New Blog

Beginning today, my new blog is: http://juandimarco.wordpress.com Ciao!

His plan for me...

I don't know if it's appropriate for me to post this here. But currently, I'm having mixed emotions. Knowing that there's already someone that I look forward to seeing since this started... but part of me casts doubts if this is worth pursuing or not...if this is the right time or not... if I am the right person for her or not... but what I don't doubt is that I feel genuinely for the right person. Believe me, this is not easy looking how complicated the situation is for me. Considering that I did not intend to notice that person when I knew her and this is bothering me so much that I'm writing it down at this very moment and I'm tired the whole day. Never did I imagine that this will happen candidly. I never even thought that this time, I'm now contemplating of a firm plan in response to the obviously potential threat. I could not really imagine why this is happening and people who know me well know that I rarely talk about issues like this. There may be risks involved but I'm leaving it all up to Him that I make a bold resolve. I ought to pray harder for answers and courage. Whatever it is that He tells me, my next actions will just speak about it... He won't make me feel this if it ain't part of His plan. Whatever it is that will happen, it's all part of His best laid plan for me. This seems weird but oh yes, I'm OK.

June 06 Events

6.11.06 Lord’s Day Celebration
It was the Lord's Day Celebration and finally the CLP is over! It was very memorable moment in my life as a member of SFC knowing that it's the first time that I led the service team in the Christian Life Program (and hoping that the next one will be in CFC, hehe). God tested me by giving me challenges in all aspects of my life and my only response was my submission to Him. I might have been weak in some occasions but it was on those moments that God allowed me to see His strength and power over me. As this experience gave me a lot of discoveries, I led the worship in the Lord's day with too much vigor and really felt God moving me that moment. The CLP experience gave our chapter 7 wonderful harvests. I thank God for this and I thank everyone from my chapter for teaching me to be strong for Him.

6.18.06 Cherifer Tour
The weekend after the CLP, service was still intense. We were required to attend the GK Congress last Saturday and more than the fun, I was in awe realizing how this work of nation building that I am involved with has ultimately transformed the lives of many. After that, TA, JB, and I went to Vista Verde because I was invited by the Karangalan Chapter to give the talk on Life in the Holy Spirit in their CLP. I was thankful because God entrusted that topic to me and what motivated me is that the Cheriboys were in full force to support me. The best part was after the talk, we had quite a long walk since there were few trikes passing by. We used that moment to talk about so many crazy stuff, including our formation and our special powers. Hahaha! After that, we went to the Lord's Day Celebration of the Brookside chapter and then went to the session proper at PA's new home in Monte Vista. The issues we discussed were really sensitive and all the more that I'm appreciating this group for everyone's truthfulness to each other.

6.19.06 Father’s Day 2006
Celebrating Father's Day when Papa was still with us was so consistently crazy. He would usually buy cake for himself in the morning but in the dedication part, it's mentioned that it came from all of us (I guess it was safe to include himself, hehe). For the past 6 years, I visit him at the cemetery on Father's day but this time I was alone. It was fine, though and to me, it was a father and son session. I truly miss him and the way we celebrate Father's Day and I guess my siblings feel the same.


6.30.06 2nd SFC Global Leaders’ Forum
I recently attended the 2nd SFC Global Leaders' Forum that was held at the Tagaytay International Convention Center (same venue as the Tobit's weekend, the frist venue though, was at DAP Tagaytay). We were there in the afternoon of Friday, June 30 - and for me, it was a very well-deserved break to take precisely because of too much work in the office lately.

Its target participants are household heads and up across the globe. Now, this was the best conference I have been to. All talks were empowering and served as my wake up call as God's servant leader. The talks had a good manner of convincing everyone how to live a life as a genuine SFC leader. Here, I was able to evaluate my purpose of being here and realized how God can become successul in His mission on earth through this ministry I am in. I really felt His presence in me, His love, His mercy, and the happiness that can only come from Him through this conference. until now, I still feel high for the feeling and empowerment that the conference gave me.

Third's Birthday

Let this post be my tribute to my one and only brother...

Just today, my family celebrated the 16th birthday of my younger brother, Third. It was a simple celebration yet a lot of his friends were here and surely made my brother happy. We prepared some food and Ate Jhett and Kokoy came to the house. Third is so dependent to me for a lot of things, together with my older sisters, I'm one of his guardiands and by default, acting as his father. Despite my father's death for almost 7 years now, I still can't forget Papa because of Third... for he is my dad's living replica!

