blurbers

Wow, where do i begin?

Just this Tuesday we had Gent’s Night for the Esbi guys, which turned out really well.
Friday I taught in FG on the topic of Sin.
Yesterday we continued the Blazing Center series at Torchbearers, and it was great. The ORCOMM met and we’re taking steps to promote the Blazing Center and the upcoming youth camp. The youth workers meeting discussed just that.
Today, Met and Blessie came to Higher Rock. It’s celebration of Higher Rock’s 11-year anniversary.
This coming Tuesday is Banquet Night for Esbi.

Awesome.

But the greatest thing (and also most burdensome) is the decision of the church that the youth workers and cell-servants are to undergo comprehensive Biblical Counseling and doctrinal training and submit themselves to a higher level of accountability to the youth leaders–Pastor Lito, Kuya Jayrus, Bro. Danny–(and probably even the church’s steering committee?). We were given one month to pray about it. When Bro. Danny was talking to us about it over lunch, I felt like I was seeing for the first time just how important this move was going to be. This was it. The church was drawing the line for its potential future youth leaders. Get serious.
Wow. I don’t know. Good thing they’re giving us all a month to consider it.

Awesome, awesome. I love Sundays. (^-^)

The Blazing Center. Every Saturday from yesterday up until the end of march, we in the youth fellowship will be having a video seminar on this series by John Piper. Wooow, the one yesterday was great! I love listening to Pastor John. He always inspires me to push myself more in my Christian walk, and whenever I see him preach, I’m reminded of how much I still have to grow, and how very good it is to be satisfied in God.

Dinner and fellowship afterwards with Mark, Emkeii, and PO was great. We may have extended a bit too long though because… nah, I dont regret spending that time with them at all. Nevertheless, I am sorry that I couldn’t have gotten to the Legacy Night in Assumption earlier. When I got there, wala na, not much time to spend with sina Angela, Alice, etc.

Hehe, when Parokya ni Edgar was playing, I often found myself bored, and my eyes kept straying to an exceptionally tall tree nearby, with the starlit sky in the backdrop. The heavens declare the glory of God.

On both trips, going there and back, I had several on-the-road encounters that would be normal for me, something that happens everyday along Katipunan or EDSA. But with PO and Sarah in the car, they seemed more like near-accidents. Heh. Gosh, I was driving really slow then. I think I want to drive like that more often. Praise God, we got there and back in one piece, even if I was kinda tired na while driving.

It’s so great how we can completely dislike someone and yet deeply love that person. Love your enemies. It’s impossible by ourselves, but when Jesus takes us through it, painful as it may be, it’s always taken hold of in the end.

status: hurting, mournful, hopeful, joyful.

Be still my soul
The Lord is on your side.
Bear patiently
The cross of grief or pain.
Leave to your God
To order and provide.
In every change
He faithful will remain.
Be still my soul!
Thy best, thy Heavn’ly Friend,
Through thorny ways
Leads to a joyful end!

We celebrated Family Day today in Higher Rock, and it was my first time to attend one, since I passed up the opportunity to join the one last year. The program was so simple: after the morning service, there were games, and numerous presentations ranging from funny, to sobering, to inspiring. A big part of the presentations involved one form or another of true-to-life recounts of the former lives of people who are actually members of the church. This was the aspect that I loved the most. Lately, I’ve been losing sight of how great God is, and I’ve been spending more time playing computer games and doing other worthless things instead of using all my time to please God. But the whole theme of the celebration was really an unnmistakeable call of the Lord for me to drop all the ‘pabigat’s that I had taken on and to follow Him wholeheartedly.

I also got to spend time and fellowship with some members of the church, young and old, and got a bit more acquainted with the church family.

It’s hard to express how much God touched my heart today–He will go to all ends to work out His character in me, that I might be satisfied in Him alone. How great and glorious my God is, how personally He touches each Christian’s life to make Christ the all-satisfying center of our lives!

Most habitual expression to myself: "Ugh, somebody shoot me!"

That’s exactly what came to my mind when I thought about blogging. My blog, my friends’ blogs, people-i-don’t-really-know’s blogs. It doesn’t matter.

Ay, shibaba!

I miss my SVCF family.

4-day weekend. I want to go out and spend time with my friends. I want to stay at home and catch up on reading and trash spending time with friends. Hmmm… I’m not sure if I want to be among others or to be left alone.

Argh.
Somebody shoot me.

Afterthought: I left my cellphone in the car, which my mom took out for the whole day. When I got it back, I had 4 messages. 1 from globe, 2 from koji who knew that i didn’t have a celfon for the day, and 1 from a friend in school who was inviting me to go out.

