Our own Comic strip

Joshua and I were looking for something we can do together. Since he likes stories and I like drawing, an idea of making a comic strip came. So we sat down together and planned about it.

So here is what we came up with.

Comic Strip name: Barrio Tales



Setting: Barrio Makulit (tagalog for silly/fun)


Characters:

Bob
Fidget

Barrio Tales

Ancient Quotes That Seem Relevant

Relevant to corporate and church authority structures

“We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up in teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing. And a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress whilst producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.”

-- Gaius Petronius, AD 66

relevant to apologetic discussions especially in light of the new Atheists

Hence Sacred Scripture,
since it has no science above itself, can dispute with one who denies
its principles only if the opponent admits some at least of the truths
obtained through divine revelation; thus we can argue with heretics
from texts in Holy Writ, and against those who deny one article of
faith, we can argue from another. If our opponent believes nothing of
divine revelation, there is no longer any means of proving the
articles of faith by reasoning, but only of answering his
objections--if he has any--against faith. Since faith rests upon
infallible truth, and since the contrary of a truth can never be
demonstrated, it is clear that the arguments brought against faith
cannot be demonstrations, but are difficulties that can be answered.

-- Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica Eighth Article [I, Q. 1, Art. 8])


relevant to discussion boards and knock-down drag-out arguments especially through passive media (email, posting, etc.)

If the feeble mind of man did not presume to resist the clear evidence of truth, but yielded its infirmity to wholesome doctrines, as to a health-giving medicine, until it obtained from God, by its faith and piety, the grace needed to heal it, they who have just ideas, and express them in suitable language, would need to use no long discourse to refute the errors of empty conjecture. But this mental infirmity is now more prevalent and hurtful than ever, to such an extent that even after the truth has been as fully demonstrated as man can prove it to man, they hold for the very truth their own unreasonable fancies, either on account of their great blindness, which prevents them from seeing what is plainly set before them, or on account of their opinionative obstinacy, which prevents them from acknowledging the force of what they do see. There therefore frequently arises a necessity of speaking more fully on those points which are already clear, that we may, as it were, present them not to the eye, but even to the touch, so that they may be felt even by those who close their eyes against them. And yet to what end shall we ever bring our discussions, or what bounds can be set to our discourse, if we proceed on the principle that we must always reply to those who reply to us? For those who are either unable to understand our arguments, or are so hardened by the habit of contradiction, that though they understand they cannot yield to them, reply to us, and, as it is written, "speak hard things," and are incorrigibly vain. Now, if we were to propose to confute their objections as often as they with brazen face chose to disregard our arguments, and so often as they could by any means contradict our statements , you see how endless, and fruitless, and painful a task we should be undertaking. And therefore I do not wish my writings to be judged even by you, my son Marcellinus, nor by any of those others at whose service this work of mine is freely and in all Christian charity put, if at least you intend always to require a reply to every exception which you hear taken to what you read in it; for so you would become like those silly women of whom the apostle says that they are "always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." 2 Timothy 3:7

-- Augustine (City of God, book 2 chapter 1)

I Baked my first batch of cookies!

I successfully baked my first cookies!

I'm a foodie person but I'm limited to just appreciating good food but not cooking. Now that i'm married i started to learn to cook. Well my husband so far is eating mostly all the food i cooked.

Now I'm trying baking. Momma Lori gave me some recipes last Christmas. Josh likes Oatmeal Raisin cookies so I tried making the Recipe Momma Crank gave me. It was really easy. After baking the first batch it was a big hit to josh and my brother.

Here are the cookies that Josh instantly devoured...

Philemon

A number of years ago a mentor, Bob Montgomery, mentioned something about that smallest of Paul's letters that stuck with me. What he said was that Philemon and the personal endings of the Paul are similar in type. They are the messy details of ministry, the stuff of personal relationships that is the actual work of ministry.

It is easy to skip past these bits of personal conversations long past, but as it turns out we keep on having these conversations... the exact names and details change but its pretty much the same conversations about the same issues. And the same issues of obedience that make up the majority of how we live.

The letter to Philemon is an appeal of a Christian leader imprisoned for his faith to a wealthy church leader to show mercy to a new Christian for the wrongs of his unbelieving life and free him up to ministry.

there are lots of big issues involved in this letter, slavery, the change in what it means to be human after salvation, leadership authority in the church. But instead of developing a deep and philosophical treatise on redeemed anthropology (like Romans 6-8) or referencing the convicting social messages of Micah, Paul steps into the details and the people's lives. Not as a theologian but as a pastor.

So Paul does what every pastor should and all are afraid to do. He asks people to do what is right and gives them the freedom to do what is right and loving, or not. Paul sends one person who is very helpful to him on a very unhelpful journey to seek reconciliation with someone who has all the power to make his life miserable, opportunity-less, and even short. And Paul has no power to make sure that things go right, he can only pray and exhort. He does this because the repairing of the church family is more important than the immediate opportunity for a visibly dynamic and exciting ministry.

Paul doesn't say to Philemon that slavery is wrong, he doesn't say that Onesimus can't be held responsible for his criminal behavior because he is a new Christian, what he says is that he hopes Philemon will continue to do what he does so well, refresh the hearts of the saints. Paul asks Philemon to refresh his heart by showing mercy and grace to this new brother despite this brother being undeserving. He prays that God would help Philemon to know (and by inference to act upon the knowledge) of everything that is in him for Christ's sake. To see this messiness as an opportunity to show love and grace not just a situation in which he was wronged.

