Bleach

I know it's a weird title but this is such a good post I had to get back on here to share it!

I have been washing my cloths and laundry by hand for a while now. And well it started to become a dread of mine. I hated taking an entire day to scrub and rinse and rinse and rinse again only to end up with cloths all stretched out and crunchy! Justin my hero noticed that I was dreading these wash days and came up with a grand idea! "Honey" he said " Why don't we budget getting our cloths washed at the laundry mat?" I of course was thrilled with the idea. We cut back on a few things and now have our cloths sent out! Praise the Lord! But it cost double to get towels and sheets done at this place so I figured I could handle those with out a tear.

So once a week I take half a day and scrub my sheets and towels and it's become a joy for me. I feel productive and helpful! I turn my music up and scrub away.

Well while on our furlow i bought some bar rags and white wash cloths at Costco. I love white towels! Not sure why, but I do. The hard part about owning such beautiful things is that they don't tend to stay that white. I also bought two super cute white tops at GAP and after sending them out to be washed they started to come back dingy looking. well I decided I needed some BLEACH! Yes I needed my whites whiter!

I scrubbed as usual but this time I soaked my white towels and tops in bleach and WOW what a difference! I was amazed! My towels looked brand new and my tops were no longer raggedy looking!

It made me think of my life and my sins. They too dirty my heart my mind and make me dingy. Then I thought about how God's Son's Blood works a lot like bleach. It makes us clean again, spotless, and bright! I am so glad I have bleach to take care of my laundry and have not the words to show how grateful I am to God for sending His Son to cleanse me from all my unrighteousness!

I have also found this little smiley face good company as I work. It was placed there by the previous tenant's helper most likely. I do my laundry in the maids quarters where some poor girl worked very hard and put this cute little sticker up to hlep her get though the day. I am glad it is there to cheer me up and make me smile!

what have I been up to???

OK so I have been MIA lately SORRY for that! I have been trying to get in a routine for a month now and well it has been difficult! So I am back now and I hope to get things rolling and start blogging! We got our new camera while we were in the States ( Thanks Dad, Granny, and everyone else who chipped in!) I have been taking pictures but Justin also got a new computer and has been steeling my pictures and forgetting that I still need the shots too! So we are on share mode and I have pictures and adventures to share!!!

We had a 4th of July Party with our friends the Wagner's and the Solis's! We had a great day!

We took cute Pictures

We ate hamburgers and Brats cooked on the new BBQ!

We played inside and we swam too!

The Babies first 4th of July! so FUN!!!

We are so glad to have friend's who live near by!





Oh and I made a garland!! I am in love with GARLAND!!!

Well Let's see I also took a little trip to a very famous Island called Corregidor that is found off the coast of Manila Bay area! it is where US and Filipino solders fought together during WWII.

This is the Eternal Flame

Here is a great view of the Bay. I am on top of a Lighthouse at one of the tips of the Island

And here I am going down to the first level of the invisible gun where they kept the ammunition for this amazing gun that would disappear after firing it's powerful shots. It would drop and be reloaded to be shot again! The enemy didn't know what was coming or from where.

All in all I have been very busy! and with my new camera working I need to get Blogging!

Note from the Editor!

Just to make things clear! I am not by any means putting my hope and trust in the book I quoted in my last post! I did however love the story and recomend it! I have read alot about the author and realize that the chariture the this book is not who God is. We all must look only to the true Word of God to find our peace, hope and future!
Thanks for listening to me!

The 4th of July in the Philippines

We had a great time with our friends as we ate and swam. We enjoyed celebrating not only Independance day but also national Filipino American friendship day! We are truely blessed to have many Filipino friends and also be citisans of such a great nation! God has has blessed us!

So here are a few pictures of our fun filled day!

*Well as you can tell i never posted any pictures on this one ha haa haaaa! I am a loon! this was last years 4th of July post! Ahhhh!

Perspective!

I have been thinking long and hard about this post and I just deleted about an hour of typing and cmae up with this... Hope you like it!

So I have two eyes and two ears and one mouth. I live in a far off place with one man (Justin) and I don't have any kids yet. Well I got to thinking about what kind of perspective do I really have and I came up with not much! All that I think and all that I do are because of my own perception, what I think is right or wrong. What I feel and how I see it? Not much!

