Two days after

Two days after I arrived at my parents house, my one year old niece was celebrating her birthday. And once again, all my family members gathered for dinner and my nieces and nephews were enjoying playing even the rainy was so heavy but we had a wonderful time with each other.

Then on my first Saturday, I brought my little nieces and nephews to the town and I let them chose the cheapest toys that they liked. My two nieces and one grand child chose the Barbie dolls and my four nephews chose the cheapest water guns. All my nephews had their new hair cut. (The photos are stored in my mobile phone so I couldn’t post pictures of them now. But I will try next time. I’m scared to insert the usb of my cell phone in the computer here at the internet café)

I am very thankful to God for granting my heart’s desire. Truly God never allowed me to visit my family with an empty handed. This has been my prayer ever since…that God will not allow me to visit my family with an empty handed…..God is so faithful….in many things…..ever, ever faithful…

New Member

She's very excited to see the bright lights. She's only less than an hour old.

November 15 my niece gave birth to her beautiful baby girl. The new baby girl has been so healthy after the mid-wife bathed her, I was the first who carried her and she opened her eyes like a month old.

I was there, while the assistance mid wife bathing my grand child. And I don’t like the way she cleaned or bathed my grand child but I just remained quiet. But a day after baby Shine was born, she had a fever and we were wondering why she had a high fever. Then a day went by, baby Shine was getting smaller and weaker. So her grandparents decided to bring her to the hospital. And there, we’re told that baby Shine's belly button had been infected. Due to stuff that the assistance mid wife used to cut the belly button..(intestine) (I don't know how to call it in English.)And the doctor said that if we never rushed Baby Shine to the hospital something bad would happen to her.

Look at the beautiful baby girl and a beatiful mother too with my super beautiful mother.

Preaching on Sunday

On my first Sunday here, I attended to the daughter church wherein my siblings have been affiliating. I was glad meeting the new members of the daughter church. Then I enjoyed listening to the preaching and above all I was so happy praising and worshipping God.

On first Monday, I visited to the mother church and I’d a good time visiting my senior pastor. Actually, before I went there, I texted my pastor first and he was waiting for me at the mother church. That Monday, he needed to travel to CDO since I texted him so he cancelled his trip to the City. Oh how sweet of him to do that. Then, my senior pastor introduced me to the new pastor who has been assigned as a pulpit pastor. By the way, my senior pastor is regional director of our denomination. So he is very busy traveling and visiting other churches.

The new pastor, asked me to preach last Sunday, I was very hesitant to say yes because before I left Thailand, I had in my mind that I don’t want to preach on Sundays because I wanted to be ministered and just wanted to listen to the sermon at church. But the pastor said, it’s a mission month so it’s so timely that I am home….I paused for a moment but at the end I said yes. And I thank God that He gave me wisdom and He poured out HIS anointing when I preached last Sunday. Glory to HIS Name!

Actually, I used to preach every time, I came home!

Internet Cafe

I’ve been so amazed when my nephews told me that there have been two internet cafes’ near to our place. Meaning, our small barangay (Village) not truly behind compared to the big cities. And the cost of the internet café here is much cheaper compared to the internet café in the City. Here, it’s only 15 pesos per hour but in the City it’s 25 pesos per hour. Then I would be able to save for my transportation as well as my internet expenditures.

Besides, I would be able to teach my nephews and nieces on how use the computer. At the moment, my five nephews and one niece are with me. Unfortunately, I was not able to bring my camera and posted pictures of them. I hope, I will do it next time.

This is all for now….God bless you all…and more blog soon…..!

Safe Travel

I thanked God for our safe travel so far it was my longest travel ever. It was my first time also to fly with three connecting flights. The waiting time for our next flight was quite boring but it was fun also because I was not traveling alone. We arrived in Cagayan De Oro City with gladness and arrived there safe and sound. Though the flights were so tiring but being with the family the tiredness would easily be forgotten.

Wednesday night, I was thinking to stay for another night in the City just to relax and refresh myself but when I got up the next day my tiredness was completely gone so I decided to travel to the province on that day.

Well, my family was so eager to see me, forty five minutes before I arrived in the town where my parents are staying I’ve sent sms to my family and telling them that I will be in the town in a few minutes. Then they’ve texted back and informing me that they’ve been at the bus terminal waiting for me for an hour already.

