TO ALL MOMS and MOMS-TO-BE: THIS WORLD WILL NEVER BE AS GOOD AS IT IS WITHOUT YOU!                                           
                                                                             
Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:                                                                                                 
Why did God make mothers?                                           
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.           
2. Mostly to clean the house.                                       
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.               
                                                                          
How did God make mothers?                                           
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.                     
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.                   
3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.                                                         
What ingredients are mothers made of?                               
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.                         
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think. 
                                                 
Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?           
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.                    
                                   
What kind of little girl was your mom?                             
1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.     
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.                                   

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?         
1. His last name.                                                   
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?                      
Why did your mom marry your dad?                                   
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.                   
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.                   
3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.  
                          
Who's the boss at your house?                                       
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.                                         
What's the difference between moms & dads?                         
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.         
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.     
             
What does your mom do in her spare time?                           
1. Mothers don't do spare time.                                     
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.               

What would it take to make your mom perfect?                       
1. On the inside, she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Dye it. You know, her hair. I'd dye it, maybe blue.             

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?     
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head. 

I've started to notice that how some of the words were used 300 years ago are nowhere near how they are used nowadays.  Others are still applicable - a few degrees off-tangent...

BANGLE
To waste by little and little; to squander carelessly

BIB
L. bibo, Gypsey piava, to drink
To sip; to tipple; to drink frequently

BLAND
L. blandus, Dan. lindrer, to soften or mitigate; Ar. lana, to be mild, soft, gentle, placid, smooth, lenient
Mild; soft; gentle; as bland words; bland zephyrs

BLUFF
Welsh llwf, Eng. leap, from shooting forward
Big; surly; blustering

BOGGLE
Qu. W. bwgwl, a terrifying
To doubt; to hesitate; to stop, as if afraid to proceed, or as if impeded by unforeseen difficulties; to play fast and loose

BOOBY
Sp. bobo, a dunce or ideot, a ruff for the neck, a buffoon, the bird bobo

BOOTH
Heb. beth, a house or booth, a nest for birds

BOSS
A round or swelling body of any kind; as a boss of wood

BOUNCER
A boaster; a bully

BRAD
Arm. broud, a point; Dan. braad, a goad or sting

BROKE
Sax. brucan, to use, employ, enjoy; to eat or chew; L. frucor, whence fructus, fruit (see practice)

BROWSE
To eat the ends of branches of trees and shrubs or the young shoots, as cattle, or deer

BUBBLE
v.t. To cheat; to deceive or impose on

BUCK
L. imbuo, for imbuco or imbugo, to steep, tinge, imbue
To soak or steep in lye, a process in bleaching; to wash or steep in lye or suds

BUDGET
n. A bag; a little sack, with its contents

BUFFET
n. A blow with the fist; a box on the ear or face; a slap
v.i. To exercise or play at boxing

BYE
n. A dwelling

Confessions of a Bibliophile
I first heard about Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary during one of the preachings way back in Victory U-Belt. I started looking for it in my favorite book haunts, even the second-hand booksellers along Recto. Unfortunately, my searches were in vain and I put my hunt on the shelf (pun intended).  Still, I would browse through the reference section of bookstores every now and then, just in case...

The Gift
A few years ago, a relative based in the USA asked what I would like as a gift.  With (almost) no hesitation, I said I wanted the elusive copy, which was starting to feel like the Holy Grail to me.  It was a happy day indeed for me when I finally held the dictionary for the first time - all 3 kilos, 1,800+ pages and 70,000 entries of it.  It quickly took a prominent place on my bedside table, right next to my Bible and devotional volumes.  In fact, the origins and definitions of some of the words were 'revelations' to me, not surprisingly since the 1828 Dictionary also contains the greatest number of Biblical definitions given in any reference volume.

