Camiguin and Cambodia Trip

The past two weeks were a busy but blessed days! It made me realize that God is truly gracious to put me in this work ministry to serve His people.

First, the team where I belong in the Philippines had a meeting and team building for three days which was held in the beautiful and peaceful island of Camiguin. After we finished the day's schedule, the team was able to visit the sunken cemetery and enjoy and feel both the cold spring and hot springs! It was a very relaxing and wonderful experience.

Then the following week I have to go to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to provide technical assistance to the HOPE people there on their implementation plan and to learn about one project on improving the quality of life of people living with HIV in Battambang province, which is five hours away from the city capital. I felt very fortunate and blessed to meet those people and I really learned many things from them and about the project. I wish we have the same kind of project for PLWH in the Philippines.

When I found out more than a month ago that I have this trip to Cambodia, I was hoping to see the famous Angkor Watt Temple which was located in Siem Reap, five to six hours away from Phnom Penh. Learning this fact, I gave up the idea of seeing it but to my surprise.....the project team had decided to bring my colleague friend and I to Siem Reap on our way back to the city from Battambang province! Of course, I was so thrilled and elated in anticipation for this was really unexpected! I said God, you are simply amazing!

So I must say that God is more than gracious enough to turn this temple in my Asian history into a reality! In addition to that, back in Phnom Penh, my friends brought me to the Royal Palace, Genocide Museum and Russian market to buy gifts and souvenirs.

Indeed truly another great experience from this South East Asian country, Cambodia, the seventh nation I have visited. Thank you Lord for this blessing!

Kalibo CoH & Boracay Trip

Last week was indeed a blessed week for me! After almost three months of absence from doing the "Channels of Hope" or CoH workshop, the Lord brought me to Kalibo for the first time to do it for three days.

Once again, God did a marvelous job to all of us there especially to the participants! My co-facilitators were very good and virtually all of them were touched, felt very blessed and deeply moved with God's work in my life. It's really amazing to be a vessel of God's divine grace and truly an honor to be chosen to serve Him no matter how unqualified and unworthy of me as a dispenser of God's hope!

The Lord allowed my Pastor friend and me to see Boracay at the end of the workshop. It was our first time both to see this beautiful God's creation, a small island at the northern part of Kalibo, Aklan. We're not able to see its real beauty under the sun because the weather was a bit cloudy with occasional rain showers. But it was good enough for us to feel the very fine white sand and ocean water! At least we did not need to apply sun block protection.Also I was able to experience para sailing finally! A little bit expensive but I must say it's worth it.

When you're approximately 200 to 300 feet up in the air and have the view from the top, it was simply astounding! I can't help but to praise God and thank Him all the time while I'm up there and at the same time praying for His protection for the whole fifteen minutes! My fate during that moment relies on the rope holding me under a parachute on the boat.

Side trip such as this was indeed a blessing from God. The Lord was really with us all throughout this wonderful experience! Living a life for our Creator through Jesus Christ is exceptionally a blessed life!

CoH in Dumaguete 2011

My first time in Dumaguete City was in 2008, also the very first time I have conducted the Channels of Hope or CoH workshop to 13 Pastors in the area.

After 3 years I returned to this city to help out my colleagues in doing the same workshop, this time not only with more improvements and developments from the very first one but we have 39 participants! Also this was the first time I did not share my testimony because I only joined the last day but it was alright. I believe it's about time somebody has to fill in my shoes once in a while.

But what I really liked about this trip is that even though I was not able to share God's goodness and faithfulness in my life to many, He led me to share it with one of the participants when we dined out after the workshop! This young lad was so blessed because he said he needs some inspiration. He's so grateful that we were able to spend some time for I was mentioned already to him by a common friend who also attended the CoH and heard my testimony.

Of course how can I forget their famous mouth watering Sansrival! They gave me 3 boxes as a gift. It was a short but a hallowed and prolific trip.

Malaysia Experience

Malaysia is the sixth country I have visited. The training was about understanding Islam and it was held in Seremban, an hour away from the capital city Kuala Lumpur.

Before this trip I have prayed to God to be with me and I want to have another wonderful experience of His glorious presence! He actually did praise You my dear Lord!

The training was really good because I have learned a lot about our Muslim brothers and sisters and somehow gave me confidence to relate with them. Since it was an eight day program we were able to visit this church on a Sunday, which is a day off from the training, in Kuala Lumpur where we attended service. Then we went to Central Market to buy some stuff for family and friends and of course the famous Petronas Towers. Unfortunately, we were not able to climb up the tower because according to our tour guide we have to line up as early as 3 or 4 in the morning to ensure entry and be included in the 1080 persons allowed to climb in a day. So we enjoyed ourselves taking photos in and around the twin tower.

