Celebrate joy!

Connect What do you consider the most important thing in your life? Which is the one thing that you fear losing the most? One way to arrive at an answer to that question is to think of the things that we spend the most time on... and those that we work so hard to keep because losing it isn't an option. For most, it may be  work  or their  business which provides for their basic needs and even luxuries in life. For some, it may be their  family  who has been a source of motivation for the things they do. For others, it may be their  name  -- the legacy that has been passed down to them from the earlier generations so they try really hard to keep that name honorable.

Who knew I would be taking cue from Emma Watson and the Harris brothers? Emma Watson with her #bookfairiesworldwide advocacy and her The Press Tour project wherein the former makes her hide books in the nooks and crannies in the world with the hopes that someone will find that book and it would speak to that person.  The latter, wherein everything that she wears in public is made of sustainable materials. And I just remembered thinking, with the many things under her belt, she still has time to put together such project to check every single accessory passes the 8 values to officially coin it as sustainable?

One of the questions I get asked most often in working in full time ministry is: "Do you get paid?" The person who asked me recently works in the insurance industry and is raking in millions a year so it's not surprising that was her top-of-mind query. I am not sure if I should be offended but I just remembered  smiling and answering "yes, it's actually a lot like a company." And it really is, guys! I am not sure what goes on in their minds after that but another question we get asked too often is "When is your off?" -- knowing full well that church is in full swing during weekends.

If there's Wong Fu Production, then there's The Ming Thing. It sounds like a meme for something but Ming is actually the name of the Malaysian brothers who founded the production -- Ming Han and Ming Yue. :) Ming Han:   Along my thesis year in my degree (my final year), I randomly decided to vlog about the horrible carpark situation in my university at that time. That required me to start a YouTube channel that I randomly named “dmingthing” because it rhymed with my name and “themingthing” was taken, so I had to use “d” instead.   Amazingly, my first vlog did amazingly well. I had a few thousand views overnight for a totally new channel (which was very very surprising). I tried a two more vlogs and it was at that time I got contacted separately by two different people, Raffi and Bryan. They were both pretty good videographers and both offered to try making videos with me.    The rest was pretty much history. I've only seen a few videos of theirs and it's...

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.

As promised, here are more photos of our hiking trip last month. Aside from the two mountains we were able to climb (lakas! Haha! ...Which were actually just beside each other :)) , we also dropped by Layong Bato River wherein we washed our sweaty and muddy feet. When you have been walking for miles, you don't know how refreshing it is the moment you dip your feet into the water. You just want to bring out soap and shampoo if only that were allowed.  ...and buko juice is love! We were asked to carry at least 1 liter of water, which is not enough if you suddenly decide to climb two mountains instead of one (we did not think this through, guys)... So grateful that they sell buko juice upon descending Mt. Apayang for our thirsty throats.