Winter Trees

Monday, March 20, 2006

We celebrated our (mom and dad)'s anniversary last february. It was simple but i know that all of us had a great time. It had been a while since my family and I had a night-out because of my busy schedule in LB and because of my sister's tiring schedule in Diliman.

My mom, Rachel, and I arrived first at Gerry's Grill @ Bluewave, Marikina that night. We didn't wait for dad to arrive because we were already starving. We, instead ordered right away and went shopping while waiting for the food to be served. We gave our mom a bag and our dad a foot massager for a gift. We enjoyed a lot talking about anything under the sun/or roof hehehe, but what really made our night satisfying were the food and I think they deserve ample space in this blog entry so here I go:

Sizzling Sisig:
This is one of Gerry's Specialties and Best-sellers. It's probably because of its crispy texture and a mild-salty taste. This, by the way, was the last fork full (hahaha).

Baked Scallops:

I always enjoyed ordering Baked Tahong @ isabelle's grill and loved buttered scallops @ Dampa, so when I read "Baked Scallops" in the Menu, I ordered it immediately. Fortunately, I was satisfied with its taste. The saltiness of cheese complemented the mild sweetness brought about by butter and the unique flavor of scallops. This, by the way, was the last piece.

Grilled Skwib:
as my father fondly calls it, was my favorite among everything we ordered. It was marinated in a sweet mixture of vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce (i'm just guessing now). Well what's important is that it tasted good hahahah. And... Yes... It's also the last slice.

We also had soup, green mango salad and some coolers, but they were insignificant compared to these three. To those who are reading this blog, i encourage you to try them out and tell me what you think :)

Anyway, my story ends with my dad arriving with a half-full stomach (he already had dinner during his meeting) but still enjoyed eating what remained on the table hahahaha.

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Memories frozen at 10:30 PM

Friday, March 17, 2006

After a tiresome deliberation, I finally convinced myself to go home (to Rizal). It was motivated by my long conversation with King Edmund during our journey to Archenland. He told me that I might regret not spending time with my family when they're not around anymore. So after my B.S. with Bagilu and Trufflehunter, I fixed my contribution to Shasta's portfolio, submitted my pictures to the office, and had a nice chat about life with a friend before finally going home.

However, inside the bus, a strange man sat beside me and offered me a drink. He looked like he didn't sleep for 2 days, and he's really nervous. I declined nicely not only because I wasn't thirsty but also because I felt an eerie air around him. I immediately texted Trufflehunter and Rilian to pray for me, but they didn't reply (mabe they're out of load), so I settled myself "comfortably" in my seat and relied on the Lord to protect me. I noticed that he was so uneasy during the trip. He would always look at the backseats, then look at the person at the right, then look at me.

My fear was confirmed when we were near the last stop. Most of the people in the bus have left already. The backseats and the seats on the right were already vacated. He told me that he wanted to put a knife on my neck (in his terms, it's "le-egin") and get my things from me forcefully, but when he saw my face after i turned down the drink, his heart was crushed (in his terms - "nabasag ang puso ko"), because he felt a feeling of kindness toward me (i almost laughed because I thought that he was bluffing--- I would believe him if he told me that I looked like a goon and he became afraid of me)... But then, I realized that the Lord has protected me so many times before since I was a child, and now, He has once again shown His mercy upon me by blinding this man's eyes and turning my unpleasant face into something that seems "kind" to him-- I remember how Max Lucado compared us to the moon reflecting the sun's light, that when we receive grace and love from our God, we reflect His glory.

I immediately thanked the Lord, because I knew that it was his working. The man told me about his past, and about what he's currently going through. I immediately felt a surge of pity... I wanted to share the gospel to him, but I only said "I will pray for you..." such a cowardly act after discerning God's will... God already gave me a chance to share to a person who's suffering, but i hesitated because of fear. He then told me that he wanted my cellphone, but he won't get it because he's feeling weird. Then he asked me if i could help him. So I told him i can pray for him, but he wanted something more "tangible" --- this is definitely hold-up in a very polite fashion hahahah... So i offered him 100 pesos, he told me that he'd appreciate it if i give him more, so i gave him 500, which fortunately was a bit abundant in my wallet (i just got my weekly salary ... so no big deal).. And i thought that I would be promoting God to this man when i show him kindness despite of what he wanted to do to me, and already did to me... I also thought that he might just be bluffing, and he might be really harmless and was just trying his luck... But i thought that if I would struggle and try to fight him, what would he think of the God I told him about? Hence, my decision.

He thanked me (he looked like he was very hungry with is eyes fixed on the nearest food station...) and unboarded the bus... It was my then my turn to unboard the bus when we reached Kamias. I walked with my hands shaking with fear, awe, and excitement ---- fear because he told me that we will meet again and i don't know what evil plot he has in mind... Awe because of the protection I received from the Lord... and Excitement because when we meet again (if that will ever happen) I don't know how God will use it for me to finally do what I was appointed to do in the first place -to introduce this man to Christ...