Included in the training is a field visit and I believed it was the highlight of this trip for me. The experience I had back in India last year was repeated and this time with a Pastor working with young Muslim refugees! It brought tears into my eyes, was deeply moved and truly touched, as he told us how God worked in his life through these people! I saw Jesus' heart in him! I saw Jesus in him! We just need to be more like Jesus in reaching out to people especially to people of other faith like Muslims. That's what I have learned and realized.

Prior to this visit to the ministry of this pastor, we were blessed to pay a visit and see the Batu Cave near his place. Also we have visited a mosque where we have witnessed how the Muslims prayed inside. Then we finished the day visiting these Muslim women to learn more about them.

God has been truly good for making this stay in Malaysia a productive, happy and blessed time! I also had great moments spent with the Lord and felt His great presence! The Lord also gave me an opportunity to share my journey with two people in the group and now we are really good friends! Once again, a gazillion thanks to God for all these blessings. Praise be to Him!

Holy Week Visitation

This year's holy week was really a memorable one for me. I strongly believe that I had a visitation from the Lord Himself! A few things happened since Palm Sunday and the joy I felt in my heart is quite uncontainable that I almost scream.

Not all things that happened were actually good. There's one which is shameful and put my life in peril at the same time but the Lord somehow turned it into something good.

It was Palm Sunday evening when I was praying and asked God why He has chosen me to serve His kingdom despite of my sinfulness and weaknesses. Truly I felt that it was God speaking to me when I read the devotion for that day and told me that He needed someone to carry His plans through lowly instruments like me. He looked down from heaven and said, "Where can I find the weakest, littlest man on earth? Then He saw me and said, 'I've found him. I will work through him and he won't be proud of it. He'll see that I am only using him because of his insignificance.'" These are words of Francis of Assisi but it's more like God talking to me for I can't explain the joy in my heart that moment.

Probably the Lord knows I am so tired in dealing with my SSA struggle every day, the longing that comes along with it. It could be the reason why God let me read the book "Dancing with God" by Irene Alexander. It was Holy Monday, in one chapter which she talked about the deeper desire that each human has, I was really enlightened and understood why I have these longing for intimacy and sexual relations which characterized my spiritual journey. This longing may lead me into byways and errors but is, in the end, a God-given and profoundly good desire which only God can truly satisfy. I just need to learn how to channel the desires to God's by staying into it which she describes a hunger, a thirst that can be quenched only by the One who brings the living water. The Bible said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst." Moreover, we need to articulate our desires, stay with our longing, pain and emptiness to find your presence in God. Philip Yancey said that the Bible reveals a God who is "hopelessly in love with us". I felt the same joy in my heart when I read this and astounded with the fact that my Creator is really pursuing me!

Speaking of desires, I must admit that I gave in the following day. I did not know what took me over. On my way home I met this guy and brought him to my place without even asking if he's a call boy, which was a huge mistake. After the lamest sexual encounter I had in my entire life, the guy demanded money for the lame service he rendered. When I refused because I don't pay for sex, he threatened to humiliate me in public. I was really terrified inside for it was my first time to encounter someone like him. Afraid of losing my life in a shameful way, I gave in to his demand and let go. Still I am scared that he might get back at me for I did not give all the money he wanted. He knows where I live!

After confessing to God and asking His forgiveness, I prayed for protection and peace of mind. Also I prayed that this will become a very good lesson and discipline for me to finally stop giving in to obviously sexual temptations. Feeling troubled still the next day, I asked the Lord for the assurance of His protection from the guy. I flipped the channel on TV and again that joy in my heart came over when I read in this local channel the verse Isaiah 41:10! I took it as God's answer to my prayer for it incredibly washed my fears away. God is indeed faithful to His servants no matter what! He will never give up on me! Somehow this daunting event made me realize that it is God's second warning to me and walk faithfully with Him.

On the evening of Maundy Thursday, again I felt it was God speaking to me and not me reading from the same book, He confirmed my prayer the other day about learning how to abandon myself in Him and live under His amazing grace! He helped me comprehend the presence of my struggle in this spiritual journey which the book describes as the shadow, the brokenness or the darkness in me. All I have to do is the admission of all these, to come to Him in nakedness knowing I am still loved by God will I be able to live out in vulnerability and freedom. Learning to accept this as part of my ongoing life and embracing it is the only way to become whole! God's operating medium in this life is grace. We are only to live nakedly in it!