Been down these past weeks since classes started. There’s always been this sense that I’ve been holding myself back all this time from really devoting myself to diligent service. Haven’t really been in contact with my old, tried-and-trusty (to varying degrees) friends, it’s really been my new friends in State Varsity Christian Fellowship that I’ve been fellowshiping with. (it’s wierd, because I don’t really know what to say to them anyway) That kinda adds to the loneliness, but it’s not really the main part of it. It’s the first thing I mentioned.
I hope my friends are praying for me, that would be a wonderful comfort to know. I’m going to forego meeting up with Kuya Moncie and the others this morning so that I can have a personal retreat. I need it really bad.

Thank God for what we learn from enemies. He just used one of mine to slap my laziness and lack of fiery determination right in my face. Few things are more motivating to me to get serious about life than facing someone who fiercely stands against everything I love and believe wholeheart-and-mindedly. He’s my philosophy teacher. I’ll be seeing him twice a week for the rest of the semester. Great. I really mean it. It’s the reason I took philosophy in the first place–to be exposed to the techniques people use to tackle the same issues that the Bible tackles and to determine the similarities and draw the line between the differences. Or something like that.

Nagkaretreat kami kahapon para sa mga youth workers. Ang sarap, at saktong-sakto lang sa panahon! Ang karaniwang assessment ng mga kasama kong workers ay ginamit ng Panginoon ang mga babasahin, ang sermon, ang worship session, upang iharap kami sa aming mga kasalanan at mga malaking pagkukulang. Dati akala ko na maayos na ang pagpapatakbo sa youth fellowship–na sapat na ang ginagawa ng mga worker at ang ginagawa ko upang pagsilbihan ang Diyos at suportahan ang youth ministry–pero na-rebuke ako nang ipinakita sa akin ng Panginoon na maraming pang nararapat na gawin na hindi ko ginagawa, at higit pa roon, hindi ko Siya tinutuonan nang buong puso. Pinabayaan kong sumingit sa aking paglingkod ang lubos na pag-DOTA, ang pagpapahinga nang wala sa oras, ang ‘so-so‘ na pagtutuon ko sa pag-aaral ng Bibliya, at ang mga iba pang maliliit ngunit madaming mga pagko-compromise sa mga alam kong tama.

Nagpapasalamat talaga ako para sa kahapon. Sinabi ko nga kay Koji, ‘This was the most peaceful day I’ve had in a long time.‘

Linggo nanaman. Ang sarap ng buhay kapag kapiling si Jesus. Salamat sa Panginoon.

Tapos na ang sembreak, pasukan nanaman.
Side A: Haaay…
Side B: Just in time!

Ang saya ng sembreak, and the Lord really taught me a lot of things in the 3-or-so-weeks duration, but now the time has come again to take all I’ve learned and apply it to this new semester.
I’m excited to be learning Spanish.:D

The 3-on-3 basketball fellowship at Higher Rock just started, and the team I’m in played it’s first two games last Sunday. Won one, lost one. I was a bit impatient because I wanted to play more than I was able to, and I wasn’t able to be as suportive to my teamates (or my opponents) as I would have liked. But it really turned out well, and I was able to spend more quality time with David, my teamates, and even some of the other adults of the church.
This Sunday, we’ve got two more games coming on, hehehe.

The Lord lead me to spend much of my last day of break meditating and preparing for school. Sarap!

Hmm… got a class at 9–social dancing.

Oh, here’s my new schedule for Monday&Thursdays and Tuesdays&Fridays (no classes on Wednesday or Friday):

MTh

9-10       Social Dancing

11:30-1  Philosophy 11

1-2:30    Spanish

4-5:30    Natural Science 2

TF

7-8:30   Communication 3

1-2:30   Spanish

(Yes, on Tuesdays and Fridays, I have a loooong 4-and-a-half hour break, so if anyone wants to hang out at that time, my schedule ‘might’ be open)

Sunday-Wednesday: Baguio
Departure: 3am Sunday
Arrival: 1:30am Thursday

Wow, my first vacation with the Bulahans, what a great way to bond with Koji, Sarah, Andrew, Pat, and the tito-and-tita-Bu’s. The weather was interesting… sakto kasi yung daan ng bagyo, so malamang, maulan, but because of that (i think), there was really thick fog. 0 visibility at some points, when we were passing through one of the thicker, rain-heavy clouds.
Main activities were LAN gaming, movie-watching, board-gaming, card-playing, eating, sleeping, and corny dyoks. hehehe.
As usual, there’s always something to spice up the trip when the Bu’s are involved. On both trips going up and down, one of the cars overheated. Each trip took about 8 hours each, but that’s ok, their really good company. Eating and sleeping and corny dyoks helped too.
It was very different scenery up there.