October 1 to 15

Hey everyone.

It’s the middle of the month, already. There’s been a bunch of things happening to me and in the world. I praise God that He was there with the Chilean miners. Much credit goes to the people who worked on the rescue effort. Without their efforts, we wouldn’t have this amazing story of survival and of hope.

With that said, what have I been up to? Well let’s begin with my weekend. On the 16^th of October I celebrated my birthday! Most of my cousins came by and just had a blast. Good food. Good games. Good fellowship. We played Taboo. We sang Journey songs. We entertained CJ (my cousin’s kid, i.e. my “nephew”!) It was a blast.

Next morning, I go to church. Not the regular church I usually go to. I went to an Evangelical church somewhere in Garden Grove.

So how did this come to be? Well my company’s CFO walks into my office and issues a bet with me and my coworker. The loser of the bet takes the other two out for lunch. So I lose. During the lunch I find out he’s an elder pastor at a non-denominational church and he invites me over! I was curious so I took up his offer.

I was expecting a chapel and pews, but what I got was a regular building with metallic fold out chairs. There was nothing fancy about it, but it was full of people hungry for the Word. They started off with a welcoming prayer, then praise and worship. Followed by an offering, sermon, and then communion. The sermon was a great message about Truth and Freedon in Christianity (Galatians 2:1-5 was the reading.) Communion was interesting; they called the body, “elements” and we ate it together rather than immediately. It was a very interesting experience; one that I won’t forget.

That’s that. Now on to my progress report!

My Tagalog has been a little dull lately. I still say a few phrases here and there, but not as often as I should be. But, I have learned a new phrase in Ilokano! Adda napintas a dammag ditoy which literally means “there is beautiful news here.” Many useful words in that one phrase. Nice.

With regards to my general health: I had a sinus infection earlier this month, so I went to the doctor. It turns out that I have high blood pressure and asked me to cut back on the salty foods. Also asked me to have blood work done. In light of that, I don’t think I’ve been following doctor’s orders quite well this month. So the first 15 days of October, I’ve eaten about 28,650 Calories or 1,910 Calories per day. Ouch. That’s 110 Calories above my goal. Gotta fix that.

I know I’m done reading my “book list” but I continue to read in my spare time. So what have I been reading? Right now I’m reading a biography of St. Thomas Aquinas by G.K. Chesterton. So far so good. The “Dumb Ox” is what he was referred to. He played a huge role in the intellectual revival of the church of his time.

My Facebook app’s in a stagnant state right now. I’m done documentation, but I’ve been so lazy to develop it. Right now I develop software for a living. I just see implementing (coding) this app as very work-like an unenjoyable. But it will get done by the end of the year.

I finished up the book of Jeremiah. I’m onto the next prophet Ezekiel. These past books have been pretty difficult to understand, so I’ve constantly gone back to aides to help me out.

And finally, I signed up for my church’s music ministry! I just got an email regarding that. Apparently there are tryouts. Haha. I don’t think I’m gonna cut it but I’ll try out anyway!

So that’s it! That’s what’s been happening. Hope you like what you read. Keep this blog bookmark and I’ll see you next time!