God carries it also

It's the last day of being home.

I woke up around 8 in the morning this day and just before doing anything else, I prayed and checked my phone (I usually place it beside my bed.) if there's any message.

I got this:

"He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on His shoulders. If He bids us to carry a burden, He carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous and tender, so lavish and supernatural in love, you will always find it in Him." - C.H. Spurgeon

It's from 'textmate'.

Mulling over my trip to Davao tonight for a contractual job until December 15, the message became a pressure-relieving reminder that whatever odd I will be needing to surpass, He is there for me for guidance, protection and strength.

I say thanks so much to the one who sent it. I consider her life, per se, as an inspiration.

This will be the very first time that I'll be away from home for more than a month. I thank God for this opportunity for me to learn to stand alone and depend on myself.

The work. After the recently concluded fieldwork in Iloilo National High School (Thankfully the processing and interpretation of data is finally done.), God gave me another opportunity to be involved in a study to help our fellow-Filipinos in Mindanao. This is a Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction Project through the Asian Development Bank. Apparently, this focuses on alleviating the socioeconomic and psychosocial status of poor women market vendors in Mindanao. The output of this work will be the bases of formulating steps in order to uplift the status of the market vendors on the areas of concentration.

On the other hand, this is my chance to help my own family here in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental.

I express my utmost gratitude to my cousins, Pastor Paul and his wife Nang Nyl and also Tita Cora - Pastor Paul's mother - for fervently recommending me to obtain this work.

I now know the answer why God made me face vast challenges and odds during the 16 years of formal education from kindergarten to college.

Hiatus. I don't know if I can visit you guys as often as I was doing for the past days. For now, I don't know the system and process of the work. Hopefully, I can still have time to mingle with you.

May God take the wheel as I travel and may He fill me up with
wisdom to tackle the obstacles.

If He bids me to carry a burden, He carries it also.

The battle in 3 days.

The Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is coming up fast and I can already feel the pressure - the squeezing I once experienced when I was yet filing for the Board. I never had felt of needing much prayers from my friends than now. Every time I'm OL, I'm in the community and in the church, I can't stop my self from asking for prayers from friends and my church family and from anyone across the globe.

Gratefully, I was talking a while with my cousin from Laguna and she told that their church prayed for me. My teachers from our school also told that they'll do the same. Also my own church family and our sending churches. Not to forget, my blogging friends also left a word here that they'll also include me in their prayers.

These really gave me a lift so I really really thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.

Indeed, we need others in this world full of shadows of grief, anxiety and pressure. "No man is an island" as we often reiterate it.

I came across a statement from Morrie from a the book "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. He said that in the beginning of life, when we were infants, we need others to survive and at the end of life, when we are already near death, we need others to survive." But there's one secret he was using and maybe it was the reason why his life has been so inspiring for many people in the world right now. In between birth and death, he always 'needed' others. He invested in human family. He invested in people. He built his own community filled with the people he loves and who love him as well.

And with this upcoming exam? I tie up (or fortify the ties) with the people around me for my sources of encouragement, hope, courage and strength.

I hope and pray that everything will just go smoothly on Sunday. This will be a test of faith.

The battle is the Lord's!

My outlook on Death and a Tribute for Lola

Death for our Christian family is a celebration - a celebration of life in eternity - and not mourning.

Well, yes, there were always be tears human as we are who were beautifully created with emotions. But we believe, God sees the meaning of each tear that we shed. Deep in it are the joys and thankfulness that once again another member of our family has been promoted to live in eternity face to face with the Lord in a place where there is no sadness, no pain, no grief, no violence, no selfishness but all pure sharing, happiness and love.

As tribute for my Lola who sacrificed a lot for her children and for all her grandchildren and great grandchildren, I made this photo montage with a colorful background signifying our assurance and bliss that Lola is now enjoying the most beautiful place with her long lost loved ones. I printed this in 7 by 3 feet tarpaulin and posted it in one of our walls here at home (Can't provide some pictures of the events here for now because I didn't have available cam. I'll still wait for my cousin to mail the pictures since he's already in Laguna now. I'll let you see the interment , which happened yesterday, 081107, and other photos then.)

