Week Highs

Blessings overflowed this week.

Friday was reunion day with an old friend who complimented me with a ticket to Christ Commission Fellowship’s “Signs of the Times” Conference.

Techie and I were colleagues back when we were employees of San Miguel Corporation eons ago.

No kidding! She looked as young, pretty and perky as when I last saw her fussing about her last social development project in SMC.

Today committed to living and sharing the Word of God, she holds bible studies with a group of equally devoted women believers and puts her faith into action in partnership with Christian workers in a less privileged community in Quezon City. Old passions never die!

And since it was her birthday, her hubby Jun treated a party of 15 joyful—and hungry—souls with a buffet blowout at Cabalen (Megamall) during our lunch break from the conference.

The most memorable part was when, back in the hall, a guest speaker, Pastor Ray Bentley of Maranatha Church, California, asked the congregation to pray for each other, and guess who I prayed with? Techie’s 13 year old son Benny who used to be a toddler in our SMC days. Techie and Jun must be mighty proud of this God-fearing young lad.

The greatest part of the day, which I hope to write about separately in the near future, was the eye-opener messages of the conference speakers, particularly author Joel Rosenberg (The Last Jihad, The Last Days, Epicenter, etc.), on the need to bring the gospel to all the ends of the earth, because Christ is coming soon.

An addendum: Earlier this week too, spent a grand time with the ladies in church as we relished God’s transforming power taking us from brokenness to wholeness. Of a kindred spirit, we worshipped and prayed and joked and laughed too.

Ah, God is really good!

Joaqui

“Thank you very much for caring for me.”

This was our grandson Joaqui’s response to all those who greeted him on his seventh birthday.

Time surely flies. It seems only yesterday when we waited for him to be born in what seemed to be the longest night of laboring and praying.

Thought I’d share portions of an article I wrote after his birth:

“It amazed me no end when with the ultrasound, I first laid eyes on my apo— already a breathing, throbbing and very recognizable being even if it (This time of course, we didn't know its sex yet.) was only a few weeks old. As the doctor patiently explained what we were looking at, I could only mutter, ‘Hello there, baby,’ while I waved at the tiny figure onscreen. I must have looked silly. Welcome to grandmotherhood.

“In a subsequent ultrasound, that young fetus moved to cover his face. ‘Shy boy!’ We chorused even as we beheld his beautiful spine, tiny femur and kidney, and his lustily-throbbing heart. ‘Almost pee time, his bladder is full,’ noted the doctor.

“Psalm 139 became an even bigger revelation to me: ‘For you formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made… Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them.’

“Joaqui’s D-day finally came January 13. Since my daughter gave birth via cesarean section after laboring for 15 hours—his umbilical cord got wound around his leg, so into the incubator he stayed awhile after coming out of that entanglement .

“And there we were marveling. He was the nursery’s last guest, yet of all its occupants, Joaqui was the most active, turning his head left and right and back again, and flailing his legs and arms as if he were conducting an orchestra."

Hmmm, no wonder he’s quite a karate kid today. He plans on getting his green belt this year, “With hard work,” he says. And by the way, that's his attitude too about school; no wonder he excels. But for only being you, we love you, Joaqui!

DE-MUSH

(lechon photo from mysarisarishop.com)

The holidays have come and gone but my mind is still a mush.

Probably because of my terrible holiday fare. And I think you can commiserate with me:

Poor us, indulging in lechon in almost every party; pitiful, irresistible porky always beckoning, and needing to always be washed down with liters of diet coke or coke zero—you know, to balance the lard with zero-cal, for a healthier you.

Tell me. How many types of pasta did you devour, uh, rather suffer? If you’re noodle-crazy like me, you must have sampled every spaghetti and pancit laid out before you.

“Just a little,” that still small voice constantly reminded. So how come I weighed five pounds more the last time I checked? Weighing scale must be broken.

A slice of chocolate cake here. A bite of cookie there. A sliver of ham over there. Food glorious food! So here we are in January contending with shrinking wallets, bursting waistlines and lethargic episodes.

On the upside, I’m thankful for the longer time spent with loved ones. Imagine endlessly chit-chatting over paella, morcon, galantina, hamon, pancit, lechon, etc., from lunch to dinner time, even days on end. Tuyo, I need you, tuyo!

Or enjoying the cool mountain air, say in Tagaytay, for more eating sprees. (Hay, food pa rin!) Utterly sinful! Lord, forgive.

Being with family. Could that have triggered the eating binges? Or am I just looking for my scapegoat?

Seriously, with or without food, Christmas is still the best time of the year, especially if we don't lose sight of Christ, the reason for the season, and spend more quality time with those who matter most in our lives. For some of us with loved ones abroad, Facebook is a God-send.

So it's 2010. Time to lose the lard and the flab, de-mush di mind, and git right with God. Get set, 1-2-3, go!

Members of two sides of my family in their different get togethers, in Pasig, Quezon City, Tagaytay and Wollongong (Australia)