10 Things I am Most Thankful Right Now

Last week, in my effort to seek divine help on the personal struggle that I was dealing, I learned that being more thankful on every blessing and good thing is one effective way to live happy.

Last week´s sabbath lesson challenged me to write the top ten things I am most thankful right now, to take a moment to thank God in prayer, and then observe the difference on my perspective afterwards. I did. I kept my note because I thought I would love to share it with you. So here are the things I´m very grateful.

1. A happy marriage - I´m a little less than two years married to my husband and for the entire time, I´m happy with him. He´s very loving, caring, thoughtful, fun and responsible. Although some personal differences at times come between us, we find ways to iron them. He loves me so much and that makes me love him even more.

2. Good health that I, my husband, my family and my friends have - good health is something I never miss thanking God whenever I speak to Him in prayer. Without it, one can never fully enjoy life. I´m always thankful to God that He keeps me, my husband, my mom and my dad, my siblings, my loved ones, my in-laws, and my friends healthy and safe.

3. A job I love -  after years of praying for a job that would truly make me happy, God granted it. I can´t be happier.

4. My happy parents - my parents raised six kids on their own and even if they were heavily burdened with all the education bills, they hanged on. Now four of us are already professionals and the younger two who are still in the university are doing well. My parents are very happy and their happiness influence us.

5. My successful siblings - being an eldest of six, I took the responsibility towards my siblings seriously. I studied hard and finished my degree early with the help of a scholarship. I went abroad at an early age, strived to earn big and helped my parents finance my siblings´ undergraduate education. In return, my siblings worked hard, looked up to me and carved their own success.

As of now, my sister after me is a successful business woman. A brother graduated from nursing last year, immediately earned his license, got a good job and now prepares/trains for his plan to go abroad. Another brother is a teacher who enjoys working in the Philippines and whom, despite my persuasions, says he´s happy working for his country although he too considers trying his luck abroad.

The fifth sibling and the youngest of three brothers is currently in his third year taking mechanical engineering. He also earned certificates for his electrical trainings. Simultaneous to his studies in mechanical, he does apprenticeship in electrical field. My youngest sister on the other hand, the youngest of the six, is a freshman in computer engineering. I´m very happy and proud of them.

6. A visit to Paris - it was a long-time dream of mine to visit Paris. Last month, with God´s grace and with the help of my husband, we spent our summer vacation in Paris. God is so good.

7. My husband´s great job - I´m always thankful to God for giving my husband a job that he loves and that´s stable. He´s the main breadwinner and what I do is simply to support his income. Because he´s happy at work, his happiness also radiates when he´s at home.

8. A growing closet - because I´m a big fan of fashion, I thank God for giving me a big closet which continually grows.

9. Trustworthy friends - it´s not always that you find special and trustworthy friends. I found them and I´m very thankful for it. They´re scattered across the globe but we still keep in touch.

10. A great laptop and a fast internet connection - because what I do involves the internet, I´m thankful for the gift of a good laptop and internet connection. Through them, I am able to connect with the world and keep in touch with families and friends. They keep me from being lonely here in Europe.

So those are my top ten gifts, what about you? What are you most thankful of right now? Do this activity, write down on a piece of paper the ten things you´re thankful right now, then silently thank God through meditation. Have a great day!

photo credit: wehearit.com

God saved me from fire, the second time

I was drifting through the sea and it was very dark. I struggled, pushing through the waves and reaching for a hold, desperate for a grip. Shortly, I felt the wind through my face. Slowly and peacefully I was riding a swing. “Wake up …” I heard His whisper. “Wake up …” He whispered again. “No, I don’t want.” I was enjoying my ride it was very different from the troubled sea, why should I leave? “You have to wake up darling, you have to!” There was urgency in His voice and I felt the push.

“What time is it?” Pulling down the blanket from my face I was figuring out where I was. Quickly and automatically, I turned my head to the door. It was ajar and through the curtains, I saw a growing light from the sala. I jumped out the bed and ran to see the light. Behold, the center table was on fire. The table mattress and the plastic flowers in the vase were already consumed and the fire was rapidly growing. I ran quickly to the kitchen and took buckets of water, ran back to the sala and threw the water on the fire. Twice I did run back and forth for the water before the fire was completely stopped. I sat on the floor, astonished. “If I did not listen to the call, what could have happened? And where are my parents?”

Then it came to me that my parents were not home yet. It was already past midnight. They went to visit some friends after we had dinner. I and my younger siblings were watching tv when the lights went off. There was a black out. I took a candle, lighted it and put it inside a glass making it stand by melting its bottom. We killed time by talking and laughing while having some ice cream. When the candle was almost finished, I blew its fire off and replaced it with a new one. However, I did not notice that our youngest sister, only three and a half years old by the time, took the used candle and lighted it again. She already finished her ice cream. She used the empty plastic cap of her ice cream as a stand for her tiny candle and enjoyed watching it burning.