Let's start from the very beginning...
The insights I got from the 1828 Dictionary had a side-effect: I started listing words  which have origins and/or definitions quite unlike the modern versions.  And after reading The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, I decided to 'publish' words which I think need another look so we can say what we mean and really mean what we say:

adopt
L. adopto, of ad and opto, to desire or choose

advert
L. adverto, of ad and verto, to turn

advocate
L. advocatus, from advoco, to call for, to plead for; of ad and voco, to call

amateur
L. anator, a lover, from amo, to love
A person attached to a particular pursuit, study or science, as to music or painting; one who has a taste for the arts.

ambition
L. ambitio, from ambio, to go about, or to seek by making interest, of amb, about, and eo, to go. This word had its origin in the practice of Roman candidates for office, who went about the city to solicit vote.

amuse
Fr. amuser, to stop or keep at bay, to detain; from muser, to loiter or trifle; It. musare, to gaze or stand idle

android
Gr. man and form
A machine, in the human form, which, by certain springs, performs some of the natural motions of a living man. One of these machines, invented by M. Vaucanson, appeared at Paris is 1738, representing a flute player.

anger
L. ango, to choke strangle, vex; whence angor, vexation, anguish, the quinsy, angina. Gr. to strangle, to strain or draw together to vex. The primary sense is to press, squeeze, make narrow

anime
n. In heraldry, a term denoting that the eyes of a rapacious animal are borne of a different tincture from the animal himself.
n. A resin exuding from the stem of a large American tree called by the natives courbaril; by Piso, jetaiba. It is of a transparent amber color, a light agreeable smell, and of little or no taste. It dissolves entirely, but not readily, in rectified spirit of wine, and is used by the Brazilians in fumigations, for pains proceeding from cold.

annoy
L. neceo, to hurt, that is, to strike; neco, to kill

answer
Sax. andswarian, of anti, against, and Goth swaran, to swear.  The primitive sense of 'swear' was merely to speak or affirm.  The sense of 'answer' is an opposite, a returned word or speech.

assets
L. sat, satis, enough; Ir. sath, sufficiency; sasadh, satisfaction
Goods or estate of a deceased person, sufficient to pay the debts of the deceased. But the word 'sufficient', though expressing the original signification of 'assets', is not with us necessary to the definition. In present usage, assets are the money, goods or estate of a deceased person, subject by law to the payment of his debts and legacies.

astringent
L. astringo, of ad and stringo, to bind fast, to strain
a. binding; contracting; strengthening; opposed to laxative.
n. a medicine which binds or contracts the parts of the body to which it is applied, restrains profuse discharges, coagulates animal fluids, condenses and strengthens the solids.

asylum
Gr. asylum, safe from spoil

athlete
L. athleta, a wrestler; from athlos, strife, contest.
A contender for victory

attorney
Norm. attournon, from tour, tourn, turn, change. One who takes the place or turn of another.

In GENESIS, the world was made;
In EXODUS, the march is told;
LEVITICUS contains the Law;
In NUMBERS are the tribes enrolled.

In DEUTERONOMY again,
We're urged to keep God's Law alone;
And these five books of Moses make
The oldest holy writing known.

Brave JOSHUA to Canaan leads;
In JUDGES, oft the Jews rebel;
We read of David's name in RUTH
And FIRST and SECOND SAMUEL.

In FIRST and SECOND KINGS we read
How bad the Hebrews state became;
In FIRST and SECOND CHRONICLES
Another history of the same.

In EZRA, captive Jews return.
And NEHEMIAH builds the wall;
Queen ESTHER saves her race from death.
The books “Historical” we call.

In JOB we read of patient faith;
In PSALMS are David's songs of praise;
The PROVERBS are to make us wise;
ECCLESIASTES next portrays,

How fleeting earthly treasures are;
The SONG OF SOLOMON is all
About true love, like Christ's; and these
Five books “Devotional” we call.

ISAIAH tells of Christ to come,
While JEREMIAH tells of woe,
And in his LAMENTATIONS mourns
The Holy City's overthrow.

EZEKIEL speaks of mysteries;
And DANIEL foretells kings of old;
HOSEA over Israel grieves;
In JOEL blessings are foretold.

In AMOS too, are Israel's woes;
And OBADIAH's sent to warn;
While JONAH shows that Christ should die
And MICAH where he shold be born.

In NAHUM Nineveh is seen;
HABAKKUK tells of Chaldea's guilt;
In ZEPHANIAH are Judah's sins;
In HAGGAI the Temple's built.

Then ZECHARIAH speaks of Christ,
And MALACHI of John, his sign;
The Prophets number seventeen,
And all the books are thirty nine.

MATTHES, MARK, LUKE and JOHN
Tell what Christ did in every place;
The ACTS tell what what the Apostles did,
And ROMANS how we're saved by grace.

