Thankful Thursday-Sacrifice

I am late with my favorite meme but it's ok. I hope we can have Linksys router soon so I won't have to wait for the internet connection to do some blog posts.

Anyways, I still want to give praise and glory to God our Father through this weekly thanksgiving post.

This week, Lauri of woman taking a stand chose SACRFICE as the theme. Because it is lent week and this is the time where every people in evry nation talks about what Jesus did on the cross 2000 years ago. The greatest SACRIFICE given for us mankind.

For my list this week, I would like to thank God for what HE did for me. As I think of the song "Above all" I just can;t help but be overwhelmed of this great Love the Father has for me. He tought of me I know above all.

In my part of sacrfice, I know I have not been doing a lot of sacrifice compared to what others are doing, like those missionaries who have sacrificed thier whole life just to tell the world about Jesus. My husband is one of them as he continue to do full time ministry work. But I do hope I am doing my part too by God's grace (even how small it is).

I would like to share some pictures from our ministries. Again these are not big sacrifces but all these are for God's glory and praise!

These pictures are taken last week from our newly opened feeding and literacy program.

Hubby on the guitar

These pictures below were taken last night when we participated in "The Jesus Festival". Thousands of people came to worship the Lord. I guess they all sacriced too ( they chose to spend thier rest days worshiping with other christians rather than spending it on vacation as most of us here do during lent season.)

Grace Alone

©1998 Maranatha! Music.
Words and Music by Scott Wesley Brown, Jeff Nelson

Every promise we can make
Every prayer and step of faith
Every difference we can make
Is only by His grace.

Every mountain we will climb
Every ray of hope we shine
Every blessing left behind
Is only by His grace

Grace alone Which God supplies
Strength unknown He will provide
Christ in us, our cornerstone
We will go forth in grace alone.

Every soul we long to reach
Every heart we hope to teach
Everywhere we share His peace
Is only by His grace.

Every loving word we say
Every tear we wipe away
Every sorrow turned to praise
Is only by His grace.

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Our Pastor used these verses in Ephesians last Sunday in his preaching and I am overwhelmed by God's grace. Everything I do I know I was able to do it because of God's grace. EVERYTHING.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (New International Version)

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Feeding and Literacy Update

Hi everyone!

As scheduled, we started the feeding and literacy program last Saturday. I must say the kids loved it and had fun the whole time! The teacher assigned is awesome, she taught them the creation from Genesis, my husband taught them two songs, and then we taught them proper hand washing and they love the coloring activities. We were just there in the street at first but it rained so we squeezed them into a small covered space, when the rain stopped we were out there on the street again.

It was so much fun! We had many volunteers and observer as we are of course planning to start another one in another urban poor area next month.

We still need lots of stuff, like our first aid kit is not yet complete and we still need some coloring books and crayons. I hope to buy some of those when they goes on sale this week.

I have tons of pictures but I haven't uploaded them yet. I'll post them soon. Thank you for prayers. We hope you keep on praying for this ministry.

Thankful Thursday

This month's host is Laurie and she chose HOPE as the theme. Head on to her site if you want to join us and see more thankful hearts.

This week I want to share with you what I am thankful and hoping for.

* I thank God I have HOPE that someday I will be blessed with a child. We've been praying for almost 3 years now. The doctor I went to said I have PCOS and that it would be hard for me to get pregnant but I am thankful I have GOD who can open and close a woman's womb. I remember Sarah and my Hope gets high that there is NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE FOR OUR GOD.

* I am grateful for the opening of our literacy and feeding program in one of the urban poor areas here in Makati this Saturday. I pray that this program can give hope to these kids and their families that life is beautiful with God.

* Thank God for friends who helps us hoping for things we are praying for.

HAve a nice day everyone!

DARFUR needs YOUR HELP

	April 1, 2009

DARFUR NEEDS YOU Sudan has expelled 13 relief and humanitarian agencies that previously met 60% of the needs of displaced people in Darfur. Over one million people in Darfur could go without food within two months if new aid agencies cannot assist. An ITeams worker just returned from a four-day trip to northern Darfur. He reports: “People are suffering in the desert and have nothing to eat or drink. They are searching for food, water, and shelter. They eat what few leaves they can find in the merciless desert. One of the displaced people told us: ‘I would rather die than see my wife and children starving and crying out for food and water’. In the midst of the difficult situation, God is at work, drawing people to Him. We met many believers during our visit. The people study the Bible, pray, and worship in their own languages." The Sudanese government is allowing Sudanese churches to help people in Darfur. We need to do everything we can to resource these churches for this purpose. Our friends in Khartoum have a strong history of serving the people in Darfur. They are well-connected to churches in Sudan, through which they can serve the suffering people of Darfur. They are trying to raise $28,000 to cover the costs of an emergency relief trip to bring wheat, dry milk, beans and sugar to the people of Darfur. As soon as the funds are raised, these supplies can be taken to Darfur. You can help! Give a gift to our DARFUR EMERGENCY RELIEF fund Pray for the people of Darfur and for those trying to help them Spread the word about this opportunity to help

