I’ve met a lot of singles who said that they’re happy being single, that it’s their choice to be single, that they don’t need man in their lives. Few were saying the truth but most of them I believed were in denial. I was once like that, I was in denial, I kept telling to myself   “I don’t need man, I am okey to be single for the rest of my life” but in my heart, there was this deep longing. I was struggling with loneliness, I couldn’t deny anymore I surrendered and laid at the feet of my Lord, and became honest to myself and to my Lord, “Lord I am longing for a companion” and He met that longing.

In Genesis 2:18, God planned already a helpmate for Adam, but He didn’t present the woman immediately instead He brought to Adam the living creatures and asked him to give them names, maybe the creatures were in pairs (male and female) because in verse 20 Adam discovered that there was no one suitable for him, he longed for a partner, maybe God used those animals for him to feel the longing.

So for the singles out there, if you have the longing for a companion in life, why not pour out that to God, cry to Him, your denial cannot help you at all after all God searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts.

It’s a singles awareness month again, most of the singles hate this month, I understand how they feel but during those years of waiting, I dated Jesus, corny but true, I set aside an overnight date for the Lord in the prayer mountain, that’s where I poured out my heart. Every February no matter how busy I was,  I made a time to stay overnight  in the prayer mountain, oh and because my birthday falls in the month of February.

Today is day 38 of my 90-day bible reading challenge, the things i wrote here is my devotion on day 1.

Sometimes we get weary, sometimes the weight of the world seems so heavy to carry. We feel weighted down. We are confused, we are discouraged. We feel hopeless. And we want to shout "ENNNNOUUGGGHHHH".

Jesus said in John 16:33, I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart? I have overcome the world.

"What will we do when hopelessness attacks? Focus, focus on Jesus. Believe and keep faithful to His Word, to His promises. It's time for us to turn away from our troubles and accept the peace that only Him can bring."

The Lord is my stronghold, I will not be shaken

The Lord is my refuge, whom shall I fear

Psalms 11:1"In the Lord I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain"(NASB)

God's love to me is unconditional, His peace is always before me

Isaiah 54:10"For the mountains maybe removed and the hills may shake, but my lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and my covenant of peace will not be shaken," says the Lord who has compassion on you.

God is enternal

Psalms 90:2 "Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God"

There are places in China especially in the southwest part where people believe that their gods dwell in the mountains. They regard the mountains as their sactuary, you can even see altars on top. They climb the mountains to worship their gods.  May you always remember China in your prayers.

I took the pictures when i visited Yangshou County in Guilin, this place is so popular with the foreign backpackers, it's amazing to know that most of the locals can somehow speak and understand English.

Holy Spirit have Your way in me

 I lay down my life

 I lay down my pride

 I want You, I just want You Oh Lord

 I want you more than the ministry

 I want You more than my vision

 I want You more than prosperity

 I need You more than reading the Bible

 I need You more than praying

 It is You whom I want oh Lord

 You alone

 I want You more than serving You

 For what’s the use

 of the ministry,

 of the vision,

 of prosperity,

 of reading the bible,

 of praying of serving You

 if You are not in the center of all these things

 I want You more than anything else

 Just You, just You Oh Lord Jesus

A couple of days ago I was battling with fears and worries, negative thoughts were bombarding my mind, I knew it’s just the attack of the enemy and not really healthy to feel that way. These feelings stole my joy, peace and even my strength both spiritually and physically. If we let these things master us, it will overwhelm us with doubts, insecurity and soon destroy our relationship with others and with the Lord.

Rather than digesting all those negative thoughts, I did what Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:6-8.

Instead of being anxious I prayed and I made known to God the fears and worries that I have and instead of grumbling I thank and praise Him for everything that he’s doing in our life. And whatever is true, honorable, pure, lovely and of good refute I dwell on those things. As I started to meditate His goodness in my life, he reminded me of His greatness, of his sovereignty, of his grace, his mercy and love. And I was blown away by his faithfulness in my life. (Sigh) how shameful it is to doubt the love of Christ for me.

