God -- You Are Sovereign!

"God – You are sovereign and all encompassing. We surrender all to You."

"My tatay had encountered a motorcycle accident yesterday night. We were stunned by the news coming from my eldest sister through FB. It was his third accident with the same vehicle. At first, we’re a bit furious because he didn’t listen to our proddings not to drive when drunk. But minutes after expressing our disgust and disappointment, it is our hearts that melted down in pity with his current situation. He’s the only person left in our house in the province since all of us are miles away from home. My eldest sister is residing in Carmona in Cavite, my two brothers are also in the Middle East ( one in UAE and the other in Western Part of Saudi Arabia). My nanay is under my care here in the Eastern Part.

We were like helpless because we cannot personally attend to him. But, we owe our great thanks and favor from our relatives who closely monitored him after the accident. I’ve been calling him from time to time, not minding the amount of money I already spent calling overseas.

Sunday's Reflection

In the middle of reading Paulo Coelho's "Like A Flowing River" I came across statements that definitely struck me like a lightning. 

So, I pleasurably took photo of it. And if it's a real one - then - I won't mind being a victim. If that lightning brings refinement in my soul I would willingly subject myself in it. 

Why? It is because it nourished my soul. 

Of course, I won't let the day pass without sharing it to you. 

And since I'm slowly detaching myself from excessive hours of exposure in Facebook, I decided to make it a blog entry. Why not? hehe! 

Overtime For God

Early afternoon today, my wife and I together with our cute little boy Damien Caleb including mommy attended a community teaching in our CFC Center we discreetly called “EASTWOOD”. 

Uh! Wait, we’re not in the Philippines  yet haha! We called our CFC Center in Al Ahsa as such to adhere to our security protocol.

Why we have such an abiding attitude when it comes to security? Well, if you’ve been following this blog you may very well know where my current location is. If you’re a newbie here, a back read of few posts will give you a plausible hint.

In fact even our CFC Center in Khobar and Dammam had its own share of aliases. One we call as “ROCKWELL – where SFC activities are mostly held, the other one is “GLORIETTA” – where CFC activities happen. We even have one in Dammam with a name “THE FORT”. Mga famous and posh malls lang ang name ano..hahaha. So now I guess you know why we have to do such name calling of these places of our community activities.

Why Is "Pain The Second Best Thing To God"?

On A Yoga Pose at "Dolphin Beach" facing Bahrain

While lobbying into my heart for some hurtful things that I had encountered recently, I came across just a while ago an FB status of my former co-SFC (now also a CFC like me). I felt I was knocked-out by the very words in it. I felt ashamed of how I somehow treated my situation into like questioning God. But at the very end of it, I just felt His awesome presence in me through this encouraging words. I just feel the need to share it with you guys especially those who are experiencing difficult situation like me. This somehow will assure us of the omnipotent presence of God.

About Wishes, of Sharing, of Giving, and of Christmas Spirit: A Highlighted Way of Generosity

It’s almost Christmas season. When the month of November finally bids good bye, the onset of the season of merriment and joy clearly is on its way. And it’s the spirit that it brings that counts a lot right?. 

For us Christians who celebrate Christmas, it’s the feelings we put into celebrating the reminder of our Savior’s birth. We kind of brace ourselves into the season's wind of euphoria, of joy, of giving, of sharing, of reconciliation, of rekindling relationship and of strengthening our faith to Him who is the giver of all that there is in this world.

God Is Our Assurance

It's been months that I'm experiencing difficult situation at work, Things have changed. The bottom line is "I AM NOT HAPPY ANYMORE." It's down times for me. Sadness is attempting to crash my spirit. I am a bit bothered. But despite of it all. I still want to re assure my wife that things will be fine. That it's still part of God's process of refinement in me. And so I wrote her a love letter assuring her of my love. 

Dear Mine,

Good morning to the woman who have loved me as I am and still loving me despite my imperfections.

I honor you as a woman, a wife, and a daughter to your wonderful parents.

I have been blessed to have you in my life. There are times, I feel sorry because of shortcomings I've committed in our relationship.

There are times where I've bent your patience to the fullest extent but you never failed to amaze me with your grace and love.

I thank God everyday that she gave you to me because He knows no other woman will understand me better than you do. No other woman will love me the way you did.

You are such an amazing person, very family oriented, and your generosity to others is exceptional. I honor you for the closeness you have with your family. A bond worthy of emulating.

We both know we're undergoing some trials in life right now. Suffice to say, we are used to it. There were number of turbulence confronted us in our being together. Some are outside factors, others are trivial misunderstandings between us.

Yet, the very foundation we put into our relationship always fix petty misunderstandings because our relationship is rooted with love and our faith to God.

There will be trials and tribulations that will come our way. Some much bigger than we expect, some will put us in awe but I know holding hands together while facing whatever challenges cross our path, we will victoriously surpass them all. We can always rest our cases to our Father above. 

The love of God that binds us together and the commitment we both promised will stay true in us until eternity. Let us be a lover of life and God. Together, let us raise a family with children who not only fear the Lord but loves Him too.

An expectant first time father in me can't wait until our angel Damien Caleb see the world and be with us.

I love you and I'll remain true to you. 

Your husband,

Jay

If It's God's Will, Don't Complain But Fully Obey

Good day guys!

It's been quite a while since my last post. I have been trapped with some highly important matters that's why I wasn't able to post updates. In addition, I feel sorry for my blogger friends that visiting their blog has taken a halt. I will cope-up guys!

I am not sure if all my blog followers/readers know that for the past weeks I was busy administering (together with the rest of the poge admins) FINDING MANG ROLDAN PINEDA JIMENEZ. Aside from that, I too,have been engulfed into lots of personal stuffs. In short, I just attended to important events in my life.