Refuel your love tank

I thank God for sending me devotionals when I need them. This morning as I open my email, saw this Purpose Driven devotional which was sent a by a friend. And as I am reading I kept on thanking and praising God because this is exactly what I need now. I thought of sharing this to you guys, you might be blessed and refueled too.

Have a wonderful day!

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Developing a Persistent Love
by Rick Warren

In our Devotionals series, Pastor Rick Warren discusses the Bible passages that inspire him the most. Today's Devotional is based on this passage:

"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance" (1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT).

Love can be absolutely exhausting. Don't let anyone fool you. The kind of love that really makes a difference in this world will zap everything out of you.

Sometimes you just don't feel like you have any more love to give. Maybe you're in a people-intensive job—such as teacher, salesman, or waitress—and you come home and think, "I just can't face another need, another problem, or another heartache." So you just shut down.

Or you need to show love to a particular person who is demanding, selfish, and never returns your love. And you just think to yourself, "I'm done. No more."

While that's perfectly natural and perfectly human, it's not the high standard of love that God calls us to in the Bible. The Bible says, in 1 Corinthians 13:7, "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance" (NLT). Love never gives up.

How can you have that kind of persistent love for another person? You get refueled.

When my kids were young, I remember taking the family to a nearby air show. It was so impressive to see how they would hook up a tanker to a jet in flight to refuel. I'll never forget that. Can you imagine a jet saying, "I don't need to refuel"? That would be silly! The jet would crash and burn. In a long distance flight, a jet has to refuel.

So do you. To show the kind of persistent love that God wants you to show, you have to refuel your love tank. Look around at society, and you'll see it's littered with debris from relationships that have crashed and burned because they didn't refuel their love.

How do you refuel your love tank? You start by letting God love you. "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19 NIV). When you're worn out, tired, and can't imagine showing love to anyone else, remember that God loved you so much he sent his Son to die for you.

Now that's real fuel. That's what keeps you going when you want to quit.

Fishnets-Bituing Bulilit

I'm excited!

On saturday (April 4) we will officially start the "Bituing Bulilit" (Little stars) feeding and literacy program.

For now, we will start with one area which is in Lapaz, Makati City and we initially listed 25 kids from urban foor families of this area.

Why only 25? because we want to really be an agent of change in their lives and we know we can only do that if we will give them enough time. Enough time for each individual to teach them how to read, enough time to share God's love through bible stories, enough time to teach them good habits, and enough time to be able to reach each kids family.

And because this is only an initial project right now, we are foreseeing more urban poor areas to bring this program.

I volunteered for the food we are going to give them on Saturday as we still don't have enough funds. But I tell you we are not driven by funds, we are driven with compassion for these less fortunate kids. I'm sure God will give us more than what we need for this ministry.

I'm asking for you guys to please pray for us and partner with us in this endeavour.

Below are pictures from "teachers training" which was held for 2 Saturdays in our church. Teachers were trained for the literacy program and basic classroom management.

Thankful Thursday

Hi! Welcome to Thankful Thursday once again :) Lynn of spiritually unequal marriage is hosting this for the last time and next week we'll all head to Laurie's place.These ladies are all inspirations. God bless their good hearts.

For my list this week :

* I am thankful for the weather specifically today. It's been so hot and humid the past few weeks and Praise God for the relief. Last night it rained and I soo love the cool air coming out of the window.

* I praise God for the prayer time of the music ministry last night. I know it;s very seldom that we gather to pray so I praise God for that opportunity He has given us last night.

* I'm very grateful for the huge love my husband is showering me. We will be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary soon and I know the love just keeps on growing. I think I love him even more now.

* I thank God for the ladies of Thankful Thursday- you are all inspirations and encouragement to me. I am so glad to be part of this community.

Non stop SINGING!!

See you there!
Click the poster to enlarge

I support Earth Hour

This is my second year, last year I encouraged our church to participate and we did. We turned off the lights for one hour. One hour of discomfort, one hour with no electricity around the house, one hour of expressing love for the earth. I know it's worth it.

I hope you'll join too. Wherever you are in this part of the world you can also organize or join this earth hour. In the Philippines, this will happen on March 28.

Visit the earth hour site for more information.