Missing PLW

I missed PLW again... for the same reason. Twice in a month. This is getting bad. The paranoid and pessimistic side of me is even thinking of the worst-case scenario. I might get the primary complex (it's called with a different name for adults) of the children I'm serving in one of my ministries. Which reminds me to start taking antibiotics for seven days to combat this persistent cough. I trust that God won't allow me to get sick big time. This is just a matter of bad weather and stress. Toss in psychosomatic disorder in the equation. A weak body is what I get. Specifically a weak immune system.

After my fourth upper CG meeting in Harbour Square, I was tempted to push my tired and sick body to attend PLW. My CG Heads advised me to rest again. The obedient side of me happily obliged. But the obstinate side of me wanted to get down the LRT station to find my way to EDSA and transfer to the MRT station. I even contemplated on alighting in Roosevelt Station when I was already in Blumentritt. Too bad I didn't think about that earlier. Hahaha! Pasaway talaga!

I guess I know why God asked me to rest again. He wanted me to avoid the distraction I saw at the Feast. A new guy from the community made me smile today. Thank God for sending me inspirations to write more articles and to publish books in the future.

PLW 202: Holiness

"Holiness is a loving response to God's declaration of love."

I will strive to be holy even though it's very inconvenient on my part because my final destination is in Heaven. :D

PLW 201: Love

"Love grows from just one look -- a moment of forgetting oneself."

I thought love at first sight won't be true in my case... until I first saw Nicole and Nigel (cute babies in the shelter). God must have felt the same thing when He created you and me. :D

Welcome Note

I welcome all my curious followers and avid readers to my fourth public blog. Supposed to launch this next month. But seems as if some dreams can't wait to be fulfilled. One more blog to brew in the head!

I'm thinking of naming this blog either PLW Take Two or My Sacred Half Hour. I was about to choose the former, but others might not know what PLW means. This blog is about my Prayer and Life Workshops, all the learnings and insights I get every Sunday after church services and CG (cellgroup) meetings. After several months, when I'm done with the workshop, I can write more about my sacred half-hour or prayer time. Or even about God's messages to me. God's whispers as we call them in the community.

Happy reading again!

Isaiah 41:9

"and I said, 'You are My servant; I have chosen you and will not cast you away.'"

Father, I thank You for choosing and anointing me once again and for helping me recognize and heed Your call. Thank You for all the wonderful missions and opportunities to serve in Your ministries. As always, I know and trust that I am not alone in these missions. I can feel Your guiding hand in each and every one of them. I just pray for sustenance, strength of character and a bucketful of patience. Help me recognize when it's finally time to go and move on to another mission. Allow me to acknowledge that I am never and will never be indispensable in any ministry... In Jesus' name, amen!

I Found What I Was Looking For: Love for God’s Poor (My First PLW Testimonial)

Phew! I thought I forever lost this. It just so happened that I posted it in another blog, instead of my own blog. Hehehe! Senior moment!

“He who searches must walk.”

               I have been a member of the Light of Jesus Family for almost four years now, but I joined the PLW (Prayer and Life Workshops) three months ago because I was in search of something — something far deeper, more profound, and more significant in my life. After several weeks of diligent and faithful attendance, I found what I was looking for.

               The PLW was very timely because it coincided with my commitment to serve at the He Cares Foundation and eventually inculcated in me a preferential option for God’s poor. The second session of the workshop coincided with my first day of service at He Cares. Since I work at night, I lacked a much-needed sleep. I was dog tired by afternoon after a fruitful service and fellowship in the morning.

               I learned from one of my PLW sessions that “prayer should challenge life and vice versa.” The PLW challenged my life all right. It challenged me to leave my comfort zone and walk on waters. I experienced walking on waters when I learned to love God’s poor. This was a daunting task for me because I grew up in a punitive environment, which contributed to my being fearful, anxious, and insecure. It dawned upon me that I had so much difficulty embracing God’s poor all through the years because I don’t personally know them at all. Some of them are so messed up that it’s hard to see God’s face in them. Most of them are even “fruits of moral and family disintegration.” Now that I know at least some of them, I can say that I’m learning to love them gradually — in small, baby steps — at a pace I’m very comfortable with. I am slowly unveiling God’s face in each and every one of them every time I serve at He Cares.

               “Only a poor person can serve the poor.” My family was financially and spiritually poor while I was growing up, so the face of poverty is not novel to me. In fact, it’s so familiar that I refuse to stare it in the face any longer, but here I am, serving at He Cares Foundation where God sent me to cater to the needs of the street children. I saw the need to serve them, so I decided to stay. Now, I look at poverty in a different light, and I can say that I can stare it in the face without flinching anymore. Because of the PLW, I encounter God’s love in the silence of my heart. Since I reside in Christ and witness love grows, I strive to transcend His love to the poor children entrusted to me.

               I bask in God’s love every Saturday afternoon and during my sacred half-hour (prayer time), and this kind of love lasts until Saturday morning. The superficial “existential loneliness” is either put aside, forgotten, or erased, and I find myself falling in love with God’s poor over and over again.