Not long thereafter I felt tired. I put everyone to bed. But before going up to her room, the youngest put her candle on the table, still burning. I saw it but I thought it was okay. We slept.

Sitting on the floor beside the burned table I figured that the tiny candle did not die as I had thought it would. Instead, it burned the plastic cap then slowly consumed the table cloth and grew. How stupid? Why did I think it was okay? Why didn’t I figure that it would cause fire? I was scolding myself. If the house was burned down by fire and we six siblings were burned to death, then I wouldn’t get to graduate high school. It was only six months away.

I stood and checked the table making sure that the fire was entirely stopped. When certain, I went to check my siblings, they were all sleeping good. I went back to bed. I knelt and prayed thanking God for waking me up and saving me and my siblings from fire for the second time. Before I drifted back to sleep, I recalled that a year ago, God had saved me from fire the first time. ZzzzzZzzzz


God saved me from fire, the first time will be the next publish :)

Prayer stopped the bank robber: How powerful is prayer?

Just exactly how powerful is prayer? Do you think a prayer with faith can actually move mountains? If you search the net, I am certain that you will find many accounts on how people found prayer powerful. There are even plenty of unpublished testimonies out there that prove that God indeed listens to prayer.

While writing this post I was reminded of some funny but dangerous experiences that I had in the past where prayer saved me. For example, on one Christmas vacation our family and friends had a retreat in a secluded island in our province. The island was beautiful and untouched. There was a big wooden house beside the beach and a huge meeting hall in the middle of the island which I never saw how it looked in the inside, it was always locked. Unfortunately, all the toilets were located beside the meeting hall. So one morning after breakfast, I was walking towards the toilet not minding the environment; my mind was flying [as it always does], when suddenly I heard barks of an angry female dog. When I focused to see where it was coming from, I was frozen to see the beast, big and scary, approaching me in a leaping manner eager to devour me. Not a panicky person, I took off my sandals and threw them to her to no avail. There wasn’t any stone or anything that I could grab. The last resort was to run. I ran screaming “Papa, papa!” but everyone in the house was too far to help. My mind was thinking about how many injections I would get. However, what frightened me more was the thought of ruining my legs, my biggest assets. While running I was looking back and saw that every time the beast was about to bite a leg, each leg just move to run. I then remembered to pray. So while my mouth was screaming my mind was praying, “Jesus, help me.” Just then I bumped into a huge tree, and then fell. I waited for the pain, but there was none. I raised my head to look at her; I was met by two lamb eyes. And then she moved away. I gathered myself up with bleeding knees, but it was far better than getting non-bleeding bites.

These scenarios I mentioned above happened ten years back, were refreshed to me today after I saw a yahoo video featuring the woman, who, through prayer, was able to unarm her robber. I wanted to download that video of her interview because she left such good message towards the people who have nobody that are becoming hopeless. She said that things can’t be so bad to just throw away your life in prison or in death. There are people who care. There is God who cares. She also addressed company owners saying that they should also give chance to people who are desperate to get a job to survive. Sometimes, some people are just forced to do crime.

The day I learned how much my dad loves me

I was feeling something weird on my face one day. It must have started slow without me noticing, or it could have come over night – I did not know. The left side of my face was stiff. I could not eat properly, I could not speak clearly, and when I laughed or smiled, only the right side of my face was moving. I looked so ugly. I was twelve years old.

The doctor said it was mild stroke. So many “whys” and “hows” were unanswered. The only possible cure was a therapy. The big word was “possible”. There was no guarantee that my face would come back to normal.

I decided to sit quietly inside the classroom when I was at school. I stopped raising my hand to participate in class discussions. Nobody would understand me anyway. One teacher found it very unusual for me to sit so quietly and not participate in class. He was asking quite a tough question one time and a number of classmates had given answers already but the teacher still wanted more. The question was part of the homework he gave on the other day. Then he called my name. I was very anxious to stand and speak. But the teacher was waiting. The entire class was waiting. I gathered all courage to stand and give my answer. I knew that what I had in mind would suffice to satisfy the teacher. But halfway of my speaking the entire class was laughing furiously including the teacher. Some classmates were mimicking the way I spoke. I wanted to vanish from the place.

I stopped going to school. I refused to talk to people other than my family. I stuck myself inside our house. My dad was very sad. He told me that there must be a very big reason why God allowed it to happen to me. I knew the reason why. My mom, my dad, and I knew why.

Two days before I noticed something unusual on face, there was a big fight between my mom and dad. It was Friday evening. The Sabbath has started. But instead of preparing to go to church for a divine worship, I and my mom were preparing to go to a coronation night at school where I was asked to deliver my winning declamation piece “I am an Addict”. My dad refused to allow me to go to the coronation because it was already Sabbath but my mom was supporting me with my decision to go. Despite my dad’s opposition, I and my mom went to school.

