Life's Wonderful Journey in Pursuit of True Happiness

12 Strategies to Financial Freedom

2011-08-05T06:40:00.004+04:00

Imagine the moment when you finally quit your job because you already amassed a lot of money to sustain your lifestyle. Would it be amazing to see yourself travelling to different places and do the things that you love? It is no doubt that all of us want to be financially free the soonest time possible. Unfortunately, many of us do not know how to achieve it.

Here are the strategies that I wanted to impart which our family is doing now to achieve financial freedom.

Strategy # 1: Start Giving 10% of Your Income

You might be wondering why in the world I said to give when all you need to do is save in order to be financially free. Do you believe that when you give you will receive a thousand fold? Giving 10% of your income to your local church or to your favorite charity demonstrates how to be a good steward of the wealth that is entrusted to us. The Bible says many verses about tithing; one of them is Malachi 3:10 which is the only place in the Bible that says it is alright to test Him.

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

I have experienced miracles as a result of tithing. I firmly believe that if you give your first fruit to the Lord, He will find ways to sustain your needs and pour out His blessings.

Strategy # 2: Have Your Financial Goal In Place

When you want to travel, you should have a place of destination. When you go to school, you know when you will graduate. Similarly, you should have a financial goal in place. This will serve as your target and will help you to keep in focus. When you achieve your financial goal, it is a guarantee that you are ready to quit your job.

Strategy # 3: Live Within Your Means

What you normally do when you receive your monthly salary? I will read your mind... You are thinking now on how much you will allocate for the bills. How much you will spend on that gadget you wanted. Instead of thinking all of these expenses, try to consider saving first for yourself before you engage in spending. Try also to learn differentiating your "needs" versus your "wants". Wants can surely wait and you should have a plan before you buy them.

Strategy # 4: Start Your Emergency Fund

In your journey to financial freedom, certainly the ride will not be smooth and there will be bumps along the way. Emergencies and unplanned expenses might happen that is why you need to prepare for it. The idea of having an emergency fund is to expect the unexpected events. It is not a question of if it will happen but a question of when it will happen. The verse describes this

"The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get." -Proverbs 21:20 (NLT)

Strategy # 5: Pay Off All Debts

According to the verse from the Bible,
Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender" (NRSV). Whenever we get that loan from the bank or scratched that credit card, you might be bringing yourself towards the bondage of debt. You should understand debts. Analyze if you are getting leverage from the debt you are acquiring. You might be in debt right now and have no idea how to get away with it. Seek the right information on ways of paying it. Always remember that you can build wealth faster if you are debt free.

Strategy # 6: Get Appropriate Life Insurance

One of the purposes of earning money is to sustain yourself and your family. Similarly in my case, I am an expatriate and the main reason I worked abroad is to give my family a brighter future. But what if something happens to soon, our family will be left behind. Are they prepared financially? Understand life insurance and get appropriate protection for you depending on your financial needs. Reflect on the verse regarding this

"A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it." –Proverbs 22:3

Strategy # 7: Organize Your Bank Account

May I ask you something? Why your wallet has many compartments? The wallet is made like that so that you can separate your money into different allocations. One section for your daily expenses, one section for your credit card, one section for your electrical bills, so on and so forth. Similarly, you should organize your bank account. I learned that having more than one saving account allowed us to appropriately manage our money tidily and efficiently.

Strategy # 8: Build Up Your Retirement Fund

Building up money for your future takes time. With the right interest rate of return and discipline of saving regularly, you can accumulate wealth faster. The best time to do it is to start saving early.

Reflect also on the verse regarding this

"Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow". - Proverbs 13:11

Strategy # 9: Look for Other Sources of Income

There are plenty of ways to increase your income. You can put up a business related to your skills or interest. You can try reducing your expenses and streamline your spending habits. You can also maximize your spare time by making it productive through side line / part time jobs. Try to look for legitimate other sources of income out there.

Strategy # 10: Sell Your Junk

If you look around the house, you will notice that there are things that you do not need anymore which still have value. You can sell this through eBay or Amazon. When my family transfer and live with me here in abroad, we did a garage sale of the stuff we have accumulated. It has generated sufficient amount for us to alleviate the needs in our relocation.

Strategy # 11: Get Long Term Health Care

You are the money machine and the bread winner of the family. If you get sick, your family will be adversely affected. Consider getting an appropriate long term health care insurance so that when you no longer able to work because of aging or sickness, you are financially prepared. You will not depend to your children (whom by the way might have their own family that time) or to anybody. There are services out there that cater this.

Strategy # 12: Give More

The money that you have are not really yours, it is God's money. It is imperative to learn to share what you have, even if its money, time or skills. Sharing them can be a blessing to others. It is clearly said in the Bible,

"Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."-2 Corinthians 9:6

Also, remember the Parable of the Talents, where we can learn that if we are faithful managing small amounts, we will be delegated with more.

Do you have other strategies to achieve your financial freedom? Feel free to share it.

Our First Family Bonding Game: Wrap the Leper Game

2011-05-28T19:26:00.001+04:00

This is the first of the family bonding games that we decided to do for our family. I am sharing this through this blog site to have a record of our family experiences for my children to see in the future. Hopefully, it can serve as a resource wherein you can apply also for your family. I know that this tradition of holding regular family bonding games will strengthen the relationship of our family.

We decided to have our family bonding games every week. It aims to have a closer family relationship by spending quality time with each other. Also, it will promote Godly values for us especially for our children. We believe that happiness in family can be attained when established upon the teachings of the Bible. The game is composed of prayer, reading a verse in the Bible, the activity and refreshment. Every member of the family will be taking take turns every week on the activities. Involving everyone will make our family bonding exciting.

Our first game is called the Wrap the Leper Game. The objective of the game is to practice the attitude of gratitude. We should be thankful for all the things that are provided to us. We know that all of these come from God.

Opening Prayer: Kuya Jade and Jaizen

Bible reading: Jesus healed the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19) led by Daddy

Video Showing: Courtesy of You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87b4wcGAsj0)

Activity: The toilet paper represents the leper bandages, unwrap a roll and use a marker to write the letters G-R-A-T-I-T-U-D-E in the tissue square which are far apart from each other. The first member wraps an arm or leg in tissue until he finds a letter. He then tears the roll and says something that is grateful for. As a reward, you can give a chocolate or candy. The next family member will then do the same until you have a family of grateful lepers. When the toilet paper is all used up and family members already took turns, remind the family that being thankful is an attitude of gratitude.

Refreshment: Some chocolates we bought from the grocery

Closing Prayer: Mommy

Family relationship, I believe is irreplaceable. Quality time and presence are very important to have a close relationship. This is also the main reason why I brought my family here in UAE with me, I do not want to waste time abroad away from my family, earning much money in exchange of my presence to them. I cannot afford to see my children growing up without playing with them and seeing them every night while they sleep. Time lost cannot be replaced even with the most expensive gadget in the world. I have waited for one long year to be with my family and when I found a chance to be with them, I never hesitate to do it. I have done it because of Love. Invest in relationship; nothing in this world can replace it.

REFLECTION: What are the things that you can do regularly that can strengthen your family relationship?

PS. I would like to thank the blog site http://ldsfamilynightfun.blogspot.com, it helped a lot in the preparation of our family bonding games.

The Path towards Self-Empowerment

2011-05-01T05:44:00.001+04:00

Photo with Rex Mendoza after the seminar

What is the importance of developing ourselves? Why do we need to empower ourselves? The level of success is the product of the way we view our self. Based on studies, people who chose to discover their higher self; the more successful they are in life.

In your journey towards self-empowerment, it is imperative to understand that your only enemy is your own self. What matters most is how you see yourself. It is between you and only you.

During my annual vacation last March to the Philippines, I went to the much awaited seminar of Mr. Rex Mendoza at International Marketing Group Headquarters in Makati. Together with my wife and sister, we had a blast listening and participating in the seminar. It was very interactive; Rex let us do some activities to emphasize the concepts of developing oneself. The frameworks of empowering your self can be applied along your journey are discussed as follow:

1. You Have a Choice to Build Yourself. How can you build yourself? Identify the top 3 strengths you have and be the best at it. On the other side, identify the top 3 weaknesses you have and look for ways to solve it.

2. Manage your Emotion. Following this, you can answer these questions: Are you optimistic? Excited? Energized? Angry? Always remember that to be angry is never a reason. If someone made you angry, just contemplate and reflect on the positive things that you can get from it. Seek God’s wisdom and the lesson to be learned from the circumstance might be hidden somehow.

3. Attitude of Gratitude. As fast as you can, write down at least 20 things that you are grateful for. You will notice that there are many things that you should be thankful for than thinking of the things to complain about. You should practice the attitude of gratitude. Do this rampage of appreciation when you feel bad and include them in you prayer every night. What are your activities after dinner and before you sleep? At least 45 minutes before you sleep, try to relax. Watching TV is not relaxing, quiet time contemplating at the end of the day and talking to the Lord is one of relaxing time that you can do.

4. Make a Victory Log. Prepare a notebook specific for your victories. Whenever you achieve something, write it there. By monitoring your victories, it will help you to achieve more in the future. You can check this out also on the things you should be thankful for.

5. Focus and Concentrate. Sometimes because we are busy with our work and overwhelmed with the problems we encounter, we tend to be misled and be out of focus. You should be here now to make every action aligned according to your plans. As a wise man once said, “Be present to the present.”

6. Live, Love and Work with Passion! Passion in the things we do will determine the consistency of actions towards our journey towards self empowerment. This will also make us very excited and tireless in achieving our dreams. Passion is the fuel that drives us to push and achieve more. It helps us to think beyond the box and do things out of comfort zones.

Every day, try to learn something new, find other ways to enrich yourself. Self empowerment should be never ending; make every moment geared towards your own personal growth. If you will notice, all days in our life are not ordinary days. It is up to you on how you will use it. Always have the most of it.

Reflection: What are the things that I can do today that will help in empowering myself?

5 Effective Ways to Reach Your Dream

2011-02-19T09:35:00.001+04:00

“Begin with the end in mind”. This was the passage that came to me, when I started discussing the Start Up process in our weekly financial literacy training. In front of around 30 Kababayans whom we helped and taught the proper way of saving and handling their finances, I contemplated on this quote by Stephen Covey.

Realizing this, I told our colleagues that when they set a major goal in different aspects of life, whether it’s financial, spiritual, social, family or career, it is important to know first where they want to go. What will the final result looks like? What will the surroundings be at the finish line? And as we recognize this, we can plan on our path effectively and get there fast and hassle-free.

Below are the guiding principles that we can apply in reaching our dream.

1. Inner WHY. We should have the inner WHY that fuels us to attain our goal. The reason why we are doing extra ordinary things and getting out of our comfort zone is very important in reaching your goal. It is the level of belief to this inner why that will determine the level of success in getting that goal.

2. Fix to your mind the end result of your goal. The final fruit that we will pick, the harvest that we will reap should be fixed to our mind. It may sound funny at first, but we need to do it to have that concentration and focus in reaching that goal.

3. Plan your roadmap. Put your goals into writing with the exact description and numbers, even color or photos if applicable. Include what work you will do in exchange of the goal that you want to achieve. Say this every morning when you wake up and every evening before you sleep until you feel that you are now holding in your hands that goal at hand.

4. Remind yourself. Arrange some sort of reminder that will encourage you to stay focus on that goal. You can have a small piece of paper inside your wallet that will remind the things that you need to do to meet your goal. Or you can print your goal in a piece of paper and put it in a conspicuous place where you can see it when you wake up and before you sleep.

