End times?

Couldn't sleep till near midnight last night, and woke up three hours later--why? been thinking about the whys and wherefores of why Suri& Gabe have to leave our church...and what happens to the tasks they will leave behind with no one skilled enough to handle them...tossed and turned, turned and tossed, even cried a little...
Later this morning wasn't any better. Started 'researching' on future material for worship services and felt BP levels rising (it did---175/95????jeepers!). A tranquilizer and 11 laps in the pool in the heat of the 9am sun did the trick: lowered the boiling pt BP, and cheered me up somewhat.Frolicking in the blue waters under the hot,hot sun does wonders to my soul anytime (and i'm the only one brave/foolish enough to be swimming under the hot sun in these parts!).

Had a marathon chat with Suri in the late afternoon. She explained again why they had to leave: they believe they need to leave our church in order to grow and be strong and come back when the time is right. Egging me to do the same. As working with the people there seems to be draining my energies (and making me age fast)...and the ship is sinking...it seems.

Suri shared her recent learnings: that we are entering the end times, and that churches who refuse to listen (like ours) will be put through a sieve to cull the true believers from the false ones.And that our church will have to experience a fall before it can truly rise and reach its potential heights in the Lord's kingdom.
That the members of the church all have 'issues' and baggage that prevent them from fully accepting the Lord in their lives, thus hindering the church's growth and salvation...and because of this, we will be included in the slaying...And that the fall of MMCC begins after its 40th year---which incidentally, we celebrated just yesterday with a bang!That the people are too engrossed in self and work and wealth, etc...and for them to be lifted up, they first need to be humbled. Who will survive the humbling? it is not for us to say...Incidentally, for the past two Sundays, Suri said she saw visions of angels with swords facing dark creatures with swishing tails---INSIDE OUR CHURCH while the preaching was going on!!

Has the fall begun? By next Sunday, Suri & Gabe will be gone, and so will Ptr. Cris. Already we have not seen the Grinos and the Pinedas...the Bocanegras have stopped attending Bible studies and Sunday schools where once they were just so happy to be there. By this Sunday, we shall have lost two Sunday school teachers, the pianist, and who knows what else soon---and to date we don't have a regular pastor, even! Who will handle the services with Ptr.Cris gone? Simbang Umaga,Christmas Eve and all the buzz that goes with it? Am already up to my eyebrows in Sunday school, the Council workshops, etc.Well,I guess when it's time to cross this bridge, i may well take Suri's advice. She says to say, "Ok, you want this and that? who will handle them?"

So it seems the dark clouds are about to descend any moment now. But i know there's a light behind it---and thereupon do i pin my hopes. But first we must survive the night.God have mercy on us all!

Thanksgiving aftermath

It's been a long weekend for me here, too. Hope you've recovered from Operation Turkey. Regarding your plan to not bake a whole turkey next time---practical sounding man, but somehow, di kaya mawala ang visual Thanksgiving dinner 'effect' ? Unless you can somehow shape the turkey breasts to resemble a whole turkey (small replica bala)?
Finally had the 'break' i was waiting for last Thursday: went to watch this tagalog movie everyone was talking about called 'One More Chance' with my girlfriends from down the hill...and boy, it was good! The acting and scenes were all realistic, dili corny and not the usual screamy-melodrama. Funny thing lang: the leading lady seemed to have forgotten to change bags throughout the whole movie!( trust a female to notice details like that, huh?) Maayo ra ba gyud kung it was a classic leather bag na dili noticeable? It was one of these large safari-print cloth sacks!! Am so tempted to write them and point this thing out, just don't know how and where, harhar!

Friday naman was pretty busy---had to edit both the histories of the Matutum school and church which were to be read at the Thanksgiving service today, Sunday. It's the church's 40th, and the school's 35th...and fascinating kaayo to read about something that old, and to learn how it all began...

In the afternoon , we had to attend this parenting seminar sponsored by the school PTA---this Chinese guy from Ateneo who was a really good speaker---spoke on parenting, of course---and he really impressed us all by his manner of speaking and his insights, until he revealed at the open forum that he was 47 and unmarried, without kids!! Which means basically everything he knows is textbook stuff, plus things he learned along the way from being around friends and relatives with kids, and being a guidance counselor in the Ateneo at some point. Phooey.

Ended up having dinner with Pops and Baby after the lecture---Rene went home na, but dropped by the school where Momon and all the middle and upper school kids were having Club Night. Earlier, when he should have been pitching his tent, Momon decided to swing high on the bars of the soccer goal and somehow lost his grip and fell hard on his back. It was a bad fall, and everyone who saw it got alarmed as he somehow doubled up daw, then turned pale and cold, but when i got to him, he was walking around like nothing happened, but when forced, admitted that his back kinda hurt. Told him to inform the teacher if he started feeling weird or throwing up...which didn't happen that night, thank God...but the minute their camp folded up the following morning, i brought him to the hospital for some xrays. Unfortunately, the real xray doc wasn't around till Tuesday to do a reading of the plates, so it had to be the ER doc doing it. She really couldn't detect anything, but said it seemed that Mon had a slight case of scoliosis.