I am now in my day 21 of my 90 day bible reading challenge

Finally these are the photos that I want to share. The pictures were taken last December when we visited Guilin, the city is situated in the northeast part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Tourism is the main source of income of the city that's why all the tourist attractions have entrance fee.

inside the seven star caves

camel shape rock

the famous Li River

This is just one of the streams that we saw in park, we're not sure if the streams are natural or just man-made, we saw a lot of big pipes, we thought the water might be coming there 

on top of the hill

pagodas in fir lake

The food is one thing i want to try everytime i visit new plances. We visited a guilinese restaurant,we saw a lot of people eating there, we thought, it might be a good restaurant but the food were not really good or maybe we didn't pick the right one. Guilinesse people love spicy food.

pork bbq, celery, coconut milk soup, forgot the other one

the famous guilinese rice noodle

our dessert

those look yummy but not really healthy

beef noodle (nothing special) , i can cook this though

I guess that's all for now, thank you for visiting my site i do appreciate it so much!

Blessings everyone!

We had our Christian wedding April 5, 2009 in Hong Kong; the wedding is simple yet favored by the Lord. I am so grateful with the people who helped us.

I saw a real Church here, everybody was helping, from flower arrangements (Tita Mary’s team), to the church decoration to the food preparation. The wedding was officiated by Ptr. Dhoy and organized and planned by Sis. Reggie(his wife).

We are blessed with people who sponsored the expenses from my sister and her husband (our biggest sponsor) to our principal and secondary sponsors and to the whole Word for the world church-Hong Kong. To Albert’s parents who paid our stay in Hollywood Hotel in Disneyland Hong Kong. You are all blessings to us, we never forget what you’ve done. We thank the Lord for using you all to bless us. The Lord will surely repay what you’ve done to us. To Word for the World-Hong Kong, I praise God for your generosity and hospitality.

Now, why do we celebrate our wedding on December 24? Since we decided that our Christian wedding would be in Hong Kong. We registered our marriage here in China December 24, 2008. By the way, the law here regarding marriage is different with ours. After that I went back in my country to continue working and to finish my training, I resigned from my work and at the same time finish my training, March 2009. I left for Hon Kong and stayed there for a week before our wedding date. A couple of hours before the wedding, my husband with his parents arrived from mainland China to Hong Kong. Unfortunately my family wasn’t able to attend due to health problems. We only consummated our marriage after our Church Wedding last April. Legally, we’re married December 24, 2008, so we decided to celebrate our anniversary every 24^th of December instead of April 5. Or probably we can also celebrate April 5 for the consummation of our marriage

Getting married here is easy, the groom must be at least 22 years old and the bride is 20, you just go to Bureau of Civil Affairs and register your marriage and that is you’re now legally married. For some Chinese, especially those families who believed in traditions, the parents usually choose the wedding date using their calendar.  And the bride’s family usually planned and paid most of the expenses. Wedding pictorials usually done before the ceremony, you can see couples taking their wedding photos in the parks and other historical places. Again, wedding ceremonies depend with the family’s traditions and beliefs.

I took the pictures below while the couples were having their pictorial.

So that’s it, next time I am gonna share about our trip. I am now in my day 4 of my 90 day bible reading challenge. My husband prefers the bible in one year reading plan.

Today I started my 90 day bible reading challenge. May i be faithful till the end. I'll try to share whatever lessons and revelations i will encouter from this journey.

If you want to try this challenge, I found the schedule here. You may  check momstoolbox.com for more details.

Did you write your new year’s resolutions? Whether your write or not let’s admit it; those resolutions are doomed for failure. Instead of resolutions, yesterday I did a reflection on my life since I transferred here last April. I can’t help but be in awe on how God moved in our life for the past year especially when it comes to my physical health, for nine months of staying here I visited the hospital for so many times, I don’t know I’ve been sickly since I came here. God is faithful; time and time again He has proven that He is my great healer.

I’ve been doing a lot of resting last year, like Mary, resting at the feet of Jesus.  God had given me much time spending with Him. For 9 months of staying here, oftentimes alone or with my husband, my perspective in life changed dramatically. I became satisfied and thankful with my life. Not that I’m no longer asking God for greater things but I‘ve learned to wait upon the Lord; I’ve learned to conform to His pacing no matter how slow it may seem.  Money is no longer my problem; it is God’s problem anyway. He’s our provider.  I could go out without money as long as I have my bus card. I may not buy everything I want but the things that I like most like bags, shoes, clothes, etc. are no longer appealing to me. I guess my husband influenced me a lot. I’ve learned a lot from Chinese culture when it comes to handling finances.  To sum it all I became closer to my Lord.