5. Take action. Desire without action is just a dream without fulfillment. Decision to make it happen is imperative in achieving your goal. The burning desire to reach that goal will drive you to think for specific actions. Always make sure that every day; you have an activity that will lead to your goal. One small step every day towards your goal will definitely find its way to the finish line.

And when you encounter failures along the way, stumble forward and stand up. All of these are ingredients that will make your goal more appreciative in the future. Always remember that there is a rainbow after a rain and a beginning after an end. Just stay focused and motivated.

All of these principles will lead you through your journey in fulfilling your goals in any aspects of life. Have a fruitful journey.

Reflection: What do you really want in life? Start writing it down and decide to take action. Time is running and we do not want life to pass us by without doing something to make it happen.

PS. Regularly we go to the doctor to have a physical check up. Regularly, we go to the dentist to have our dental check up. Our finances needs check up as well. The question now is, are you having your financial check up? We might found out that our pockets already have holes on it or it might have terminal illness already. I am doing financial check up for free to help you strategize in achieving your financial goal. Just CLICK here for more details.

How to Achieve True Happiness

2011-01-29T01:28:00.004+04:00

Imagine that you are living in a mansion with all appliances and gadgets you ever wanted in your life are within reach. All things inside are voice activated. If you want coffee, you just say “Manang, magkakape po ako.” And you will get in response, “Black coffee or with milk?” Then the coffee will be immediately served.

Imagine that as you read this blog you are in the finest hotel in Paris while waiting for your Limousine to go around the place.

We can have all the things the world can offer to us. But the question is, are you truly happy? Are these things will give you the happiness that we aspire?

When I went to the mass today for my regular Friday service, I was fascinated about the Gospel that definitely tells the whole reason of my blogsite’s existence.

Here is the Gospel:

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:

How happy are the poor in spirit;
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle;
they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn;
they shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right;
they shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful;
they shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart;
they shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers;
they shall be called the sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right;
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. – Matthew 5:1-12

The Gospel is also called the Eight Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount.

As I reflect on it, the Gospel shows the value of humility instead of pride. If you will look at the passages, they are really the opposite of what the world gives. They defeat the purpose of having money, power and prestige which the world provides to attain happiness.

This is the promise of the Lord, the way we should live our lives if we want to be truly happy, the perfect recipe for a truly happy life.

All earthly life goes down to money. And all happiness given by the world are manifestations of money. If we are not good stewards of money, we will be slaves to it. The real purpose of money is to share it and bless the world. And we need to realize that we cannot share what we do not have. Hence, we need to know how money work for us and use it for the good of others and the community.

Reflection: How will you pursue your true happiness?

Why We Need to Save Early

2010-11-16T23:25:00.001+04:00

Time is more valuable than money. You can have more money but you will not have more time. – Jim Rohn

"Piggy bank by http://akilszone.blogspot.com/"

Let me tell you a story.

Juan and Pedro are best friends. They are the same in age and lived in the same neighborhood. They went in the same school. They played together, they studied together. But when they finished college, they were separated.

At the age of 20, Juan went to Manila to work in a manufacturing company. Pedro on the other hand, worked in a small company in their city. During the same period, Juan learned how to save and put his money in a place where it earns 12 percent interest per year. He puts P20,000 every year for 7 years. At the age of 26, the company of Pedro expanded in Manila and he was sent to work with the team. He met with Juan on his first day at work. Juan learned that Pedro was not saving so he shared what he is doing.

Pedro also invested in the same place where Juan put his money, investing P20,000 every year. During that time, Juan volunteered to join a non government organization in a remote area in Africa, thus stopping him to invest continuously.

After 7 years, at the age of 32, Juan called Pedro and asked him if he wants to join him to be a volunteer. Pedro answered with eagerness to join Juan. Because of this, Pedro also stopped investing.

Forty years later, at the age of 60, they decided to retire and go back to the Philippines.

Juan said, “Remember Pedro, we have saved some money forty years ago. I have kept P20,000 for 7 years. By now that will be P140,000.”

Pedro responded, “Yes, I remember. I also saved P20,000 for 7 years. I will have the same money as you. May be we can put up a small business.”

So they went to the investment house where they put their money.

Pedro asked the attendant, “Hi, I am Pedro, I would like to inquire about the money I have put here years ago.”

The attendant checked and excitedly told Pedro, “You have P5.3 Million based on our records.”

Pedro was really surprised.

Now it is Juan’s turn and asked the attendant, “Hi, I am Juan, may I know how much money I have?”

The attendant told him, “Sir, according to our data base, you have P10.6 million.”

Juan passed out upon hearing the amount.

Pedro asked, “How did it happen? We put the same amount of money. Why does his money doubled as compared to mine?”

The attendant explained, “Sir, Juan’s money is twice as greater from yours because he saved 7 years earlier that you.”

They went home, put up their business and enjoyed their retirement.

Here is the table on how is the money of Juan twice as greater than the money of Pedro:

"Effect of saving early at 12% interest per year, financial concept from International Marketing Group"

You can see that the money worked both for Juan and Pedro because of the power of compound interest. But it worked better for Juan because he saved early.

There are two reasons why this happened.

Reason 1: The earlier you save the greater the result. Time is an ally of money. It can give you great earnings if you save early. But it can also be an enemy if not used properly. Procrastination is the problem. If you let time passed without considering on saving a portion of your income, you will realize the consequence later.

Reason 2: You should know where to put your money to maximize the power of compound interest. There are different investment engines that can make your money work as hard as you do. You should seek proper financial education and the right information on these.

You can achieve financial abundance through literacy and discipline. Always remember that what you do during your productive years will determine what life you will have in the future. You have the power to make your life miserable or happy. And you should choose to be happy.

Reflection: How will you make your life happy in the future?

PS1. I would like to thank International Marketing Group (IMG) for the financial concept I shared with you in this blog.

PS2. We are conducting free financial check up to guide you in attaining your financial goal. Check the details here.

Is There Really Heaven?

2010-11-07T23:38:00.003+04:00

First Reading: Book of Maccabees 7:1-2.9-14
Second Reading: Thessalonians 2:16—3:5
Gospel: Luke 20:27-38

“…and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” – Luke 20:38

Have you ever wondered what does it look like in heaven? Have you asked yourself, is there really heaven? Imagine your idea of the place called heaven, do the people there really dressed in white all the time? Do the people never grow old? Are there big houses as well as small houses there? Are there also typhoons and earthquake there? Are there cars and bicycles? There are many questions that we can come up and we can go on and on… But what are the real environment and the situation up in heaven, we really don’t know.

"Road to Heaven" by Emily Mueller

For the past days, we have celebrated the All Saints and Souls Day. We remembered our love ones who have passed away. We recalled the value that they imparted to us when they were still alive. And for the whole month of November, we will pray for our departed love ones.

The readings for today are very powerful that they tells us the fundamental foundation of our faith. They show us that there is really life after death. The readings make us realize that if we live by our faith to the Lord and follow him throughout our life on earth, we will expect great things after our death. If Jesus Christ did not resurrected after his death on the cross, we do not have the faith we are holding now. Because of his resurrection, we believe that death is not the end but a start of a new life with the Lord.

And the place where we can spend the life after our death is in heaven. So the question now is do you want to go to heaven? Do you want to go to heaven NOW? =) You might say, “Lord, not yet because I still have many goals in life.” “I still need to take my children to college.” “I still want to go places and travel the world.” “I still have debts to pay.” “I am still single.” "I still have not achieved my dream to be an actor like Piolo Pascual and have a movie with Angel Locsin.” There are many reasons why we don’t want to die yet. But we should always remember that when we die; we will not go right away in heaven. We will still be judged on how we did our life on earth.

And in order for us to have a worthy death, we need to have a worthy life. We ought to strive to be a loving person every day and have the people around us experience the love and blessing of the Lord through us. Become an instrument of God in our own ministries (our family, our work, our friends, and our community). Nurture and excel in the core gifts that God gave to us. Live a happy life that when the time we face the Lord after this life, he will pat us on the back and tell us, “You did well my child.”

Today, the Lord is telling us that there is heaven. All we need is believe and live life the way the Lord wants us to do it.

Reflection: Are you ensuring that what you do everyday makes you closer to heaven?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for choosing me to love others as you do. Guide us to be like you in everything that we do.

PS. Every week, we will reflect on what the Bible says during the mass. Write with me and share your reflections also through this blog. Thank you.

PS2. To receive the reflections right in your inbox regularly, kindly subscribe and fill in your email address on the right.

How my Wife Changed her Mindset about Financial Abundance

2010-10-27T01:16:00.001+04:00

My wife was very excited to talk about what she learned from the successful Think Rich Quick 2.0 Seminar by my real estate mentor Trace Trajano last October 23-24 at AIM in Makati City, Philippines. My wife really had a great time learning and meeting new friends in the seminar. Imagine, we talked from 10pm up to 2am. That was 4 hours, non-stop chatting thru Skype.

Few days before the seminar, she had hesitations to go because she has no idea about real estate. She told me that she will not appreciate the concepts because it might be too complicated for her. Basically, I know that she does not want to go out of her comfort zone. To persuade her to go, we invited her friend Hazel to come with her so that she will have someone to talk to during the seminar.

But these hesitations all changed because of the experience she had throughout the 2 day event. She shared her experience about how they were introduced on the millionaire mindset concept of John Calub, Philippines’ Master Wealth Attractor. John instill to them that they have infinite potential to make their dreams come true. The internet marketing expertise of Jomar Hilario gave them idea of maximizing the features of different social media platforms like Facebook/Tweeter/Linked in marketing products particularly real estate.

To top it all, even for a beginner, my wife appreciated the real estate concepts presented by Trace and the activities that encouraged them to get investors and market a property. The testimonies and experiences of the students of Trace who are millionaires themselves inspired my wife and she realized that real estate business really works.

She met new a friend named Melanie, her seatmate in the venue. They talked about anything under the sun. The three of them including Hazel, learned a lot at the same time having a fun.

She got even happier when she received the priceless iPod Nano that I won during the membership drive of buyfirstdeal.com, website owned by Trace. (Through this website I learned so much about real estate). She was speechless when Trace gave it to her. The only words that came out from her mouth were “Thank you.” I gave it to her as one of her birthday presents. You will see how happy she is on the photo. =)

Before, my wife had a mindset that we should be contented on the money we have and do not dream for more because the Bible says that we should be satisfied on what we have. And having lots of money will make you greedy and you will become a slave of it. On the other hand, the Scripture is really profound; I believe that God wants the best for us. He wants His children to have all the blessings in the world. That is why I keep telling her that we cannot help others if we do not have the money as our instrument in becoming a blessing to them because talents or skills alone may be insufficient. As long as we know the true purpose of why we need to be rich, we will not be mislead.

The stories my wife shared that evening were a good indication that she had changed her mindset about financial abundance. She now understands why it is very important to get rich and why I am encouraging her to always think abundance. She told me, “Dad, now I understand.” She continued, “I understand now why you are doing your dream board.” “I understand now why you keep telling me that we need to become rich. Now I know.” And as her husband and best friend, I really felt good knowing that.

I told my wife to reinforce what she learned. I recommended her to read more about real estate like the book Think Rich Quick! by Trace Trajano and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne which will teach her the value of positive thinking and changing her mindset through the law of attraction. I even put her as the primary contact person in the real estate blog site that I created - http://www.ownyourdreamhome.blogspot.com/ so that she will learn to speak and deal with prospective buyers.