I do how ever have many friends who are going through so many diferant things and I am starting to realize that I can learn from their prespective too if I just listen! And more importantly I have a Father in heaven who has the widest perspective. I must look to him and his word to find Truth.

Well I got this idea from a book I read, by the way you all should read it!!! The Shack. Well I got this from the book so don't go thinking I am smart or anything like that OK!

"Paradigms power perception and perceptions power emotions. Most emotions are responses to preceptions-what you think is true about a given situation. If your perception is false, then your emotional responce to it will be false too. So check your perceptions, and beyond that check the truthfulness of your paradigms- what you believe. Just because you believe something firmly doesn't make it true. Be willing to reexamine what you believe. The more you live in the truth, the more your emotions will help you see clearly. But even then, you don't want to trust them more than me " - Holy Spirit

I hope this helps you as much as it helped me realize that I am not always right and I need to cling to Jesus and HIS TRUTH! That is the best prespective to have!

A call to pray

I am here in the Philippines writing to you my friends and family in the US and I am asking for your help. We are in this world that loves the EVIL one. We are a chosen people. We are here for such a time as this. We are to be lights to the world. We are to fight a good fight. We are in the Lord's army as my Sunday school class loves to sing. And we are in a battle! Not against flesh and blood but against spirits and demons. We as believers must stand for truth. We need to stop bending and compromising. We need to PRAY!

Being on the mission field was supposed to be hard and I knew the Devil would attack but I didn't see this coming. I thought we would be facing spiritual warfare in our back yards but at this point and time I only see the battle being in the US. Now I know we have difficulties here but as i sit here I have found so many things to be praying for back in the US. I have friends having babies and getting married and now I am in a season I had never dreamed I would be. I am seeing the evil one tear apart so many of my friend's marriages. And I am here so far away and I can't baby sit for them or offer a helping hand, comfort them or cry with them. I feel so very far away! I want to see these new babies and hold them and I want to hug the neck of these friends who are hurting inside and yet I can't. So as I sit here at 1:30 in the morning praying for these whom are in the midst of joy and pain, I lay on the floor prostrate before our most gracious heavenly father and pray for these who are in life changing situations. And I ask you also to join with me as I cry out to God for mercy, for strength, for wisdom, and for his love that endures all things!
Please pray with for...
Our President, and our Government.
Our Husbands and Wives
Our Children
Our families
Our friends
Our neighbors
Our co-workers

We must spend time with our God so that in these dark days we will be able to stand firm in His Word and in His Love against the Evil one. We need to be on our knees Worshiping our Maker and confessing our sins, Thanking him for his goodness, and for others who are around us, instead of worrying about lame things, I could list a few but you know what they are. If we commit to set time aside with him our relationship with him will grow stronger and His spirit will over flow into our relationships with others! Thank you for praying with me in this. I know God has all power and is mighty to save!

Family and friends part two

Friends are so much fun to be around! They make you laugh and they cook food you don't normaly get to eat, they take you to their favorite places and they remind you that life is worth living! We are all here to love one another. God tells us that all men will know that we are his fallowers if we do just that, Love one another! I had a great time visiting all my frineds and I hope they were as blessed as we were!

James, Greta, Lilly and William were great hosts to me one night. We had a fun packed day! We started with packing some of their things as they were getting ready to move. I found this suprizingly great fun. Partly because Greta is a vintage collector of dishes and kitchen nik nacks.

Also I am always amazed at how simple they live. I also got to jot down great recipies. We woke up early and played all morning. We went on a outing to Trader Joe's and we hung out by a nice little pond. Greta also introduced me to my new craving, YogurtLand!!!!! OH YUM YUM!!!

We took some time to take some great pictures! This is my favorite shot because it has one of my favorite people in it, William and he has his fantastic frumpy lip pose. Greta is in the back ground laughing at him. I love this little guy and I am so glad that we now have a friendship.

James is a super model, well I mean supper fun to take pictures of. He has such a cute smile and he is one of the most thought provoking kids I know. On this morrning we had a deep theological conversation that I can't remember at this moment, but it was good and it all boiled down to Jesus died for us so we can all go to heaven to be with him some day! Thanks for the lesson James I had a wonderful time chating with you.

