H.O.P.E

Last March 21-23,2014, our team, Operation Hope, a group composed of different people with one goal and that is to serve. We had our first and second wave last December and January. This March we went to Tacloban again for our 3rd wave to visit the beneficaries of our pangkabuhayan showcase (mini store business) and the families that we helped to build their house. I really don't want to exaggerate or give you a burden to you on what happened to the victims of Yolanda or what is their status now, my dear readers, but what I want you to feel as you read this post is that you may feel blessed with what we have in our lives today and may God touch you with some of the photos here.

Before coming to Tacloban for a 3 day mission trip and immersion, I really do not know what can I contribute to the people there. All I have with me is my 2 lovely puppets, myself and the hope that comes from my God. But doing mission is not just doing extravagant things such as doing this and that, it is about how you made them feel loved through your presence and through your lives. We can send all the goodies there from here in Manila, but there are things in life that we cannot send using any courier, and that is HOPE from GOD, LAUGHTERS, and YOURSELF.  

They need people who will listen to them, who are willing to just listen to them and make them feel loved, and who will give smiles and laughters to them even just for a day. They need GOD and that is what we can never send to them through any kinds of courier because it is within US. 

Some of you may disagree with me but I just want to share my reflection based on my experience. This mission trip was not just a simple mission trip for me. I thank God because He gave us so many chances to just listen to the different stories of the people there and to make relationships to the young people there.

There are volunteers who almost lived their lives there. I have two friends whose been working there for relief distribution and stress debriefing of children and parents there. As I listen to them, my heart just melted because they have been absorbing emotions and everything from the victims. As we pray for the victims, let us all include in our prayers the volunteers who are there. 

Our team will go back to Tacloban on the 3rd week of May for the assistance of the Cocoa Farming that we are praying for. You can be part of our team by joining us through your own presence or through your generosity. :) 

These are some photos taken 4 months after Yolanda. 

@ Caloogan

Our team with these precious children from Caloogan.

Tacloban Airport

Ships were found in the middle of a community and along the road.

Even good houses were damaged.

May God use these houses to be the light and salt to their community.

Our 3rd Wave Team.

Greater things are yet to come to the victims of the typhoon and I believe that God is not yet done working on them and to our lives!

God bless! :)

LEGOLAND

And because Lego Movie became a blast... here's a sneak peek of....ofcourse... LEGOLAND!

Legoland Malaysia is near in the boundary of Singapore and Malaysia. It is just like 2-3 hour ride from Singapore. 

My nephew enjoyed our Legoland experience because of the color and the activities there are most likely attracts kids.

You should really duper try this ride! It may looks like it is just a simple ride...but...just try it! To experience it, is to believe!

It was so really hot! Good thing at the end of our day here, we found this sleeping man made of Lego! How Cooolll us that?!!!

Just Do It

Psalm 1:2-3

"But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."

Delight in His Word. These verses are just mind blowing for me. By just delighting yourself to the law which is God's Word, we will be like tree planted by streams of water, fruit in season, leaf does not wither and a blessing to others. His promises are overflowing!

The promise of God is real and tangible. You just need to try it and test God. Can you just feel the love of God in these verses? Can anyone in this world can promise those things to you? No one. Jesus alone can do those things to you.

Your partner, parents, or friends may disappoint you despite of the efforts you are showing to them. But God is always ready to bless you and love you. Just delight in Him. 

Like sunrise and sunset scenes, same as God's love for us. It is always amazing and refreshing. Focus your eyes to Him and delight in His Word. And you will never go wrong. His light will always be upon us. 

See you again next time!

Hope you enjoyed!

                            .pjlt.

You and Him

The sun rises and the sun sets

The wind blows to the south and 

Turns to the north, and round and around.

Well I think that is just how life must be.

Thinking of you has always been my past time

Praying for you has always been my motto

But I never thought of thinking and praying for myself because I never realized the worth of the Author of life gave me.

My thoughts and dreams focuses on you

But I never thought and dreamt on being with the Maker.

Trying hard to be the one for you when I do not seek The One.

Forget being drenched and becoming the perfect Proverbs 31 for you because relying on Your light and to be like You should be my priority.