CORINTHIANS instructs the Church;
GALATIANS shows us faith alone;
EPHESIANS, true love, and in
PHILIPPIANS God's grace is shown.

COLOSSIANS tells us more of Christ,
And THESSALONIANS of the end;
In TIMOTHY and TITUS both
Are rules for pastors to attend.

PHILEMON, Christian friendship shows
Then HEBREWS clearly tells how all
The Jewish law prefigured Christ;
And these Epistles are by Paul.

JAMES shows that faith by works must live,
And PETER urges steadfastness;
While JOHN exhorts to Christian love,
For those who have it God will bless.

JUDE shows the end of men,
And REVELATION tells of Heaven.
This ends the whole New Testament
And all the books are twenty seven.

- Author unknown

From the tall tower in Dubai to a contemporary art museum on New York's Lower East Side, noteworthy architecture is springing up around the globe. Conde Nast Traveler's April issue picks seven designs as the "new seven wonders of the architecture world." They are:

- Cumulus, an exhibit hall at Danfoss Universe, a science and technology museum in Nordborg, Denmark. The building has an irregular roof, all curves and angles, like a bite taken out of a cloud.

- Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building, which is under construction in the Middle East and is already more than 1,700 feet tall. The final height is a secret but its developer, Emaar Properties, has previously said it will stop somewhere above 2,275 feet and will exceed 160 floors.

- London's new Wembley Stadium, which seats 90,000 with no obstructed sight lines. A massive 436-foot-tall, 1,000-foot-long single arch braces the retractable roof. The stadium will be a centerpiece of the 2012 Olympics

- New Museum of Contemporary Art, designed to resemble an off-kilter stack of silvery rectangles, located on the Bowery on Manhattan's once-seedy, now-trendy Lower East Side.

- Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., a curved roof made from a patterned grid of glass and steel above shallow pools in the courtyard of the Old Patent Office Building, also known as the Reynolds Center and home to the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

- Red Ribbon, Tanghe River Park, in Qinhuangdao, China, about 180 miles east of Beijing, a steel bench that runs a third of a mile through a riverbank garden and ecological oasis.

-The Crystal, a controversial new entryway and exhibit space at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, whose sharp, even jagged angles have not been universally loved by the locals. It was designed by Daniel Libeskind.

Why do we call it ‘Good’ Friday?

Calling the day of the Crucifixion ‘Good’ Friday is a designation that is peculiar to the English language. In German, it is called Karfreitag. The Kar part is an obsolete word, the ancestor of the English word care in the sense of cares and woes, and it meant mourning. So in German, it is Mourning Friday. And that is what the disciples did on that day—they mourned. They thought all was lost.

I’ve read that the word good used to have a secondary meaning of holy, but I can’t trace that back in my etymological dictionary. There are a number of cases in set phrases where the words God and good got switched around because of their similarity. One case was the phrase God be with you, which today is just good-bye. So perhaps Good Friday was originally God’s Friday. But I think we call it Good Friday because, in pious retrospect, all that tragedy brought about the greatest good there could be.

I can see virtue in either terminology. If we call it Mourning Friday, as in German, we are facing reality head on, taking up the cross if you will, fully conscious that the Christian walk is seldom a walk in the park. But if we call it Good Friday, as in English, we are confessing the Christian hope that no tragedy—not even death—can overwhelm God’s providence, love, and grace. Either way seems fine to me!

Source: www.kencollins.com

The source of our term for the Friday before Easter, "Good Friday," is not clear. It may be a corruption of the English phrase "God's Friday." It is the common name for the day among English- and Dutch-speaking people. It is a day that proclaims God's purpose of loving and redeeming the world through the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is a day that is good because God was drawing the world to God's self in Christ. As seen in John's gospel, particularly, God was in control. God was not making the best of a bad situation, but was working out God's intention for the world — winning salvation for all people. We call it "good" because we look backward at the crucifixion through the lens of Easter!

"Good Friday" is not a universal name for the day. The liturgical title for the day in the Western church was "Friday of Preparation," since the time Jews used the word paraskeue (getting ready) for Friday, meaning the "day of preparation." Popular names for the day are "Holy Friday" among the Latin nations, "Great Friday" among the Slavic peoples, "Friday of Mourning" in Germany, "Long Friday" in Norway, and "Holy Friday" (Viernes Santo) among Hispanic peoples.

