Month: March 2014

Just came home from a mini road-trip to Seattle, hence the my lateness in posting this entry (sorry!), where I watched the Broadway Musical adaptation of The Lion King. Essentially the entire plot of the play is taken from the movie but there are some songs/scenes added for the stage version.

If you haven’t seen the musical, I suggest that you try to. It’s a very creative take on the movie, with all the costumes, sets and choreography. Also, it has all of your favourite songs from the movie! This is actually the second time seeing the musical and I enjoyed it as much as I had seen it the first time.

One of my favourite songs from the play is “He Lives in You” (There are no spoilers of the play in the clip, just the song and video footage from Lion King 2). For those that are only familiar with the movie, yes that song is from there. The song was added as part of the scene(s) when Simba is taught about the Great Kings that are in the sky by Mufasa and Rafiki .

The song, though secular in presentation, can be a reminder that the Lord is always with us though we may forget it at times. Remember that no matter how distant we may feel, the Lord is always calling us! He is calling us to be the light of the world (2nd reading today)! To be His examples of love here on earth! Let us pray that through our love, the Lord will be revealed to those that do not know Him.

“18 I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” John 14:18-21

As I write this blog, and as I think about what has been going through my heart and mind lately, I ponder on the things God has asked and called me to do in my life.  From the little things to the bigger things, God seems to keep calling me to new heights, to new beginnings, to new journeys, calling me to serve Him continually.  There was a point actually this week when I questioned (rhetorically) … “why.”  I wonder why, in the brokenness that I seem to have, and in the weaknesses and failures I have in my life, and in the things I am going through, I ask “why would God keep asking me to do things for Him, thinking to myself, but I’m so bad, I’m this and I’m that” …. of course there is something in me that convicts me to serve the Lord, and that wants to, but there is also something that makes me see how unworthy I am in being asked to do something for God.  I mean, who am I really … but a big sinner.  Yet He keeps asking and leads me to Himself.  In this I see the Love of God.  That in my weaknesses and brokenness, He continues to shower His love and His blessings and His Grace in my life, that He continues to call me, a broken and imperfect sinner (one of the worst to be honest, lots of things I need to work on in my life seriously), closer to Himself.  Despite my stubbornness and disobediences and sins, He doesn’t give up and does not let me go.  It’s like He is running after me.  This actually reminds me and urges me to share about the story of the broken clay pot … it’s too long to include in this blog, but if you can, I would ask you to Google it and you can read it there.  It’s basically about two clay pots which were used to bring water.  One of them was cracked, and so the water would drip out as the pots were being carried.  The cracked clay pot would feel ashamed and apologetic for losing all the water through this flaw that it had.  Little did that pot know that the water that was dripping ended up watering the seeds which the “water bearer” planted and it sprouted flowers!  The water bearer knew about the clay pots “cracks” and flaws, and took full advantage of it.  This is how I see God work in people’s lives.  Reminds me of Paul’s encounter with the thorn on his side, when God told him that His power is made perfect in weakness.  And so this then allows me to ponder on how God truly uses the humble in heart.  And so I pray and ask the Lord, to get rid of my foolish pride, and to make me humble, not with a false sense of humility, but with true and real humility, that comes from Him alone.  So I ask for everyone’s prayers as I take these steps with you in this journey of faith.

May God be praised.

Taking it back to the BeeGees! How deep is your love???

Love. I’ve been in this constant “mantra” of trying to be more loving every day. A brother once told me that a good way to do this is to go back to this:

“Love is patient and kind;
love is not jealous or boastful;
it is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrong,
but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.”

(1 Corinthians 13: 4–7)

He told me to replace the word, LOVE, with my own name. And the day I can say this passage using my name each time it says LOVE, then that’s when I know I can truly 100% wholeheartedly love. SO… here I am, thinking this is already hard enough to do, until I read the Gospel on Friday…

“‘and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.‘ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
(Mark 12: 30-31)

I thought loving required simply being able to just say 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 with my name, but NO. It isn’t just that. After reading this gospel, I knew that there is a greater call to Love…

If we are all children of the Lord, then we all carry a piece of Him. So to love God is to love ourselves too. But in saying this, to love God is to love all those around us as they too, are from the same Father. But as for me… to love is being able to say, 

Erin is patient and kind;
Erin is not jealous or boastful;
Erin is not arrogant or rude.
Erin does not insist on its own way;
Erin is not irritable or resentful;
Erin does not rejoice at wrong,
but rejoices in the right.
Erin bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.

PLUS I must say it in regards to not only my heart, but ALL MY MIND, ALL MY SOUL, and ALL MY STRENGTH, meaning my thoughts and ALL OF ME – not just my actions – must reflect this… through my thoughts, my words, my actions, and my being…

THEN I can say I know how to love.

