too small to find out at that time. And I remember sitting there in the clinic, devastated as his oncologist says words that I was hoping not to hear any more -- ct scan, medicines, and possible chemotherapy are in the horizon once again. It was as if things were on repeat and the doctor seemed to be right -- we are in this for the long haul.

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.

Would you believe that we have almost reached the end of the first quarter? It sent me to a whoa-that-was-fast-mixed-with-a-semi-panic realization. So I thought of my faith goals for the year and how many of it have I checked already. So far, I have checked... one! Haha! #atleast #hindinamasama My achi is now pregnant! Whoohooo! As for all the other goals -- well, let's just say that God's plans are higher than our ways. So as I peruse my Plans and Purposes workbook, which I jotted down 12 faith goals at the start of the year, from which I picked my top 3 goals to focus on for 2017 -- fast forward to March and this verse holds ever true -- many are the plans in a man's heart but it is the Lord's plans that prevail. (hello, run-on sentence!)

I remember the first time I watched a movie on my own. It was about 3 years ago. It was a Friday night, and as a working girl in Makati who rides the MRT on a daily basis -- we know what this means. It will take me about 30 minutes to line up, 30 minutes more of waiting at the train platform and the journey to Cubao will take about 30 minutes at least (with possible bruises and minor injury throughout because of the shoving). And because I wasn't up to face the rush hour head-on that day, I just decided to watch a movie and wait it out --- the movie was Robocop.

"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...

How would you name 2016? Which is the same way as asking how was 2016 like for you -- just more difficult because you're allowed with less words. Hmm.. So nice to meet you, my 2016 name is: ProviTy, short for  Provision and Opportunity (andami kong alam!) In my previous posts, I shared about my dad and how he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer earlier this year. After almost a month in the hospital & 6 chemo cycles, I learned that (1) hospital food is not so bad #sothoughtprovokingeh (2) God allows certain things to happen to accomplish His glory (in detailed here and here ) (3) and that God provides -- ever so lavishly and abundantly. My dad finished 6 chemo cycles and I am typing this as he irons our clothes behind me -- he didn't get bald, aside from the occasional nausea and numbness of joints -- he is up and about his usual self, being productive around the house and even going out every day at lunchtime to run a few errands in Alimall & SM. First time...

Here's the last part of our experience in Hanoi! If only I could do this at least once a year, hoping that God would blessed me with more opportunities to go out to the nations :) This is definitely one of the most memorable moments in my life! Clingy-ness and sepanx mode on! Oct 4 2016 We landed in  Manila  last night and after zoning out at past  12am  this morning, I woke up at  11am  giving me almost 11 hours of sleep today! Yahoooo!!! Days were long in  Hanoi . Our team is usually up by  7am  for our morning devotion then we would call it a day by  11pm  or  12am   (pag sobrang kulit namin) after the day’s debriefing. Packed between those hours are spent meeting up with students, engaging them, doing the trainings and events that the church has scheduled. Days are long but the days came by so fast. Is that ironic? I was feeling sad the day before we left. Being in a different nation is like bein...

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.

I remember telling my friend the other day that of all the jobs I've had, this one in the ministry was the one that made me doubt my ability to excel. In my previous jobs in the corporate world, I knew that I can do it. I am just THAT confident. That silent confidence may be a good thing, that self-assuring pat on the back is not necessarily a bad trait (self assurance is even one of the themes in Rath's book, Strengths Finder) but I realized that there was also this sinful seed growing in my heart every time I receive recognition at work... It was the kind of pride that doesn't parade itself, but grows silently and could be more dangerous because only a few could see it.

It was my first time to attend a prophetic presbytery event last Thursday and it was so encouraging to witness how God empowers His people to tell you things that you need to hear... Prayers that were uttered in secret, your thoughts and worries that only God knows, even forgotten dreams and desires.. It's right there in the open, being spoken by someone whom you just met for the very first time. Remember my last post and how I was asking for your prayers because this is a time of stretching for me in the ministry? Well here's the first half of what was said to me during the event and you'll see what I mean when I say just how amazing our God is. :)

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...

2015 has been a year of transitions. If you asked the January-me where does she see herself by the end of the year, it wouldn't have crossed my mind to be  here ... From quitting my job last April, to setting up another online shop... and now, serving at full-time ministry at church, it has been a roller coaster ride. Just like what Augustus Waters said in the movie, A Fault in our Stars:

Hello there! Got back from Pulag last night and yes, we reached the peak 3! It was the best our bodies could do! 4 hours going and 4 hours heading back... there were moments when we did ask ourselves, bakit ba natin to gnagawa ?? But it was such a relief when our group was able to make it! I haven't had exercise for months, I jogged last week but that was it... So you can just imagine how my prayers were going days before we left. I seriously didn't know if I can make it (hindi naman patay level pero hingal and give up!) but God, with His grace and  mercy, pulled us through! Praise God!