I have not sent any cards or any emails last Christmas season and I know it's not an excuse but I went to the Philippines and came back in January 1st. Some of you knew about it and had been praying about this trip and I thank you. I had a hectic schedule with my priority of going home as to complete the project in Roxas City and also to attend the 50th birthday of my brother Edgar last Dec. 24th.
I arrived Iloilo in Dec. 10th and the storm just left Panay Island where I was going and I had a pleasant trip from Manila to Iloilo then to Roxas City. The next few days was spent in planning and fixing what was needed for The House Of The Way. We all had fun arranging the plants from the 1st floor to the third floor. We had Papa's vegetable plants transferred to the rooftop to have it accessible whenever we needed it. I indulged in fish and vegetables everyday. It was also a preparation for the 50th birthday of Toto Edgar.
We invited family and friends to join with us in thanking God for the birthday of Toto Edgar and to just have fellowship with family and friends. The picture will show you how much fun we had and being blessed for his life. Maris was with us for a week, helped us in the preparation and just being with us through thick and thin. Bing invited Tinoy from Manila, their best friend, and it was a surprise gift to Toto. At first he did not recognize him. He thought he was one of the pastors around who came by and he later realized he was a friend who traveled for more than 16 hours, having been stranded due to the storm.
There were some friends who were not able to make it because of church activities and Christmas celebrations but most of our special friends came and joined with us. Inday Emid and Auntie Sweet were some of our faithful friends who traveled from Iloilo and stayed with us until Christmas. We were just blessed by their presence.
After the birthday party, we continued our fun celebrating Christmas. We had the elephant exchange gift but most of our friends opened the gifts that they wanted and did not exchange it.
On Christmas Day, kids around the area came to sing Christmas carols. It's a Philippine tradition that kids go around the block and sing carols expecting to have some gifts. There were approximately 60 kids who came with age ranging from 4 years old to teenagers, one to three groups at a time, with 3 to 10 per group. These kids came before the 25th but they were told to come on the 25th and sure enough they came. We set up the conference hall at 6 PM and they just kept coming until 9 PM. We had a break at 8 PM for our dinner but even before we were done with our dinner, there came the carolers. They were served with juice, chips ahoy cookie and Inday Emid shared with them about Christmas and who Jesus Christ is. Jaja was in charge of giving the juice, I gave the cookies, Toto took care of the sound, Ronron with the video and Inday Emid with the Christmas story. While the kids were taking snacks they were shown the video when they were singing. It was some experience for us that was not really planned but it was in my heart that somehow these kids who were going around the block singing Christmas songs will find meaning in what they are doing and the meaning of Christmas giving. We think that this is the start of the Children's Ministry for The House Of The Way.
In Dec. 31st Leslie, her kids, Manang Lisa with Nong Noe, Roger and Indang with their kids joined with us in welcoming the New Year. We had singing contest early that night. Everybody joined the contest and everybody had a chance to vote as many times as they wanted. Of course everybody won and everybody had a prize. After the singing we had sharing of our blessings for the past year, how God was faithful in all our needs and we are looking forward to a wonderful and fruitful 2007. We had candle lighting which signifies that we are the light of the world. It was almost 12 MN when we finished and we then watched the lights and the “palupok” and the barrage of noise around.
The next morning we all got ready to go to Iloilo for my flight to Manila then to LA. It was a wonderful Christmas vacation. Although there were challenges, the going home was worth it.
I thank God for the opportunity given to me to spend Christmas with my family and special friends and hoping to spend every Christmas with them.