I got bored so I did this while waiting for my dad to bring me my white uniform.

Me in my white uniform! Yay! I think I look weird though.

Now I think you should meet my family. Meet my dad! A lot of people tell me we look a lot. They say I’m a carbon copy of my father. I’m not entirely sure if I agree with that. Hehehe. You be the judge.

One thing is quite evident in this picture: my dad and I don’t share the same skin color. But I’m not really sure if this has always been his complexion. Maybe he was lighter back then. I think asking him would be a good thing to do. Oh well. So, here’s a picture of my sister and I. We’re a bit wacky.

Now, meet a few of my batch mates and friends.

In all these things, I give glory to God. I actually asked God that for a birthday gift, I wanted to be an intern. But lately, He has been giving me so much more. It’s overwhelming how good He is! There’s a lot of miracles to this achievement and I can really say that if it wasn’t for God, I would have not reached this point in my life. It’s amazing how God works and He never fails to leave me in awe all the time. It’s amazing how He loves and how generously He gives to His children. I just am so happy.

The pinning ceremony is not even the beginning yet. It is however the mark that I am beginning a new journey. That journey begins soon. I am glad that I am here, but I also feel nervous, scared, and very uncertain. I know that I am not the most skillful person among my batch mates, but this is still a learning experience, an opportunity for me to develop my skills. And as another day passes by and I get closer to the beginning of my internship, I’m reminded of what my cousin told me: I can do this because I have God who will help me. The past years have been evident of God’s ever present help for me, His grace and His love. Thus, I will face this experience with hope and just know that God is on my side, and I will finish this. I will give what I can to honor my parents, and most of all, to honor God who has given me this great opportunity.

Someone I followed on tumblr got my attention by posting this certain artist on her blog. I apparently trust her choice in art-related matters (including music) and almost always love them, so I decided to click through the photo she posted. Lo and behold, I was back again on Noise Trade and only then did I realize what an oh so awesome site it is! Since then, I’ve been trying to listen to different artists from their site.

There are actually lots of great musicians that I’ve found there. I didn’t know where they’ve been hiding, or maybe I have just not really looked hard for them. Most of the artists there, I think, are not really on the mainstream and some have just begun their musical career. I guess that’s why they’re not the most famous group of people or most of them are ones you have not heard of before (or maybe I’m the only one who’ve never heard of them before). What’s lovely about the site is the fact that they help these artists get their music to their future listeners & fans for FREE! Yes! Really! No joke! It’s for FREE! Of course, not all of their music are posted. Still, it’s better than illegal downloading. Ah yes! As the title says, the download you make will not have to scare you because you know it’s LEGAL. And if you’re kind enough, you can make donations for that artist, only if you can give something and would love to share your blessings to them.

I love that it’s legal because for a long time, I have been looking for a site where I can download music for free and legally. Though you can’t really expect to find the usual music you’ve been listening to and the artists that you’ve loved for a long time, you may still find artists who sort of have the same style as them. It’s also not so long ago that it really got into me that supporting illegal downloads is indeed supporting crime. I knew it but I just never really realized that these people who are into piracy are being searched for by authorities. It got me scared to think that I have been somehow guilty of supporting an act of crime, which should not be, since before, I have indeed bought some pirated CDs and DVDs (this is totally embarrassing but I guess this is what I call coming clean). Though I haven’t really done that as of the present, I have done so in the past. So, I think it’s a great blessing to find Noise Trade. Not only do I know that I’m doing what’s right, I’m also doing it for free. *very big grin* And just like what I’ve said, there are actually lots of awesome artists to find there. So yes, I think you should go to the site already and CLICK THIS to get there.

Here are a few of the artists that I now love whom I’ve never heard of before and have found through Noise Trade:

• Steve Moakler
• Nathan Angelo
• Abigail York
• Sons & Daughters
• Christa Wells
• Abby Merkel

• Wednesday: I bought myself a new phone! Yay! It’s not really an expensive one. There were 2 main reasons why I bought it. One is because it is dual sim. I now get to use both networks without having to bring two phones with me, and I don’t have to tell people where they have to contact me. Two, it has a music player. My other phone did have it but I could store two to three songs only. At least now, I get to store more. I bought a 1 gb memory card for the mean time because that is all I can afford. It’s not that much but I’m glad already. It doesn’t really have that much features but I’m fine with it. Besides, those are really just the reasons why I bought a new phone anyway. By the way, I named it ‘Beepo’ yesterday (Aug 14) because it beeps and the -o is there to make it sound like a name. It also makes it sound male-ish. If this phone had a gender, it’d be a guy just because it’s black (but I may reconsider that thought).
• Thursday: I got to write a new poem after quite a long time of not being able to write one. I thought I couldn’t write anymore. I was happy when I finished it. Just yesterday, I got to write another one. I wanted to write something about me writing poetry here but I’m thinking of creating another entry for it. I will still have to think if I’ll do that.
• Sunday: My really good friend from high school, Leo, sent me a message which just brightened my day. He tweeted me and my! Was it in perfect timing! He didn’t even know what I was going through since we have not talked in a really long time. It was just great to hear from him. I know God used Him to help me with whatever I’m going through. I thank God for his life. He is a blessing to me. I love him so much. He’s such a great friend.
• Today: I love this day. I know God’s up to something today. I haven’t told anyone, but lately, it has not been smooth-sailing. Still, God remains the awesome God that I know. I’m just looking forward to what He’ll be doing. And I also thank God for another friend, Meaner. She’s an awesome friend. We haven’t seen each other in a long time as well, and we barely talk to each other. She sent me verses and it really touched me. I’m totally grateful to God for bringing her into my life. I love this girl so much. I want to see her again. Hopefully, that would be any time soon.