I aslo had the opportuntiy to spend an evening with the Dayton family and some of their friends. Holly, Emily, Amalia, and Alana were there and we had a splened time talking and praying for the guys as they went out to minister to the homeless in Temecula. They didn't find many, but we thought they might have been hideing from them because there were six of them all of who are tall strong and a bit intimidating. But God had led them to go and they obeyed. isn't that what we are suposed to do?

The evagelistic man gang, Brian, Justin, Jason, Casey, and Bret. Mr. Dayton joined them also but he is a pimp and pimps don't pose for pictures, well that is what he said.

And well here is my good ole pal holls! we are two peas in a pod!

going home

Just some of my friends and family!









I am just writing a note to say I am getting ready to pack my boxes and head to Target one more time because I forgot one more thing! I am putting my game face on and trying to prepare for a long trip! I am at a funny place again, When I left the first time to go to the Philippines I couldn't get there fast enough! But when I left to come here in March I was really excited to come visit my family and friends, I had never felt this way before. I have always been so sad to come to the US not knowing when I would return but not this time. I was thrilled to come visit because I know I have a home and my life is there in Manila. But now I am at a new place going back. I am sad to say good bye, it is going to be 10 more months before I see anyone again. Friends are a little easier but saying good bye to kids is hard because they grow so fast and 10 months is a long time in kid time. I got to stay longer than I had hoped and that has made it good but also harder, we are rebuilding relationships and meeting new people and man it is just hard to leave. Well I know I have a purpose and God has me where he wants me so I will trust he will provide for all my needs, even my emotional ones. He is in control and will get me through!
Thanks every one for your prayers and for making this trip a very fun and memorable one. I know you are praying for me and I hope that those prayers will keep us connected! God Bless

Home is where we are not?

So we are in the good old US of A!!!! I am very happy to be here and even more happy to know that in a month we will be returning to where our hearts are! I asked a missionary friend a few months ago "where is 'home' for you?" and she said " home is where we are not." if we are here home is there and when we are there home is here. I though about that and liked the idea. That is how we feel too! we love our families and we are very blessed to be here visiting them but home is in the Philippines now and when we were there we always talk about coming home to see every one. When I started to think about it the more I realized how true this statement was yet in a different way. Our real home is with Jesus in the Kingdom of God in heaven! We are only travelers here on earth. And then I realized that we are all MISSIONARIES here on earth. We are all to be fishers of men. We are all ministers of the gospel to someone? We are all called to tell of the goodness of Jesus, and we are all waiting to GO HOME! I have only been here for four days and yet I am still missing my life there in the PI. How crazy is that? But I do. As we all should be missing our true home in heaven with our heavenly father. What a day that will be when we are there sitting at the throne of God worshiping together and living in perfect relationship the father and each other! So as we are here in California, I ask that you would pray for us as we will be traveling all over southern Cali and we will be very busy visiting family and supporters. We are slightly home sick and also thrilled to be here all at once! We are excited to share with you all what God is doing in our lives there in the PI and also tell about His faithfulness to us as we fallow after him. Thank you for taking the time to read about my adventures and I hope you are encouraged by them. God Bless!

Healing

I am amazed at how our bodies can heal it self. My fingers were in a terrible state but now only seven days later they are just fine and ready to tackle the this weeks load of laundry! I got to thinking about how we too are in a terrible state. We are tainted with sin! It stains relationships and causes a great divide between us and God. And the sad thing is that nothing we do on our own will help. We can't be nice enough or try harder or go to enough church services or pray enough. We can't do anything but give our lives to Jesus. He is the only one who can heal us from this "illness" we all have. Paul the apostle wrote, "I do what I don't want to do and don't do what I want to do." (Romans 7:15) Isn't that the truth! We want to obey and trust and be like Jesus but we can't instead we disobey, lean on our own understanding and are selfish. When I look at my own life I see a drowning person trying to catch a second breath before sinking to the bottom of this pit we call life. At times I feel ok and then splash I jump in again and can't keep my self afloat. I like Peter must focus on Jesus and not on the things of this world. When we focus on him then the things of this world grow dim in the light of his Glory. He is the one who saves us from this evil world (Galatians 1) He is our only hope and a true refuge. He has experienced great troubles and trials, even temptation. He has compassion on us. He has over come this world so that we might be free from it's power. He is our healer both of body and soul. He is who we must cling to when all else fails. When we confess with our mouths and repent from our sins then and only then can his healing work in our lives. Relationships can be restored and forgiveness is granted. He wipes our filthy lives clean. His grace came with a hefty price but that price was paid for us when Jesus died on the cross. His mercy is new every morning! He will continue to give good gifts to his children. We are so blessed by our heavenly Father. He has made us fearfully and wonderfully. We are made in his likeness. Because of Jesus we can be forgiven and can be restored, truly healed and when the time comes we to will be with the father in his kingdom! What a day that will be when we are completely healed!