I am NOT perfect. In fact, I am far from it. But what I can do is open myself up to His WORD to constantly allow Him to reveal Himself to me, the same way He has with LOVE… one step at a time… WHY? Because my journey with the Lord is a simple slow dance. It is not too fast, it is far from complicated. But it is SIMPLE. And He guides me gently in His arms all throughout. In all my daily trials and tribulations, He awakens me every time with one question…

“My child, how deep is your love?“

“How Deep Is Your Love”

I know your eyes in the morning sun
I feel you touch me in the pouring rain
And the moment that you wander far from me
I wanna feel you in my arms again

And you come to me on a summer breeze
Keep me warm in your love and then softly leave
And it’s me you need to show
How Deep Is Your Love

How deep is your love, How deep is your love
I really need to learn
‘Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down
When they all should let us be
We belong to You and me

I believe in You
You know the door to my very soul
You’re the light in my deepest darkest hour
You’re my Savior when I fall
“You may not think
I care for you
When you know down inside
That I really do
And it’s me you need to show
How Deep Is Your Love”

Come Holy Spirit, fill Thy servant as You will,
Amen.

Friday night we had our CFC-SFC Teaching night.  The topic of the night was AnCOP, and how it’s so much more than just a sponsor program; that it promotes livelihood and health as well; through community outreach programs.  Being the AnCOP Representative for SFC this was a big deal to myself and my counter-part.  As anxiety and concern flowed through our minds as the people started flooding in, I couldn’t help but just say “That’s It…All in your hands now Lord”.

The night went amazing! We were able to get our message out, but what really stuck out was the willingness our Brothers and Sisters have to serving not just our fellow man through AnCOP, but here on a local scale.  We promoted our plans to Build the Church of the Poor by volunteering at local soup kitchens, community outreach programs and long-term care facilities, and people were eager to jump on board with us.  It was such an awesome feeling.

Did it end there? To my surprise it didn’t.  Last month SFC Winnipeg held their annual AnCOP fundraiser “LOVE NOTES”.  That was a success, but when we first counted the monies raised, after all expenses paid off,  we thought we were shy of our goal of continuing to sponsor 4 AnCOP Scholars.  We had our monthly AnCOP Core Meeting today, and did our final monies count, we discovered there were a few calculation errors and discovered we didn’t hit our target goal…WE SURPASSED IT!!!!!

SFC Winnipeg is now sponsoring 3 Grade School Scholars and 3 Post Secondary Scholars!!! All in Your Hands Now Lord is right!!! 

“Only a Life Lived for Others is a Life Worthwhile.” Albert Einstein

everything is Awesome,
Jerry

Well let’s start with saying sorry now for my bad grammar in my blogs. lol

 

For the last week or so I have been really thinking of what I was going to write for my first blog as a Mission Volunteer. For few days I thought about it and after those few days it slipped my mind for some old reason. Today was such a blessing even know I am not in California for Grace and Ian’s wedding. I am truly blessed I got to go to the CLP tonight. It was truly a reminder of who I am and why I am here.

I felt  God telling me tonight that I need to be more patient with myself and to wait on what God has planned for me. I would say the last 3 months has been a test of my patients and faith. Waiting on interviews and the email saying I have been accepting to the MV program.

I am truly blessed to be in this situation. Being accepted into MV program and attending the SFC CLP at the same time is amazing. The reason why is I am learning so much about myself in the CLP that I need to be better servant in the MV program. I am thankful for God for putting these two program together at the same time! So that I may grow up and still be young at heart serving the youth.

 

Two new journey to only bring me closer to God!

Thank you for the gift SFC Edmonton.

 

 

A very simple message that the Lord has been sharing with me can be summarized by St. Irenaeus:

The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of a man is the vision of God.

It’s been a week since arriving in the Philippines. I am still adjust to the culture, language, weather,  and living conditions. But the Lord never fails to speak to me in my vulnerable and uncomfortable (physically) state.There are several moments where the Lord reminds me of the joy that can be experienced when living out His will.

I’ve been blessed with many opportunities to have one on one’s with the brother Full-Time Pastoral Workers (FTPWs) assigned here in Metro Manila and even those assigned in the provinces. I was really affirmed that the Lord’s call to mission is personal and timely. Mission work is not an escape from the realities of life, but rather an opportunity to let God be first in my life. I have found an inner peace that can only come from the Lord because He is number one.

I am alive because Christ is alive in me 🙂

In the live recording of the song “I Never Knew You” the artist starts with an opening monologue – of sorts – in order to properly set the context for the upcoming song in which he asks, “why do we forget things?” Although the artist is speaking and singing within the frame of romance, he somehow manages to touch on a very real part of our shared existence.

“What is it about our humanness where we forget? We remember, we forget, we remember, we forget… and I think it’s just for the opportunity of enlightenment, the opportunity to awaken again and again and again, because it feels good… it feels good to remember our greatness.” – Jason Mraz

I think that ultimately, the way we express our natural inclination to outwardly reciprocate God’s love towards others – whether platonic or romantic – can be telling of the types of relationships we value.

– –

I’ve never really been one to journal, I never saw the point. I was the type of person who would fall on the flawed but lazily justifiable logic that whatever doesn’t stick with me in memory is just something that I can re-discover, and thus re-awaken to the revelation that it offers.

Basically I was satisfied being stuck in a loop, due to my horrible memory.

I was a Mission Volunteer in CFC-Youth for the better part of a year, and now that I’ve reprised the role in SFC, I feel that the Lord asking me not to simply re-live the experience with a different filter, but He’s calling and beckoning me to experience this community in ways that I was not open to in the past.

Remember, forget, repeat… if only to move forward bearing in mind the greatness of God in you, me and us.

Lord, I would love the chance to love You, like I’ve never known You.

– Jesse R.
” I Am, and We are Missionaries”