It is this perspective that is the Christian perspective. The recognition that situations marred by simply bad choices can become a complex good. God's glory shown in its full power in our weakness like fiery torches in humble clay pots bursting with light and goodness when brokenness is embraced.

shopping with joshua

Last saturday we went to a mall to buy some work out clothes for joshua and some more clothes for me. We easily find some for him but for me i always have a hard time since i think my body proportion is too weird that it takes really good hunting before i can get one that really fits. Anyway, so we are on our quest to find one. we searched the whole department store and can't find one, then we finally got in this bargain section in the mall. As you can see im a bit picky when buying stuff so it really takes me a while to shop... I got excited to see a blouse that i really like the design but unfortunately they don't have my size. Then i found the right size, same style but different color, an apple green one. And a funny conversation follows..

Josh : "there you go!" [sounding very thrilled that i finally found one after a long search],
me: "but i don't like the color.." "i like the style but i hate the color.."
Josh: "but darling the shirt your wearing now is the exactly the same color."
me: "nooooo! it's not!" (me in disbelief) [get the shirt placed it beside the shirt i'm wearing] "look it's not the same" [an it was indeed the same color and shade]
Josh: "no, it is exactly the same darling"
me: "no it's different..." [place back the blouse and move on to another stall]

We never bought anything for me...

When we are back home and just chatting we recall that incident and went laughing so hard because of my silliness. Well i really don't like to buy the shirt that josh quite liked but i gave a very lame excuse...

Some Filipino moments

Here are a couple Filipino moments I (Joshua) have experienced:

Preaching after a typhoon:

A typhoon blew through Manila the night before I was scheduled to preach. Now a typhoon is essentially a hurricane that spins the opposite direction, this particular one was a signal three which roughly equals a category 1 hurricane (75 MPH winds). The morning after Joy and I talked to pastor Joey who was out of town preaching in Cavite and verified that church was indeed on. It takes more than a little hurricane to cancel church in the Philippines. So Joy and I got up and walked the long road out while it was quite heavily raining and stood with umbrellas getting slowly soaked as we waited for a taxi. This is a very inexact process as a free taxi willing to go to the next area over may show up in 5 minutes or 45 minutes. It took a while (I think 15-20 minutes) and when the taxi pulls over the next thing that happens is the discussion of where you are going and this is the point at which taxi drivers who think they have you at an advantage ask for more than the meter rate. Since we were standing out in the rain and the general public transportation traffic was pretty thin the taxi driver asked for a bit more than the typical fare which we complied with and finally got to church. At church the electricity was out and the congregation was mostly youth and people slowly arrived throughout the service, but the service went on as normal. I got up to preach, sans microphone, still damp. and when we were done, since most of the youth were there, we decided we would have youth service and sent one of the leaders (Jon Sabinano) out for Pancit (a Filipino pasta dish). We had a short Bible study and some longer discussion time (since I hadn't planned on having a youth time the Bible study was what I came up with and prepared in the 30 minutes between the end of service and the beginning of the youth meeting). All in all a good time was had and Joy and I headed home where the streets were somewhat flooded so that the taxi couldn't take us all the way back, we had to ride a jeepney the rest of the way (since they have higher clearance).

Shower fun:

I was sitting at the computer in our bedroom in Naga City and heard a squeal from the bathroom. I hesitate to call it a squeal but the sound was high and sharp with a certain amount of terror like a scream but not very drawn out and not yet in the ear-piercing range. So mildly concerned (I do hear these from time to time) I get up and poke my head in the bathroom where Joy is showering and I see her obviously avoiding an area of the shower. She points down and there is a big (3-4 inch) slimy leech hanging out partially under the shower curtain. So I grab a washcloth and toss the leech into the toilet and flush it away to leech heaven, or more likely to the sewer system where it will grow into a person sized monster and terrorize the bicol region for years to come... or something. After that little experience I am a bit more circumspect with the lights and looking around in the bathroom to see who else I am sharing it with at the moment.


Flip Flops:

I have never really worn flip-flops for long periods of time but in the Philippines about 75% of the people at any particular time are wearing flip-flops. I think at church it may be down to 50% but that is the only exception. So I figured I need to develop my flip flopping and started wearing flip flops around. We actually got the first pair because the sandals I brought with me got messed up in Puerto Galera and I needed some sort of footwear for the journey back to Manila. So Joy got me a cheap pair there. I wore those for a while and they built up interesting callouses and I learned that the typical scenario why flip flops are so loved (constant rain and wetness) also makes wearing them a little challenging since you feet need keep holding on to somewhat slippery footwear. So aside from the callouses I have been learning the additional skill of walking with slippery footwear. The final test of course is not just the callouses or the slipperyness but going out while raining and riding on the back of a motor cycle in a tricyle carrying 5 people with a bag in your hands, i.e. today. Actually it was not that challenging of a ride, and I passed with flying colors (no wobbling or footwear lost). My current most challenging tricycle ride has been the ride from the main town of Caramoan to the beach. The road back and forth is extremely bumpy and there is one ridiculous bump which is the transition from dirt to concrete (a little like jumping a curb) only the road at that point goes steeply up so the tricycle has to be moving relatively quickly. At one point I had to basically hold momma Nacion in the tricycle because it was bouncing her out of the backward facing seat. That was a bumpy ride.


So there are some of my Filipino moments.