The school was extremely isolated from the village. It was a big compound with new buildings. It was positioned at the feet of the mountains on the other side of a very big river. It was the huge bridge that was connecting the school to the village. There were no residences around.

I delivered my declamation piece around midnight, after which, my mom and I immediately went home.

On the Sabbath day, Saturday, my parents and my siblings were all ready to go to church but I was still in bed. I couldn’t get up because I was feeling so weak. Both my eyes were very swollen and I could not open them. My dad said that it was the result of my prioritizing to go to the coronation instead of observing the Sabbath. I had to stay at home that Sabbath day.

On the second day after I delivered my declamation, my eyes were healed and I felt strong again. However, in replacement to the swollen eyes, my face started to feel stiff. I tried to keep it to myself because I was scared that my parents would worry so much. Yet shortly, I could not hide the stiffness of my face anymore. I had to use more body language to communicate.

My parents were very disturbed. Several of their friends advised them to find a quack doctor because they believed that my face was a work of some evil spirits. My parents simply explained to them that we don’t seek help from quack doctors. We only seek help from God. My dad believed that only God could cure my face.

When I went to bed at night, my dad was making sure that there were bibles placed on both my sides. At midnight, my mom and dad would wake me up for a midnight prayer. It was a practice that took for about a week. But unknowingly, my dad was painfully seeking help from God. He was on his knees for how many times everyday begging God to tell him what to do to cure his eldest daughter. Then one night, he had a dream. He saw a flash of light on a very dark room. The light revealed a bottle of water. In his dream my dad asked what should he do with the water? The answer was, use the water to massage the face. My dad woke up after the dream and was unable to sleep until morning.

When I woke up, my dad gave me an empty bottle and asked me to clean it and fill it with water. When I was done, I gave the bottle to him. My dad then said that we had to go inside the room. We knelt and prayed. My dad was praying. He was asking for the forgiveness of our sins. He was asking God to bless the water so that through it, my face will be back to normal. My dad’s voice went crack, then he was crying. I opened my eyes. I saw my dad with his eyes close, still praying, but the tears were just coming down his cheeks so rapidly. I never saw my dad cry. He is a very gentle but a tough guy. I was unable to close my eyes back. I was just staring at my dad in awe. At that very moment, I realized how much my dad loves me.

After the prayer, my dad massaged my face using the water from the bottle.

Later in the afternoon, when my siblings were already back from school, we were playing in our backyard. I was on top of a guava tree and was laughing to my brother’s story when I realized something has changed. I hurriedly climbed down the guava tree and ran back to the house. I took a mirror and smiled in front of it. I saw a pretty smile. Then I was laughing. Then I was shouting calling my dad. I ran to my dad’s shop which was just in front of our house announcing the good news “my face is healed!”

Right now, as I sit in front of my computer writing down this testimony, I cannot help but cry and smile while I see that girl running to her papa announcing the good news that her face was again pretty. Her dad simply hugged her and said “Thank God”.

Living Abroad with God

Have you ever prayed for something that when given, it’s not what you really want? Or perhaps, you wanted the end but not the means? This unfortunate experience of mine taught me one thing and that is, "Be careful of what you asked in prayer. You might get it the hard way."

Living Abroad with God

"What cannot be changed shall be endured." This was the thought playing in my mind while waiting for the result of my blood and urine tests in that lonely chair of the surgery section. I was waiting for the decision of the doctors. I was praying that God, by His divine power, would take the pain away from my abdomen so that no serious medications shall be needed. I didn't have money, no family around; I was in a foreign land.

I was twenty-two years old. I was eager to see beyond the fence of my native land that I decided to leave my two-year-job as a Math instructor in one of the Universities in the Philippines. With earnest prayer, I went to Thailand where I heard was in need of teachers. I didn't know anyone in the country. I was a total stranger. For forty days I struggled to find a job. I was met with too many hardships, including the difficulty in communication where not many local people speak or comprehend English. But before my money was entirely finished, God gave me a job just within the capital city where I could have easy access to everything, especially the church.

However, my struggle didn't end there. Barely a month in my new job, I woke up one morning with a kick of pain in the right side of my abdomen. It was terrible. I lay still observing if it would go away. But it didn't, so I prayed. That entire day the pain grew neutral but it didn't go away. I was hoping it was nothing. The next day, Monday, I still went to school appearing everything was normal. After the second period however, at around ten o'clock in the morning, the most terrible pain erupted which I couldn't bare anymore. The owner of the school provided me a van to bring me to the hospital. Nobody accompanied me to the hospital except the driver who drove back to school right after I got off the van. I held my breath to control the pain. After some interviews, I was ushered to the surgery section where everything was checked. While waiting for the result of the tests, I was instructed not to eat or drink anything.