There will be more blog next time:

New Eyeglasses

Last Friday night, I had a good time playing with Lyle boy. We were outside sizzlers, I carried and walked him back and forth, and he mumbled and pointed to a lot of things. So, I was very happy talking to him while carrying him. He is such a lovable baby boy. But on our way back to Sizzlers, he got so excited and I didn’t notice that he grabbed my eyeglasses and thrown it onto the floor. Oh my, when I picked it up broken already. Ha ha ha…! So, I tried to fix it up using the mighty band it didn’t stick together. Meaning, I was not able to fix it. Therefore, I decided to bring it to the optical the following day. When I showed it to the people at the optical, they checked it up and finally they said, they couldn’t fix it because a few parts of it were lost already.

So, I have to buy new eyeglasses. Then I chose the cheapest frame but nice also :-). When I wore my new eyeglasses, I’ve noticed that my vision has much been clearer. Then, while was my way out from the optical, I said, Lord thank you for Lyle. All things worked together for good!

Actually, for a few months ago, I’d noticed that my vision with my old eyeglasses was not so cleared already but I don’t have planned to change it yet. Anyways, I would say that, it was not by accident that Lyle grabbed my eyeglasses old. Now, if I will carry and play with Lyle I have to be careful with my eyeglasses. LOL

Look at this so adorable little lyle boy!

Dinner @ Sizzlers

Last night my friends and I went out for dinner, on the way to the place where we wanted to go, I heard their daughter talking about the soup that she really liked. Her mother asked what kind of soup that she liked to have and she described it. When she described it, that soup was not in the restaurant where we were heading to, so we all kept quiet and while we were in the lift we changed our planned instead of going to the 33rd floor "eat all you can restaurant" we went straight to Sizzlers….yepperssss.. ha ha ha ha. Well, we all wanted to go to sizzlers though especially me (Wink). Sizzlers restaurant has variety of food such as vegetable salad, fruits, and different kinds of soup and they’re all free once you ordered one dish.

Every time, I went sizzlers I would always take mushroom soup as much as I can. Mushroom soup is my favorite dish at Sizzlers.

Here's the salad, I can't remember how many plates that I took already.

Here my main dish, beef steak and a baked potato.

Left the Town Already

Yesterday, I left my house for the City and I will be here until the time that I will fly for Bangkok on Tuesday and fly back home.

I was thinking, who will water my plants since they’ve been blooming. So, I spoke to my landlady’s helper if she could water my plants while I’ve been away for a couple of weeks. Good enough, that she would be willing to water my plants.

While I was cleaning my room, I received a phone call from my friend in the City. And she was telling me that, I had a surprised but I was so eager to know what a surprised would be. So I kept on asking her, and she said, just come here and you will know. Finally, I convinced her to tell me what the specific surprised. And it was a blessing, blessing that I never expected. God has been so faithful and He is always through to HIS promises.

Before my friend called, I was listening to a preaching by Pastor Bill Johnson, and one message there that I was claiming; “ You are not a Barrower but You are a lender” then right that moment, with all my heart, I claimed that message believing, and hoping that God will pour out HIS blessings. In HIS special way! Indeed….God poured HIS blessings in a very amazing way.

Remember one of my posts? I wrote there, I will continue to pray that I will not go home with an empty handed. God is so faithful! Indeed, He is worthy worthy to be praised and to be exalted!

Reflections

Yesterday, I did nothing at school, I never felt boring because I brought a book and I read it again. Actually, I’ve read this book a few times already but every time, I read this, sure enough, it touches my heart again, again and again. And there’s a portion here that always made me pause and thought about it, and made my heart cries.

Pondering how the LORD worked with the lives of the first ambassadors amazingly and how the LORD strengthened them even their home churches never sent them any support. I would to say, the financial support for their workers.

I was so touched, how one of the ambassadors that worked in the restricted area but was so eager to go on and sacrifice her owned money for the needs of the nationals, until her bank account was empty but she continued serving there. In spite of the fact that, no one was not backing her up until she died in the field. And the author stated that, her home church, or churches in her home country let her died. (Teary-eye)!

I praise the LORD that God has been so graceful and so faithful in meeting all my needs. I thank God for the people who sent support for a few years. God will continue to bless their hearts! When God closes the other blessings, assuredly, HE opens windows of blessings. And now, I thank God for providing a school to provide my needs. I thank God for using HIS child to help my needs, if ever I needed it, even HIS child has having hard time financially. I know God will never forget HIS rewards to the giver. With all my heart, I am so thankful to God because the status of the work now is so much different compared from the first era. GOD’S GREAT FAITHFULNESS HAS AWALYS BEEN PROVEN AND TESTED!

Dinner @ the Restaurant

Last night, my friend wanted to have dinner with me so we went to Khupkhon Restaurant because that’s her favorite restaurant in the town. And we have two branches of Khupkhon Restaurant here. I like the old one but my friend likes the new one. So I let her decide, where she wanted to go and of course she chose her favorite Khupkhon. (To those who do not know what this word means; Khupkhon is a Thai word in English is Thank you.