The Grace of God is surely immense....
All glory to His name!

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Memories frozen at 1:21 AM

My sister was just hailed as "speaker of the day" in her Speech-Com class just a while ago and I can't be more proud of her. But what really pierced my heart was the topic of her speech --- her big big brother... Here's her outline in draft(i'll edit it later when i have more time):

Rachel Grace B. Figueroa

Communication III

SPEECH PLAN

(speech to entertain)

Title: My Big, Big Brother

Specific Speech Purpose: To entertain my Comm III audience with my personal thoughts toward my very own big brother.

Statement: There are 3 points which help explain my brother's role as a “big brother.”

INTRODUCTION

Attention Step: I'm sure that everyone in this room has already heard of Pinoy Big Brother. We can't deny the fact that every night, there are people who get excited about what's going to happen, who's going to be evicted, who's going to perform the worst for the next challenge, or especially now- find out how their favorite celebrities act behind scripts. And, whether we admit it or not, sometimes, we also get curious what's inside “Bahay ni Kuya.” I used to be one of those people who got interested with the said show. Nothing interests me more than to find out who's the person voicing “Kuya” in Pinoy Big Brother. I remember, after Nene was declared winner, i was waiting for a special edition that would feature the person who voices over Kuya. I even planned to make him the topic for my speech. I thought it would be interesting to know and tell about what he really looks like and all about him, being big brother in Pinoy big brother and an ordinary person. I've got everything planned when I realized there's not much to care about knowing him, because even if I get this person revealed, it wouldn't create any difference. Partly knowing him won't get me anything and anywhere. So I decided to shift to another topic. This morning, i want to talk about someone i know. Let me introduce you to a person whom i know by heart- my very own big brother.

Clarification Step: Today, i have 3 points to tell and these points would explain my brother's role as a “big brother”, whether inside or outside the house.

BODY

My big brother is PHISICALLY BIG.

A. He's tall, having a height of 5' 7''.

B. His weight is 200 pounds. He used to weigh 220.

C. His body is so wide that he can have me walk upon its back for a good massage.

D. He has big and mighty-meaty arms and hands.

My mom wouldn't let me sleep beside him because once she did, my brother unconsciously had wrapped his “big and mighty-meaty” arms around me, and i couldn't breathe.
His big hands would always give him an advantage to win when we play.

My big brother has brought BIG HONOR to our family.

A. He graduated with flying colors.

B. People would testify of my big brother's BIG HEART.

He has the heart for God's mission. He loves sharing God's word and love to people around him.
He offers his talents to God and use it in God's ministry.

C. People admire his BIG EARS in music.

1. He plays the piano and guitar.

2. He's a good singer.

a. He recognizes when someone or the music itself is out of tune.

b. He can sing duet or in group in second voice. He learned to do second voice by

himself when he's in third grade.

Personally knowing my big brother creates a BIG IMPACT in my life.

A. I know my big brother as a BIG MAN who's a child in many, many ways. He effortlessly

connects the gap that supposed to exist since he's is 4 years older than me.

B. I consider him as a BIG FAN of mine.

He'll be there with me to celebrate my victorious moments and he has a unique way of cheering me up when I'm down.
He would always laugh at my corniest jokes.

C. I know him as someone who doesn't hesitate to make BIG SACRIFICES just for me.

1. Whenever I'm sad, he would come and visit me, even if he's busy.

2. When I need to go out and he's home with us, he would volunteer to drive for me.

CONCLUSION

Summary Step: My big brother is someone whom I will always look up to not just because of his bigger stature, but because of his big heart and the good example that he has established. Knowing him as a playmate, a friend and a fan gives me inspiration and creates big difference in my life. And perhaps after this, I would consider him as my favorite big brother. After all, I couldn't have a choice, because he's the only one I have.

Visual Aid: pictures of my big brother

Time: 6-7 minutes

worst case: 10 minutes

5 comments

Memories frozen at 1:12 AM

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

I just read another article from intouch.org about 2 Corinthians 3:1-6... I was so blessed by it :Click the link to view the article...