And you know what; I cannot explain the happiness I am feeling now because my wife told me that she is proud of having me as her husband.

As couple, it is imperative to understand that we are partners in everything. We need to lift each other up. The Lord gave the Sacrament of Marriage to us in order to have the divine grace of companionship and bind us together through His presence. And having the right mindset and taking actions towards our goals can be our foundation in finding the true happiness that we aspire.

PS. My wife will be attending the next John Calub’s Money Magnet Seminar in Mall of Asia this November to give her continuous learning on financial abundance. I am proud of you Mom, keep it up.

Reflection: Do you find ways to make your spouse experience learning same as you do in different areas of your life?

A Tribute to Kuya Jun

2010-10-23T01:24:00.003+04:00

Who is Kuya Jun? Why is he so special to us?

I first met Kuya Jun when we bumped along the hallway of our flat in what I call Apartment 45, my place of residence in Abu Dhabi. He was just living right next to our room. He has a smiling face. He is approachable and always ready to spare his time for a chat. I normally see him at the lobby of the building looking to the people passing by while smoking.

One time while washing the dishes in the kitchen, we talked about his life while in the Philippines few years ago. I learned that he was an altar server during his childhood until his college days. He even went to the seminary but got out to pursue Mechanical Engineer which served as a medium for him to go abroad. He is a fervent church goer every Friday; he is willing to give you a lift before and after the mass. He was even present on the weeklong healing series of Fr. Arlo in the Misyong Pilipino at St. Joseph Church here in Abu Dhabi, which he routinely do every year.

We talked and agreed that he will join the Communion Ministers for the 2011 batch; I told him that it would not take a lot of his busy time if he chose to join. He answered in return that whatever it takes, it is our obligation to serve the Lord. From then on, I knew that he will serve. He has a clean hair cut and an optimistic aura that night. He even told me his life in the Philippines, how they showed to be the foundation of their parish and how he ardently served the Lord.

But an unfortunate event changed the life of Kuya Jun. He suffered an Aortic Aneurism last 10/10/10, two days after the Misyong Pilipino. In layman’s term it is called a bulging of the aorta, like a hose that is clogged on both ends which caused his organs to shutdown. And this morning, October 22, 2010, he passed away after 12 days of hard struggle. I was serving after the 9am mass at St. Joseph Church in Abu Dhabi when I learned his demise. I cannot believe what happened but I know Kuya Jun had a good fight.

It is ironic because it is the birthday of my roommate and my father. We are celebrating for the birth of our friend while the people in the other room are in anguish because of the death of their love one. But, deep inside, we are celebrating for Kuya Jun because he lived a meaningful life here on earth. And even for a short period of time of knowing him, he had touched our hearts and shown to us God’s image through him.

I know the Lord is telling him now, “Jun, mission accomplished, you did a great job! And I am proud of you.”

We will miss you Kuya Jun. We know that you are happy now up in heaven. We are grateful to know you and become part of your life even for just a short while. We salute you for a job well done.

We lost a good friend but we know that we gain a guardian angel that will protect us from this earthly life. May you rest in peace.

PS. Please spare a minute of your time to pray for the eternal repose of the soul of Kuya Jun. He is dear to us and was a good friend.

PS2. Kuya Jun is also known as Santiago Fellone Jr., 47 years old (1963-2010)

Reflection: People come and go to our life, have you cherished the instances when you were with them?

Misyong Pilipino Healing Series Day 6: Love of God

2010-10-16T03:24:00.006+04:00

For the past 5 days, we experienced different kinds of healing in many aspects of our life. We were enlightened and changed our personal lives and life as a community. We started to become whole, because by becoming whole we will become holy.

And this last day of the Misyong Pilipino in Abu Dhabi for 2010 completes what we have gone through all the nights that we were together.

Role of Mama Mary. Being Christians, we cannot separate Mama Mary to us. We cannot just set her aside. We are celebrating the Feast of the Holy Rosary this October. During the Day 4 of the Healing Series, Fr. Arlo discussed about the original design of man is holy and blameless. And the ones who have the privilege to get it were Adam and Eve. And 2nd original design was Mama Mary who is the Immaculate Conception. This was claimed by Mama Mary during her apparition to Bernadette in Lourdes, France. She maintained to be holy and blameless because of her obedience to the Lord as opposed to Eve.

Different Names of Mama Mary. But why does Mama Mary has many names? Why is she called Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Our lady of Guadalupe or Our Lady of Fatima? The niece of Fr. Arlo asked these questions. He replied, “How do you call your Mama?” And she said, I call her Mama. The series of conversation went on, How do I call your Mama? You call her Ate Lei. She is the only sister and the most favorite sister of Fr. Arlo. =) How do people call your Mama at the office? They call her Leah. How would her boss call her at the office? He calls her Mrs. Zeta. Imagine one person but different names; this is just the same with Mama Mary. Names of Mama Mary may depend on her role like for example Perpetual Help and Immaculate Conception. They may depend also to the place of apparition like Our lady of Fatima, Portugal where Mama Mary appeared to Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. Lastly they may depend on the characteristics of Mama Mary like Mary, Virgins of Virgins or Mary, Queen of the Apostles. The litany pertaining to Mama Mary shows her characteristics and the way we understand Mama Mary to our lives.

Mama Mary as Jesus’ Mother. Another context is that Mama Mary is not acknowledged by others. But here is practical thought to cite, “If you cannot accept Mary as your mother, how can you accept Jesus as your brother?” It is contradictory to accept Jesus as your brother without accepting Mary as his mother. We cannot talk about Jesus, if we will not talk about the people around him; his apostles and his parents. This case is similar to the priests; you cannot just simply set aside their background. People are asking about their parents, their origin. And with this in mind, we find help from Mama Mary. The Roman Catholic Church is just a part of the whole Catholic Church. The Eastern Catholic Church composed of Greek Orthodox, Alexandrian, etc. were also founded by the apostles. They have extreme devotion to Mary as mother of God.

To Jesus WITH Mama Mary. The perception of to Jesus through Mama Mary is quite a narrow issue because it signifies that we cannot go to Jesus without passing through Mama Mary. It is better to say To Jesus WITH Mama Mary. For example, if someone asked you to pray for him/her. Both of you will pray. You will pray for her and you will pray with her. Similarly, Mama Mary will pray for us and she will pray with us.

Praying the Rosary. “Ang pagdarasal ng Rosaryo ay hindi panalangin ng nguso, kundi panalangin ng puso”. (Praying the Rosary is not a prayer of the mouth, but a prayer of the heart). “Ang pagdarasal ng Rosaryo ay hindi panalangin ng dila, kundi panalangin ng diwa.” (Praying the Rosary is not a prayer of the tongue but a prayer of the mind). The Rosary is all about the contemplation of the mysteries; and in the contemplation you include yourself. To illustrate, on the Mystery of Finding of Jesus in the temple, you may recall and ask yourself, when did I lost Jesus lately? Fr. Arlo shows this when he forgot to say his morning prayers. Another example is the Mystery on the Resurrection of Jesus, when you forgive and forget those people who hurt you; you are resurrected and alive again. The Holy Rosary will enrich you life if you contemplate on it by including your own experiences while going through the mysteries. The Rosary is meant to be Christ-centered. It is all about the glory of Jesus.

On Confession. A classmate of Fr. Arlo in college asked, “Why are the Catholics confess their sins indirectly to God”. Fr. Arlo illustrated his answer through this: There is a wooden bench and a protruding nail. The nail signifies the sins. If you want to remove the nail, you need to use a hammer. Is the hammer or the one who use the hammer will remove the nail? Definitely the one who uses the hammer is the driving force that will remove the nail, because the hammer is just an instrument. Similarly, the priest will not forgive your sins. You confess your sins directly to God using the priesthood of the priest as your instrument. His classmate continued, “How can you be an instrument if some of the priests have many sins and unclean as well? That was a good question. Fr. Arlo admitted that priests have sins also, but he replied, “Do you clean your house? Yes. “What do you use in cleaning?” Broom and a dust pan. “Is the broom clean?” No. Still, the broom (priest) which is the instrument is not clean, but the one who use the broom is the one who cleans. His classmate threw another question, “Why need an instrument if you can do it alone?” Fr. Arlo cited another example where a student gets P300 from his mother to buy a school project. Unfortunately, the money was misused. When the student went home, she saw her mother sweeping. Will she say to her mother that the money was wasted? It is hard to tell it. You can make it up by doing the chores but still you need to verbalize it. Likewise, you need an instrument (priest) in order for you to verbalize your sins. In addition, you need the priest so that God can verbalize the forgiveness of your sins. In relation to this, if you do not believe in instruments, why some believe in using pastors? This is a matter that should be thought of.

Ask, Seek and Knock. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened”. - Matthew 7:7-8 Remember the acronym ASK, A-ask, S-seek, K-knock. Unless your knock starts with a letter N, the word will be different. =)

Demand anything from the Lord. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” – John 15:7

Fr. Arlo shared a story last August, 3 years ago about Rica, a professional singer who gave up her career and sing for the Music Ministry of Oasis of Love. Rica is married to Romy. Their eldest child Princess, a 2nd year college nursing student suffered from Dengue. She only got 17,000 platelet counts, far below the normal 150,000 platelet counts and she was dying. The doctor advised the couple to have their daughter undergo bone marrow transplant. The procedure is very costly and might leave a painful trauma to Princess. The couple sought a second opinion from their friend doctor. They were told that the procedure is only for last resort, and they can speak to Princess’ doctor to have her under observation for 3-4 days. If no progress observed, they can wend on the transplant procedure. The doctor agreed but on the condition that the blood monitoring devices will be removed. They were so depressed and they cannot do anything. Fr. Arlo told Rica that she is serving the Lord through singing. In return, she can demand the healing of her daughter to the Lord (In Filipino: “Pwede syang maningil sa Diyos”) This is how she prayed. “Lord, you owe me; I sing to you, I gave up everything for you. I demand that you should pay me in return”. The next morning, a very beautiful nurse who’s face is half covered went to the ward and without a word get a blood sample from their daughter. Princess told her parents that it was the first time that she have not felt any pain in the process. The couple asked the people at the nurse station about the nurse, but the station told them that they have not requested anything. They went to the laboratory, and they confirmed that the samples were brought by the nurse but she just disappeared. The following day, she got 149,000 platelet counts and the next day, she was discharged from the hospital.

Demand anything from the Lord especially if you are serving him, especially if you are honest, especially if you are not hurting anyone.

Fr. Arlo shared another story about his classmate in seminary named Pocholo Murillo. Pocholo has invested in a hotel in Boracay named Hanna’s Hotel. Most of his clients are church workers. His help to the church is to serve the church workers by getting from them reasonable accommodation fees just to break even. It was the same year; Fr. Arlo was on his way going to Radyo Veritas to have a mass when his classmate called him. Fr. Arlo was surprised because Pocholo was crying on the phone given the fact that this guy is really masculine because of his strong built. Pocholo said while sobbing, “Classmate, are you busy?” “We are here in Cardinal Santos Hospital, Hanna has Dengue and the doctor said that she is dying”. Fr. Arlo went to the hospital and found Hanna on the bed having hard time to breath because of the fluid in her lungs. Fr. Arlo told the story of Rica to Pocholo and they prayed together. Pocholo while crying prayed, “Lord, I am good to you, you owe me.” He was demanding to the Lord (Siya ay naningil sa Diyos.) In the afternoon, after a week of not eating, Hanna asked for solid food. When she got her x-ray, they found that the fluid in her lungs was gone. After 2 days, she was discharged.