While we’re eating I saw one of the cooks, cooking something and I saw her dipping the ladle into the pot and put that ladle into her mouth and returned the extra soup that was left in the ladle into the pot. Ha h aha ha so scary though, why I said so scary because I never know how cleaned her saliva was... yacky!..…Does all the cooks in the restaurants did the same thing??? ha ha ha ha

Anyways, we never ordered soup but I never knew at all, if that cook dipped the spoons into her mouth while mixing the salads that we ordered. You know what, since I saw her doing that, my appetite was gone. shooooo! My friend kept on telling me to eat more of the salads that we ordered but I refused to eat the salads again he he he. To disguise, of what I’ve seen, I ordered one plate of fried chicken even we ordered it already and I ate the fried chicken only. I was very sure that she never tasted the fried chicken after she cooked it. Ah aha ha ha. I never told my friend what I've seen because she/ they’re used to it, actually she/they would always use the same spoon to get more food in the bowl and used that spoon to dip into their mouths, too. Ha ha ha. I guess not all though but most of them do. So for me, if will attend big gatherings, I usually get lots of food first while no one is dipping their spoons in the bowls. He he he he!

Look at these delicious food.

This is white mushrooms salad.

This is papaya salad with shrimps and squid, hmmm yummy ha ha ha.

Here are the two beautiful ladies. (Wink) My friend, she looks younger than her age. Actually, she's 51 years old already but she looks so young and well-fit.

Another gift

My mother has another gift from my national colleague. Last Friday, She asked if I was going home and I told her yes. She even asked how long do I stay in the Philippines I said, just for a couple of weeks. She continued asking, if I was going to school on October 2 and I told her yes. Then she asked again, "What can I give to your mother?", I told her nothing. But she aid, I wanted to give something to your mother. And of course, I told her, never mind, but she insisted.

Today, she gave this nice batik for my mother and this is made in Malaysia again. :-) Actually, last year she gave some dried shrimps with ground chilies and my parents liked them. How sweet of her to remember my mother.

She’s truly sweet because every time she made something she would always remember me. She never forgot to give me some of what she made. One time, as a family they went to Malaysia and when they returned she bought nice blouse for me. And she was so happy seeing me wearing the blouse that she gave. God bless her heart. Someday, she will experience the Divine Love of my Ever FAITHFUL FATHER.

There she is, a genuie friend. We've been friends since the first day of my work at school

Deeply Asleep

I was deeply asleep and my phone rang, at first I didn’t answer it because it’s too early and wanted to sleep more but after a few minutes went by it rang again, so what I should do, well, I have to answer it. And it was my colleague (Filipino) she informed me that her cousin who left for the Philippines at dawn today got a 22 kilos luggage for free and her cousin flew with the same airline that I’ll be flying with. If it is the case, I would be very happy because my luggage now is quite heavy and I don’t have a weighing scale at home so I am not sure how many kilos my luggage is.

So much for the luggage thing he he he! It’s time for me to keep going, I need to report to the school today. Hmmm during our meeting last Friday, the directress told us that we have to report today and tomorrow, October 2-3 to replace a two day holidays, which was 29 and 30 of September. We the teachers couldn’t refuse it so we’ll have to go to school. For me, I will just go there and relax because I’ve done my grades and submitted already. Honestly, it is more tiring, if you are just sitting and do nothing. I have a book here so I need to bring this and read it again. Okay, bye for now and see you later.

Here are my traveling bags. Opps..! I forgot to close the door of my bathroom!

Finally Done

I thought I was able to sleep after posted a blog but I wasn’t. I was so busy cleaning, ironing my clothes and sorting out the things inside my closet. I found out that I kept stuff that needed to be thrown, like wirings, papers, etc.

I am glad that I put all the stuff in my traveling bag. When I tried to carry it, it’s quite heavy and I thought it would excess the limit so I had to take out some from my bag.

I wanted to confirm, how much is the free luggage, so I phoned the office of the airline that I will be flying with and it’s confirmed that I could only have 15 kilos as my check in luggage.

Well, it is always good to be sure so that I will not pay extra.

Almost done

I almost done keeping my stuff for my trip, but I still need to put some in my bag. There are still a few pairs of pants that are not dried yet. Actually, I washed them last Sunday afternoon but due to non-stop rain they’re not dried yet. I hope by tomorrow they’ll all dry.

