Word of the Week: Collaborate

For the past seven weeks or so, I have been choosing one word that would best describe my week or what I most want achieved that week. I would write that word down in my journal/planner, at the bottom of my weekly calendar.

I thought this week would be a tough one since there's so much to do I couldn't really focus on one project or goal. But then, my eyes fell on the opposite page of my journal where I'd just finished jotting down the things I'm most grateful for this week. Almost every item on it are people with whom I have been working with on one project or another.

This may seem like something very common to some, but not to me. I have always been inclined towards working alone rather than with a partner or team. It's pretty tough for me to brainstorm with others without either clamming up or monopolizing ideas. I also find it hard to ask for help or share a workspace with others. 

Thankfully, God has been patiently showing me this weakness and helping me overcome it by giving me opportunities to share more with others.

This week has been filled with those. And the opportunities came in so beautiful a manner that I didn't have time to feel awkward about it. 

There are the moms who are sharing their resources/plans/ideas for future Child Education projects. There's the youth who helped me clean out the office. There are the church brethren who give gardening advice and gifts for the kids' sunflower project that I started. There are the youth leaders preparing for our major activity this weekend. There's the Publishing Team and all the production plans for the upcoming camp meeting. And I'd even count in all the Facebook conversations I had this week that included some sort of plans, sharing, and agreements.

So the word for this week is COLLABORATE. It's to realize that truly no man is an island, that there's beauty in synergy, and that God works in the hearts of His people to bring them together in His service, like stones framed together for the upbuilding of His kingdom.

Best of all, "For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building." 1Corinthians 3:9

God is working with me on me, building me up to become who He wants me to be. And sometimes He uses other people as instruments for that work. 

What Moves the Earth?

Early this morning, as I made my routine visit to our vegetable garden, a little prayer kept running in my mind: 

"Please, Lord, help the seeds to sprout. I have no life to give them but You are the Source of all life."

I knelt low and checked the radish and pechay seedbed, and lo and behold, some seeds have already begun to sprout. One here and a couple there. Amazed and grateful, I drew even closer and saw the teeny tiny crack in the teeny tiny seed, where a white-yellowish stem had come through and struck root in the soil. And then the thought:

“But I buried that seed!” Not very deep, of course, but deep enough to cover it entirely. Now the seed has emerged to the surface, having pushed away the soil above it.

I look around at all the vegetables and flowers and the big trees. They all started this way and have continued this way - moving the earth by simply reaching higher and wider and deeper.

So what moves the earth, really?

In the garden today I realized: growth.

The development of all our powers is the first duty we owe to God and to our fellow men. No one who is not growing daily in capability and usefulness is fulfilling the purpose of life. In making a profession of faith in Christ we pledge ourselves to become all that it is possible for us to be as workers for the Master, and we should cultivate every faculty to the highest degree of perfection, that we may do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable. Christ’s Object Lessons, 329.2

Israel and I

Free me as You have freed them
From sin and self and shame.
Lead me as You have led them
Through the Red Sea once again.
Feed me as You have fed them
With manna day after day.
Show me as You have shown them
The bitter shall sweet be made.
Till I reach some sweet morning
The gates of Canaan land,
Teach me as You have taught them -
Till like You I at last become.

2/18/2015

A Sinner's Prayer: a work finally finished

This is a piece I found as I was going through my files this morning. Apparently, I began to write it in October 2012, but didn't get to finish it until today. The parts in red are those I wrote almost three years back; the ones in blue I put in only today to finish the poem. 

A SINNER'S PRAYER

My heart is sore within me

My knees tremble as I kneel

I've had my way, I disobeyed

But I feel empty still

Lord, raise me from the mire

This is my soul's desire

Take away my guilt and fear

Wash me, this is my prayer.

I don't deserve to face You

But there is no one else.

There is no good in running,

Or hiding from Your grace.

Lord, free me from my chains

Your grace I humbly claim

I ask, save me not from pain,

But cleanse me, Lord, from sin.

What amazes me and drove me to post this piece is how much I can still relate to the sentiment expressed in the unfinished poem, so much so that I could still pick up the thought and continue it. But more than that, I am more amazed at how much more of God's grace I have come to understand by study and experience in the three-year gap. 