February 14, 2009

I LOVE VALENTINES DAY!
Well I do this year because it is the first year since Justin and I have been married that I haven't had to work delivering flowers all over Southern California. I was so glad to wake up to two love letters, one being from Justin of course and the other being God's word. Hilighted was the verses out of Proverbs 31. And it reminded me of things that I am good at and some things I need work on. I made crepes with lime sauce and we enjoyed chatting about where we would be eating for our date that evening. I would have had presents to open but I couldn't wait so Justin let me open them all the day before. He got me a much needed note book for school, a variety of dark chocolates and a nice little wooden dish I had been eyeing. We had cleaned the house and done the laundry the day before too so we had the whole day to relax and just be together. We didn't have to go to school or worry about a Bible study or have to be any where, it was a nice change to our normal Saturdays. I did how ever have scabs on my fingers from washing towels so holding hands was out of the picture but we were able to have a wonderful day just the two of us.

I am so sorry!!!

Why are those words so therapeutic? I find that no matter how hard it is to get these words out of my mouth that I am overwhelmed by peace the moment they leave my mouth. It's like God just wipes the slate clean as soon as I am ready to admit that I have sinned and that I am in rebellion against Him my creator and Lord. I am always having to use these words over and over and over again and I am continually amazed at my Saviours response.

FORGIVEN! FORGOTTEN!I LOVE YOU!

His mercies are new every morning! It is his kindness that leads me to repentance. I know what his answer will be! I hope that as I grow closer to him that I too might be more like Him, full of mercy and forgiveness. Most people know me as a very talkative person and I seem to know some one every where I go. So knowing this you must realize that I love people, I love meeting new people and I really love getting to know people who love Jesus! I am a slow learner as my poor language teachers can attest to, but I am a learner, a student and a mere child studying every one and everything around me wanting to know about things I haven't yet experienced. In this learning process I find my self messing up and falling down, I make two steps forward and then three steps back. I even feel as though I am turned around and going the wrong way at times, but I cling to the promises of Jesus that Nothing can separate us from his love, that he will never leave us nor forsake us that he loves me and gave his life so that I might live! I know I have hurt many in this learning stage of my life and that some day when we are made whole that we won't hurt any more. So until we are there seated before the throne of God worshiping his name I ask some of you for forgiveness for being insensitive or unkind or strait up mean. I am still learning to be more like Jesus.

So this blog started out as a I am sorry that I haven't written in a while and this is what came out. I like it! I will try to keep this page more up to date, our camera broke and our new one in still waiting for us to pick it up in the US. So blogging isn't as fun but I will try! Thank you for reading my adventures! It helps me feel connected to those I love and miss!

New Years 2009 is here!

Well This new years eve party tops all other in that we were amazed by the insaine amount of fire works! Not just fire crackers but big time fire works. They were incredable! The sad part was when the clock hit midnight the smoke was so thick we could hardly see the street in front of our house. Justin, Farshid, Sina, Maryam and I all went to the roof deck for a better view. It ended up being a little better but soon became a better view of the smoke. Every one had profesional fire works going off from about 10 PM until 2 AM. We had a great time with friends eating and playing cards. The kids enjoyed a movie and the babies slept soundly. It was a wonderful time of fellowship. A few of the families stayed the night and we awoke the next day and served breakfast for those who stayed over. Justin and i then headed out for a movie but found out that the Philipino film festival means that all the movies out are in Tagalog. So our new new years day tradition was a flop. Well we spent the rest of the day resting from our evening of fun.