My luggage is quite heavy I hope it will not excess the weigh limit, which is the 15 kilos only. But I’ve just read the policy again on my ticket that we purchased a few couple of months from now, it says;

Free Baggage Allowance and Handcarried Baggage
A. Guests are allowed free baggage allowance of 20 kilograms. Infant tickets are NOT entitled to free baggage allowance except where seats are occupied and corresponding ADULT fares are paid.
B. Guests are allowed to carry one (1) piece of handcarried baggage not weighing more than seven (7) kgs per guest. The sum of the outside dimensions of each piece of handcarried baggage should not exceed 115cms (45 inches) including protrusions. Dimensions: 55cms + 40cms + 20cms ( length + width + height ).

Anyways, bought this ticket last March I guess they might change the policy already.

I still have enough space for my other stuff, I hope it will not excess within the limit. Like last year, I paid almost 50 Singaporean dollars for my excess luggage.

Now, it's time for me to take a beauty nap.

Just got back

I just got back from my friends’ house. Every year, I was there helping to serve food to their visitors. Today was different, when I arrived there, the food were all set on the floor(It's their culture, they would like sitting on the floor while eating) and a few minutes since I arrived their visitors came. Before they usually ate, they would always have their sermons then after that they prayed with their long prayers. And after the prayers that's the time they would eat.

Then all the ladies were at the kitchen eating but all the men were at the living room, I was there at the kitchen too. This was the way, they would always treat women and it was good also because you would not felt so awkward eating in front of the men that you never knew at all.

I like this, beef with curry and it's yummy

Here is the Kanom Jin again I mixed this with the beef with curry. It looks like our spaghetti, actually we (foreigners) would call Kanom-Jin as the Thai spaghetti. I remeber, one of my birthdays, I cooked spaghetti but the local don't appreciate that much. Meaning they don't really like our spaghetti but they like Kanom Jin alot than our spaghetti.

This first bowl chicken with curry in it so yum, this is one of my fave for Kanom-Jin. the second bowl with fish curry and so yummy, too.

These raw vegetables would always be present, if the Thai will eat kanom Jin or something else. I love to eat them as well but during my first two months here I was struggling eating them but now I always love to eat them.


Now, I posted one blog already. I guess it's time for me to fix my stuff. :-)

I couldn't imagine

I couldn’t imagine that in a couple of days, I will be flying home but until now, I haven’t kept all my stuff that I needed to bring back home. I couldn’t believe that my room has been very messy lately.

Last night, my friend came and I was a little bit ashamed because my room has been so messy. Actually, I’ve been trying to figure out what things would I be bringing home since I don’t have enough pasalubong (give-away) for my family; I’ve only been checking all my old stuff that my nieces, nephews, sisters and brothers could still use them. I meant I was sorting out my clothes and shoes as my pasalubong (give-away) for them. But my parents, I have special presents for them. My mother requested me to bring, the ointment that she really likes and also lipsticks and my father I bought nice polo shirt for him.

Last year, when I visited them, I brought a lot of pasalubong (give-away), I brought a few big chocolate bars but this time I don’t any chocolates. I spoke to my family on the phone already and I told them that my visit this time would be much different compared from my past visits. And their answer was, it doesn’t matter as long as you will come home. Well, as the days approaching, I am getting excited. My nephews and nieces are very excited too because every time I went home, I used to bring them to a good restaurant and have nice food there. And also, I used to bring my nephews to the barbershop and had hair cut. And for my nieces, I used to bring them to the small shop and let them chose what they would like but withthe condition to choose the very affordable one he he he. But this time, I will continue to pray that I will not go home with an empty handed. That God will shower HIS blessings in an amazing way.

I’ve not done sorting my stuff out yet. It’s time for me to go to at my friends’ house since is a Hari Raya here and they told me to be there at 10 a.m., so I will continue sorting my stuff out hopefully this afternoon. hmmm, sometimes, if i will sit infront of my computer, it's so difficult to remove myself from it..he hehe..lately, I've been a blog addict!.

Email Address

Since, I made my new email address on one of the free email addresses, I don’t a chance to check or open it often. I guess I only opened it thrice since I made it. Last week, my co ambassadors came up into a decision that we’ll keep in touch with each by emailing. So I gave this email address. Then when I woke up today, I decided to open it up and try to check, if it’s still working because this was the email address that I gave to our elder.

I was so surprised that I’ve got so much of emails on this address. Most of the emails were so encouraging. I forgot that I signed up on one of the Christian sites that has been sending free encouragement letter and messages every time and then, and I used this email address for that. I was glad that this was the one that I gave to our elder. If not, I might not be able to open this email address until it will expire.

Well, you might ask or say, why I made this email address and not opening it at all. So far, I never gave this email address to anybody yet, not until last weekend.