No exact words can explain what I felt then while hearing those words from the doctor, "treatment, surgery". Surgery was the last thing I had in mind. The doctor explained that the situation was an emergency. I was suffering from an acute appendectomy. I made a quick call to my foreign head teacher, an American, who was very nice to me. He tried to comfort me by saying it would be a quick surgery, an easy one. And before I knew it, I was on a stretcher on my way to the operating room with dextrose and anti-infection attached to my veins. I was sedated and operated. It was on the first of August 2005, at 6:30 in the evening.

I was dreaming. I heard voices from afar. I heard people talking but I couldn't understand. Then I heard my name called, "Miss Lee, wake up!" I awakened but I couldn't open my eyes. Then a terrible pain hit me. It was from that section of my abdomen. I was shouting, "Mama! Papa!” I was begging for help. But all I could felt around me were people talking in a foreign language. The pain was unbearable even though I had already a shot of morphine. It was an awful four hours before I was given another shot of painkiller. I didn't realize it then that my eyes were fixed on the wall clock, counting hours, and waiting for the mercy of painkiller. If given however, it's another horrifying thing. The dextrose was removed and the drug was injected in the needle connected to my veins. The feeling of contraction of my veins as the drug makes it way in was unforgettable. My other hand held that arm hard. But those pains were even blessings. Fifteen minutes of pain in exchange to four hours of ease free pain. Another struggle I had to face was sitting up and going down of bed to go to the toilet to pee. The muscles in the abdomen contract making the wound shouting of pain. After forty-eight hours with no food intake, I was starving. But then I had to wait for the signal of the doctors when I would be ready for fluid intake.

I was blessed with kind-hearted surgeons and nurses. They treated me well and took good care of me. They giggled every time they had to talk to me because of their English, broken and mispronounced. But they really did their best to comfort me especially if I cried. Even the low profile crews were very dear to me. They took turns in assisting me whenever I needed to go to the toilet. I stayed in the ward where I could save money. I saw other patients whose situations were even worst than me. It was then that I stopped focusing on my pain. I started looking at my co-patients who were suffering more than I did. I felt strength grew inside me and I wanted to comfort them. With small steps, and with my other hand holding the stand of my dextrose, I walked bed to bed to visit the other patients in the ward. They couldn't speak English. It was amazing making friends with them mainly through smiles, actions and warmth.

I went home on the third day. The school paid my bills first which I paid back with my salaries. I didn't get any insurance yet by then since I was still under provision. After two weeks of rest, not fully recovered but strong willed, I pushed myself to go back to work. I needed money to survive my expenses especially for my visa. I needed to go back to work as soon as possible.

I asked God why He allowed me to suffer that much in the very early part of my living abroad. But He answered me back. He reminded me that I had asked Him to remove my fear of hospitalization. I was always terrified even only with the idea of needles, blood and hospitals. My fear was too much it could cause me to faint. But after the experience, I was transformed into a brave strong-willed woman ready to accept fate yet dependent to God's protection. I learned that I must be careful of what to ask in prayer because I might get it the hard way. But above all, I was comforted with the idea that no matter how heavy the challenges that await in my way, God will always be there to help me endure and overcome.

The Renewed Man

Did you know that there are souls out there in the dungeons who pray their hearts out to be given the chance to be baptized and be able to worship God in His temple?

The Renewed Man
The dining table looked cheerful and festive,
Everyone had gone out to make the occasion a delight;
Two men shook hands, sat side by side,
Joined by another friend, Earl, they had a feast;
The pleasant appearing young man, Sam, had a leisure meal,
In his power did everyone feel at ease
Not withstanding the reason of the gathering.
Time came when good friends Earl and Sam needed apart;
For Earl's time was but on the next week, thanked Sam for the
friendship's spiritual impact on his life.
Left alone in the room, Sam and his pastor
visited at length about spiritual things.
Where in the outside world newspaper headlines
screaming out the news "Tannyhill to die in chair tonight",
And when everyone party for which justice was about to be done,
A killer was about to die, paying the penalty for gross misdeeds.
But Christ changed him that this man was no longer the same;
A man to have found that the presence of Jesus can
turn even a death-row cell into a glorious place.
In his dungeon shared his light that a number of souls
were saved before they went to sleep.
Through letters preached his mother and relatives,
and even they received the truth and witnessed;
Sam lived the twenty-seventh of his life the best.
He desired to live, to be baptized in the water, and to worship
God in His temple, but pleaded God's will be done.
How difficult must it be for the Heavenly Father?
To execute both mercy and justice at once?
But God certainly knew when to give life and when to take.
In his grave with voice silenced, Sam lay but a moment.