My relationship with my husband became stronger. We did fight but somehow we were able to settle our differences. We tried to meet each other’s need instead of nagging each other to meet our own needs. We tried to prioritize the need of each other instead of our own need. We just spent our first anniversary last December. Every day he’s becoming lovelier and lovelier in my sight.

What about ministry? I don’t know how to say this but in the past years of being in the ministry I’ve been in the bondage of “should”, time and time again my being performance oriented knocked on my door.  I should do it, I should perform, I should accomplish this, sometimes, I had this guilty feeling of not doing anything. When I left my country I had this goal and plans, until now I’ve never seen them fulfilled.  I honestly don’t know what’s in store for us for 2010, all I can do now is to trust in His sovereignty and unfailing love. The only opportunity that I can see now is to teach in the Sunday school. I am currently involved in the Sunday School anyway. 

My desire is to really be in the center of His will, to be closer to Him to be faithful to the gift of time, not spending much in the internet. I desire to have more fresh revelations from His word. I desire to minister in a small group. I desire to learn the language.  I want to set aside what others are thinking and be set free from the bondage of “should”.  I want to go out and see the world and share the Hope that is in Jesus.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matt 11:28-30, The Message)

I just want to live a carefree life, free of trouble, worry and care. I want to enjoy my relationship with the Lord and I want to be the person that He wants me to be. I am not trying to run from responsibilities, I want to do something not because I need to, but because, that is what God wants me to do. 

Happy New Year Everyone, let's be thankful for the things that happened in 2009 and have an expectant heart that 2010 will be a better year inspite of what's happening in the world

We are attending a church that is open to foreign passport holders only. Locals are not allowed.  Locals who are married to foreigners are also welcome but you need to show some proof.  I’m a foreigner but I don’t look like one, I look like a local so every time I enter I need to present my passport, sometimes I feel discriminated but it’s the law. They need to obey the laws or else their license would not be renewed.

Once in a while, we’re attending  a church that is open to all but the service is in English after the service we are all  invited to go to a place where everybody can have lunch, eat all you can for less than 2 dollars only. Free indoor and outdoor activities. One time while we’re playing fools ball game, a cute boy approached me and asked me this question, “Wo ye neng wan ma?” I said “Whatt?, he said again in a louder voice “Wo ye neng wan ma? I said again “Whatttt?” And finally he noticed that I couldn’t understand Mandarin. He said again “Can I play also?” I answered “of course” with a smile on my face. My goodness this little kid can speak Mandarin (he’s a foreigner) while I’m still struggling with my language acquisition. It’s frustrating sometimes, I’ve been here for 9 months and I only know few words. It’s my prayer that I can be able to go to formal training next year.

Last Tuesday we went out so early to have our morning tea. Morning tea is a Cantonese Culture where friends and family gather in the restaurant/tea house to read newspaper and chat over a pot of tea and basket of dim sum. It is actually a form of social activity especially for older people.  But for us instead of reading newspaper, we brought our bible with us and had our devotions there.

 I miss spending Christmas at Home, I miss my family and friends, the food especially puto bumbong and bibingka and the Christmas gatherings. But I am excited to spend our Christmas and anniversary in Guillin.

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I’ve got a terrible backache a couple of days ago, I couldn’t sit straight and it was painful even when I was lying. Praise God for His healing. I also got my new visa yesterday; they gave me six months this time. We’ve been amazed at how God works in our lives.

It’s been 9 months since I came here. What’s next? I feel like I’ve never done anything. Lord, is this the place where you want me to be? What kind of question is that, of course! My husband is here, where else can I go!

One of the greatest paradoxes of Christian life is oftentimes we know the ultimate plan of God in our life, we know that we are called to do great things, we know that his plans are best for us, we know that we are called to do specific task but oftentimes the details are not revealed. And that, we are struggling with because we want to know the details, we want to make sure that God will surely do what he has promised. Sometimes our faith wavers because we want to know every detail of His plan for us. We want to know what is next. Those small details are the challenges of our faith.

Remember what Apostle Paul said? That in all things God works for the good of those who love him. It is “all” not only the good things but even the bad things. God uses even the bad things to bring his purpose into completion. Nothing is wasted in our life.  Everything is part of His great plan in our Life.

And so I may feel like a paralytic person I believe God has a purpose why I’m here.

 "And we know that in all things God works for the good those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" Romans 8:28