…and I’m still awake. I’ve been busy preparing my lessons for tomorrow for Sunday school. I also printed memory verse for the kids to memorize. On top of that I also read my hubby’s message for tomorrow because I am the translator from English to Tagalog. Most people who are attending our worship service are from the village and they can’t fully understand English preaching especially from an American preacher because they said it’s too slang. I have no choice but to translate it so they will understand hubby’s message. I’ve been doing this for more than a month already. I just pray to God to give me wisdom because I’m not really very good in Tagalog translation. I’m just doing this to further God’s kingdom and for His glory.

Tweet

I’ve been meaning to write an update about our ministry a few weeks ago but l’ve been too preoccupied with some other things. The enemy is attacking one of my loved ones and we were down on our knees asking God to intervene. We entrust everything to Him. Now, I’m here in front of my computer and so I might as well write about our ministry updates. My Sunday school class is still on-going every Sunday. Hubby and I drive there as early as 8:15 AM and Sunday school begins at 8:30 AM. I have 15 kids who attend regularly in our outreach ministry and sometimes the attendance go up as high as 22. I love teaching those kids and they really inspire me because they are so interested in learning the lessons I teach every Sunday. I have taught them Christian songs, gave them Bible verses to memorize, told them Bible stories, taught them how to pray and talk to God, taught them not to speak bad words and not to quarrel to their fellow kids and lately I taught them to give offerings to God. Those kids started at my VBS class last summer and until now they continue attending my Sunday school class. Ten of them got saved and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They enjoy doing the coloring pages that I give to each of them on Sundays. Our church bought crayons for each of them to use in their coloring. I gave incentive to those who did a good job in coloring. I also told them before that if they will attend Sunday school for 4 consecutive Sundays, I will give each of them a reward.

The Lord has blessed our effort in doing His work. One of my co-blogger and friend in Facebook had read my post about my VBS class and she had seen the photos of the kids that I posted. The Lord had touched her heart to help the kids in my Sunday school and she promised to give financial help every month. She started sending her help last May through my Paypal. I was so amazed how the good Lord provide what we need by using other people. Imagine, I didn’t even ask my FB friend nor solicit her, she gave voluntarily. It’s not that much but every little bit helps. Then, a couple who are friends of ours based in the US were talking with us online the day before we started VBS. I mentioned to them that we will be starting VBS the next day and I told them I was so excited. The next day I got a text from her telling me that she sent money to me through Xoom as their help for my VBS. Oh my, that was really an unexpected blessing from the Lord! He blessed the work that we’re doing for Him. Then the next couple of months, the couple had sent us financial support for our Sunday school kids. I didn’t ask for their help, they just sent it out of love for the work of the Lord. I was so amazed and touched by God’s faithfulness! If He will send you to do His work, He will equip you. We were able to buy a total of 120 notebooks, ballpens and pencils for my Sunday school kids before the school started and it helped their parents a lot. Thanks to our faithful friends who have the heart to help the work of the Lord.

Now, our next project is to buy Bibles for my Sunday school kids. None of them have Bibles yet. We went to PCBS in Urdaneta and inquire the prices but they ran out of stocks as of last week. We are still waiting for the arrival of the Bibles that I ordered. We also want to buy Bibles for the adults in our Bible study class next time when we have enough funds. None of them have Bibles too. We are trusting God that He will provide what we need to further His kingdom. He touches and uses people as instruments in a way I never imagined. To God be the glory!

Tweet

I praise God for His unending blessings and provisions. As I mentioned before, we have an outreach and I’m teaching Sunday school. The kids that I taught at VBS are now my Sunday school pupils and ten of them got saved and accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They were baptized by George at the beach last month, praise God! We invited their parents to come and witnessed the water baptism of their kids, There were three parents of the kids who came. My 2 siblings and there families went with us too. We hired a jeepney, cooked some foods, went to picked up the kids and off we went to the beach. It was a hot morning and the beach was full of people. Most of the cottages were occupied and the rate had skyrocketed. It’s a good thing that we found a vacant cottage and though the rent was pricey, we took it. That was Sunday morning of May 16 and we held our service there.

