a great day for families

We had a session for families to help prepare for Christmas. Children from our children ministry brought along their parents and brothers and sisters.



We prayed for mothers, fathers, grandparents, and all the children.


The Emcee (me) welcoming all who came.


Giving a hand to families to make their wreaths.


Each family made their own advent wreaths. It only took 4 toilet rolls, some crepe paper and a paper plate.


A drama on the real meaning of Christmas.

'Mariella' - a single mother's story

A few days ago, i had the opportunity to chat with 'Mariella' (not her real name). She's a lady in her mid 40s with a nursing baby at her side. As i shared my story of not experiencing Christ personally in the past, she opened up to share hers.

When she was expecting her child, she tried to abort him with all the medicines and drugs that she could get her hands on. She figured that since the child will not have a father who is available to love and care for him, and she has another daughter from another relationship, the child would be more of a burden than a gift.

The biological father of the child has another family which he is responsible for.

Now they, like many others who don't have jobs, no opportunities, have problems putting food on the table. Some of these families only eat once or twice a day. Mariella's child survived, all those drugs did not affect him, he is born healthy, with all parts intact,and no complications during child birth. He has a big will to live for his mother. Through this little baby, Mariella found joy, knowing that God provided for him while he is still in her womb, that God protected him from all effects of the drugs. The child is lovely, and very handsome, he was always smiling all the time we were talking. She gave him a name which meant 'God's gift'

My heart was so broken from hearing these stories. But also filled with hope.

So many are so broken inside, so in need of love that we (humanity) are willing to love at all costs. Even love the unavailable, emotional, physically etc To subject to risk of diseases, danger, more pain and suffering, uncertainty and hunger.

Humanity is hungry.

Mother Teresa once said 'Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.'

How do we quench this hunger?

We can start by giving kind attention to someone who needs it today. A neighbour, a class mate, a long lost friend, a family member.

We can listen, smile, give a gift of ourselves by being present to them, doing a kind act, a pat on the back, spending quality time. One never knows what an hour can mean to a lonely person.

"Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love, time is eternity."
- Henry Van Dyke

Just a page off my journal

Psalm 37 was a reading for the day

DESERT (ED)

When the heart is hard and parched up,
Come upon me with a shower of mercy.
When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song.
When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides
Shutting me out from beyond, come to me,
My lord of silence, with thy peace and rest.
When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner; break open the door, my king,
And come with the ceremony of a king.
When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust,
O thou holy one, thou wakeful,
Come with thy light and thy thunder.

Rabindranath Tagore
Gitanjali – “Song of offerings”

Why are we friends?

Excerpts from ‘I love you, I hate you’ by Carlos Valles

‘As our personality is varied and complex, we need different persons in our lives to respond to the different aspects of our character. We may find one friend more amenable to discussing our ideas with, while another may be a genial companion in games but may not respond to an intellectual exchange of any kind. One friendship may be more affective, another more entertaining, a third one more cerebral. We like to joke with some of our friends and be serious with others. IN fact, one good way to measure the closeness of a friendship is to see how many aspects it covers, how many facets of our personality are reflected in that friend, in how many of the circumstances of life we seek his or her company. We are many things to many people, and the more things we are to one particular individual, the closer will he or she be to us, and we to him or her. The ideal friend covers all our life with his or her affection, understanding, patience, silence, conversation, sympathy, criticism, partnership in games, company in travels, care in sickness, echo in laughter. The more of our life we can share with a single individual, the more intimate the friendship will be, and since often we may not find that universal response in one person, we widen the range of our friendship and open up different angels of our life to different people to fit into them and complete between them the circle of intimacy we need for our happiness and well being.

Photo credit: Therese
Place: Tagaytay, Philippines

Teeming with life!

My reflection on Ezekiel 47: 8-12
“This water flows … and flowing into the sea it makes it waters wholesome. Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows.”

In many tribes, whenever they settled, they would choose it to be near a river. The river brings much needed water and food. The river provides a place to meet while doing the laundry. A place to play, to hunt.

Is it any coincidence that 80% of our bodies are made up of water?

Christ has Himself said “but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” John 4:14

This river of life is very much available to us, whenever we partake of the Holy Eucharist, whenever we let the Word of God sink deeper into our souls, when we keep our focus on Him, when we look at our future with hope (in Him), we are opening ourselves up to ‘LIFE’. When i was sick, i had no life in me, i was 'teaming' with disillusion, disappointment, anger. Why do i need to be sick at this important time? But even then, i can either choose to use my waking hours to read on spiritual books, pray OR sulk and pout. I wanted to choose life.

‘Fish will be plentiful’. God has, out of his generosity given us each unique gifts. ‘What do we have that He has not give, what do we have that is not already Yours?’ Our ‘5 loaves and 2 fish’; the gifts which He himself has given us are meant for sharing, for building up his Kingdom. And in this light, our little ‘fish’ (gifts, talents) will be plentiful as we gather in one body to serve Him. ‘To those who have, more will be given’. My piano playing skills are not up to scratch, i am self taught and i often feel self conscious playing in front of people who are trained to played Bach and Tchaikovsky, but i relented and started playing for my community. Many have since told me they were ministered to during those moments. God multiplies! i only need to put in my small part, and big effort.

‘It brings health’. More than physical health, we will have emotional healthy, spiritual health!

We have great opportunities in our midst!

Story of the month - Carl's garden

Carl was a quiet man. He didn't talk much. He would always greet you with a big smile and a firm handshake.Even after living in our neighborhood for over 50 years, no one could really say they knew him very well.Before his retirement, he took the bus to work each morning. The lone sight of him walking down the street often worried us.He had a slight limp from a bullet wound received in WWII.Watching him, we worried that although he had survived WWII, he may not make it through our changing uptown neighborhood with its ever-increasing random violence, gangs, and drug activity.