I think today of 1 John 1:9,"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Jesus loves us so much that the forgiveness He offers is not just a pardon from the sinful act committed, but also a cleansing from the unrighteousness within that causes the wrong act/thought/deed/sentiment. I love how Inspiration puts it in the book Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing:

But forgiveness has a broader meaning than many suppose. When God gives the promise that He "will abundantly pardon," He adds, as if the meaning of that promise exceeded all that we could comprehend: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:7-9. God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin. It is the outflow of redeeming love that transforms the heart. David had the true conception of forgiveness when he prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10. And again he says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:12.

My Redeemer is indeed faithful and true. Praise God for His wonderful mercy and matchless grace!

To the Dust Again, and From

Mercy, Father, for mercy I plead

Not for any argument, but my great need.

Where, if not to You?

From where else shall mercy flow?

So I bow to the ground whence I come

To be taken again by my Potter's hands.

Back from the Mountains

Now that training's over and I'm off the boondocks, there's so much I can't wait to do: upload photos and vids, get my computer back to shape, update my blog, get home, do the laundry, see everyone, cook (yes, cook), research stuff, organize my files, share the things i've learned, buy clothes na pang Christian Living , and reply to everyone who's been messaging me for the past seven months, among others. I miss the mountains already, but I'm sure that wherever the Lord is taking me will be even more beautiful. I'm still not better than anybody, but I believe that I'm better than who I was. I praise the Lord for His goodness and for His faithfulness in my life. Everyday I learn that He loves me with more love than I could possibly know in this lifetime.

Life in LIGHT, Nueva Era

“Life is getting funny in Nueva Era.”

Or so two of my classmates would say. We are much into our fourth month of training here at LIGHT, and as is commonly said, it is the time when true character begins to be revealed, and thus is also the time for more interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts.

December of last year, my church sister Dowry and I travelled from Davao to Manila, to Pangasinan (to attend a camp meeting there), to Cavite, to here in Ilocos Norte, virtually spanning the entire length of the Philippines to attend this Health Evangelism Training here in LIGHT, Nueva Era.

When we arrived here in January, everything was new to us and we didn’t really know where to place ourselves, except that people have always been kind to us, always going out of their way to accommodate us and make things a wee bit easier for us.

We were 25 students in all, including a 71-year old Tatay and a musically-inclined couple (plus their baby). Our classroom was (and continues to be) more than just the multi-purpose hall where we sat to lectures, ate our meals, and held worship and Sabbath services. As it turns out, everywhere we went in this place is a classroom, and everything and everyone we saw was a teacher. We learn daily from work, from people, from nature, from assignments, and from our experiences.

“Character-building” was the watchword, the battle cry, the answer to so many questions and concerns.

We are good so far. We have lost four classmates over time, and are in danger of losing two or three more, but God is good. He has not only sustained us, but has also given us joys to to outbalance the tears and fears, and growth to more than compensate for all the trials.

There’s more to come. We all know it in our bones, there’s much more to come – more of the struggles, the hardship that require painstaking endurance, the conflicts, the everyday battles against self, the testing and trying of patience and faith. And it's alright -no, it's more than alright, because we also know full well that there will be so much more of the learning and growing and blessings and opportunities to be ourselves the blessing.

Kindergarten: Monggo Project

Last Sabbath, I had the kids start on a project and object lesson rolled into one: planting mung beans.

They were absolutely excited about it and couldn't help but jump and run around with their plastic cups.

First, I made holes in used plastic cups, and had them fill it with soil that I readied in advance. They were then given five mung beans each to plant in their cups. I also made them water the beans. They wrote their names in the cups and we set them aside.

They were so excited about the beans that they were really hesitant to just leave them there. As we carried on with the class, one of the kids interrupted me and exclaimed, "Teacher! The beans are about to grow, I can feel it!"

And teacher couldn't help but laugh and get excited with them.

This post will be updated on a regular basis, probably daily, with pictures of the growing mung beans.

DAY 1 (Planting Day)

Karl Nathan Gogo

Sheim Aidrion

Ashley Mhae

Ayn Angela

Harlie

Precious Joy

Shane Matthew

And we have a special guest participant: Ryna, from the Juniors Class.

I forgot to take pictures for Day 2. *face meets palm*

DAY 3

Ashley Mhae

Ayn Angela

Harlie

Karl Nathan

Precious Joy

Ser Ryna

Sheim Aidrion

Shane Matthew

I can't wait for Sabbath, when the kids get to see their mung beans again. Check back tomorrow for updates! :)