I will promise to focus on You and be faithful to You while waiting. My life is Yours and may Your will be done in my life.

-The Girl in the Fall

Personally, the meaning of this art for me is that, the girl stopped focusing on being the one and the right for other, instead, she fixed her eyes to the Lord, the Maker of everything.

She focused and gave efforts on being the good one when she can't even serve faithfully the One who made her and that is God. And she chose the right path.

What are your thoughts now? How is your seed of faith? Work on it girl! Work it! Just as how you work on your clothes, shoes, make ups and everything, Work on you faith! Work on it, even greater! And I am telling you, God will make you as beautiful as a precious stone. 

You and God is the best love team! Work it!

Thank you for reading. Hope to see you again! :) 

Fill your heart and minds with His thought, that is the best beauty secret you could ever have. :) 

Jesus loves you! 

What You See. What You Get

Proverbs 15:13

"A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit."

There is a saying that whatever is on your mind, soul and heart, it will reflect on your face, actions, and words. Looking back to my old life, I can say that I have been good hiding those things behind my beautiful mask. I can smile and pretend that I am okay, because I feel that I am okay, well maybe not but  what amazes me is that even though I am not worthy to wear these smiles and enjoy life with the best people around me, still, God allows me to smile and face the world. 

I realized that if we will hold on to our heartaches and problems, it will not really help us. Having a broken soul and heart will lead us to disappointments and discouragements. But since I let go of those things and let God worked in my life without any hindrances and second thoughts, things changed and even though everything seems so hard,I decided to enjoy every hardship. 

Like fire tests the purity of silver and gold (Proverbs 27:21), and so will God will make me pure through the fire that someday I may become like a silver and gold. 

Learn to smile and lean on to God in every trials.

WAIT.PRAY.LOVE.

until next time! ❤️

Love101

Hello to my first post for 2014! I have so many pending blogs and all of them are not done. Anyway, I just thought of sharing this reflection to you especially ladies out there. Let us start with this... These past few months the Lord has been pushing my limitations in this specific aspect in my life, and I tell you, it is not easy as you think. It requires a radical kind of faith, a strong heart, and ofcourse, sacrifice.

This season God is teaching me to love Him more so I can really know how to love others just like how He loved us first. Okay,lesson 1, we will never learn how to really love if we ourselves do not love the One who created love. How can you give to others what you don't have? Love God and love the Creator of love. 

Lesson 2, sacrifice. Choosing to break someone's heart just for you to allow God work on your life, surrendering someone or something so God can move freely to your life and everything, giving up something or someone you really love is the hardest part. If you came from a relationship that Christ is not the center of your relationship, then both of you will never be the solution because it is God's work. He will work on your lives individually and the hardest part, separately. In every sacrifice that we do, God is with us and He will be our strength and comforter.

God needs to break you so you will feel the moment when God is fixing you little by little. It will really be painful but are you not excited for the pain to end? It is like waiting for a caterpillar to be a beautiful and awesome butterfly. 

Hold on and ask God to steady your heart. You are strong and you are more than what you think because you are God's princess.

Start praying for him, pray that the Lord will always bring him in God's presence and that God will make him want God wants him to be. And as you pray for him, work on your relationship to God. That will be the best thing you can do while waiting for him.

To my future honey, I will wait for you. You will always be in my prayers. I will always pray that may the Lord will encounter you everyday of your life.

I have said much and I hope you learned something because I am still learning from what is God doing in my life now.

Remember, greater things are yet to come. 

WAIT.PRAY.LOVE

Smile and love GOD.

Until next time! ❤️

Silver and Gold

James 1:2-3

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."

How can you make it a pure joy when your trials in life is the things that give sadness to your life? Accepting the challenge of God and accepting the process of change into your life requires discipline. We were not perfect and we admit that. We disobeyed God and we will reap the consequences of every sin we committed. Like what Hebrews 12:7-8 said, we are God's children and He is disciplining us because He loves us. Our parents also discipline us because we need to learn something and because they also loves us. Being in the journey of change and fire and cold? Expect the unexpected. It will not be a smooth journey but a rough one. All we have to do is to do what 1 Timothy 6: 12 says. There are so many people around us who are so excited to see us finish this fight, win this battle and to see us growing in faith. We just need to be STILL and be STRONG.