I know that the passage is for me because last night, I was having a dilemma on how to solve our apartment's problems. I was just appointed (informally) as the leader of the guys' room, but i feel very inadequate and incompetent to lead them. Not only am I the most undisciplined, I'm also not very authoritative (except with my contacts). Together with Drinian, who was in the past called shadowdude, I prayed and asked for wisdom from God. I know God gave me peace because I was able to sleep. The morning I woke up, I immediately thought of nice ideas for the apartment, and I know that they were not mine for my selfish flesh would not be inclined to conceive such ideas. I woke Corin and Mr. Beaver up and asked them if we can all have our qt at the same time (6AM during that time). Praise God because they were favorable in their response. After the qt, i told them about my plans for our room and I thank God because they were very supportive. I immediately had a bubbly kind of joy, an immense kind of love for the two, and a feeling as soft as heather. I shared my plans with Drinian and he was also excited about it. The only people whom I haven't talked to about it are Trumpkin and the Tisroc. I'm having problems relating with the Tisroc. I don't know how to talk to him about the room's issues because I feel that he doesn't want to talk to us openly. He usually keeps his comments to himself for a while and opens them to other people, which i think is not very healthy... I'm fearful that it might lead to chaos and hatred... I pray that the Lord will make a way for us to connect with Him. I'm really troubled about it... and oh.. I released forgiveness to someone today... God help me.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 Corinthians 3

1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

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Memories frozen at 8:15 PM

Monday, March 13, 2006

After Prayers, Lie Cold

Arise my body, my small body, we have striven
Enough, and He is merciful; we are forgiven.
Arise small body, puppet-like and pale, and go,
White as the bed-clothes into bed, and cold as snow,
Undress with small, cold fingers and put out the light,
And be alone, hush'd mortal, in the sacred night,
-A meadow whipt flat with the rain, a cup
Emptied and clean, a garment washed and folded up,
Faded in colour, thinned almost to raggedness
By dirt and by the washing of that dirtiness.
Be not too quickly warm again. Lie cold; consent
To weariness' and pardon's watery element.
Drink up the bitter water, breathe the chilly death;
Soon enough comes the riot of our blood and breath.

C S Lewis

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Memories frozen at 6:50 PM

I have learned a lot of things last week especially during our journey to Archenland. King Edmund was used by God to teach me about many things in life. I have learned a lot from his testimony and from the testimony of the people in that land. I'm just so blessed that I want to share it in my blog.

I have learned that:

1. Having lost the fire and passion for God makes all efforts worthless and fruitless. It can be compared to ironing your clothes without heat. Whatever effort you put into ironing, you won't get the outcome that you so desired for your clothes. It's the same thing with our ministry. We can put all effort in following-up our contacts and even meet more than twice a week, but the outcome that we long for their growth, won't be achieved because we ourselves do not have the fire that comes from God. "Fire" gets things moving...

2. Fire and Passion comes only from the throne of God. We cannot generate it by ourselves. It is only because of God's grace that we are able to be on fire. This will never be possible if God is not our first love. The fire gradually dies without fuel, and the fuel of spiritual fire is LOVE. If we have lost the fire, maybe we can ask ourselves who our first love is...

3. During our times of burning for the Lord we do things solely for Him, and He blesses these things so that they bear good fruit. God also blesses us with things or people because He is well pleased with us. Unfortunately, later on, we become so indulged with the things that we do, or the rewards that He gave us, that little by little our eyes move and look away from our Saviour and Lord. We become numb from His love and we try to get contentment from those activites or those rewards, may they be things or people. Unknowingly and slowly, they become our idols.

4. God will do His best to get our attention back to Him. Usually, He starts with a gentle nudge from the Holy Spirit, but when those idols become too valuable for us, we often disregard that nudge. Little by little, our loving Lord increases the intensity of that nudge (even to the extent of being painful) until we find out that we have indeed left Him as our first love.

5. Upon realizing that, we become guilty and we realize our frailty. But God so loves us and His grace is more than enough to restore us. He will keep on reminding us that His grace is sufficient for us and that His power is made perfect in our weakness. And upon that realization, we can remember the times when we were really on fire for the Lord. We can repent from our unfaithfulness, and restore the things that we used to do for Him.

6. However, things won't be easy. Our unfaithfulness may have been too long that the ill-effects of it have already taken place and it will be difficult to restore things back to where they were. But again I say this : God's grace is sufficient. His power is made perfect in our weakness.

7. It was during times that we were weak and hopeless, that the power of God was revealed to us and had conquered our enemies and fears.

8. It's very difficult to surrender our greatest idol in life. But the longer we delay ourselves in surrendering it, the harder it gets... And when God can already see that it's impossible for us to do it ourselves, He helps us but taking it away from us [most of the time, painfully].

9. It's always a better choice to surrender. God blesses us with joy and the contentment that only comes from Him afterwards.

10. But during the process of restoring the fire and during the times that we think we are already stable, Satan will again try to offer us things that may seem nice at first but will later take our eyes off our God. Let us FIX our eyes on Jesus.

11. Like a guy deeply in love with a girl, let us think of things that we can sacrifice each day to prove that we love the Lord more than anything else.

12. Take each day as an opportunity to decide for the Lord.

13. There will be times (many times) that we will long to gain our idols back because of the memories we had with them, but let us not let those thoughts linger for they might cause us to lose our focus once again.