If you believe that you are good in front of the Lord, if you believe that you have faith in Him, if you look for ways to become closer to Him, you can demand anything from the Lord.

Sometimes He will answer you in the last minute. Still, the bottom line is that the Lord knows what you need. Therefore, if you ask something from God, He will give you 3 answers:

1. He will say YES. What you are asking will be given to you, because what you asked will be for your good. And if it is given, do not abuse it. Do not mishandle it and just hold on to it tightly. This is what happened to the prodigal son in the Scripture; the younger child went to other places after getting his inheritance and squandered all the money. Similarly, if you have asked for work and it is given to you. The Lord wants you to love it and value it. Do not waste the blessing that God gave to you.

2. He may say NO. What you are asking is not for your good. Example, you have a 5 yr old child who has a nylon rope. If the child borrows a knife from you because he/she will cut the rope, will you give it? Of course not, because you know better. But God knows best. That is why the Lord will not grant it if you pray for a boyfriend but with wife in the Philippines. =)

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."

Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' – Matthew 4:5-6

The passage "Do not put the Lord your God to the test" is like doing something bad and you are asking for God’s blessing. Getting money without the consent of your boss and you pray that He will help you not to be caught is a clear example of putting the Lord to the test.

Another story: There is a girl, her name is Tukneneng and her boyfriend is Himulmol. She is praying to be Himulmol as her husband. Unfortunately, they have a big fight and got separated. After few months, she met Prulikoy, went into intimate relationship and got married. They lived happily and got 3 kids. One day, she prayed again and gave thanks for the blessing she received. While going out of the church, she met her friend, Balbakwa and had a chat. She learned that Himulmol is cruel and usually hurt his wife physically. She went back to the church and prayed, “Thank you Lord for not answering my prayers.” =)

3. He will say WAIT. To test your perseverance and patience in praying and faith because in his time everything will become beautiful. In his time, it is also the right time for all, so never give up praying. The life of St. Monica is the best example of patience in praying. For more than 25 years she was praying for the conversion of his son and husband. Finally, his son who also became a saint, St. Augustine had his conversion. All of us should be patient in praying, do not give up especially if you pray thy will be done. The Lord might answer your prayer faster.

In summary of the Mission Pilipino, Fr. Arlo wanted to instill to us the reason why we have the event every year. He asked, “Why is there healing?” “Why is there a mission every year, every October?”

He then explained it using one sheet of paper cut into portions, There is only one God in three persons. God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. When God created the world he created man, and He sent Jesus. When Jesus was taken up to heaven he sent the Holy Spirit.

While pasting the cut papers on the wood, he continued, Jesus was sent and died on the cross. He was crucified together with 2 thieves, Dimas and Hestas. Dimas is the good thief, and Hestas is the bad thief. Dimas became a good thief because he even robbed the heaven. Fr. Arlo one time asked a congressman if he can make a bill making Dimas as the patron St. of the congressmen. =)

They put INRI in his head which means Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. For the Jews, it was an insult to have a king that his crown has thorns instead of gold, his jewelry is rusty nails instead of diamonds, and his throne is rough wood instead of high quality materials. That time, the people were laughing below Him.

But they were not contented. They put a spear at the side of Jesus; the heart was pierced where blood and water flowed. And that started our devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Still not contented, the soldier used the dice and gambled on the cloth of Jesus, His last possession.

This is the scenario of the Calvary, but the story does not end there. We claimed that Jesus is our King, He is our savior. He is our friend. He is the son of man, Jesus is our God. He gave us life and thought us how to live and love. And if you will remove Jesus it becomes hell. All people that are suffering without Jesus really looks like hell. On the contrary, the sufferings become easier because of our faith. The sufferings become light because of the Love of God. Bring back Jesus to our life and whatever happen just hold on to it. Obey God and do not give up. To summarize the mission in one word, it is LOVE.

All these nights that we were together with Fr. Arlo, just remember that it all boils down to the Love of God. Mama Mary is part of God’s Love. The Rosary is our love to God. The Sacrament of Confession is also a love of God. The Filipino Mission is part of our service to the Lord. After all if God loves us, whoever we are, we should also love each other and understand one another. This is the essence why we are here.

Reflection: How does God's love manifests in your life?

PS. Our dearest friend and kababayan, Santiago Fellone Jr. is at the Intensive Care Unit of Sheik Khalifa Hospital. He suffered from Aortic Aneurysm or abnormal bulging of the aorta last Sunday, 10/10/10. Express God's love, please include him in your prayers for his fast recovery. Thank you.

PS2. My colleague's 1 month old niece, Mary Alexa will undergo a major operation due to Hernia. Please also extend your prayers for the success of her operation. Thank you.

Misyong Pilipino Healing Series Day 5: Benediction

2010-10-11T22:14:00.005+04:00

What is Benediction? Benediction means blessing or miracle. During the 5th Day of Misyong Pilipino with Fr. Arlo, the St. Joseph grounds were prepared for the great blessing and healing that we will have. The pathways going to the altar were covered with white linen cloth. The altar was full of lighted candles where the Blessed Sacrament is located. The place served as a venue where we can receive healing, forgiveness and give thanks to the Lord.

Three images were depicted during the night of Benediction. These are the image of healing, image of thanksgiving and the image of forgiveness and cleansing.

The first image is HEALING. It comes from the book of Mark and about the Woman Who touched Jesus’ Cloak.

There was a woman who suffered terribly from severe bleeding for twelve years, even though she had been treated by many doctors. She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time. She had heard about Jesus so she came in the crowd behind him, saying to herself "If I just touch his clothes, I will get well."

She touched his cloak, and her bleeding stopped at once; and she had the feeling inside herself that she was healed of her trouble. At once Jesus knew that power had gone out of him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

His disciples answered, "You see how the people are crowding you; why do you ask who touched you?"

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. The woman realized what had happened to her, so she came, trembling with fear, knelt at his feet, and told him the whole truth. Jesus said to her, "My daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your trouble." - Mark 5:25-34

You may be suffering from physical sickness, emotional sickness, spiritual sickness or may be financial sickness but by just touching the clothes of Jesus you will be healed. The white linen signifies the cloak of Jesus that is connected to the altar where Jesus body is placed. If you have relatives and love ones who are sick, you can pray for their healing.

After reading the Gospel, a song was played entitled When You Believe by Mariah Carey. Here are the lyrics:

When You Believe

by Mariah Carey

Many nights we've prayed

With no proof anyone could hear

In our hearts a hopeful song

We barely understood

Now we are not afraid

Although we know there's much to fear

We were moving mountains long

Before we knew we could

There can be miracles, when you believe

Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill

Who knows what miracles you can achieve

When you believe, somehow you will

You will when you believe

In this time of fear

When prayers so often prove(s) in vain

Hope seems like the summer birds

Too swiftly flown away

Yet now I'm standing here

My heart's so full I can't explain

Seeking faith and speaking words

I never thought I'd say

There can be miracles, when you believe

Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill

Who knows what miracles you can achieve

When you believe, somehow you will

You will when you believe

They don't (always happen) when you ask

(Oh)

And it's easy to give in to your fears

(Oh...Ohhhh)

But when you're blinded by your pain

Can't see your way straight through the rain

(A small but )still resilient voice

Says (hope is very near)

(Ohhh)

There can be miracles

(Miracles)

When you believe

(Lord, when you believe)

Though hope is frail

(Though hope is frail)

It's hard to kill

(Hard to kill, Ohhh)

Who knows what miracles, you can achieve

When you believe, somehow you will(somehow, somehow, somehow)

somehow you will

You will when you believe

You will when you

You will when you believe

Just believe...in your heart

Just believe

You will when you believe~

The second image is THANKSGIVING. The reading is from the Book of Luke and entitled The 10 Lepers Jesus Healed.

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” - Luke 17:11-19

During the time of Jesus if you have a major ailment like leprosy, you will be separated from the common people. You will be treated as out cast and isolated from others. The priests will decide if you are capable to interact with people. According to the Gospel, there is one haunting question Christ asked, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?" This is very conscientious, it makes us reflect all the blessings we have received and ask ourselves, “Have we thanked God for all these blessings?” Only one of the ten lepers thinks that is why he went back to Jesus and give thanks. Consider this, if you have received 10 blessings this week, you might be just thanking the Lord 1 out of the 10. Through gratitude, you will receive more blessings.

When the disciples of Jesus ask Him to teach them how to pray, Jesus told them to pray like this, “Our father, who art in heaven, holy be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread….” You will notice that He teach them to first acknowledge God before they ask their needs and intentions. This illustrates thinking. Because anyone who thinks, thanks, we do not just ask and ask to God to give us our requests, but instead it is necessary to give Him thanks first before anything else. These are for our answered prayers, the job that you asked, the healing of your sick child. If you say thank you, you acknowledge the giver. Try to recall all the blessings you received in your life.

After reading the Gospel, a song was played which is entitled Give Thanks. Here are the lyrics:

Give Thanks

Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks unto the Holy One

Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son

Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks unto the Holy One

Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"

Let the poor say, "I am rich

Because of what the Lord has done for us"

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"

Let the poor say, "I am rich

Because of what the Lord has done for us"

The third image is FORGIVENESS. It is the image of God’s understanding. The reflection comes from the Old Testament, in the Book of Prophet Isaiah.

One morning, when Isaiah was walking barefooted, Yahweh approached him. Yahweh told Isaiah that He wants him to be His prophet. Isaiah, without hesitation, refused the plan of Yahweh. He said, “I am not worthy to be your prophet because I have many sins. Let my neighbors be your prophet instead of me”. So Yahweh asked him to just walk with Him. And as they are walking along a damp grassland, Yahweh asked Isaiah, “Do you feel the wet grasses below us? Do you believe that the dampness of these grasses will be removed when the sun rays radiate on them?” Isaiah agreed. Yahweh continued, “Isaiah, just like the wet grasses, if you just allow yourself to get the heat of my Love, I will remove all your sins”. Realizing this Isaiah responded, “Lord here I am, I come to do your will”.

If you allow yourself to feel the heat of His love, if you allow yourself to get the radiance of His love, all your weaknesses will be strengthened by God. When you are exposed from the radiation of the Lord, He will thaw all your sins. Despite of your unfaithfulness, He will still embrace you and give you a new life. If you are suffering because of sins, you can ask for second chance, you can ask for a new direction in life and no matter how big your sins are, in front of the Lord and His love, He will forgive and clean you.

Here are the chorus lyrics of the song Sa Kabila ng Lahat:

Sa Kabila ng Lahat

Sa kabila ng lahat, yayakapin mo pa rin ako.

Sa kabila ng lahat, aakayin mo pa rin ako.

Sa kabila ng lahat, buhay mo’y inialay mo.

Sa kabila ng lahat, pinatawad mo ako.

During the Benediction, we were encouraged to touch and kneel on the cloth, lowering and humbling ourselves. Everyone experienced healing, thanksgiving and cleansing.

That night was really a wonderful experience. It let us have a flashback moment in our life. It allowed us to recall our past doings, reflected on it, and contemplated on it. It permitted us to stop for a while, think and give thanks for all the blessings we have received. We realized that there are so many things that happened to us that we should be grateful of. Our emotional and physical sufferings were healed. The feeling was overwhelming and the love of God let us experience the event that we have never felt before.