The Lord is teaching me and making me realize that I am weak and will never be strong if I will rely on my own. He is teaching me to rely and to use His strength that is limitless and everlasting. 

Like silver and gold, they went to so many processes, that is why they are so precious to anyone. Just like me, you and everyone, we will not see our worth if we are not placed in fire, cold, carvings and everything. After all those processes we will also be like silver and gold to His sight because the Lord has invested to us so much that all we need to do is to endure every process that we experience. Our worth is seen to Jesus Christ only. 

Think of the people that you think will make you happy and smile. Be with the people of encouragements.

I suddenly remember my little me :( I miss her so much. :( Oh well, we will see each other SOON. :)

Hope you enjoyed!

.lovelovelove.

OBEDIENCE

Matthew 10:39

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

"...whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Obedience. The Lord taught me this word and how important this word. The important is not losing your life and all of your possessions but turning your focus away from those possessions. This world is so inviting that we forget this word (OBEDIENCE). 

It is like you are committing into a relationship that is everlasting, perfect, pure and contended. Everyday, I always pray and surrender everything to Him. It is so hard to face the day using your own strength, it is draining. In my past life, I have been using my own strength, knowledge and skills. When you look at my life, I look like I am obeying God but...no. I have been on clinging on my own life and keep doing things without quality and sense. 

Let us always remind ourselves with this word. Obedience.

It will be hard at fist but the process and the journey of obeying God is worth it.

Personally, I am enjoying it. It is hard, everyday I feel tired but the Lord will always be my strength.

OBEY.OBEY.OBEY

Terno-ing mode with my sister. Check out her blog! The Queen Says It All. 

The shirt that we are wearing are for sale for only 250 pesos. We are selling this as our fundraising for our upcoming summer camp on May 2014. We have other designs but this one is our favorite and best seller. :) 

OBEY.

Hope you enjoyed!

.lovelovelove.

Light Up!

Matthew 5:14

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden."

When you see a torch bearer, their work seems so easy because they will just run and climb and light that something but do you know that it is not that easy? Because you need to run first that whole oval or whatever then climb up to that stairs before they light that big bowl or whatever. 

Like a torch bearer, we Christians are like that, when people look at us, they will think that our lives seems so happy and seems like we do not have problems in our lives. What they don't know is we also run in our trials and climb our problems until we reach that big bowl whatever. 

You know the amazing thing about being a torch bearer? The torch that they are carrying is what we see. The torch amazes us and makes us excited as we see it being carried by the bearer. It is the light that he/she holds and that light represents Our God. When a torch bearer runs, we notice the light and not the bearer but the light which is Our God.

I pray that in our everyday lives, people will see us as the light of this world as we carry the light of our lives, Our God Almighty. 

Let us be excited like an audience watching a torch bearer as he/she lights that big bowl whatever and be patient and faithful as we run the process of lighting that big bowl whatever.

*Forgive me with some of my terms like the "big bowl whatever"because I do not know what does it called. Please forgive me and just focus on the message. Lovelove! :)

*insert caption* (HAHAHA)

"The Light" :)

Hope you enjoyed!

.lovelovelove. 

Stripe It Out

Matthew 6:27

"Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" (NIV)

Agree?Agree?Agree?

Worry - To feel uneasy or concerned about something; be troubled.

No one wants to feel this everyday, right? And just like what the passage said, can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Ofcourse not! It will just consume our thoughts, strength, and day. We try to deal it with ourselves but this behavior is not glorifying God. Worrying and doubting just shows our doubt to God's will. He has a greater plan at work. 

Yes, it is so hard not to worry, especially if we really have problems. 

The next time we find ourself worrying and doubting, STOP! and PRAY!

Turn to Your God and turn it over to Him, everything to Him.

       

I wore this cute skater dress from FF4L Boutique on our trip in Singapore. I love how comfortable this dress is and how I can turn it to a peplum top and dress. 

Put your faith in Him and STOP WORRYING.

Jesus loves you!

love.love.love