It’s still one of the most ironic things in the world that you find for yourself greater happiness and relief when you have found something you have lost than when the first moment you were able to acquire and own it. I have experienced that beautiful irony just today.

A couple of months ago, Engr. Sayco, the OIC of DTI GSC, our neighbor office upstairs, borrowed my brand new expensive Pilot retractable sign pen as he was to use it in his meeting. The following day, as I was expecting that it be returned to me, I was astonished to know that he forgot where the pen was. So from that moment, I considered it lost. As days and months have passed, I have learned to get over it and embraced the acceptance that yes, sometimes, disaster strikes; my pen is absolutely gone like the wind.

But today, in the midst of my hustling and bustling office stresses and tasks, I was surprised that at one moment, as I looked at super messy table, I found that long lost pen right before my eyes (of who put it there, I still don’t know). Wow! My pen was lost but now it’s found!

Today, i have experienced God’s redeeming grace through that homecoming of my blue pilot sign pen - THIS IS MY MIRACLE!

I was doing the liquidation for the recently conducted CARAGA trip, a kind of stuff that I don’t really do but I had to because I was the funds officer during that trip – I hoard all the receipts so I’m the only one able to do that. I don’t know if it’s my accounting inability or whatever but at the end of the column, I found that a certain amount is missing from the receipts and no matter how I try to remember, I couldn’t figure out where and how I lost that 217.00 pesos from the records.

I started to worry. I am practicing a really strict budgeting rules. And I haven’t included a certain 217.00-pesos-for-nothing in my budget list for the week. And really, it may be too small an amount for someone else but it matters to me. It’s still an amount to me. It would still affect me. But then again, it’s missing and the only way I know is to pay it – to really pay it from my pocket! But for the last time, I scanned the pockets of the yellow envelope where I kept all the bills and the receipts to feed up my hope that maybe, just maybe, it’s just hiding somewhere there.

And SURPRISE! It really was! On the 3rd slip, I found two 100 peso bills, untouched. It was such a relief. Even if I still have to pay 17.00 pesos, at least, it’s not that much.

Today, Jesus paid the debt I was unable to pay – THIS IS MY MIRACLE!

Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 21.13

PASSION IS WHAT MAKES YOU UNSTOPPABLE!

If you have passion in what you do, not even the force of death can stop you. Not even harm; not even danger. No matter what the circumstances, no matter what others will say, you will go for it! You will take the battle by hand. Passion is what makes you do and die, not do or die. Passion doesn’t make you choose from among the two; it makes you willing to choose the two.

It’s only passion and nothing less.

Dear ###-###,

Firstly, I want to say sorry for all the harassing I did when all I wanted was to bring you to church. I know it annoys you. And I know that it’s because of that nga ginaiwasan nalang ko nimo. Because everytime we talk, I can’t get away from inviting you to that place.

Secondly, I want to tell you that I’m not doing that just so that our church attendance will increase thereby increasing in the same manner our church funds making us able to pay our monthly rent for the building we are occupying. Or that I see you as a project to accomplish to attain for myself a reward. No, it’s too far beyond that.

I know, you have a lot of confusion in your head caused by whatever you have experienced in the past of which I don’t particularly know. I am not aware who you’ve encountered, how much you’ve been disappointed by that God himself. Or perhaps, on the contrary, I don’t know how much satisfied you are at life and where you are now – of which feeling tells you that’s you’re just fine and you may not really be needing what I am trying to give you. I really don’t know that much, ###. All I know is of myself – what happened to me, how my life has been and how it’s turning out now, the joy inside of me that I can’t help but speak of. I just know that life so much more amazing with Him and I want to share it with you. I want you to experience what I have experienced from God and how he changed the course of my life. And such great things - I have found that in that church, in God.