Black Saturday morning right exactly after I woke up, God told me (Yes I strongly believe it's Him for he granted my prayer of meeting me through a dream that night and it happened! Also for the fourth time in a week I felt the same joy in my heart!) that all these are His ways of visiting me. A visitation from God can you believe that? I prayed for this during my retreat in Baguio and now it all cropped up praise the Lord!

Then Easter Sunday came. God's presence was as powerful as well as the message that it made me cry while singing "Amazing Grace". It was a colossal realization how much our Father loves us, me. Definitely I will never look at Christ's resurrection the same way again.

I thought the Lord was finished with His visitation. Monday night while uttering the usual prayer I have before going to bed, God's presence came! I felt it and can't help but to cry while praying because of the fullness of joy in my heart. Our God is truly great, amazing, wonderful and awesome God. He's the best! Praise the Lord Almighty!

"Do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

"You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Psalm 11:16

Baguio Retreat

Lately, I have been feeling the stress and pressure with my work and ministry which led me to the thought of simply quitting because I've never been that tired in all areas of my entire life!

This was the reason why I have decided to take a personal retreat by attending the Nazirite training given by Jesus Revolution movement which is led by my church Pastor last week held in Baguio City. It was my second time to attend the Humility and Holiness phase, the first two of the three phases of this training.

I am glad that God allowed me take a break from the ministry work and spend time with him during that whole week. Even though it's a refresher for me, it's like a whole new experience once again! First day alone, God moved me already and reminded me of my real purpose in this life which is to live by conforming to the image and character of God in humility. At the end of the day, it's all about the Lord. It's all about Jesus.

He also gave me the opportunity to share His goodness and faithfulness in the past three years of my Christian life in which according to my Pastor and elders in the church, have maturity and confidence in Him. This was also the moment where God have bestowed courage to people who have the same struggle like me to speak up and testify! Truly the Lord is rising up a generation of Nazirites!

Most importantly, I was able to achieve the main purpose of this break. Now I feel refreshed, well rested and somehow on fire again to continue doing what God wants me to do in this season of my journey with the Lord Jesus Christ.

I also thank God for the new friends I have gained during this retreat. Really it was a week full of blessings and experience of God's holy presence! Now I am excitedly looking forward for the things that God is going to do next!

God does not call the qualified.....He qualifies the called. Shalom!

A Week in Singapore

The fifth country I went to is Singapore. Last week I have attended training on Mass Media Communications held in the city of lion.

Every evening the Lord has allowed us to go around and see the beauty of the city. First tourist destination my friend and I have visited was the Raffles Center, the Merlion, and the Marina Bay. It was a great place to admire the structures around the river, definitely a must see place! If you're going there, get off or alight at the Raffles MRT station and walk from there so you will see the old bridge and buildings of Singapore going to Merlion and Marina Bay. You will end up near the City Hall MRT station.

Then we walked along the Orchard Road to see the high end malls and stores. I was able to visit also the Little India and bought some stuff at the Mustafa Center then my friend and I had a wonderful dinner in one of the restaurants in Chinatown. I explored this small community of Chinese people the following night where I satisfied my cravings for a Hainanese chicken in one of the food centers along the way. It became my favorite dinner during my stay there!

Also I took the courage to explore alone the Night Safari. I enjoyed the Creatures of the Night Show, the fire dance number and of course the sightseeing of those endangered species including the 50 million years old rhinoceros!

My best friend lives and works there for more than three years and we spent the whole Saturday before I left the country quarter past midnight. We missed each other a lot so we spent the day laughing our hearts out together like old times while seeing the whole Sentosa and experiencing the rides available such as the cable car, the Sky Ride and Luge and the bus tour to three Sentosa beaches namely Siloso, Palawan and Tanjong Beach.

To end the day, we had a coffee together and talked more. It was truly a great and brilliant time spent updating each other. The best part was when I was able to share with her how the Lord changed my life and why I am so happy and contended at this point, looking and anticipating things to happen that God has in store for me with excitement!

Personally I thanked God and very grateful to the Lord for this amazing blessing He had given me. Not only I have learned so much from the training and have seen Singapore for the first time but the excellent part of this trip was the time spent with my best friend whom I have not seen for almost four years and share about Jesus!

Truly praise God!