Source: Daniel Benedict, www.gbod.org

Crispy Per Minute - sells crispy pata
Cleopata's - offers crispy pata and is also a bakahan and manukan
Babalik Karinderia - a karinderia in Sto. Tomas, Batangas
Cinna Von - a laundrymat
Bali Gulp - a beerhouse beside Valley Golf along Sumulong H’way in Antipolo
Beery Good - another beerhouse
Fagoofyt - a children's hair salon
Felix the Cut - another salon
Curl Up and Dye - beauty salon
Beefer 150 - meat shop
Common Cents Store - a sari-sari store
Ali Baka - a shawarma shop
Alabank - rural bank in Alabang
Doctor Sebago - a shoe repair shop
Farmacia with Love - a pharmacy
Funeraria Mabuhay
Goldirocks - gravel & sand shop
Goto Heaven
H.U. Kayin - deep-well drilling services
Income Taxi
James Tailoring
Jane's Pondahan
Jean Tonic - denim shop
Juice Co. - fruit juice stand
Labo Optical
Mane Attraction - beauty parlor
Mang Donald's - burger joint in Naga City
Meating Place - meat shop
Saudia Hairlines - beauty salon
The Way We Wear – boutique
Pinoy Bong's Brother - appliance store
Block Ice Peas - nagtitinda ng yelo
DY3 Shorty Break – canteen
Got To Go To Goto – gotohan
Go To Heal - healing massage parlor
Hair We Go - hair salon
I Do "Nuts" - tindahan ng mani at ibang nuts sa Kalookan
AristoBACK- grocery sa likod ng Aristocrat
Star Wash - Laundry shop along Shorthorn in Project 8
Wishing Well - Water refill station along Judge Jimenez in Kamias
Washing Well - Laundry shop, sister company and katabi ng Wishing Well
Kit Cut - Barber shop sa Kamias
Haul The Time Trucking Corporation
Haulright Trucking Corporation
Mayon Vulcanizing shop
Jaribee- fried chicken stand (sa Calamba)
JollyBoy fried chicken
Tapsikret - registered sa DTI
Rest In a Box - Funeral Parlor
Straightforward - salon na nag i straight ng buhok
Jolly D - katabi ng Jollibee (looks like a convenience store)
Viollybee – eatery
Petal Attraction - flower shop in Diliman
Anita Bakery - bread shop
Doris Day and Night - 24-hour restaurant
Elizabeth Tailoring - garment shop
Bread Pitt - bakery
Maruya Carey - Makati fast-food place selling maruya (banana fritters)
Christopher Plumbing - water-engineering firm
Leon King Video Rental - video rental shop
Caintacky Fried Chicken - a restaurant in the Cainta district of Rizal
MacDonuts - doughnut shop
Wrap and Roll - a shop selling lumpia (meat parcels) in Makati
Meatropolis –butcher shop
hotmeal.com - carinderia in Santiago City
Holy Spirit - water refilling station along West Ave.
Pen Pen de Sarap Pen - restaurant at the corner of Scout Castor and Tomas Morato, Q.C.
Suit Your Dreams - gumagawa ng mga suit sa South
Tip Tap To -- tapsilogan sa P. Noval
Chicago Balls -- fishball stand
Marimart - supermarket
Sew What - patahian sa NC

EN.07 World Conference was undeniably a world-class event: 14,000+ delegates from 40+ nations gathered in Araneta Coliseum for three days of worship, exhortation, fellowship, presentations, and, of course, photo sessions. Megabytes have been posted, blogged, and replied about it to (and from) the ends of the earth. Here’s my side of the story: actual behind-the-scenes happenings, or what could be called “anatomy of a world conference.” I experienced the event from the far side since I spent most of the conference backstage, literally.

Behind the Big Dome is its gazebo, where more than 800 conference crew, performers, volunteers, and suppliers took their meals or got their coffee fixes. There, more than 6,200 packs of food, 3,000 cups of coffee, and 750 gallons of drinking water were ordered and distributed. People would be in and out of the gazebo from 5:30am til 10pm. Afterwards, the technical crew and volunteers who were booked at a hotel just across Aurora Boulevard would crash there for the night, oblivious to the noise from the marathon videoke sessions next door. 