When he saw the flyer at our local church asking for volunteers for caring for the gardens behind the minister's residence, he responded in his characteristically unassuming manner. Without fanfare, he just signed up.He was well into his 87th year when the very thing we had always feared finally happened.He was just finishing his watering for the day when three gang members approached him. Ignoring their attempt to intimidate him, he simply asked, 'Would you like a drink from the hose?'

The tallest and toughest-looking of the three said, 'Yeah, sure,' with a malevolent little smile.As Carl offered the hose to him, the other two grabbed Carl's arm, throwing him down. As the hose snaked crazily over the ground, dousing everything in its way, Carl's assailants stole his retirement watch and his wallet, and then fled.Carl tried to get himself up, but he had been thrown down on his bad leg. He lay there trying to gather himself as the minister came running to help him.

Although the minister had witnessed the attack from his window, he couldn't get there fast enough to stop it.'Carl, are you okay? Are you hurt?' the minister kept asking as he helped Carl to his feet.Carl just passed a hand over his brow and sighed, shaking his head. 'Just some punk kids. I hope they'll wise-up someday.'His wet clothes clung to his slight frame as he bent to pick up the hose. He adjusted the nozzle again and started to water.Confused and a little concerned, the minister asked, 'Carl, what are you doing?' 'I've got to finish my watering. It's been very dry lately,' came the calm reply.
Satisfying himself that Carl really was all right, the minister could only marvel. Carl was a man from a different time and place.

A few weeks later the three returned. Just as before their threat was
unchallenged. Carl again offered them a drink from his hose.This time they didn't rob him. They wrenched the hose from his hand and drenched him head to foot in the icy water.When they had finished their humiliation of him, they sauntered off down the street, throwing catcalls and curses, falling over one another laughing at the hilarity of what they had just done.

Carl just watched them. Then he turned toward the warmth giving sun, picked up his hose, and went on with his watering.The summer was quickly fading into fall. Carl was doing some tilling when he was startled by the sudden approach of someone behind him. He stumbled and fell into someevergreen branches.As he struggled to regain his footing, he turned to see the tall leader of his summer tormentors reaching down for him. He braced himself for the expected attack.

'Don't worry old man, I'm not gonna hurt you this time.'
The young man spoke softly, still offering the tattooed and scarred hand to Carl. As he helped Carl get up, the man pulled a crumpled bag from his pocket and handed it to Carl.'What's this?' Carl asked. 'It's your stuff,' the man explained. 'It's your stuff back. Even the money in your wallet.' 'I don't understand,' Carl said. 'Why would you help me now?'

The man shifted his feet, seeming embarrassed and ill at ease. 'I learned something from you,' he said. 'I ran with that gang and hurt people like you. We picked you because you were old and we knew we could do it. But every time we came and did something to you, instead of yelling and fighting back, you tried to give us a drink. You didn't hate us for hating you. You kept showing love against our hate.'He stopped for a moment. 'I couldn't sleep after we stole your stuff, so here it is back.'He paused for another awkward moment, not knowing what more there was to say. 'That bag's my way of saying thanks for straightening me out, I guess.' And with that, he walked off down the street.Carl looked down at the sack in his hands and gingerly opened it. He took out his retirement watch and put it back on his wrist. Opening his wallet, he checked for his wedding photo. He gazed for a moment at the young bride that still smiled back at him from all those years ago.

He died one cold day after Christmas that winter. Many people attended his funeral in spite of the weather.In particular the minister noticed a tall young man that he didn't know sitting quietly in a distant corner of the church.The minister spoke of Carl's garden as a lesson in life.In a voice made thick with unshed tears, he said, 'Do your best and make your garden as beautiful as you can. We will never forget Carl and his garden.'

The following spring another flyer went up. It read: 'Person needed to care for Carl's garden.'The flyer went unnoticed by the busy parishioners until one day when a knock was heard at the minister's office door.Opening the door, the minister saw a pair of scarred and tattooed hands holding the flyer. 'I believe this is my job, if you'll have me,' the young man said.The minister recognized him as the same young man who had returned the stolen watch and wallet to Carl.He knew that Carl's kindness had turned this man's life around. As the minister handed him the keys to the garden shed, he said, 'Yes, go take care of Carl's garden and honour him.'

The man went to work and, over the next several years, he tended the flowers and vegetables just as Carl had done.During that time, he went to college, got married, and became a prominent member of the community. But he never forgot his promise to Carl's memory and kept the garden as beautiful as he thought Carl would have kept it.One day he approached the new minister and told him that he couldn't care for the garden any longer. He explained with a shy and happy smile, 'My wife just had a baby boy last night, and she's bringing him home on Saturday.'

'Well, congratulations!' said the minister, as he was handed the garden shed keys. 'That's wonderful! What's the baby's name?'
'Carl,' he replied

Thought for the day

We are ever being born, or dying, and the thrill of choosing which is ours. Only once must we be born without our own consent. Only once must we die without our own permission.



-Calvin Miller

Being a light

I had been making dipping candles. They are so-called because the way to make them is to dip it, wait a few seconds for it to cool and then dip again. And this goes on for 20 dips.

A revelation came to me.

As we are called to be the 'Light of the world'. We are the wick, we could easily just burn down as quickly as we are lit (without the wax). But God is the wax that surrounds us, layer by layer, with love, patience, grace, delight, mercy etc.

And so only with these can we burn more brightly, with His grace, his wax. Burning slowly, brightly.

At the end of my life, with his grace, encouragement, mercy, we would have been able to be His light. And even after we are totally gone, He would still be there, the wax still there at the bottom of the candle.

Without him we can do nothing.