I was neck deep in writing my next book—a devotional (I will withhold announcing who the target reader is at the moment, as the book will no...

"Though he was God,  he did not think of equality with God  as something to cling to.  Instead, he gave up his divine privi...

My late dad used to joke that his favorite number was 13. He specially said it aloud when he was around superstitious friends. He liked to b...

Book tours are happy, grace-packed affairs. I come face to face with children who get ecstatic listening to a story read by the person who w...

Among all the sad news on media that day, one particularly distressed (and embarrassed) me deeply. The Philippines, one of the 76 countries ...

“You will speak before young adults on any topic of your choice,” Lynnie, the book lady of OMF Lit Cebu, wrote me.  “I scrounged around ...

This is not about that notoriously infamous Imelda, whose name often appears in crossword puzzles with clues such as: Ostentatious Philippin...

This year I spent my birthday with about 50 grade school teachers from various private schools in Las Pinas. No, I didn't throw a part...

“Happy birthday!" greeted my friend Malou on the phone. Then she asked, “Where are you?" “I am in Ecclesiastes,” I replied. ”C...

If you are Korean or a linguist, you would know what these words mean. But if you are an ordinary foodie like me, you wouldn’t care finding ...

Almost a lifetime ago, Wok Inn was one of our favorite go-to places for Chinese food. Back then, the traffic was so light my colleagues and ...

Jun Alfon, Filipino artist extraordinaire, has thoroughly internalized the human origins of Mindanao and its soul that his art proudly bares...

Son #3 and I find ourselves in someone’s home on Saturday nights. That’s when we hold our Cottage Ministry (small groups, as some churches...

This was how Lydia Velasco ’s solo art exhibit was billed. How apt. The doyenne of Filipino contemporary art, Lyds (a former colleague in ...

Slides, check. Props, check. Materials, check. Those done, to the private dining room my now BFF and I went. There was again hefty breakfa...

Despite sleeping in a strange bed away from home, I woke up from a deep, undisturbed rest, all set to dive into the second session of the ch...

No matter how many times I’ve been to Cebu , the city always seems new.  Every Cebu encounter is different. I usually take time to meet o...

(Reprinted from the OMF Lit website ) To celebrate National Children’s Book Day, we asked some of our Hiyas authors to answer two simple q...

Commodious and complex would be how I’d describe The New Millennium Evangelical Church to where I was invited to meet up with 10-12-year-old...

Came the weekend, and the wish of every MIBF (Manila International Book Fair) exhibitor was more than fulfilled: the crowd swelled to SRO. ...

This photo does not show me crying, but yes, I cried before I called it a day.  I never gave Teacher’s Day much thought. Hardened in a fo...