Prayer Circle

In our Kakabsat (siblings) group chat, we crack jokes, upload memes, celebrate birthdays and other special events, make announcements, but best of all—as believers in the saving grace of Jesus—we unite in a prayer circle.

Circle then, in this sense, is not a shape. We are all miles away from each other, but  by coming together in prayer, we stay connected emotionally and spiritually. In a “circle,” my faith is strengthened, providing comfort in difficult times (the hardest of which was Tony’s exit from my everyday life). It also creates a shared sense of purpose, such as praying for healing.

What a blessing that in church, I am able to be in an actual prayer circle with faith sisters. Before or after our women’s Sunday School, which I have been facilitating for the past five years, we join hands and form a circle. After singing a worship song, we bow our heads in thanksgiving for the fount of grace that flows night and day in our individual and collective enclaves. 

"I  have decided to follow Jesus;no turning back . . ."

For me, a circle of praying believers is symbolic of unity and divine connection.  It creates a sacred, shared space for worship. A circle, with no beginning or end, also keeps us focused on God’s endless love.  

Creative Teaching

Today, more than ever, teachers need to be creative in the classroom to constantly engage our students. Our foe, called digital distraction, is too powerful and alluring. 

There are many seminars on how to teach creatively, but my writing hours always took precedence over any event. There was that one time, however. when a brief lull, just waiting for the galley proof of my book for final proofreading, allowed me to attend one online. 

My mind wandered and got lost. 

Our facilitator gave us links to ready-made educational games and fun quizzes. Technology, as I’ve often written about, is not my idea of creativity. I believed then as I do now, that creativity is the ability to generate new ideas, solve problems, or create something new using human imagination, emotion, and experience, independent of digital tools.

My friend Steph from Cebu was on the same page! She invited me to  facilitate a creative-teaching seminar among master’s students in a theological college. “Please share your Chongisms to help them write, as a tool for teaching creatively.  

My Chongisms have nothing to do with technology. I wrote them before AI became a trend.   

She unintentionally fanned my excitement with, “They are all church workers; some of them are pastors. During the event, half of the attendees will be onsite and the other half, online.” 

D-day (celebration of World Teachers’ Day) came and I shared with them how I write and how I engage my students through stories. “All lectures can be woven into relatable stories that teachers can write themselves—based on their experience or any interesting life snippet that drives home the lesson.” 

"In the process, with the Lord’s unending grace, teachers become creative writers and storytellers—more powerful than our digital-distraction foe." 

It is my prayer that one day, those stories to be written by these teachers will be published to benefit more students elsewhere.   

Aimless Malling

Up until January this year (2025), I was a mall rat and a shop habitue. I had been a willing victim of the word  “SALE.”  I’d be so proud and happy for having bought items at a huge discount, symptoms of an impulse shopper. 

Tony would indulge me. With a book, he’d wait for this wandering maller in a coffee shop or his favorite restaurant, where we would meet for lunch or snacks.  

One call from a friend, asking if I wanted to visit a new shop, was enough to get me scurrying to our meeting place. 

After we bade Tony goodbye, the mall said goodbye to me, too. I have turned down every invite from friends for lunch or coffee. What has happened to my insatiable desire for malling? 

“It’ll all come back; give it six months,” one of my BFFs comforted me.  

It’s been ten months, and I still have zero interest in visiting the mall.  

But I had to. 

Our house has been undergoing major repairs. The dust, construction debris like paint, wood, and concrete have caused terrible colds and cough that made me run to my doctor. While writing down his prescription, he warned me, “Stay away from irritants in the air like dust.”      

So I went to the mall to kill six hours. In days of old, that would be utopia. But this time, it was torture. I spent one hour just walking around, passing from store to store, another hour in a coffee shop, and another hour in a resto. My crossword puzzles helped solve the boredom.     

How I spent the rest of the hours was a blur. 

Aimless malling it was. On the bright side, I saved money from unplanned purchases and was chastised by these vases . . .  

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6: 19-21 ESV)  

Oh, to be a Teacher Today!

World Teachers' Day was celebrated worldwide on 5 October. But since I only teach for two hours on Mondays, I wasn’t in school that day. Yet the students made up for it by giving me the same nutritious gift they gave all the others on the actual day. 

If you are a teacher, you must already know why there is such a day. To non-teachers, here’s a brief look-back: 

Established by UNESCO in 1994, it celebrates the anniversary of the October 5, 1966 adoption of the ILO/UNESCO recommendation concerning the status of teachers. This document set benchmarks for the rights, responsibilities, and working conditions of teachers globally.  

I have been a part-time college teacher, on and off, since I left the workplace in the year 2000. That’s how long I have been enjoying the grace of World Teachers’ Day year after year. 

I spent most of my time during the pandemic to write about teachers in my book “The Teacher in Me.” And looking back, I have made a teacher the main character in four out of 16 books in the “Oh, Mateo” series. 

I’ve also been tasked to help equip would-be teachers in church through seminars/workshops. That’s why I believe that teaching is one of the most noble professions, beginning with the example set by Jesus. 

Caveat. 

Reared in an era without technology, I break in cold sweat when it becomes a requirement in classrooms. To the rescue, an IT promptly comes, showing me how it’s done, which embarrasses me no end. Every Monday, he comes and I still don’t get it.

I suspect I am no longer in sync with my students. They are all techies (the very few who love books read them online), with a different mindset from my students through the years. 

