Celebrate joy!

Recently, I have been stumbling across posts that emphasize one thing: dying to self everyday. It not only sounds difficult but it truly is difficult. Wai Jia (I wrote about her before) in one of her blog posts , talked about how we cannot be anything we want to be no matter how great and seemingly harmless that sound. Dreams are not supposed to be as big as we want them to be but should be how God wanted it to be, at His perfect timing, exactly how He wants it. Rica Bonifacio, on the other hand, talked about the single qualification for a future spouse: he should be able to be willing to die to himself every day. This podcast by Oscar Muriu during the Every Nation World Conference held in South Africa, reiterated what Paul has been talking about in his letters to the churches those days: every follower of Christ must know and understand in her heart that her life is not hers anymore, but it is Christ's. After reading Rica's article, I asked myself: Can I really do ...

For the past few weeks, Gia and I have been going home with aching shoulders and bruised legs because we have been attending -- get this -- Muay Thai classes.  Whoa! Yes, I know. The girly-girl in me is totally bewildered by the idea. But that's why I have decided to do it all the more. The idea of being completely helpless when the bad guys (bad guys talaga, sige na nga, guys with bad intentions) choose to steal my purse or hold me at gunpoint scares me more. I mean yes, you got to choose your battles and one's life is more important than her purse or her cellphone... but I want to know that I can at least defend myself when such unfortunate circumstances arise. 

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...

Here's the part 2 of the Hanoi series! Hoping you will be blessed! Sept 28 Wed 12:52PM So many things have been happening here… a couple of days ago, the team had their Victory Weekend. There were 5 participants which was a stark contrast from the usual 80+ people we used to have in  Manila , and yet it was not so much about the number  that made it a different kind of experience but the heart and hunger of these 5 people for God! We teared up more than once as we pray and minister to them…there was even one point when we cried first before the participants!  Nauna pa tlga kaming umiyak! Haha!  But we were so touched because we felt God’s heart for the people here… It reminds you of that first encounter you had with Jesus! There is no such thing as language barrier when the Spirit of God moves… When God reveals Himself to His people, He penetrates and goes straight to their hearts and minds. There are more than a few times when we are amazed on ...

Celebrated my 29th birthday two weeks ago and hey look at that, I didn't even had to think twice about putting in my age! Haha! I don't know what it is about 29, and while it's my last year to say that I'm in my late 20's, it's also the time where you just care less more (did I confuse you with those 2 words?)... One of my friends asked me how old I was, to which I answered 29. and she joked to say, " dibale nasa kalendaryo ka pa!" This may have come off as offensive to me months ago but I just smiled and said "Si Lord na bahala" knowing for certain na Siya na talaga bahala. I guess, being at this age means that you get to see so much of God's goodness already that everything that happened and will happen in the future -- you are able to trust God for. I have seen Him come through so many times already, and I know that He has my present and future in His trustworthy hands. This has also been the most no-fuss birthday ever -- a s...

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!...

One of the hardest questions to ask a book-lover is, "what's your all-time favorite book?" To which, I am sure would ensue a long and hard look at the ceiling as she ponders the answer to that question... And after much thought, would probably still fail to come up with just ONE. So I would not even attempt to do that. :P What I'll give you, though, are 8 books that really stuck to me through the years. Much like the movie, Train to Busan (if you haven't seen it yet, please do! It's a rocking movie about humanity and relationships... and yes, scary and fast-moving zombies that really bothered me on their speed, why are they so fast??!). These books sent my imagination off to places I never thought possible, whirled me to varying emotions -- including but not limited to -- soaking my pillow wet from tears, laughing out loud from witty dialogues, nostalgic turns that brought me back to memory lane and those poignant moments of just being deeply mov...