He seems all right na man now. In fact, he spent the whole day at the church/school anniversary festivities and seemed to be having a good time.
And now that the Rummage sale and the church fiestas are out of the way, i think i'll start taking out my Christmas decor boxes...I think kasi of all the other things i have to do and i get depressed. Or maybe it's because this young couple Shey and Gibby (whom i'm pretty fond of and relied on so much) announced that today was their last Sunday with us in church? Whatever, i think i need to put up my xmas decor to cheer me up.

On that holiday note, i shall bid you goodnight. I just can't seem to shake off the blues, boohoo.
Hope tomorrow will be better!

Halloween Aftermath

Halloween was crazy. Yes, Trick or Treating started at 3pm...para may time ang kids to do the 7 streets, and still have time leftover to go to the Clubhouse for the ultimate tunnel of horror and the games and dinner. It was easily the biggest attended Trick or Treating event in all Kalsangi history.What began as something just for the neighborhood (of Kalsangi) kids has expanded to all the kids of Dole Philippines School plus kids of upper and lower management of Dolefil. Of course not everyone in the school attends, nor do we have all the kids of management coming up---but still...daghan pa gihapon by our standards ang gasaka. Add to that alumni of DPS, like sina Mikko's classmates, etc...plus some folks who bring along nephews and nieces pa...

Almost all of us prepared bags or goodies good for almost 300 kids, and we all ended up broke (in candy/treats). Did i tell you in the whole South Cotabato (or whole mindanao even? who knows?), kami lang ang ga-Trick or Treat. Of course, the posh villages in Manila and probably Cebu have their own thing too...but i don't think they're crazy enough to have street /house contests where everyone comes out to pitch in to make the whole event a success. We had two streets here who had ghouls and white ladies and the like walking up and down their street as part of the 'decor'...some homes naman converted their garages into mini-houses of horror...One street, with The Forbidden Forest as a theme, not only had live creatures like the kapre, witches, etc patrolling their street, they had two live unicorns!! Can you beat that? of course, they were in reality two tame horses with cartolina horns attached to their foreheads...but really! that blew me away!

Our street was more sedate (we also happen to be on a street with less househelp than the rest na we can dress up as witches and ask to walk up and down the street). We opted to have a Pirate theme...with only the shipwreck and beach on the street corners as the highlight. And since we didn't have the necessary manpower to walk up and down our streets as well, we only had black skull and cross-bones flags lining our street as added decor.Trina and Pops' daughters were dressed as girl pirates and they just kinda hung around the street entrance as unofficial props... But because it was tastefully done (ahem!), we still placed 3rd. The street with the unicorns placed 2nd, while the one with the most witches and ghosts walking around placed first.Prizes were in cash, but to be used towards a street party, so okay na rin. Of course, there are the 'walang kamatayan', ever-present prizes, cases of Dole fruitcups as additional reward.

What did DJ wear for Halloween? I can just imagine him so cute in whatever it was he was wearing and then dropping like a fly 5 minutes into his car ride with his grama! My kids for many years would go trick or treating with these pumpkin buckets---that ended up way too small for all the 'loot' they amassed, and they would have to come home midway and 'unload' their buckets to make room for their '2nd half' of the bounty.

The morning after Halloween, i joined Momon on the rug and had him spread out his candy and sort them. What he didn't like, Mikko and I went through, and what was left over was given to his yaya (still a whole bag's worth). Mikko took pains to make himself look like 'V' (for Vendetta), but got his kicks not from trick or treating, but from walking up and down all the streets in his costume and getting people to guess who he was! Trina didn't go trick or treating, either, but dressed like a lady pirate of sorts, and was content to hand out the candy, until her friends, Pops' doters came to pick her up, and they hung around the street a bit, before checking out the other streets, without going for the treats. They all took pictures for us.

Me? after spending a long morning with Pops and our coterie of houseboys and kids working on the shipwreck which we finished at lunchtime, i barely had enough time to trim our driveway and yard (no theme in particular--anything Halloweeny, as i wasn't an aspirant for best Halloweeny house or anything)organize the candy into baskets ready for distribution, and then Trina asked me to bake little chocolate cupcakes pa gyud as additional treats! I had just finished that when girlfriend Lisa Gustafson came a knockin', mainly to hang out after dropping off her kids with their friends...so i took her on a walking tour of all the streets and most of the homes (we didn't enter the mini-houses of horror na, haha). So kapuy na gyud by the time we got to the Club party at 6 o'clock uyyy!!! Rene picked up Craig, Lisa's hubby on his way from work, around 6:30pm na. Had a good Halloweeny dinner (black spaghetti, chicken fingers, etc...topped by cake with ghosties and gravestones on top!).

I was truly all pooped out by the time we hit the sack at around 10:30....tired but happy.