Hello world!

I am still alive and kicking after days of wrestling with a list of tasks assigned to me this week. It's surprising that I am quite busy with my tasks despite of the most recent "restructuring plan" news of the company that brought about rumors of several position dismissal. The enemy wisely uses this and whispers softly to my ear that there's no point finishing nor doing my tasks for my job's stability remains uncertain.

Well,guess what? I didn't ignore that. I looked right back at that little bitty devil and said,"I let go of my worries and fear of being laid off and I'm letting God."

The world is definitely full of uncertainties and I've said this many times. But I have also claimed more than this many times that my God is a faithful God no matter how unfaithful I have become. He may have not given me what I always wanted in life at all times, but He never failed to to provide for my needs. He may have failed to beat my deadlines for countless prayer requests, but He always showed up right on time.

I may not understand every little detail of my life from the very beginning upto this point, but I trust and hold on to His promises.And no matter what tomorrow brings, I 'll praise Him for all that He is and give Him thanks for all He's done, is doing and is about to do in my life.

Happy 102nd Birthday Ms Sarah!

That's her beside me and yes, you read it right. She's a hundred and two years young today. She's a very sweet lady, who used to be my seat mate on the van and even at church. She tells me a lot of stories about life that I'd love to hear and we'd laugh about it together. Though I really don't know her that much, I believe she's a very good soul.

This picture was taken on a Sunday after her baptism in Jesus' name. Sorry for the blur, I don't have another picture of her.

Wary Turtle

Taken on January 3 '09 at McConnell Spring Sanctuary

How big is He?

I went for a walk around the company's facility with my Iranian officemate. Her objective is to lose weight while mine is to kill time. Coming back to my desk, I was approached by an Indian officemate asking to check my IP address. There was a virus outbreak since last week and it seems like this has not been resolved yet. Thank goodness, it wasn't my development nor test machine!

I sat down to check the bugs on our team's list and can't find anything fixable for me- not even the lowest priority ones.I switched to our local IM window and everybody else in our team except myself and a teammate are already offline. I looked at the clock and it's not even 3 o'clock yet.

"Bored?"- an officemate accross my desk finally noticed how bored I might be. I smiled and confirmed I was. He asked me if I read about the company's website article and again I said yes. "Kinda scary huh?" And again, I said yes. He said that the regulars are currently having a meeting about it. That's probably the reason why all my teammates are offline and the other one just had his status changed to away, I thought.

The article mentioned something about "restructuring" and that 375 positions will be affected. Who wouldn't be alarmed with that? If them citizens or even regulars can get distressed with this news, what more tension would that mean for us with temporary visa?

Indeed, no job, profession, house, car, not even any amount of money can conceal the insecurity this world brings. I'm just grateful that I have a God much bigger than all the troubles this world can give. "How big is He? GREAT BIG GOD!" -mercy over me

Finally...

I am at peace with my blog's look and feel after serious deliberation. Although I still would want to modify its font color and sizes, add more widgets and beautify it a li'l bit more,I have to remind myself to take it slow before I get so obsessed with this. So I am taking one step at a time for now.

I am enjoying every bit of it but I am missing some other things I need to do. Another DE(distance education) course has just started last Monday and I haven't done anything for it yet. I haven't started watching the video taped lessons nor even just checked if the CD's are all good.I still don't have the reference books so needless to say,not one reading assignment has been done too. Even here in the office, I've been trying to play with the HTML tags all day yesterday.Tl is away so I played. I usually limit my internet surfing and be bothered just when I thought I have surfed more than enough already. But yesterday, I just can't get myself to stop from playing around with my new blog.tsk tsk tsk... I planned to get started with my DE course when I get home in the afternoon.But again all I did was to continue doing stuff for this blog.

Now here I am,pounding my keyboard for just another entry to post. Let me end this for now so I could get myself to start with my work.

Shrimp Paste (Bagoong)

Favorite Filipino appetizer; also YUM when eaten with crunchy green mangoes.

Still Sleepy BUT Hopeful

Ho-hummm.. I haven't been promoted in my job. I still get upset with holidays because I don't get paid as a contractor. Hubby is still jobless and I am earning just enough to pay for the bills and send some to my family in the Philippines. And ohhh yes, I still feel the pinch of the US economy's unstable disposition.

Thus, the anxiety of what my future is in this land remains. People put their hopes on Obama to make the change that this nation yearns for- to recuperate and regain its grandeur. But I am putting my hope in my God Who has always been faithful no matter how unfaithful I have become.

I hold on to His words and believe that He'll forever be my great Jehovah Jireh.

Unseen Purpose

Hubby and myself were invited to someone's ministry from church to feed the homeless yesterday. When we were given directions on how to get there, part of me got scared of the place. I have been fetched and brought back to my apartment by the the church van for 3 months. And I remember exactly, one of our stop overs was that very same place. I saw how our van driver would invite people there and be laughed at, ignored and sometimes even threatened. There was once when a drunkard insisted that he wanted to go to church with us but the driver very kindly explained that we don't bring intoxicated people to church. Myself, being new to this foreign country, was literally coping with my breath due to nervousness. I was so scared they'd all come to the van and get us all to trouble. Yeah, sounds exaggerated I know.. Maybe it's just this worrywart in me again.

Anyway, when we got there, hubby was anxious where to park or is it even safe to park there. We called a brother from church and he met us outside of the building. As we entered the building, I couldn't and would not dare to look at any of them. A guy or two approached hubby asking for coins but I didn't look at them either. At the kitchen were people from church preparing the food and I finally relaxed myself. We prayed and the head of this ministry told us that whenever he's doing this, he would always think that he's doing it for his very own brother.

The word was preached with the same message as my title. The young preacher got emotional as he emphasized over and over about each one's unseen purpose. It doesn't matter what each one's past was or what his life is all about today. What's the most important is to realize that each one still has a purpose- a relationship with Jesus. I knew not all of them were touched by the message, maybe not even after the preacher burst into uncontrollable tears during the message. I admire this young man's concern for the homeless people in that building. I admire the group's commitment to this ministry and I'm glad to be part of it yesterday.

I went out of the building relieved from the kind of fear that I always have to deal with whenever I hear anything about the place, get near to it and especially when I'm inside that building. These people's physical appearance may be really scary for me but I know Jesus loves them just the same.

Welcome!

I have been an avid follower of some blogs (of people I know and I don't) but have not had the courage to make a public one of my own.

Aside from my secretive nature, what hinders me most is the fear of being judged for what and how I express my thoughts and ideas in my entries.Nevertheless, I wanted to overcome that fear for a real change this year.

So here I am, writing this very first entry and looking forward for more entries to share with you and read from your blogs too...

Happy 2009 everyone!