I remember him being a naughty fat kid before who just played along the street the whole afternoon and can't sleep without me beside him in bed. I remember that before we usually go to sleep, we would talk about a lot of crazy things and we will only sleep until we get tired of laughing.

Now, he's a teenager, taller than me, excels in school (he's in the student council and a consistent academic topnotcher), dances like a pro, an athlete, plays the guitar really well, and oh, as handsome as his kuya. Haha! As he grows old, I can see a bright future ahead of him for he achieves independently. Oh well, this brother of mine inspires me so much and I do thank him for a lot of reasons...There are a lot of things I learned in life because my sisters and I are taking care of him.

Third has shown strength of character, humility, and starting to grow up as an obedient young man. I laud him for his resilience as he was exposed to the odds of life at a very young age but did not submit himself to vulnerability. All of these make me proud as his kuya.

Third, I have so many things to thank you for that you might not know of and I can only reciprocate this by continuously standing by your side. And even though you're taller than me, kuya will still protect you.

Tobit's Weekend

The pics will follow, Blogger is having issues with uploading images.

Last May 27 & 28, I attended the Tobit's Weekend participated in by household heads of SFC and CFC East A sector and its main intention is to empower the leaders of both ministries. Its objective basically served its purpose and indeed, it was an eye-opening event. I realized that the challenges I encounter in service aren't just happening to me but to other people as well and moreso that it's more complicated in other ministries. Overall, it was fun, inspiring, and ultimately moving.

Oh well, I couldn't just recall everything in detail because a lot of things happened in a span of two days. The key events are as follows:

Powerslam
Hell yeah, embarassing as it may seem, but I danced during the conference. I did so out of sheer obedience since I don't dance to perform coz I know I'm not good at it, I just dance when I go on gimmicks coz many people can cover my dance steps in a large crowd. Hehe... Powerslam was about worshipping God through dancing and this is why I said yes despite my apprehensions. Anyway, we devoted almost two weeks for the practices and we danced to the tune of "God Is Enough". The practices were so fun and I was able to establish new friendships with other people from our sector. Good thing 4 of my chaptermates were with me (Ria, Kenneth, Ate Dothy, and Jacque)and two cherifermates (Ryan and TA). Indeed, the practices were not just fun, but paved the way to "new discoveries" as well (enough said). Come Saturday morning, we were the 1st group to perform and it was obvious that our group just had fun. Looking at the performances of the titos and titas in CFC, they really spent a lot on their costumes. Finally, we managed to do it and we're done! It was another memorable event in my life as an SFC member coz this service was really done out of obedience (and I said it again, haha).

Super-Empowering Talks
The talks in this conference primarily gave a reality check to the participants. The talks were focused on the sacrifices that servant leaders face as they offer their lives to the Lord. What made it empowering is that despite the differences in the discussions of each of the talks, everything was geared towards convincing the participants to gain confidence in service since the Lord is the one who has called us into this mission. That we just have to constantly heed His call for His sake as it's tantamount to finding light.

Some conversations
Few months have passed since JB and I had a long conversation. We usually do this when we were new in the community. Due to our busy scheds lately, our conversations were limited to just giving the gist of the stories. On Saturday night, we finally had a really long conversation and told so many stories to each other about the new things in our lives. Yes, a lot of things have happened in our lives which we just knew that night. We finished when everybody was already asleep. The next day, I had a chance to talk to Tita Lulu, the mom of PA(he wasn't in the conference since he had training in the office. She told me how extremely thankful she is to us (Cherifer Boys), being her son's close friends. That I never thought would be something that would have an impact to her knowing that in the group, we just all accepted the uniqueness of each other, be our natural selves but as brothers in Christ,we constantly remind each other of the basic things we ought to do as His servants. Maybe the last one was something that Tita Lulu really liked about the group. I told JB, TA, and Ryan about the conversation and after they heard about the exact words of Tita Lulu from me, we all literally said "awwww" and patted each other at the back. Until the next day, we were still in awe for what we heard. But it just didn't make us feel good, it inspired us to hold on to our responsibilities for each other.

Brother Beteng
Beteng has been in the community for more than 10 years already but I attended more conferences than he did. Oh, in fact, the Tobit's weekend was the first conference he attended. He was the chapter's life during the conference...the big brother...the game master....the stand-up comedian! What else can I say? I just hope that Beteng will always be in the conferences.