After the service, I gathered the kids and talked to them that we will go there at the water at the same time. So hubby baptized each of the 10 kids at the beach. Most of them were so excited. We took some photos as souvenir of that wonderful day in their lives. Then it flashed in my mind when I had my water baptism at the same beach 22 years ago. The thing is I didn’t have a photo as a souvenir of my water baptism. Di pa uso no’n ang digicam. It’s such a joy to see people get saved especially those young kids. After the water baptism, everybody went back to our cottage and savored the foods that we prepared. Then all the kids went swimming.

Tweet

It’s Father’s Day today and I want to greet all the Fathers in the world a Happy Father’s Day! I just wish that my dad is still alive so I can greet him and tell him how much I love him. It’s been more than 10 years since the good Lord took him home. Whenever I think of him I just can’t help myself but feel sad because he’s not with us no more. He didn’t see me and my two brothers got married. Among us siblings, it’s only my sister Violy’s wedding that he witnessed way back in 1996. Then he also had seen his two grand kids from my sister. Two years after he passed away, I got married. My dad would have been so happy had he seen me getting married to a a good American man. He would have been very proud of my hubby. My two youngest brothers have now their own family and both of them have one baby girl each. It’s their turn to be a father and today we celebrated Father’s Day with a simple meal at home after our church service. We bought 2 roasted chicken and a half gallon double dutch ice cream and we cooked some veggies too. Happy Father’s day to my hubby, my 2 brothers and my brother-in-law. You guys are the best!

Tweet

I’ve been busy preparing gospel tracts that we gonna give out to people when we go out soul-winning on Saturday. I spent the whole day cutting, folding and stapling it. We reproduce our gospel tracts by having it xeroxed. We save money that way. I pray that people would be moved and convicted once they will read the gospel tracts that we will give out. It is titled “Ito Ang Naging Buhay Mo.”

By the way, the kids that I taught at DVBS are now attending Sunday school. I am still their teacher and I enjoy being with the kids and teaching them songs, telling them Bible stories, giving them coloring pages and asking them to memorize Bible verses. Tomorrow, hubby and I will be buying more stuffs needed for my Sunday school class like crayons, notebooks and ball pens. We already bought a white board last time.

Tweet

When I was I kid I used to attend DVBS (Daily Vacation Bible School) during summer. I enjoyed listening to Bible stories and doing some activites like coloring and game competitions. That was many moon years back but I still remember the stories I heard and the songs we sang at VBS. Many years had passed and now I’m a VBS teacher. Yesiree!!! I taught VBS this past week and I tell you I had fun. I am a licensed secondary school teacher major in Math but I never dreamed that I would be a VBS teacher. I believe that it’s all part of God’s plan that instead of teaching Math, I would be teaching the Word of God to the kids. Who would have thought that I would become a missionary’s wife and start a ministry here in my homeland? But God chose me and I would have to be obedient to His calling.

Last week I went house to house in one of the barangays here in our town about 2 miles away from our house. Most of the people there are my kinfolks and most of them are not yet saved. So hubby and I decided to hold a DVBS for the kids in that area. There were 22 kids who signed up but only 19 completed the course and received certificates. On our 1st day I asked the class if they had attended VBs before but all of them said NO. All of them were first timers. Hubby and I were the only ones available to handle VBS but we managed anyway. It would have been better if there were other teachers so I could have divided the class according to their age level. We started our class at 8:30 AM until 11:30 AM. Every morning when we arrived there, the kids were already out there waiting on us. They were so interested and it made me glad. Our VBS theme was Champions For God and our theme song was of the same title. I told stories of characters from the Bible who were considered as Champions of God like David who defeated Goliath, the apostle Paul, Noah of Noah’s Ark, etc Hubby was my assistant in handling the kids. He helped during game competitions and he assisted me during snack time in giving snack to the kids. For one week I stayed up late at night preparing the lessons and the materials for their crafts. I had to learn some Christian songs for the kids and taught it to them. They love the song “Ang Mga Ibon” which I taught them with matching actions. Some of them volunteered to sing it in front of the class. When hubby started to take some photos, almost everybody raised their hands and wanted to sing in front so their photos would be taken too. It really made me smile. I wrote memory verse for the kids to memorize. Hubby gave rewards to those kids who were able to memorize the verse in John 3:16. It’s amazing how kids learn and memorize so fast but there were also slow learners. The oldest in my class was 13 but he’s only in the 4th grade and the youngest was 5.