I will share the experience I had during the Benediction on a separate blog. Share your experience too and let it inspire others. =)

Reflection: What are my sufferings? What are the things that I should be thankful of? What are the things that are stopping me to become closer to God?

Misyong Pilipino Healing Series Day 4: Spiritual Healing

2010-10-09T18:35:00.019+04:00

We thought God is awesome and all-powerful, but why do we suffer? We thought God is loving, but why He allow us to suffer?

If we have these sufferings and offer these sufferings to somebody else they become sacrifices. If we do these sacrifices in the name of love, they become blessings.

If we have these sufferings and always complain about they become miseries. If these miseries are done in the name of self pity, they become curses. You will notice that all people who complain have a miserable life. Look within your family, examine your siblings; those who always complain are the ones miserable.

Fr. Arlo illustrated the interaction of these. There is a man who owns a tiny house. One night, somebody is knocking at the door. When the man opens it and it is Mr. Suffering. The latter is looking for a place to rest for the night but the man did not allow him to enter the house. So Mr. Suffering looked for other places to stay. The next night, another one knocks at the door and this time it is Mr. Love also looking for a place to stay. Since Mr. Love has a good aura, the man let him enter and give him a place to rest for the night. Mr. Love stayed in the house for days. Until Mr. Suffering knocked again at the door still looking for a place to stay. Because Mr. Love is already inside the house and the man learned a lot from him, he let Mr. Suffering to enter and stay with them. They lived happily together. The devil learned about this and was very disappointed. He sent his messenger, Mr. Self Pity to destroy the closeness of the man, Mr. Love and Mr. Suffering. One night, Mr. Self Pity comes knocking at the door looking also for a place to stay. The man let Mr. Self Pity into the house and all of them lived together. The days passed and Mr. Self Pity as advised by the devil started ridiculing Mr. Love. He persuaded the man to kick Mr. Love out of the house since he brings problems to them. Most of the belongings of the man are being given to the poor because of Mr. Love. So the man was convinced and told Mr. Love to leave the house. More problems started when Mr. Love left and the life of the people inside the house became miserable.

Remember that the best companion of suffering is love and the worst enemy of love is self pity. Suffering with love makes our problems seem easy but suffering with self pity makes our life more miserable.

But still, why God allows us to suffer? We thought He loves us, but why He let problems happen to our life? This is the big question. But the big answer is may be because God wants us to need Him. He wants us to be closer to Him.

It is said that man has emptiness inside until God put a heart on each one of us. Initially it was planned that the original shape will be valentine shaped. But He had a second thought and cut the Heart into two. He gave the half to us and the other half was placed up in heaven. Physiologically, you will notice that our heart is not valentine shaped. Apparently, it is cut into portion and you will recognize that it is oriented to the left which looks like the half of a valentine shaped heart. But man does not believe about this and seeks his heart everywhere.

Man seeks the other half of his heart in MONEY. It is apparent that the more money you have the more problem you will also have. In fact, most of the problems of the rich people do not necessitate money. The late Kristina Onasis, wife of Aristotle Onasis, a Greek shipping magnate has many houses all over the world but none of which she called home. Maybe we have all the riches in the world. Maybe we can buy whatever we want. Maybe we can go wherever we want to go. But we can never find the other half of our heart in money. Fr. Arlo shared that in his years of priesthood, he does not have any case of a dead person bringing the title of the house in his coffin. =)

Fr. Arlo also shared his story, while riding a jeepney going to Quiapo, he saw a poster about what money cannot buy. It says “Money can buy books but not knowledge. Money can buy medicine but not health. Money can buy companions but not friends. Money can buy bed but not rest”. Meaning to say, the best things in life are free. To illustrate this, try to breathe deeply, the air you are breathing right now is free. Breathe more deeply, if you farted, that’s a bonus. =) But if you are sick, the air you breathe has a tag price on it, it has a fee.

Money is not eternal. Credit cards for example, there are many people buried in credit because they thought that they can pay their credit card. If you have many credit cards that will be a burden for you. Credit Card Companies cannot build their big offices if they do not make money from you. They become rich because of the interests they are imposing when we purchase. Remember, you cannot find the other half of the heart in money.

Man seeks the other half of his heart in SEX. If we talk about sex many are awake, but if we talk about God, many are asleep. =) In psychology, it says that it takes only one woman to prove man’s masculinity and vilinity. If you have other women other than your wife, that is not masculinity and vilinity, it is insecurity.

There was a group in a university who posted an announcement. It says “Flash… Flash… Flash… There will be a meeting at 6 o clock this evening at the 6th floor of this building on May 6, 1996. But seemingly, nobody paid attention on the announcement. A member of the group got a bright idea and suggested to the group to change the wordings of the poster to catch the attention of the people. They changed it into this “Sex… Sex… Sex… There will be a mating at sex o’ clock this evening at the sexth floor of this building on May sex, nineteen ninety sex. Everybody noticed the announcement. =) We cannot find the other half of our heart in Sex.

Man seeks the other half of his heart in MARRIED LIFE. In the Middle East, it was found out that there is 7-8 cases out of 10 have marriage problems. You cannot find the other half in married life.

Look for the other half of your heart in GOD. You can find the other half in God. The other half is place up in heaven and you need to become closer with God to find it. If there are problems in your life right now, you will know that you will become complete if you are closer to God.

As someone says “Peace is not simply absence of Conflict. But Peace is the presence of God”. If you have many problems, it will be easy if there is the presence of God. It will be your coping mechanism.

In health, the anti depressant pills’ main composition is Serotonin. This can also be found inside the brain. Chemical substances connected to neurotransmitters are connected to Hypothalamus which is the seat of emotion. When you are happy and lonely, the Hypothalamus controls it. And don’t you know Serotonin is activated when you pray? This simply means that praying is anti depressant. The adaptability of the Filipinos is visible to other places and cultures because we pray a lot.

It was also found that sun rays activate Serotonin. In the USA, they have a long winter season, and within that period sun rays are most of the time not visible. And because of this, there are high cases of suicide because many people are depressed. Philippines can still stand because we have so much sunshine and prayers. Coping mechanisms are built in within us because we always pray. If you are lonely, pray. If you felt alone, pray. If you face trials, pray.

But why we still suffer? Who started suffering? What went wrong? Where and when did it start?

When God created the world, He created man. When God created man, He gave him body. In Filipino word body means “Katawang Lupa” and body in Latin means humus or soil, in Filipino “lupa” and Bisaya “so-el” =) That is the reason why we are called human beings. And humility means “sumasayad sa lupa” (touching the soil).

Fr. Arlo best illustrated the discussion showing a plastic bottle as the body, the soul as the shape of the bottle, the spirit as the clear water and the sins as the dark water.

The soul and personality of a person is the shape and the spirit is water in Hebrew means ruah. In Filipino it means “hininga”. When God created man, He breathes into his nostrils. Thus, breathing is a symbol of life.

But still, what went wrong? The original design of man is Adam and Eve. God created man with his image and likeness. God intended man before the world begun to be holy and blameless. This is the benefit Adam and Eve had. Until one time when Eve was chasing the butterflies and Adam chasing a deer, the serpent called Eve and asks her if she wants to be like God. He persuaded her to eat the forbidden fruit; Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit. This is when our sins started.

The second design of God that is holy and blameless is Mama Mary. That is why she is called Immaculate Conception. Mama Mary is the opposite of Eve. Mama Mary was obedient and Eve was not. If you spell “Eva”, it is the opposite of “Ave” which means hail, also pertains to Mama Mary. She showed her obedience when she said “Let it will be done according to your word”.

The real sense of Idolatry is making us like God out of sheer greed and selfishness. Like what happen in the Maguindanao Massacre where 57 people were killed. The people behind the ruthless crime were playing like God because of their greed. For married couples, the manifestation of Idolatry is when one of the couple acts like he/she is correct all the time and the other half is always wrong. This is playing like God. And a person who always feels that he is right is difficult to change.

Fr. Arlo poured dark water on the plastic bottle which signifies our sins. If you are living beyond your means, it brings more dark water. When you have illicit relationship here in the UAE, it brings more dark water. If you are a child who prioritizes playing games in Play Station than reviewing your lessons, it brings more dark water.

This is what went wrong; sins cause our sufferings and problems.

But there is still hope. We can make our sufferings redemptive. How can we do it?

Let it absorb the sufferings of others. Fr. Arlo shared a story when his friend bought a car before the New Year. He parked the car in the garage facing the street. During the celebration, one of the fire crackers went on the wind shield causing the glass to shutter. Making the event a redemptive action, they let the car absorb their bad luck to all the coming years. Redemptive action can also be seen in the time of Jesus because He carried all our sufferings for the sake of removing it from us. For the parents, we work so hard in order to remove the sufferings of our children. If we carry our sufferings to carry the suffering of others, that is a redemptive act.

For example, if you lost your cell phone. To console yourself, we say hopefully the one who got it need the phone more than I do. If we lost something, let it absorb all the sufferings that can happen to your love ones.

Have strength and endurance. Manny Pacquiao has mastered his and his opponents’ boxing stance. During the Pacquiao-Hatton match, large contingents from the UK went to watch. The British teases the small contingent of Filipinos. But when Ricky Hatton was knocked out by Manny. The Filipinos start singing “Ricky Hatton falling down, falling down. Ricky Hatton falling down.” And the British shut up. =) We need to have the strength and endurance to make our sufferings redemptive.

Have humility and purification. Even if we are already successful, we should be grounded. Just like electricity, the power cannot flow on the wire if it is not grounded. No matter how talented we are, if we are not grounded, the power of God will not flow. It is necessary to be humble to make our sufferings redemptive.

Unite our sufferings with Jesus. Because all of our sufferings have a direction, always remember that nothing comes by accidents. May be because God has lessons for us to learn. In school, we learn the lesson and then we take the test. In life, we take the test and we learn our lesson.

In the midst of your sufferings, let your hearts be closer to God. Little by little, every time you go to mass, every time you pray and ask for God’s help, every time you sing in the choir, every time you usher the people during mass, every time you serve the Lord and every time you do good deeds to others, your sins are gone. Like the dark water inside the plastic bottle, little by little, it is becoming clearer. And when the time comes that you are already with Jesus and hold on to your faith. Even if you put more dark water that shows sinfulness and trials, it cannot conquer your spirit in the love of God. If Jesus is in your heart, you can carry all sufferings that comes to your life.

Reflection: God gave us a choice between a blessing and a curse. What will you choose?

Misyong Pilipino Healing Series Day 3: Forgive and Forget

2010-10-05T09:00:00.002+04:00

“Forgive and Forget”. Why these two words should be always together? Is forgiving enough for you to move on? Tonight’s lecture was about relationship healing and discussed about how to get over with problems relating to relationship with the people around us.

According to the book of Sirach Chapter 3 which is entitled The Duties of Children to their Parents, Anyone who respects his father he atones for his sins. Anyone who respects his mother, one day his children will make him happy. Anyone who respects his father, his prayers are always heard.

Dec. 28, 2008, Feast of the Holy Family, Fr. Arlo remembered his homily about these verses. If you show respect to your parents, someday your children will also respect you. If you disrespect your parents however, your children will do the same. “What comes around, goes around”.

Let me share to you a story: There was an 80 year old man living with his 50 year old son and his 10 year old grandchild. The 50 year old son decided to bring the old man to the Home for the Aged since the latter became a burden to him. The 10 year old grandchild was with them while they were driving to the area. The 50 year old son became curious when he saw the child restlessly looking outside the window. He asked, “Son, why are you always looking outside? “. The child without hesitation responded, “Daddy, I am memorizing the directions so that when you got old too, I will bring you also to the Home for the Aged”. The 50 year old man came to his senses and drove back home. “What comes around, goes around”.