Graveyard Shift

Everybody knows that I’m working in a call center. But contrary to the norms of this industry, I report on day shifts simply because I’m part of the HR Department. In working for Sykes for almost three years now, I had an initial feel on how it’s like doing a graveyard shift when I was required to attend a meeting with the accounts that will start at 12 midnight! I can actually go home after the meeting but after realizing that I’m not entitled to overtime pay, I decided to work after the meeting and take an 11 PM to 8 AM shift instead (I have reports that don’t require me to talk to different people anyway).

Upon plotting my schedule, I decided that I have to leave the office at exactly 4 PM so I can sleep before attending the meeting come midnight. I was home by 5 PM and I was so damn pissed for I was so unsuccessful in my attempt to sleep for a few hours.

I arrived in our Burgundy Site by 10:30 PM so I had a chance to respond to my emails before going to the meeting. While doing that, I was chatting with Corinne and she sought my help in searching for the resume of one of her applicants in Jobstreet and I was able to assist her in what she needed. After which, she told me a very shocking news…that Chichi (my team member) is pregnant! I was surprised to find out that what started as a joke actually happened! I never thought that I’ll be approving a maternity leave application sometime soon! Hehe, I’m happy for her but I was just shocked since I have to do some adjustments with my staffing needs while she’s taking her ML.

And so the meeting with some of the account managers, Gracie, and Chichi already started. Surprisingly, I was very active in the meeting and never felt sleepiness. It actually ended earlier than expected. But oh, come 2 AM, I was already feeling sleepy and I kept on going back to the pantry to get some coffee to fight the sleepiness and that time, I was literally wishing that caffeine was intravenously injected into my system. To keep me up, I decided to chat with my friends from Ops but it was only of subliminal help. The sole advantage it gave is that I was able to finish the reports I needed to submit really fast! So by 8 AM, I finally left the office and was home by 9 AM then slept immediately but woke up by 12 noon. I didn’t decide to sleep again to easily get a sleep by 10 PM.

Now I began to appreciate more the employees in the call center industry because the schedule alone is difficult, not to mention the other attributes by which they are evaluated. And oh BTW, I just heard that I might do this shift again in two week’s time….Err!

Baptism Talk

Awhile ago, we just had our Baptism Talk in our CLP. This is one of the most important events in the CLP because it is here when we dedicate the participants to the Lord and have them receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Just a note, this is different from the sacrament of Baptism since the latter is when the person being baptized officially becomes a Christian, what happens in the Baptism in CLP is what I mentioned in the 2nd sentence.

I remember what I felt when I had my Baptism during my CLP and it felt really moving.

So there I was, so conscious and anxious about the things that might happen during the day. Calltime was at 1 PM and members of the service team were early. It was agreed a week ago that we must have a full worship before the actual event but then it was nearly 2 PM and Alfred wasn't there yet, when I gave him a call, he told me he just woke up since his duty was on a night shift. So I decided that we sing 2 songs (Sure Foundation and Holy, Oh Holy in acapella) so I'll get a feeling of assurance and remove my doubts during the day.

It was cute to see that everyone was wearing white, all members of the service team and the participants alike - it just suits the occasion. After which, I prayed over Tito Raffy since he's the talk giver and JB prayed over me since I'll be giving the minitalk.

And so it began and before the actual talk, I gave the mini talk to prepare the participants for the praisefest that will happen after the talk. It was the 2nd time for me to give this talk since I delivered this when I was a facilitator 3 CLP's ago. Right after that, Tito Raffy delivered the Baptism Talk and the dedication ceremony took place. I felt the solemnity of the atmosphere and God's presence during the dedication ceremony. What was funny though was that when we were all singing our line-up of praise songs, Alfred's nose was so itchy and gave him difficulty playing the guitar (good thing Ate Dothy was beside him to scratch his nose). The praisefest followed and I can say that it was so lively - thanks to Alfred for pulling it off despite the fact that he was so sleepy. And oh, the food was so awesome courtesy of Ate Evelyn - she prepared a seemingly gourmet sandwich that ultimately satisfied my taste buds.

The dedication of the service team inspired me so much because I felt how everyone in our Chapter is so supportive of each other and I don't know how to thank them for this. Thanks to Tito Raffy, too.