To make a change in our culture's way of making programs for burial services, my family and I conceptualized the prints to make it more jovial, make it more colorful and more uplifting to make our guests and visitors change their outlook about death. We filled it with songs of praises and comfort on solos from my cousins, group singing of my uncles and aunties and choirs of the whole family. Partly musical, partly hilarious, partly sad.

It's printed in a 2.5 by 6 inches paper layout. The first page is on parchment with the "an appointment with the Lord" text, second page (the program) on specialty board and scented with my Lola's Avon powder and the last page (thank you note) is on specialty paper and tied it with a purple ribbon so it would look like a bookmark.

(Just click on the images for a better look.)

Yes, through that we can change the people's outlook on death. Apparently, most homo sapiens are scared of talking about that event but hey, it will come. No advancement in technology and medicine can ever avoid the cold touch of death.

My grandmother, who is a missionary and Lola's in-law, always reiterates the fact that most percentage of our life is waiting. We wait until we grow up, wait until you can finish your studies, wait until you find somebody to love and then to get married. You wait until your first, second, third and last child, wait until they grow up and you to grow older. And suddenly, wait until somebody will gonna wipe your own ass and wait until death.

That gives me the reason to enjoy the process while I am young. Knowing that we can't bring our diplomas, certificates and awards in heaven, I enjoy the process through wrapping my life with interaction and affection. This is because there is only one thing that you can bring up with you - your character.

-sigh- I'll miss Lola as how I miss my father.

Who says religion can't be funny?

Are you special?

Remember: It took a Man to suffer extreme pain and death to pay for your sins. That is how special you are.

Everything seems screwed up!

Have you been bungled by lots of responsibilities and can't cope up with everything and you just start screaming within yourself angry, pissed and screwed up not with the people around you but with every situation that hampers you to finish a thing and dumps you on your darn baloney sulky mood that delays or even stops your interest and willingness to get things done as soon as possible?

Just like this:

1. You just came from a training thus, you're tired and wanted to sleep but when you do so and you're at the middle of your dream, your mother wakes you up while your younger sister shouts at you that somebody is looking or calling for you outside the house. What happens? You're disrupted and messed up because of the abrupt shift of the atmosphere from fantasy to reality and going dizzy while hanging over from the insufficient sleeep, you run to the house's main door to face your visitor and later did you know that you're just wearing a boxer shorts without a top.

2. Your brother requested you to encode the TGS of a fast food store on MS Excel since he can't do it himself because of his busy and pressured schedules at work. But since your computer is near the room of your grandmother where her door is slightly opened so you can hear her call whenever she needs you (she has pleurisy and he can hardly voice out what she needs) and that the light you use passes through her room and she can't sleep under that condition, you got to kill your light and struggle to see the data on the TGS form through dim light.

3. You got to use the computer since you have to send an e-mail to a coordinator of your project that you need some financial and intellectual support. However, your younger sister has her assignments to be passed the next morning and you don't have any amount on your pocket to rent from Internet cafes.

4. You are trying to focus on a certain write up without any disruptions but your uncle living beside your house loves to turn the volume louder with his 50s to 70s type of music and even sings along with it plus the television sounds you can't turn off because everyone's watching plus the mosquitos that bite your feet and legs plus the frequent call of your grandma to get her a cup of water or requests for some milk and some biscuit or bread.

5. And when you finished your work on the TGS, your write ups for the publication and blog, your mother's requests and your sisters summary of an editorial, you'd want to dose off seeing the time ticks 1am in the morning but when you turn your freaking head on the kitchen, your eyes go wide discovering the dishes weren't washed yet.

Do these seem mess you up? - whew -

I am not angry nor pissed with the people who made these things happen because they're also human beings - my family is group of homo sapiens with built-in imperfections. What spoils me so much are the situations.

One thing I realized? God gives the toughest test!

I hope, I can overcome these things as part of my daily responsbility here in our house and with my family.

Still, all things work for a purpose.

'Biyahe tayo,' take risks and enjoy priceless rewards

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for visiting my blog for the past 2 days. On my way home, I was so excited to see if how was everything here. Though, I didn't have more comments on my latest posts. reading my messages on shoutboxes made me feel even better so I really thank you so much.