Photo Credit: Psycholust (dot) Tumblr (dot) Com

Today is August 1, 2011. Indeed, it’s goodbye July, and hello August!

This month’s really special to me because it’s my birthday month! YAY! I’m not telling you when my birthday is though. In a matter of days, I’ll be 20-een years young. Yes, I still cannot accept the fact that I’m not going to be a teenager anymore. It’s like it was just yesterday. I was still sweet(?) sixteen and it felt that I’d stay that way forever. I’m not getting any younger though. I have considered to stop counting my age so that I’d stay 19 years old, but that won’t really be true and I think I’d know my real age even if I’d try to deny it. So, I have decided to be grateful for the few days left of being a teenager. Oh well. I am looking forward for all the exciting things for this month. I’ve decided to do things better and be better. Well, with God’s help, I know I can do this.

I’m thinking of saying, “Oh August! Be good to me!” But I think it’d be better if I’d choose to say, “August, I know you’ll be awesome!”

When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. — John 11:6

Has God trusted you with His silence—a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible—with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him—He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35). A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious—it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy—silence.

You may read more daily devotionals by Oswald Chambers at: Utmost.org.

I’m not exactly one who’ll be so interested in how churches look like, but I do love to look at great architecture (I actually do not know anything about it. I’m just interested in really good looking buildings.) and it makes me think of Europe or New York (or some place else) where I just absolutely love the buildings (I have never gone to either of those places before. I’ve seen lots of pictures though.). I guess the title caught my attention. It made me ask, “What actually makes them extraordinary?”

I opened the site and at first, I went “Wow!” then I just didn’t know what to think anymore. They’re indeed extraordinary. Some of them scared me though. I’m not entirely sure how I’d feel if I ever get to enter them. Anyway, click away and see them for yourselves.

Lord, who is my Albertine?

Here is an interview of Brooke Fraser about her album Albertine and the song itself. This is not a new song, as you may be aware of, but this is the first time I have seen the interview, and it has touched my heart. Brooke Fraser has captured the heartbeat of God: people. God loves us and wants us to reach out to the lost. Let us become Jesus’ hands and feet. This may be a challenge to many of us, but I believe it’s every Christian’s calling. This is our Great Commission. Let’s love God and love the people He loves. I am challenged and inspired to move in the same way. For the past days, I have been reading the book “The Love Revolution” by Joyce Meyer (which I may be sharing with you in the next days) and watching this video has just added more fuel to the fire. I’ve learned that we could always start small, but even in these small things that we do, we can begin to love extravagantly. Who knows? In the future, we may do something even bigger. We have a big God and as we do what He desires, He will expand our territory and allow us to reach even those that we never imagined we could reach. Let’s just do this. Let’s love.

Here is the video of the song:

Everyone needs love. There are a lot of Albertine in the world who needs our sacrificial love. They all suffer different kinds of pains and injustices. Albertine may be someone in your own family, your best friend, the classmate you never really talk to, your employer who always seems to have a bad day, that old lady across your home, or maybe a child in a third-world country. Let’s ask this question: Lord, who is my Albertine?

I would really love to post on my blog as often as possible. Sadly, I cannot really have all the time in the world to do so for now since I am so busy with many things outside the world wide web. I just miss the old times, when I was still using multiply back in 2006 and I would post almost everyday. I wish I could do something like that again now. Hopefully, I can have more free time in the future and I can attend to posting in here and writing stuff. I just actually want to get back not just to blogging, but to writing.

 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

I am really holding on to this promise of the Lord for me. My Christian journey is full of ups and downs, twists and turns. Sometimes, when I get so down, I get to ask myself if I can still finish this race that God has set before me. But God reminds me of His faithfulness. God reminds me that my walk is not of my own but in Him, with Him, through Him, and by Him. He reminds me that what He has started in me will be made complete. I can do this. He will be my refuge and strength. I can choose to stand up again when things are so low because He is with me. He is indeed really true to His word when He said in Deuteronomy31:8,

It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.

I think this is a problem many Christians face. We forget that we are not running our race on our own to get to the finish line. But God reminds us today that even in the beginning, it always started with Him. It never started with us. He chose us first. He loved us first. And in this walk that we have, He is before us. He started this in us and He will complete it in us. We just have to continue to abide in Him. And when we do, we will see how amazingly we’ll get to the finish line.