The preparations started as early as 12:00am on July 19. Suppliers of audio-visual equipment, sound and lighting systems, stage, LED screens, cameras, plasma TV monitors, and pyrotechnics did their ingress and setup until late afternoon. After that, they did test runs for technical equipment followed by technical dress rehearsals of the talents inC’s presentations. Amid the boxes and cables, volunteers prepared the lineups for the worship and preachings on laptops: One team for the LED screens, the other for the scoreboard. There were also two technical directors who 'mixed' the audio and video presentations. Adjacent to the technical booth were the translators’ booths and reserved seats for foreign delegates who need translation. Less noisy but equally frenetic was the Production Room, which served as storage, meeting room, and quieter place to ‘power nap’ on Mae’s airbed, sometimes two or three at a time. Total worktime: 27 hours

After just a couple of hours of break (if they can), the technical team and suppliers did line checks for sounds, lights, and video, then sound checks for the musicians and worship team. There was just enough time for final technical check before the gates opened at 12noon. While the delegates streamed in, ushers and security directed the people to their proper color sections. At the Red Gate, the registration committee was busy distributing color-coded IDs, printing new ones for the walk-ins, and doing a great job of crowd control management.

Less than an hour after the program started, the production crew started receiving text messages about unclear audio reception in the green section. The audio experts remedied this during the break while many of the delegates went out to Gateway Mall or stayed and bought food and drinks from vendors and hawkers inside the coliseum. In Gateway Mall, the Kids Church and Children's Church provided pre-ordered dinner packs for the children.

Meanwhile, suppliers and volunteers were busy setting up the stage, installing the Nintendo Wii equipment and the pyrotechnics for the evening's presentation while the halftime committee prepped the contestants. Hosts rehearsed lines from cue cards and put finishing touches to their make-up and attire. There was another round of line check and props setup before the evening's presentation. I was in and out of the arena, coordinating the delivery of giveaway pillows for the green section delegates ("the ends of the earth"). Total worktime: 15 hours.

Saturday schedule was almost a repeat performance of Friday, except for the pillow distribution and the halftime event of EN's Funniest Home Videos. Total worktime: 15 hours. Some of the technical and registration teams gathered in the VIP room to unwind by telling about bloopers, unnoticed by the audience but causes of panic for the stage managers and production assistants.

The last and final day of the conference, I only saw part of the Nigerians’ practice for their presentation before rushing out for errands. I got back just as Pastor Steve was ending his sermon. After the conference officially ended, the technical team and suppliers started packing up for their egress. Just before leaving, we gathered in the Production Room for photo sessions and prep for afternoon services at various Metro Manila churches. Total worktime: 7 hours.

All in all, EN.07 was an exhausting, exciting, and exhilarating experience for me.  World Conference 2010… bring it on!!!

The eagle is a symbol used many times in Scripture; 
in fact, it is mentioned 38 times throughout the Bible. 
We can learn some important lessons from this 
majestic creation of God. Eagles have a wing span of
2 meters and are around 90 cm tall. The eagle mates 
for life and use the same nest for life. This nest is 
built in a safe place, often on the ledge of a sharp 
cliff. It is built to last and the largest nest reported 
is 9½ feet wide and 20 feet deep.

When the babies are born, both parents assume 
responsibility for their care. They are gentle parents, 
sitting on the eggs for one month. The parents 
bring food up to the nest and feed them small pieces 
of meat. Within 45 days they can weigh nearly 40 
times their birth weight. At three months they get 
special feathers for flying and a new learning 
experience begins. The mother eagle flies into the 
nest and begins to thrash around causing a great 
commotion. Eventually one of the babies will fall out 
of the nest and begin heading for the earth below. Never having used his wings 
before, he's not really sure what to do, but does do lots of flapping while heading 
straight down! Just before the baby hits the ground, the mother eagle flies underneath
 in order to 'catch' the baby on her powerful wings and she flies him safely back to the nest.
This continues on day after day until all the babies learn to fly.

There are two verses in scripture that actually mention this routine of
the eagle. In Deuteronomy 32:10,11 Moses reminds the children of Israel how
God cared for them and guarded them just "like an eagle that stirs up its
nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and
carries them on its pinions." Again in Exodus 19:4 God says that "He will carry
the children of Israel on eagles' wings".