As what I've told you in my previous post, I'll be having a training and I just came back from the 2-day training from Iloilo to Bacolod City and it has been a venturous experience for me. Why? It was my very first time to do almost all the jaunts and activities I did and I really thank God for that opportunity.

To think that I coordinated for the event (with support from my fellow y-konek members most especially Jake Mae Valencia of West Negros College and Ramel Jacolbe of Riverside College), I thank God for the chance once again to be pressured, squeezed and harnessed for a good cause, a good advocacy and a very scary do-that-or-I'll-kick-your-ass instances during the preparations and when facilitating everything in the venue and while the training is on progress.

But despite all the risks and mind-stirring challenges, the treasurable moments of accomplisment wrapped everything with joy and fulfillment. Indeed, taking risks to ascertain unknown things for you are all worth it and it surely felt so cool when everytime I discovered something new, I whisper to myself:

"Now I know what"
"Now I know why"
"Now I know how"

I knew it felt complete and it pushes me to want to undergo brand new challenges again.

With heartfelt thanks, everything went good from fetching our trainer, Aldwin Joseph Empaces (Kuya Aldwin as we fondly call him), at the New Iloilo Airport to our training and up to accompanying him to Cebu Pacific Airlines at Bacolod City just this morning.

What wears us down the most in life aren't the chances we take but the chances we don't take, the dreams we put aside, the adventures we push away.

I personally thank Kuya Aldwin for everything. As I accompany him for 2 days from breakfast to supper and from one place to another, I really learned so much. Lessons from his life - life as a lover, life as a responsible member of the family, life as a teacher, life as an environmentalist and his life as a researcher.

Kuya, if you happen to read this, thank you so much. I would thank many people from the bottom of my heart but to you and also to the staff of the SOARGroup of USC, my heart is bottomless.

On my ride home from Bacolod City just this morning, I saw myself sitting in the PUB, leaning on the window glass and looking at the busy highway as trees, fields, the people, the seas, the sky seemed smiling to a beautiful day, my heart pounding, pondering over the 2 days of various precious experiences, learnings, friendship and realizations...I felt new. I felt so good. I felt different that I came on asking myself, "Is this me? Am I still Quincy?" and just dim my eye with that salty liquid again, grateful to what God did to my existence in just a short time.

One epiphany is the greatest tragedy a person would ever do in his life is not to brace for his supreme effort to get what he purposefully needs and wants.

Indeed, Kuya Aldwin's text message for me was true, "What wears us down the most in life aren't the chances we take but the chances we don't take, the dreams we put aside, the adventures we push away. So whatever it is you're wanting in life, go for it! And always remember that no matter what, trust your heart."

*^*

Enough with the sentiments, I would like to give you a glimpse of what we are doing right now.

As partner of the Sociology and Anthropology Research Group (SOARGroup) of University of San Carlos with support from the Internaional Planned Parenthood Foundation of America, the Y-Konek (an youth organization that advocates for adolescent reproductive health) will conduct a survey on the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of ARH issues. The study will cover randomly selected adolescents from first year to third year high school students. This is to establish the baseline data to assist us in developing an information, education and communications program for adolescents.

In view of the activity, we underwent what I was telling you, a training on basic research.

This activity aims to analyze differences in KAP by age, sex and marital status. Besides, it also aims to identify and analyze the determinants of the risky RH behavior and so we could later recommend effective strategies on youth RH campaigns and service delivery.

The kick off of the field work will be sometime this week and if it does happen, I need to go back to Iloilo City to give other Y-konek members a back-up because there are only few young active people who will serve there.

I hope and pray for God's provisions and sustaining grace as I do this tasks in Iloilo at the same time check the researchers in Bacolod City.

I didn't imagine myself that I will be having this kind of responsibility. Indeed, if opportunity comes, you stop it from giving you everything. And with that, I again thank God for honing me back in my 14 years of schooling and for giving me priviledges to have control over small things. Now, he's given me control over somehow big things.

To God be the glory.

Who says religion can't be funny?

I got these photos from an e-mail entitled 'Who says religion can't be funny?' Check it out and tell me where's your favorite.

By the way, yes, these pictures are funny. But bear with me, what you will see and read are true if you would ponder over them.

How to tell if a Catholic drives fast.

Enough of it.

One thing I want to tell you about me is I have a great God and I love HIm.