When we respect, our parents, we atone for our sins. This is true. This is reinforced by the 4th commandment, Honor your Father and your Mother.

Anyone who respects his father, his prayers are always heard. This is related to the Responsorial Psalm that day, “Prayer is like incense that goes up to heaven”. It was puzzling because there are no qualities of the parents mentioned in the verse. This signifies that whatever attribute your parents have, whether they are responsible or a burden, we should respect them. And if we show respect, it means that we are kind hearted. When we are kind hearted, we will have a lighter feeling. When we have a lighter feeling, our prayer will be like incense which goes up to heaven.

On the other hand, you might be wondering why are your prayers are not answered; the reason behind it is may be because you pray with a heavy heart. Prayers that are heavy cannot go up to heaven. It is hard to ask from God if you have a heavy heart.

So what makes your heart heavy? Number one cause is problem. The problem you are facing is not on that problem. Problem will be a problem depending on the handler. If you will recall what we have learned in day 1, that all of what we become is the product of what we thought. Thoughts become things. Problem mainly becomes a problem if we look at it as such. Remember that “It’s all in the mind”. As Fr. Arlo says it, “Don’t make problem problem you”. =) And problems have no exemptions. Whether you are rich or poor, young or old, with teeth or without teeth, problems occur. Others might think they have no problems but those people may be considered as problem by others.

Most of the people think problems come from money. But if you will contemplate on it, most of the time they come from relationship. All people are hurt by others, even Jesus was hurt by his friends. Do not be scandalized if there are intrigues in the church; do not be scandalized if there are politics in the church. Even between the apostles of Jesus Christ there are politics though they are hand-picked by the Lord. Jesus was also hurt when he was abandoned by his apostles, when he was crucified on the cross. In order to get through with your problems, we need to take control of your thoughts because at the end of the day you are still accountable for yourself. At this point in time, if you feel hurt inside, learn to forgive.

Forgive those persons who hurt you the most. According to the song “Be Gentle” by Jose Mari Chan, “There is no peace on an angry heart and if you want to live you must forgive”. It is important that you remove the bad feeling to the people who hurt you the most and you can achieve this if you forgive.

There were times that even the body manifests the bad feeling. Fr. Arlo shared about a lady teacher who goes to the toilet 15-30 times a day for 14 years. Imagine that during her discussions to her class, it is usually interrupted because she needs to go to the toilet. It all begun when she had a boy friend that normally go to their house but her mother was so bitter to him. The guy finally called it off and decided to marry another woman. The lady teacher got angry to her mother even until her mother died. By attending the healing retreat, she learned to forgive her mother. For the first time in 14 years her sickness was healed.

It is essential that we decide to forgive emotionally prepared or not. The key word is DECIDE. If you say that you will forgive when you are ready, that event will never happen. If you say that you will forgive if the time is right, that time will never happen. You need to decide to forgive.

Forgive those events. You must forgive any event that hurt you the most. Most of us have the notion that forgiveness only includes persons. Wrong! Events like the flood event resulted by the Typhoon Ondoy, accident, somebody died in the family or disability are painful events that we need to forgive. If your mother in law died, that event is pleasant event. =)

To illustrate, last 1992, Fr. Arlo had an accident. He went to Baguio with other priests to attend a retreat. He was driving at120 kph and felt asleep in San Manuel, Tarlac, the car rolled 2 times and turned upside down. He suffered dislocation of the bones on the hips. Despite of this painful experience, Fr. Arlo decided to forgive the accident. Now he is not driving 120 kph anymore, he drives 160 kph, but the fear and the pain of the event is no longer inside him. Forgive Typhoon Ondoy even he is not your relative. =) If you have bad experiences with your parents, promise to yourself that you will never do the same. Those events are out of your control and it is crucial that you forgive them.

Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself specially your wrong doings in life. Forgive yourself if your marriage turned sour. Forgive yourself if your marriage failed. Don’t be saddle about the matter, just forgive yourself. Some women who have a miscarriage tend to blame themselves of what happen. But by forgiving yourself, you will have freedom from the pain you are carrying.

Forgive God. There were times that we blame the Lord on the problems or sufferings that we have. If somebody died in the family, we get angry and ask the Lord why he let it happened. Some cancer patients are so bitter to the Lord that they question His works. Forgive God, you may not understand it today, tomorrow or next year but God has plans for all of us which soon you’ll realize. He only wants the best for us; all you need to do is believe.

Decide to Forget. After forgiveness you should decide to forget. Most of the time, it is easier to say I forgive than to say I forget. In forgetting, it does not mean that you will not remember what happen. According to the song of Joey Albert, “I remember the boy, but I don’t remember the feeling anymore”. You still remember the person but the hurt is not there anymore. You can say that you truly forgive the person or event if you decided to forget the pain you felt.

Say Thank You. Saying thank you is another significant topic to complete the picture. Appreciate the people who made your life easier. If you have money, you know that you have friends. But if you don’t have money anymore, you will know who your friends are. You should find time to thank these people.

“Anyone who thinks, thanks”. If you are not saying thank you, you are not thinking. If you are not praying before and after you eat, you are not thinking. Make it a habit to say thank you. Be grateful to all the people that are there for you. Be grateful for all the blessings you receive.

Action speaks louder than words, ALMOST. Action speaks louder than words until Fr. Arlo realized that it is not always the case. Frida Manrique, breast cancer patient for 10 years was attended by Fr. Arlo for the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. Sonny Manrique, her husband takes a leave to look after his wife. They saw Manny carrying her wife on the wheel chair and feed her so lovingly, enjoying each other. They found the genuine love of husband to his wife that time. And after 10 days, Frida died. Fr. Arlo have the mass for her and let Sonny say something. Sonny said, “My only regret in my life is that I never said I love you often enough to her”. Never underestimate the power of words. Never take too light the power of saying I love you and Thank you.

May 2001, Sunday, Fr. Arlo went to Dangwa to buy 3 dozens of roses for Mother’s Day. He went to their home in Tagaytay and saw his mom on the wheel chair. He said, “Mom, I just want to greet you Happy Mother’s Day”. He hugged and said I love you and thank you even though he was not used doing it. And it felt good. He cherished that day with her. May 29, 2001, she died. And every time he hear the song Sometimes by Karen Carpenter, he remember that great memory with her mother.

Here are the lyrics.

Sometimes

by Karen Carpenter

Sometimes not often enough

We reflect upon the good things

And those thoughts always center around those we love

And I think about those people who mean so much to me

And for so many years have made me so very happy

And I count the times I have forgotten to say ‘thank you'

And just how much I love them

There are people who hurt us, forgive and forget. Say thank you to the people who make our life easier. There is nothing to lose if you say it.

Forgive and Forget and give thanks to God.

Look at a nylon cord. As often as we used it, you will notice that it has loose ends. Like healing in relationship, we need to have a closure on both ends. We have to decide that there should be closure. A closure by deciding to forgive and forget and start a new beginning. A decision to forgive and forget in order to move on. We also need a closure by saying thank you and I love you. Expressing gratitude to one another makes a lighter feeling.

Healing in relationship calls on forgiveness and forgetting as well as expressing gratitude to one another. Through these, we will be complete and we will have a lighter feeling. And when we pray, all our prayers will be like an incense going up to heaven.

While hearing the song “Sometimes”, the people in the crowd were sobbing including Fr. Arlo. It was a very wonderful experience. You will feel the power of forgiveness and gratitude in the place. And healing really takes its place in each and every one of us. I will never forget the great feeling that night. You will feel that the Holy Spirit is there accompanying us.

Reflection: Are there people who hurt your feelings, when will you decide to forgive and forget? Have you often say “thank you” to the people who makes your life easy? Decide to forgive and forget and say thank you before it’s too late.

Misyong Pilipino Healing Series Day 2: Live a Happy Old Age (Part 2)

2010-10-03T23:31:00.004+04:00

On the first part of this Live a Happy Old Age article, we have discussed how to take good care of our health and our family. We have talked about how to treat our children in a Christian way. As promised, this is the 2nd part of the article. =)

d. Bring our children closer to God. It is said that fear to God shows self discipline. If we make it to a point to allocate time for our family to go to church every week or once in a year retreat like the Misyong Pilipino, you will see the changes in your family. Fr. Arlo shared a story of a 4 year old child who grew up in the teachings of the church. The love for God manifested when the child was playing with his friend inside the church, when an accident happened and his friend got a wound on the knee. What the child did was prayed over the wound and asked God to heal it. His friend, thinking that the wound was healed responded that God really cured his wound. Imagine that tiny 4 year old child has a faith as big as a mountain. Bring our family closer to God.

e. Show your love to your wife/husband. The fire of love between couple should never be relinquished. Understanding should be mutual. Marital problems occur when the wife / husband do not know how to play the game of married life, as Fr. Arlo put it, “Hindi kasi marunong magdribble ng bola”. (Cannot dribble the ball). Sometimes, wives become jealous if their husband is being transparent to them. They resent it when their husband tells all the things that make them jealous even unintentionally. In effect, the husband hides what he is doing to their wives making it complicated. Fr. Arlo shared an instance wherein a wife showed how to properly dribble the ball. An executive vice president of a bank has many clienteles who are pretty, sexy and gorgeous. He normally conveys this to his wife. The wife gets hurt whenever he hears it from him but she never showed her feelings. Without the husband knowing what she really feels, she asked some questions to him and she would be happy to meet those girls so that they will be acquainted. This is how to dribble the ball of married life. This means that in order to have a happy marriage we should know how to interact without confrontation when we show transparency to our relationship even if hurts us.

We also found out that one of the needs of a wife is just to know where their husband is, as simple as that. Just make sure that when the husband says that he is in that location, she should find him there when she looks after him… or else that will be the beginning of World War III. =)

There were also instances that the ladies create an emotional attachment to a man when they arrived to an intimate relationship. Ladies cannot simply forget the man because of what happened between them. That is why Fr. Arlo emphasizes that MEN SHOULD BE FAITHFUL and WOMEN SHOULD BE CAREFUL… =)

Loving your wife/husband also has something to do with giving allowances to your in-laws. Fr. Arlo advised that when the husband provides allowance to his own relatives, the wife should be the one to give it to her in-laws and vice versa. The beauty of this is that the relatives will have a good impression to the husband/wife giving the allowance which will result to closer relationship.

3. Take good care of your properties. It is very important for the parents to instill to their children that inheritance in forms of real estate properties is only a privilege and not a right. If this mindset is cultivated within the family, the children will not fight against each other because of the properties. They will not expect anything that they will receive something. And when they receive something, they will not compare what they got to the other siblings because they will be grateful to it.

a. Do not give all the properties. If the parents do not have money, it is possible that they will also lose their dignity. That parents will likely be dependent to their children which should not be the case because they already have their own family to sustain. Wise parents leave something for themselves because if emergency happen, they will not ask for financial support from their children.

b. Do not give your properties immediately. By now you might heard about the famous parable about the prodigal son. It is the story of a son that exploited his inheritance to things that have nothing in value. The repercussion of giving the property right away to your children is that they will not work anymore. They may think that their source of money is like a well that never runs out of supply.

4. Finally, Serve the Lord in any way you can and Serve our country. The Lord created us to be like him and being like Him calls for discipleship. Let us serve him by helping each other and helping our country to stand from the ashes of poverty. Lift up our fellow countrymen and cast away our notion of crab mentality. Retain our nationalism and prove to the world that we can make it. We are created to help one another so do what is needed.