14. We will feel weak often because of the absence of things that we have given up, but the Lord will give us strength.

15. With man, surrendering some idols may seem impossible, but with God, all things are possible!
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Memories frozen at 4:17 PM

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

I can't believe i was able to devour 2 books in a day. After I finished reading the magician's nephew, I didn't take time to rest and started reading the last battle immediately, which from my sources was the most action-packed book among the 7 chronicles of narnia.

The Magician's Nephew was better than what I expected. It addressed to my thirst for music. It was "THE" most musical chronicle, i think. I can't explain it much... You guys have to read it to see errr hear it for yourself... It's about the creation of Narnia and how evil (the White Witch) was able to take its place. It taught me about the power of "choice" and how, even a simple one can affect a whole "world".

Unfortunately, the Las Battle fell short of my expectations in terms of the "glorious battles" that my sources promised [ref: Sherwin, Johanna, and Rilian] .... I was expecting something more like eagles and phoenixes rising in the air and bombarding the evil Calormenes with large rocks and fireballs, Centaurs eliminating Calormene flanks with their shiny swords, Dwarves piercing Calormene helmets and breast plates with arrows sharper than the sharpest metal on earth, etc... But What I "saw" was something different. Though it didn't show any flashiness in the battles, it satisfied my heart and spirit. It was more like what to expect during the end of our times. It strengthened my hope for the future. It gave me another glimpse of heaven... of the new earth to come... and of my Saviour and King....

10 stars for the Chronicles of Narnia...

I also discovered that the full name of C.S. Lewis is Clive Staples Lewis

It's weird, I never liked a song for so long as "Homesick"...

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Memories frozen at 10:46 PM

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

I was afraid of winter
.. of snow to fall
.. of hopes to crumble
.. and of joy to subside

I was afraid of winter
.. of the bitterness of cold
.. of the pain of frost bites
...and of the indifference of the air

I was afraid of winter
... of clouds covering the sun
... of frozen streams caging the fish-folk
... of winds stripping the trees of their leaves

But that was before...

Winter caused the death of many...
But allowed the birth of more...

Winter indeed quieted the merry...
But it also gave peace to the soul...

Winter has covered the orange and red...
But with the glistening white of the snow....

Winter took away most of Nature's beauty...
But it flourished with it's own beauty... the beauty of a tranquil soul...

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Memories frozen at 8:53 PM

I'm glad at what's happening to Bagilu... He has been growing really fast...
Faster than what I estimated...

I hope I can keep up with his growth...
But i need to be patient. God allowed winter to come into my life for a reason...
And I think I'm now ready to face winter with a smile...

Thanks for all the encouragements, people of Narnia...

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Memories frozen at 2:15 AM

... Just finished another Chronicle of Narnia

... Had fun reading it especially now that I can read the books through my cell phone (which means that I don't have to wait for my class to end to read the books. I just have to sit at one side of the room and read it in my cellphone as if i'm reading a text message.

... I also found out that it's not that battery draining... Excellent for black outs! :P

... Just downloaded another txt e-book of the Chronicles of Narnia: The last battle... Rilian had been teasing me about it.... I just hate spoilers...

....It's Shasta's birthday today... I'm glad I named him Shasta. His character fits the Shasta in the book that i just finished. :)
....I'll have a new nick for Xuxu ---> it's Corin (Shasta's twin in the book).

... I'm now finishing the Magician's Nephew.

... I had a walk with Jill last night. I never thought that I would be able to open up to another girl apart from my sister... Well she's more like my sister too, i guess. That's why it felt very comfortable sharing personal things with her... Besides, I think she's one of the people that would really understand me. To Jill : thanks.

... We had another mushy Icebreaker in our G12 last night. Good thing I was able to keep my emotions in check... I hate being emotional.

... I checked the Lady in the Green Kirtle's blog and read the post about her leader's letter to her. I think i'm experiencing the same situation. I guess God put me in the wilderness for a reason...

... Looks like winter's getting more and more comfortable for me... Cheers...

3 comments

Memories frozen at 2:01 AM

Just got this from e-mail. Ticklish for those who can understand it. :D
The Teacher asked the student to write
"I Will Not Throw Paper Airplanes in the Class"
500 times.

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Memories frozen at 12:11 AM

Sunday, March 05, 2006

This World is not My Home
A CHRISTIAN HYMN


This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through;
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.


Chorus:

Oh, Lord you know I have no friend like You,
If heaven’s not my home, then Lord what will I do?
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.


They're all expecting me, and that’s one thing I know.
My Saviour’s pardoned me, and now I onward go.
I know He’ll take me through, thought I am weak and poor,
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.


Just up in glory land we’ll live eternally;
The saints on every hand are shouting victory.
Their songs of sweetest praise drift back from heaven’s shore,
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

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Memories frozen at 10:39 PM

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

I'll be hibernating for a while... Cheers...

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Memories frozen at 9:00 PM