On the 12 of this month is the schedule of THE MEN’S ENCOUNTER. And I want to invite you. It may sound uninteresting or weird to you but it has changed my life forever. I don’t know how many times you’ve tried to seek for God and how many times you’ve failed, but I want to ask, and I’m sure He will ask you the same – WON’T YOU PLEASE GIVE IT ONE LAST TRY? Maybe, just maybe, you will find what you are looking for this time.

Your friend forever,
Gayle

Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once.
~Lillian Dickson

I was born on the 12th of June in the year 1990. And that day marked the beginning of the happenstance of miracles in my life, both great and little ones.

My family of orientation, I can say, is a family that is strongly founded in the foundation of God. Ever since I was young, my parents have already planted a seed of knowledge in my head that the builder and the architect of my home is the God almighty, the creator of the universe I know. And my parents have insisted again and again in my mind that even though the size of my intellect is too small, the idea of the greatness of God have miraculously fit into it. Indeed, I, my kuya dave and my ate baday grew up knowing who God is. That, I consider as the greatest accomplishment any mom and dad could ever attain.

Stepping Into the Staircases

So how did I come to know God?

My mind as a little girl was as shallow and superficial as any child, ignorant of the realities of the world. Accordingly, such kind of mind would desperately need a guide. Like a lost wanderer, I need someone who would show me which path I must trail. And my mama and papa never failed to be that guide. Like stepping inch by inch into a staircase, they took small steps into teaching me the right pathway I should take in life – the way to God.

I could still vividly recall how they did such a tough job to us, their children. When we were still small and not yet entering school years, my father would gather the family in their small room and there a prayer time would be initiated. Of how did I learn to pray at a very young age was through this simple question my mama would ask me: “Unsa man ang gusto nimo pangayuon sa Ginoo?” And with my very tiny voice, I would simply answer, “paying, mama.” There and then, my mother was able to teach me how to pray as she usually asks me to follow after her very words.

When the three of us started going to school, my father would never allow us to go not unless he had laid down his hands on our heads and pray for God’s favor and blessing to follow us just like King David. This “ritual” lasted until we all finished high school.

Because of that, at a very young age, we were already taught that God is everything to us and that everything in our lives is all about God.

My parent’s investment on nurturing our faith in God even from our childhood helped so much when I was in darkest of my life. It was that child-like faith that made me walk in the right path even when it was the darkest.

The Tough Times

Generally, life wasn’t always easy for my family. In many portions of life which I consider is important, we have gone through swift shakings and rough sailings. From the ministry down to the family’s finances, we have been shaken, not only once but a lot of times.

The ministry have gone through a comatose condition – Sunday after Sunday, the same very small crowd comes and leaves the church wall. Nothing ever grows. No one ever reproduces. And upon seeing the heavy struggle that it is causing my parents, the burden becomes heavy on my part too. But I have seen how God’s leading hindered us to give up. And I have seen how strong my mama and papa was in holding on to their calling in the kingdom of God. So until now, we stayed here – after 25 long years and never fainting yet!

Even in our finances, we have experienced the hardest shaking, even tried having no single cent at all to buy a kilo of rice and a can of sardines. But my parents have a dreamer’s heart. And the dreams they have, they have always planted on us as well. Yes, they taught us to dream – to dream big. And they have always pointed our eyes on the God they have made us know ever since our lives started. Indeed, it was because of those dreams that our footsteps were brought this far – of such glory we would always bring back to the Lord.

The foundation that my parents have built in our hearts from the very start, that God holds everything in our lives kept pushing us through. It was that faith that made us endure and overcome the toughest of the storms that engulfed us. It is my connection to God that kept me standing and moving forward until I reach this solid ground.

Of all the chapters of my life and my family’s history, there is one thing that I consider as the greatest testimony I could ever tell: THAT THERE’S NO BETTER THING IN THIS WORLD THAN KNOWING GOD AND HAVING HIM IN MY LIFE ALL THE WAY THROUGH.

And like a coin which can only be spent once, I will spend this life in serving and loving the God who was and is and will always be with me all the way!