Now they have tools for quick fixes (AI), requiring no critical thinking or painstaking review of good-writing principles. They are leery of a teacher’s stock knowledge gained from the school of hard knocks and experience.   

Could this be my last World Teachers’ Day?   

Love Your Name

 “I hate my name!” exclaimed a five-year-old boy when I asked him to write it down on a piece of paper.

“Okay, but I need to know how you spell it,” I grinned. “I don’t want to make a mistake. Those who will read it might think this book belongs to someone else.”  (I always write the book owner’s name during book-signing events.)

He then wrote his name with much effort: Ezekiel. 

“What a lovely name! It comes from the Bible,” I said, writing it on his book. “Do you know what Ezekiel means?”

He shook his head.

“Ask your mom and dad why they chose it for you.”   

He nodded. I would have wanted to talk to Ezekiel about the wonders of his name but the next kid in line was getting impatient.

“My name is Carla!” she said.

“Hi! Is that spelled with a ‘K’ or a ‘C’?”

There are as many names as there are stars in the sky. Sometimes, even if two names are homophones, they are spelled differently. Why is that? 

Being a mother, I think I know why.

Before a baby is born, parents take a lot of effort in choosing their son’s or daughter’s name. We consider many possibilities: names of grandparents, famous people, close friends, Bible heroes, etc.  

Some parents want unique names. That’s why they change the spelling of popular names. Sometimes they add a vowel or a consonant.

There’s this little boy whose name is pronounced David, but is spelled “Dheyvhid.” No wonder kids like Ezekiel say, “I hate my name!” 

In the Bible, God our Father, did some naming Himself.

Abram was renamed Abraham—meaning, father of many. At that time, Abram wasn’t a father of anyone.  God changed Abram’s name as a sign of His promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations.

Then there’s Abraham’s wife, Sarai. God changed it to Sarah, which means my princess or mother of nations. Sarah was already very, very old and she thought she would no longer have a baby. But God had plans. 

God changed Simon’s name to Peter. It means rock. On his own, Peter was not a rock. He kept changing his mind, depending on situations. With the Holy Spirit, however, Peter became a stable rock of the church.

Plus more. 

Just as God chose names for His people, Ezekiel’s parents spent time choosing his name—and someday, when Ezekiel is older, I am sure they will tell him the love story behind it.   

The Long, Long Saga

Longlong has been a long-time friend and used to be a peer in the workplace for years. An excellent art director, he rendered the layout and images of one of my books, gratis et amore.    

His jokes never failed to make me LOL. But one of my favorites was when he would introduce his long, complicated name (I won’t mention it here for privacy) with his punchline, “Call me Longlong for short.” 

That was in my long list of ideas for a book. And one grace day, voila! It all came together. I made it my handle in "Ready, Set, Focus" (published by CSM), a devotional for children, whose lack of focus is a lament of many teachers. 

After the book was launched at the MIBF, I surprised him and his wife with a copy via courier. His reply was this! LOL,

One of the questions I am often asked in my book talks is, “Where do you get your ideas?” 

My answer may seem like a cop-out, “Everywhere.” 

But, really, they’re all there, wherever you may be, “Look at the germ in non-moving and moving creation with eagle eyes, jot them down in a notebook or park them in your head.” 

To Longlong: a super loooong thank you.  

Read, yes! Understand, no?

That’s basically what many teachers in grade school say about their students. That’s also the result of a PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) research among schoolchildren.  

Comprehension is the problem: no active engagement, no critical thinking, and no interpretation of whatever they are able to read. Sure, they could see and read words, but they cannot grasp their meaning, purpose, or implications.  

This alarming situation prompted one of our church members, Deo (a teacher), to draw up a Literacy Program in one underprivileged community with his wife, Yamie. They were immediately joined by other volunteers to lead 15 children into comprehending the words they read. The project became two-fold!   

While the children were being tutored in our church's classrooms, their parents were invited into a fellowship to meet the Lord. 

The results were amazing! Not only could the children begin to understand what they were reading, their parents started attending our Sunday worship and other church activities, including Sunday school!  

The culmination program came after the 6th week, when the organizers invited me to be the speaker. As I am wont to do during events such as this, I do not deliver a speech, I tell a story. 

I chose “The White Shoes,” a story about treasuring and thanking God for every blessing, big or small. Each kid received a copy as a graduation present.   

The success of this first Literacy Program has inspired the volunteers to make it a continuing project, as a part of our church's 50th anniversary celebration--one community at a time. The Lord's grace never ceases to open doors. 

 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 NIV    

May All Who Come Behind Us

That phrase is the chorus of the hymn "Find Us Faithful," written in 1987 by Jon Mohr, with music arranged by Steve Green. It’s pretty new for me, compared to the hymns written before the 1900s that I hum daily to keep me going. 

But it never fails to touch my core whenever we sing it in church.  It is based on Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Like Mohr, I pray that my life would serve as a faithful legacy for future generations to follow. 

Legacy . . . is something I think about often these days. And I am grateful that as part of our church’s 50th celebration, the next generation has decided on installing a LEGACY WALL: how the Lord used His people to plant His church in our then new village, and how faithfully He has guided all to make it fruitful through five decades.   

These photos document the unveiling of this wall, with the six remaining pioneers cutting the ribbon.  On both sides (far left and far right) are of the second generation, whose hands now hold the mantle of leadership. 

I have no doubt—the way the church has been alive and alert with younger members at the helm—that when the Lord takes the six remnants home, the next generations (bottom photo) will step up beyond 50 years.   

This LEGACY WALL serves as a nudge of grace.