We can get very comfortable in our 'nest'. Perhaps that could be our
way of doing things, our way of thinking, our opinions, our way of living
life. Then when God comes and 'stirs up our nest' we get upset. We don't
always identify this as a growing experience. Sometimes if we were really
honest, we really don't want to grow. We get very complacent and satisfied with
where we are and any interruptions are viewed as negative. But God
wants us to fly - to become all that He intends us to become. He never stirs up
our nest without good reason!

The eagle can see a rabbit two miles away. It can soar up to two miles
above the ground and can fly at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.
They have a separate eyelid which slides across the eye sideways in order to
keep the eye clean and free from dust as they fly. Their bones are
hollow and therefore light of frame. Their frame has cross ribs like steel
bars in sky scrapers. The eagle has 7000 feathers. The back feathers are as
long as the head feathers. Their beak is black until age of 3 years and then
turns golden.

When eagles are about 30 years old they go through a renewal process.
They find a secret place high in the mountains and begin to claw at their
face and tear out the feathers that have been damaged over the years. As a
result, it bleeds badly. But this is necessary for the eagle in order
to renew its strength. If it did not do this it would not be able to live
to its normal 60 years of age.

Psalms 103:5 says "who satisfies your desires with good things so that
your youth is renewed like the eagles." A time of renewal is necessary for
every child of God. A time when we get rid of what is weighing us down,
holding us back, aging us spiritually. A time to give up the sinful habits, to
give in to the Holy Spirit in whatever way He is convicting us. We need to
do this even to the point of renewal with pain! Some things we hold on to
so tightly that to let go, actually causes us pain. But in order to have
the long, powerful, useful spiritual life that God plans for us, we need to
do that. It will renew our spiritual youthfulness.

When the eagle is free to soar in God's creation, they are the cleanest
of birds. They were created to be free and to soar to great heights. They
were not meant to remain close to the earth in the lowlands. They were
created to soar. When eagles are held in captivity, they become one of the
dirtiest birds.

God has created us to remain pure and holy and conformed to his image.
Don't allow the freedom we are to experience in Him, to be compromised
by spending too much time in worldly thinking, activities, mindsets.
Remain clean!

Eagles do not fly like other birds, they don't flap their wings but
rather soar. Flapping their wings would use incredible amounts of their own
strength and endurance and they would require so much more food as fuel
if they didn't soar. Instead they sit on a high ledge and wait for the
right wind currents to come. When the time is right, they take off and soar
upward. Effortlessly, because they have waited for the right time.
There is a special 'up going' wind, that they ride as it circles higher and
higher toward the sky.

What a lesson for God's children to learn. How often do we waste
strength by jumping out too soon and 'flapping our wings', instead of waiting
for God's timing. Waiting is not a popular concept in these days of instant
everything! But when we wait on the Lord - wait for His timing - wait
for His answers - wait for His direction, then we can soar to new heights
and fly to new places.

"Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar
on wings like eagles: they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and
not faint."

Thanks to Roseanne B. for forwarding this message.

To all TAG (The Arts & Graphix) Team from VCF U-Belt, please let me know your availability for a reunion during the EN07 World Conference. Just send me a private message with your schedule and contact numbers & email address.

If you know an TAG Team member, please help forward this message to him/her OR send me his/her contact details.

Thanks!

Yesterday Pinky and I had lunch at a Ortigas Center hotel with a corporate service provider.   While Pinky was enjoying her tuna sashimi and I was munching on salad greens, our host suddenly popped a totally non-business question:

 

I've been meaning to start putting something in my Multipy site for months but kept postponing it for one reason or another (somebody call Procrastinators Anonymous!). But the list below convicted and turbo-charged me to action.

So... I - finally! - put my fingers to the keyboards and started. And what better way to start than to make my own list or what I like to think as reasons why I (will) Multiply:

1. We've never done it that way before. --- I will try anything at least once.
2. We're not ready for that. --- I will never be ready unless I do it.
3. We are doing all right without trying that. --- I could become better if I try that.
4. We tried it once before. --- If it works, do it again. If it didn't, see #1.
5. We don't have money for that. --- It doesn't cost much and whatevr the cost, my friends are worth it. (Thank God internet is free, or at most affordable.)
6. That's not our job. --- I do it 'coz it's fun!
7. Something like that can't work. --- I will work to make it work.

So, here's to Multiply-ing relationships: May we keep them as well as we make 'em!