VBS lasted for a week and the kids graduated yesterday and everybody were so excited. They received a certificate of completion. I thanked them for attending VBS and hopefully next year I would see them again. I asked them to attend Sunday school in the same venue. By the way, we held VBS at a vacant house own by one of my kinfolks. I plan to have a Sunday school there every week as follow-up for the kids who attended DVBS. I pray that God will bless our ministry and that those kids will grow up into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Tweet

We had a film showing of the movie “Jesus” according to the book of Luke the other day. We had shown the same movie last year during the Holy Week in our carport and we invited our neighbors to come and see the movie. We got a good response and lots of people came. They even thanked us for showing the movie because it reminds them to get things straight with God. Then on Good Friday Friday last year, we had shown the same movie in my kinfolks village and lots and lots of people came to watch the movie. At that time we haven’t bought a projector screen yet so just used a plyboard painted white.

We already have a portable projector screen now and that’s what we used last Thursday during our film showing. There were more kids than adults who came to watch the Jesus film. At the middle of the movie something happened. The movie kept stopping, a result of scratches of the DVD. We just burned that copy of the movie and because it’s been shown many times, there were already scratches so we decided to change the movie and showed The Rich Fool instead. Both movies were dubbed in our native language so the people understood it better. Film showing is also our ministry and it’s one way to reach out the lost and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tweet

I’ve been meaning to write a post about my dear auntie Aning here a few months ago to honor her for what she had done for us but it was postponed and my laziness set in until I forgot about it. Now, I can’t help myself but cry whenever I think of her. Auntie Aning went to be with the Lord yesterday around 1:20 PM due to cardiac arrest at Baguio General Hospital. She’s 78 years old.

My auntie Aning is the only sibling of my late mom and 3 years her junior. She was an old maid and she was the one who took care of me and my siblings (we are 4) when our mom passed away in 1978. My father had no permanent job so it was my grandma who was receiving her monthly pension and my aunt who supported and raised us. Auntie Aning cooked for us, took us to the doctor when we were sick, borrowed money from our neighbors when we needed money for our tuition fees when were in college, everything we needed she and my grandma provided. When grandma and my father passed away she was alone in taking care of us. When I was stricken with the big C, she was my prayer warrior and she went with me in the hospital when I had the surgery and chemotherapy. When my youngest brother had undergone knee replacement surgery 7 years ago, she went to watch him in the hospital. She was there during those lowest moments in our lives and when my siblings and I got married, she was there to witness and celebrate with us. When I left for the US in 2003, she told me on the phone that she missed me so much. I told her not to think of me so she won’t be missing me but she said she can’t help it. Until about 3 years ago that I was told by my siblings that auntie had Alzheimer’s disease and she can’t do the things that she used to do like cooking and washing disease. I cried and bawled like a baby after I learned that. Last year when my hubby and I finally came back here in my homeland, auntie can’t remember me no more. She don’t know my name nor my siblings names. Her memory had left her, it’s the effect of Alzheimer’s disease. But one thing that amazed me about auntie is that she didn’t forget her name and to pray. Everytime before we eat, she always said the blessing. I’m thankful that I was able to spend a year with her before the Lord had took her home.

If I were to write everything that my auntie Aning had done for us, this space is not enough. Auntie Aning, I love you, I told you that many times when you were still alive and you just smiled. Forgive me if I did something wrong doing some care giving duties to you because sometimes my patience became short due to your child like attitude in your later years but deep inside I really love you and I appreciate all the things that you have done for us. I thank God for giving you to us and for all the times that we shared together. You’re the best auntie in the whole world, you spent your life taking care of us and your loving memories will always stay fresh in my heart and in my mind. Auntie, I know you are saved, see you in heaven someday where there is no more pain, no Alzheimer’s, no more tears and no more problems. Until then…

Tweet