Reflection: Do you treat the people around you in a Christian way?

Misyong Pilipino Healing Series Day 2: Live a Happy Old Age (Part 1)

2010-10-03T02:39:00.004+04:00

"Live a Happy Old Age".
One sentence that depicts the healing lecture tonight.

Imagine yourself with your husband or wife standing on a beach waiting for the sunset and holding each other's hand in your 80s? I repeat in your 80s... (just like the photo on the left) Picture yourself seeing your children helping and raising each other up to achieve their dreams in life. Imagine what it would be like if you see yourself enjoying the fruits of your labour? Buying whatever you like under the sun. Travel to places you have not gone when you were still working. Taking your grandchildren out for a bite without thinking about how much money you have in your wallet.

There were two questions that we contemplated during the retreat. For the children, were you able to give your parents (living or dead) a happy old age? For the parents, will your children give you a happy old age? These are challenging questions that made us think, how we can achieve it?

In order to give our parents or children a happy old age, we need to consider the following:

1. We need to take good care of our health. Would it be wonderful to use our hard earned money and other passive incomes traveling to places we wanted instead of spending it buying our medicines because of our sickness? We cannot enjoy the fruits of our labour if we are incapable of enjoying it. Fr. Arlo taught us to have balance in everything. The way we eat, the way we drink alcohol; everything should be in harmony as the way he says it "Alalay lang." (Do it moderately.) If we can remove our vices, it will be more fulfilling.

Remember what we are today is a product of what we have thought before. What we think is what we become. So if you are suffering from illness today, it is the result of what we thought and did before.

2. We need to take good care of our family. You might believe that education is our legacy to our children. On the contrary, it is a fulfillment seeing our children helping each other and working together despite of any educational attainment. Getting your children to finish their education is just your trophy. We feel sorry for the family wherein all children are highly educated but are fighting over money and pulling their siblings down.

a. Our children have unique skills and abilities. In this context, we need to instill to our children especially when they are young that each one of them has unique talents and abilities. If we compare one from the other, this will just result to envy and identity crisis as the child grows up. In addition, we need to nourish the great responsibility of the eldest child in the family. As Fr. Arlo put it "Sanayin ang panganay na manganay" (Practice the eldest to be a leader), this simply means that the eldest is the 3rd parent of the family, therefore, he/she needs to have a responsible attitude towards his/her siblings. That he/she is accountable for them if the parents already left this world. If this not achieved, the sibling who has more money is the one who has the control over the family.

b. Make your children survivors. Fr. Arlo gave some pointers on how to make our children smart. Before, we say that the attribute of a good child is being silent and does not run around. Today, because of our busy life, we describe a good child as the one who is smart or we can say "marunong dumiskarte". As an OFW, maybe some of you may relate to this, we tend to give whatever our children want as a replacement to the time we lost being away from them. In my opinion, we need our children to realize that in the real world, you don't get things for free. You need to earn it and work for it. Another example is, when your children went into married life, do not let them live with you. Why? so that they will value how hard married life is. In other words, so that they will not be dependent on you. As written in the Bible, "Train up a child in the way which he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it."- (Proverbs 22:6). And the remarkable way is training them to be survivors.

c. If you will discipline your child, do it one on one. According to the Scriptures, "If your brother sins, go and tell him first his fault between you and him alone."- (Matthew 18:15) It is imperative that we correct our children in a one on one manner so that they will more likely to listen and realize what they have done wrong. Unlike when you scold them in front of everyone, they will feel embarrassed, they will not likely to listen and will not likely to change. It is hard for a parent to resist in correcting our child immediately when they commit a wrong doing, but if we can do it alone with him/her, instilling them our point to not commit such act again in the future will likely be successful. Doing it in front of everybody however, the child will result to become naughty and silly and sometimes loses self confidence.

I will make this a two-part article for you to digest more the concept of the healing of family relationship. Over information may lead to neglection and I would like you to contemplate on the issues I shared to you above which was all discussed by Fr. Arlo on the 2nd day of Misyong Pilipino.

Tomorrow's topic will focus on relationship healing between ourself and the people around us. If someone hurt your feelings and you wanted to get even. If you feel that you are alone in the world and all your friends have turned their backs on you. If you have a boss that is obscure and fuzzy and looking for faults is his/her favorite job. The upcoming healing lecture will tackle how we will approach such situations. We will be enlightened once again towards our journey in becoming whole.

See you again tomorrow.

Reflection: What will you pray, have a long life or have a happy long age?

What I Have Experienced in Misyong Pilipino Day 1: It's All in the Mind

2010-10-02T01:16:00.006+04:00

"It's all in the mind." This was the quote that stick to my consciousness as I write this blog tonight. This was repeatedly said by Fr. Arlo and the community during the 1st day of the Misyong Pilipino Healing Series at St. Joseph Church, Abu Dhabi.

Together with incessant laughs as the priest described in detail what the conceptual healing really is, we realized that the way we think will be the the way we feel and the the way we will become. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by problems and rigors of life. In order to achieve this healing, we need to feed our mind with positive thoughts and look for opportunity in the problems instead of stressing ourselves of these burdens. If we do the latter, we only making our lives harder. In effect, negative thoughts cloud our mind. The healing process is basically the nourishment of our mindset with positive thoughts in spite of the sufferings we are facing. What we think is what we become, it's the Law of Attraction. If we think negative thoughts, that thoughts will materialize. We are sending the negative frequency to the universe and that also we will receive. On the other hand, if we thinks positive thoughts we will experience positive things in return. And if we are grateful for the positive things we are receiving, the more blessings we will receive.

Hold every thoughts, do not let the thoughts hold you.  You should be in command of your thoughts and the way to do it is to think positive things. Do not let the problems put stress to your life since you will be the one to suffer more if you let it that way. Make your thoughts obey you.

More importantly, put your negative thoughts in the name of the Lord. We need to lift up all our sufferings to the Lord. We will experience His will in the moment we let Him carry our problems. As written in the bible "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-29)
You see the Lord's burden is light, why not give our problems to Him and thy Will be done.

The 2nd day will be another interesting topic. It will be about relationship healing. Do you pray for long life? Tomorrow we will be enlightened that we do not pray for long life, instead we pray for happy old age.  What is the purpose of being alive long enough if our relationship with our wife, our children and our friends is shuttered? What is the essence of this if our children are fighting over money or attention? Indeed, true happiness will be attained if we set our mind to it. And if we believe that we have achieved it, we will receive.

The topics for the whole week of healing will be the following:

Day 1: Conceptual Healing - healing our mind.
Day 2: Relationship Healing - happy old age.
Day 3: Emotional Healing from painful memories
Day 4: Spiritual Healing
Day 5: Physical Healing
Day 6: Financial Healing

Go out and bring your family. The Misyong Pilipino will be life changing for us and for the community. Its never too late, so come and bond with us.   For healing is the cure of the whole self, which leads us to become holy.

Reflection: Do you think positive thoughts despite of the problems or sufferings you are facing?

Are You Wounded Within and Needs Healing?

2010-10-02T00:37:00.004+04:00

Let me share you a story from the Bible. There was a woman who suffered terribly from severe bleeding for twelve years, even though she had been treated by many doctors. She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time. She had heard about Jesus so she came in the crowd behind him, saying to herself "If I just touch his clothes, I will get well."

She touched his cloak, and her bleeding stopped at once; and she had the feeling inside herself that she was healed of her trouble. At once Jesus knew that power had gone out of him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

His disciples answered, "You see how the people are crowding you; why do you ask who touched you?"

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. The woman realized what had happened to her, so she came, trembling with fear, knelt at his feet, and told him the whole truth. Jesus said to her, "My daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your trouble." (Mark 5:25-34)

We all have wounds that we carry for a long time. Maybe its financial wound, physical wound, relationship wound or spiritual wound. These kept us stagnant in all the things that we do. It seems like nothing is happening because these wounds resist us from moving forward. We feel alone and that our world is already shuttered because of financial problems. Our enemies that we did not bother to talk for many years. We keep to ourselves, planting it to our hearts the bad things they have done to us in the past. On the trials we are facing right now, we feel like no one can help us to get up on our feet and move along.

But do you know that there is good news? God will heal us and remove us from these bondage of sufferings. Just like the woman in the story, when she felt that know other way can cure her, he sought for a miracle. And Jesus Christ does not even touched her but still she was healed. This shows the strength and power of our faith. Remember God is always ready to heal us.

If we are sick right now, that we feel there are no other options to cure us, that no other medicines can alleviate the pain we are suffering. If we are buried in debt from our credit cards, and we are worrying too much about money to sustain our daily needs. If we have problems in our relationship with our wife or children, even our relatives or officemates. If we doubt the presence of the Lord to our lives because of the trials we are facing. Always remember the story of the lady. If we only have the faith and believe that God can heal us, you don't need to touch Him to be healed, even the tiniest strand of his cloak will heal our pains, our sufferings, our problems.

On October 2-7, 2010 at 8pm, Fr. Arlo will be conducting a series of lectures about God's healing on all aspects of our lives through Misyong Pilipino. This will be held at St. Joseph Church in Abu Dhabi.

Come and bond with us as we receive God's Word to remove our sufferings and start a new beginning. Heal our sickness and live life to the fullest. Cure our problems and become blessing to others.

Reflection: What will you do next if these sufferings are healed?

How I Acquired My 3 Real Estate Properties Without Spending Money

2010-09-30T00:08:00.003+04:00

My journey through financial freedom started when I worked here in Abu Dhabi 9 months ago. I am a newbie in real estate, I started only 2 months ago. In that short period of time, I was amazed because I have acquired my 3 properties (2 house and lot and 1 town house) with no money down or credit from banks, literally without spending money.

It started when I joined the online coaching program of real estate guru, Trace Trajano. I was moved by his life's mission, to help make 1 million godly Filipino millionaires by 2020. That's why I signed up since I really like also to help out and share to others what blessings I am receiving.

I learned that his techniques are so simple and doable, these simple things are sometimes taken foregranted. He called these "Think Rich Quick Techniques". We have a weekly real estate tips from him, monthly coaching webinar to guide us through the business. From raising capital to buying and selling a property, I learned that you can do these even if you don't have money. I was so very excited and applied his techniques that's why I acquired my properties.

Like all of us who wants to be successful in real estate, we need to invest in our education. And we need mentors to make it easier since they have the know how, basically it is our short cut to success. Because reading books about real estate tooks time and you cannot apply it directly if you do not have network of friends to help you out. I look at it like taking an exam and the teacher is already giving the answer.

I am also excited because Trace is coming to Manila to conduct a seminar called "Think Rich Quick 2.0", it is his 2nd real estate seminar where he will teach the 5Ms to Millions Formula and new techniques in the business like How to do Commercial Real Estate. He also has the "Apprentice Challenge" where you can actually apply right away the techniques that Trace will be sharing in the seminar and what good about it is you can profit from it on the spot.

I am based in Abu Dhabi so my wife will be attending for me because I would like her to change her mindset since John Calub will also be there, Philippines' Master Wealth Attractor. I want her to experience as well how this seminar can change our lives.

The seminar fee is relatively cheap with the knowledge you will be getting, you will realize this when you do your first deal. If you want more information about the seminar, feel free to check the details here- http://trqez.blogspot.com/

Are You Ready to Quit Your Job Today?