Last night, I was able to read a private message coming from one of the followers of the page and I want to share it with you. Pardon me guys since I can only provide little details to protect the sender. I post it here so that those who don't frequently visit the page can have access here.

And here it goes;

"It’s past 1am here now. Sleep doesn’t visit me yet. For some reason, it’s been few weeks that I hardly hit the sack before midnight. It has always been my problem that whenever I’m still up after midnight it’s difficult for me to reconcile with sleep.

Uggh! It’s killin’ me and I’m a bit in irate. But instead of waiting for my eyes to finally commune with darkness I’ll just grab t

his opportunity to write random thoughts that can inspire you all.

Just few minutes ago, I’ve read a very long private message from someone sent through this page. I won’t mention the name though for privacy. I felt honored that I was able to read it before Joemil. It was really intended for Joemz but since we are five people administering the page, all the messages filtering through can be read by anyone of us. Perhaps, she was thinking that the only admin of the page is Joemil. 

A Worthy Pursuit

"There is more to life than sitting in our comfort zone. We were made for something more than merely avoiding failure. There is something inside us that wants to walk on the water -- to leave the comfort of routine existence and abandon ourselves to the high adventure of following God's lead for a greater and worthy pursuit."-- JayRadaRafol

When God presents us with a platform to help and change lives of others we cannot choose our circumstances where, when, and how it will happen. Unexpectedly, it just happens in a least likely place. In the same way that it chooses no race, color, gender, status, and most of all it ignores appearances. Our heart just obeys to the leadings of the Divine. Out of nowhere, we’ll just realize that we’ve touched someone’s life and impacted to our community. On a greater scale, a domino effect spreads-out to the society where we thrive.

What We See Sometimes Isn't Always What It Is

I spent almost two hours searching for this video in my FB wall since I got it posted last year. I got exhausted and I felt like almost giving up but my inner voice (spirit) told me to go on and do few more try. Ending, I still didn't find it. Frustration started to fill me so I buzzed two of my community friends to help me how to quickly search for it. They gave me inputs and tips but those tips were the same thing I just did awhile ago. 

But my search didn't end to that, I then shift to YouTube in the hope that I might find it there by using key words. I tried few key words but I failed. I tried again and again to the point of almost losing my patience. Still FAILED! But at the back of my mind, I keep on convincing myself  by saying " Don't give up, sayang ang effort". So, with all the positive thoughts and energies backing me up, I did continue to search. 

Occasionally, the thought of letting it go keeps bugging me, forcing an entry into my head. But, I hold on. I persisted. I persevered. And luckily I found it. Wow, as in wow. I'm on the brink of giving up...really. It was like I was hangin' by a thread and ready to let go anytime. But, thanks God I did it. And you know what were the key phrase I put in? It's this "Invite someone to church" and bingo! below video popped-up in the list of choices and this is what I exactly look for.

Inspiring People: "The Better Samaritan And A Good Soul Unfolded In Rugged Clothes"

It always fuels me to write stories of inspiration and hope. It always motivate me to continue to touch people's lives as I encounter one along my journey.

More so, it is equally delightful to hear and read stories of such sort. Of those stories that are heart-warming. Of those stories that triggers a weary soul that despite how difficult a situation still manages to smile and ready to fight and move ahead for life. Of those stories that melts our heart because it touches our emotional core in a positive way. Of those random act of kindness. Of impromptu situations that positively changes a person's view of life afterwards. 

Today, let me share with you a great story of a good-hearted young man strangely meeting a man that inspired him in myriad of ways who despite his horrible situation finds no reason to resign from life.

And Then There Was Light!

In the story of creation in the book of Genesis 1:3 was written "And God said "Let there be light," and there was light.

Light is an essential element of our lives, whether literally or metaphorically speaking. A house is not a home without someone we consider as light--our mother. It is difficult to live without the care of a person we consider as such.

I can still remember the movie "The Fifth Element" where it tackles about the four stones of the four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air --when there was a time where the universe is threatened by evil and the only hope is the "fifth element". Though the fifth element metaphorically represented by "Leeloo" yet in my understanding it is the "love" that is the fifth element needed. 

And The Winners Are..........

I know it's too early to announce the winners since the announcement is really slated on July 15, 2012 but since we're done in deliberation anyway we decided to do it now. So, without further ado, this post will reveal the winners of this contest. 


So how did this blog contest came to life?

It was a cool and sun-shiny Tuesday of April 10, 2012 when I devised this blog contest. Basically, it has two major reasons: 
1. To sponsor a blog contest following the lead of other bloggers who have done it already.
2. To add an exciting twist of how our soon to be first born will be named.


To count it back, it ran for the period of two months and five days.  How time flies fast isn’t it? I never imagine that I would receive one hundred thirty four (134) in total entries. All I thought was just maybe 20+ entries would be many for me. But when I counted it last Saturday I was in awe when it totaled 134.

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thank you to all who have passed their entries. I couldn’t put all your names here since it would cost me too much space but I believe my gratitude is enough for all of you. For giving me your time joining this contest, meticulously thinking of beautiful names for our soon-to-be-new-born is worthy of a praise from us. This contest won't be possible if none of you had joined. THANK YOU VERY MUCH indeed!

You never know how excited I was every time I receive additional entry every now and then. And my excitement would lead me to reading it and smiling while thinking "Is this the one?" You have made the journey of our soon-to-be-first born baby boy very momentous. And this event will surely be one of his life's highlight when he grows up. 


Overwhelming joy is the right word to describe how we feel of your overflowing response to this contest.