2010-09-24T23:27:00.008+04:00

How will you know that you can stop working now? When is the right time that you can safely decide to quit your work and say that you have enough money to sustain yourself and your family? If you stop working today, how long your savings or money from business like real estate can support your lifestyle?

We usually associate the concept of wealth to having lots and lots of money. We say that we are wealthy if we have a big pay check that we get monthly from our salary or from our business. But in reality, having lots of money does not mean that one is wealthy and can afford to stop working for money. Do you need to reach 1 million, 10 million or 20 million? The answer lies on your personal financial goal.

We go to work everyday and look for additional "sidelines" to earn money but many of us do not know when to stop. We give our time, skill, effort and resources into earning money. And when we face with some difficulties like debts and emergency expenses, we are overwhelmed by them and we are back to square one - zero. We are trapped in this dilemma because we do not have our financial goal in place.

Wealth is having the money to fund your needs at any given time. To become wealthy you need to anticipate your future needs and initiate a plan to have the resources to meet them. In addition, we need to understand how you can adjust your needs against the reality of the available resources.

Knowing how much you need to be wealthy is the first step to financial independence. To achieve this you need to understand, know and accept that wealth does not necesarily mean having millions of millions of pesos. A person can have millions of money but still not wealthy because of the debts and high standard of lifestyle that person have. A person do not need to have much money to become wealthy as long as it is within his or her chosen lifestyle or financial goal.

We can measure how much money we need in order to know when we can stop working. We are safe to say that we are ready for this if we go through financial check up. For the body, when we get sick we need to go to the doctor and undergo check up. For the vehicle, when a car broke down we go to the mechanic and undergo vehicle check up. Our finances also require check up because we might notice that our pockets are already full of holes and need to be repaired.

Be a blessing to others everyday.

Reflection: Can you stop working today and live the rest of your life with the money you have right now? If you do not know the answer, you can start by initiating and planning your sound financial goal.

PS. Do you want to achieve your financial goal faster? My international real estate mentor, Trace Trajano will conduct the Think Rich Quick 2.0 Seminar in Makati on Oct. 23-24, 2010. Due to overwhelming demand, he is extending the registration until Oct. 7. Get a huge discount, VIP privileges and P50,000++ worth of bonuses! Sign up NOW! http://trqez.blogspot.com/

PS2. I can give you free ticket if you get 4 friends sign up as well. http://trqez.blogspot.com/

PS3. You become part also of this noble cause, 50% of the profit that I will get as an affiliate will go to an outreach program to the less fortunate children in our bgy. in Makati. Register here NOW! http://trqez.blogspot.com/

PS4. Have you seen the movie "The Secret" and heard the audiobooks of The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie? These really helped me in changing my mindset and dealing with people. I will give you a copy to help you as well when you sign up - http://trqez.blogspot.com/

How to Raise P31 Million in 31 Minutes!

2010-09-06T20:06:00.003+04:00

Robert Kiyosaki says “Invest in real estate”. Real estate investing has created more millionaires than any other investment. However, most people don’t invest in real estate because of lack of capital. My friend, real estate guru – Trace Trajano has taken 163 beginners and taught them how to raise capital for real estate deals. In front of the video camera, he was able to have them raise P31 Million in just 31 minutes! I couldn’t believe it!

If you missed that seminar, it’s alright because he summarized what he taught those 163 people in an ebook. I am amazed that he is just giving away this ebook for f’ree. Cli’ck H.ERE - http://raisemoneynow.iblogger.org/ and get the ebook and start investing in real estate NOW.

P.S. Due to the sensitivity of the information that Trace shared in the ebook, he will pull down the ebook soon…so if I were you, I will download it NOW. Cli’ck here – http://raisemoneynow.iblogger.org/

P.P.S. Lack of capital is the number one reason why people fail in real estate investing. After you read this ebook you will have a better chance at succeeding in real estate and maybe you will become a millionaire too!

Think Rich Quick 2.0 Seminar (TRQ 2.0)

2010-09-03T13:22:00.003+04:00

Are you tired of working long hours a day just to have an income?
Do you want to create passive income streams so that money will work for you?
Do you want to increase your wealth and invest in real estate the right way?

If your answer is YES, this seminar is meant for you...

My real estate mentor Trace Trajano will be conducting the Think Rich Quick 2.0 Seminar in Manila, Philippines on Oct. 23-24, 2010.

Trace is a real estate investor who have acquired over half a billion pesos worth of investment real estate for the past 7 years. He is the best selling author of the book Think Rich Quick!. He is also an award-winning speaker (Toastmasters 2004, 2009) and winner of the Deal of the Year Award (2005) from Cincinnati Real Estate Investor’s Association. He is a milionaire maker mentor having taught a lot of students around the world who are now real estate millionaires themselves.

These are the valuable reasons why you should attend the seminar:

1. You will learn the FASTEST way to make money in real estate with No Money Down, No Credit and No Risk.
2. You will get a FREE ebook: How to Raise P31M in 31 Minutes
3. You will receive a FREE Audio book: 7 Steps to Selling a House in 7 Days
4. You will have an access to a FREE online seminar: Anatomy of a Sexy Deal

Get this rare chance of a lifetime and reserve your seat now, email me at isefoncardas@yahoo.com or leave a comment in this post.

Real Estate Business Goal: 1M Php by 31 Dec 2010

2010-08-05T00:47:00.001+04:00

Yesterday, 4 Aug 2010, I joined Trace Trajano in his Real Estate Investment Coaching Program. I truly believe on his mission to help Filipinos become millionaires through Real Estate. In this regard, I am targeting Php 1M by Dec 31, 2010 on profits that I will get in buying and selling houses. Cutting it into bits, that will be Php 200k per month. IMPOSSIBLE? Definitely not. We will see...

I always ponder on the principle that we cannot share what we do not have. Through this program, it is clear that my objective for this goal is share to others what blessings that I may get as I progress. May it be tangible or intangible in nature, it is my intention to have others benefit from it.

Come and follow me as I take my journey in fulfilling this. Join me as we learn the concepts and principles that this program will show to be a successful real estate entrepreneur and as a better individual in general. More importantly, this is just an ingredient in my pursuit to life's true happiness.

Reflection: Have you thought lately to stand up and take charge in fulfilling your dreams?

Best Birthday Ever

2010-07-31T16:25:00.002+04:00

Best Birthday Celebration

Best Birthday Gift

Last 20th July was my 31st birthday. It was my first time to celebrate it away from my family. During my regular work at the office, my wife kept telling me that we need to chat as soon as I arrive home. I did what she insisted and when I saw them in the webcam on the other side of the world, I saw nothing but the party invitation that my wife made. As she removed the invitation on the screen, I was really flabbergasted that they prepared a party for me. (You can see the birthday banner above especially made by wife and kids.) I saw her and my two kids together with their friends wearing party hats. They even have a Sponge Bob party whistle blowing. It is like a children's party with all the kids gathered around the table. I was not aware that they will do something like that. They have waited for ten o'clock in the evening just to see me celebrate with them. Tears of joy started to roll over my face as I hear them singing Happy Birthday. My youngest son, Jaizen was the one who blew the candle.

The surprises did not end there. As they were eating, my wife instructed me to open the package that she sent. When I opened it, I saw the best gift I received in my whole life. (You can see the photo of the customized t-shirt with my family on it.) It is a gift that cannot be replaced by anything in this world. Not even the newest model of Black Berry, Storm 2 can substitute on it. It is not the t-shirt that is irreplaceable, but the mere presence of my family on it made me feel that I am with them whenever I wear it. It made me feel as if my family is wrapped around me, hugging me whenever I use it. It is their way of saying "Daddy, we will always be with you wherever you go."

That day was the happiest day I have since I am away from them. It was the birthday party of all birthday parties. And it was the best gift that I have received.

Being away from my family to work overseas is really a sacrifice. I am unable to hug my family whenever I want to. I am incapable of playing with my kids whenever they want me to play with them. I am unable to guide my kids as they grow and see the world. But in spite of all of these, constant communication keep us strong. Our investment to our relationship keep as intact.

Thank you Mom for all the love. Thank you Kuya Jade for looking after Mommy and Jaizen. Thank you Jaizen for being our playful mascot. And most especially I thank God for giving me such a wonderful family.

Reflection: How much did you invest in your relationship with your family?

Letter to Mommy on our Wedding Anniversary

2010-05-16T05:05:00.000+04:00

Dear Mom,

Thank you for being there for us through thick and thin.

Thank you for always thinking of our well being.

Thank you for always praying for our family.

You are always there to listen to our problems and joys where we can confide anything to you.

You lift our spirits up when we are down on the ground.

You caution us when we are a bit hasty.

You are the most precious piece that completes my whole being.

You are my inspiration to do things beyond the ordinary and remind me to keep going.

You are my Castor above the sky that gives light to us.

You are the special gift from God that makes my true heaven.

Now I know, it is real that there is heaven here on earth because I am with you.

Happy 3rd Year Wedding Anniversary!

I LOVE YOU.

Love, Dad

P.S.

watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPtLVsHAQio

Financial Literacy Training at Dubai

2010-05-07T00:25:00.000+04:00

The Clock Tower at Dubai, UAE

This is my first blog and really excited to write up. Let me share to you what I did last week.

My journey to financial independence opens new doors of opportunities as well as venues for learning. The thirst for knowledge is incessant.

That is why last April 30, 2010, while most of our fellow OFWs here in Abu Dhabi are having their day off watching movies on their laptop, going to the mall for a stroll or simply chilling out at home, my friend John and I went up to Dubai to visit the IMG Office for a training on financial literacy.

Just a calling card on our hands, we went to Bur Dubai. It was my first time going to Dubai on my own and it was quite a long trip. We saw the famous Burj Al Arab on the left side of Sheik Zayed Road and the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa (formerly known as Burj Dubai) on the right side. The excitement made us awake on the 2 hours road trip.

As we drop off the van at the bus station, the environment of Dubai started to come into us. The roads are smaller than in Abu Dhabi, the road networks are much complicated. Examining the address which says "near the Clock Tower", we started asking for directions. Finally, we end up riding a cab. The fare is more expensive since they charge a minimum of AED10. Upon arrival at the Clock Tower, we recognized that we were definitely lost because it is a roundabout and buildings are just all over the place. We called the facilitator for another set of directions. Finally, we got to the office after a few blocks walk. We were excited to enter the room just like a student going on his first day at school.

We have learned vast information about the proper ways of savings and attaining financial freedom. The training can be highlighted as follows;

6 Steps to Financial Freedom:

Step 1: The Discipline to Increase Cash Flow

"The way you manage your time and cash flow can make your poor or rich".

How will you manage your expenses?

How will you earn additional income streams?

Step 2: Debt Management

How long will it take to pay off debt (credit cards, loans, etc.)?

Do you have strategy to get out of debt?

Step 3: Create Emergency Fund

What would happen if you lost your job today?

What about unexpected expenses?

Step 4: Ensure Proper Protection

Are you prepared and protected if you become sick, disabled or die?

Step 5: Build Long-Term Asset Accumulation

Are you saving enough for your retirement goal?

If not, do you know where and how to start?

Step 6: Preserve Your Estate

What will you pass down as a legacy to future generations of your family?

Do you have a strategy to help you meet goals?

There is so much yet to be learned since I just started applying the above concepts and the principles that I read in the financial books which I came across. What is imperative are the passion for learning new things and the openness to new ideas.

Next time I will share to you the privileges and advantages of attending financial literacy trainings.

Be a blessing to others everyday.