i feel like a lemming. you know, the circa 1987 atari version lemming. can't stop moving, helpless against the elements, dependent on the plan of somebody, even for my occupation. i could be a digger, climber, bomber, but somebody chooses for me... and my only responsibility is be a lemming.

planning a wedding is like a dance. in amy and my case, it's an intercontinental swing dancing thing. cautiously throw in an idea, see how the other react, and respond to reaction. or, take the bold move and say i want it this way. check that violent reaction, it's unbecoming a lady, love. we have the time of the wedding now. we're moving at near lightspeed in the planning phase. compared to turtles, that is. last night, amy and i talked about music for the wedding, and we threw in some ideas into the pot. it's a little sad that the music we both liked (adagio for strings, and another adagio) is more suited for a funeral than a wedding. maybe we'll have a very somber ceremony.

it is so easy to take certain pieces from something and use it as a system of belief (see prayer of jabez). i don't quite understand why it has taken me this long to see the value of reading the bible as a whole - it has always been in my mind to read it from start to finish, but without good reason i guess except to impress my christian friends and be able to flex my spiritual muscle and stroke my spiritual ego. where am i going with this thought. okay, the past several months the house church that i have been a part of since august has been studying hebrews, and i mean study in depth. the great thing about studying it in detail is that you are forced to go back throughout the old testament and the gospels to figure out what the author is saying, unless you are just content to take it as it is and not ask questions. along with hebrews, i have also been revisiting the sermon on the mount from the book of matthew. it's amazing how they are connected, the sermon on the mount and hebrews. it's amazing how everything in the bible is connected, considering that the books were written at different times spanning thousands of years. there is an underlying tone to it, from creation, to the ten commandments, prophets, jesus.

a digression. russel the elder of the house church told me a funny story about a friend of a friend, and this guy was saying that the ten commandments are not the highest of God's standard. it's actually very simple, he said. if you think about it, he's right. don't worship rocks or animals, they don't do you any good. I am talking to you, see? you can hear me, i am alive, unlike those rocks. see that bicycle? that's your neighbor's, don't steal it, it's not yours. don't steal his wife either. that's bad. bad bad. don't murder someone, that's also bad. etc.

going back to the sermon and hebrews, if hebrews is an exhortation to its readers to live out their faith in righteousness that is in christ, jesus' sermon outlines how to live in righteousness. russ made me think hard on this one, his contention being that jesus starts explaining the beatitudes (blessed are the poor in spirit, etc) in reverse order, starting with blessed are those who are persecuted for seeking righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. anyway, you can look it up yourself.

what i have learned in hebrews and jesus' sermon is the total reliance on God for my physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs. now this may sound elementary to some, and i did know this before, but what does total reliance means? how do you do that? i will write down my thoughts next time.

last week i got the chance to go to bangkok and see my sisters. my eldest sister junel from the philippines was visiting jen and family in bangkok for jen's birthday and brought us 2 dozen scrumptuous balutses... mmmmm...

we went to the island resort Kho Chang (Elephant Island) and spent the night there. the beach was beautiful, it was a very much needed relaxing time for me after a long week.

rough life, eh? the next series of photos were from the trip we took to see the fireflies along a small mangrove-filled river. apparently fireflies are a novelty for city folks like my sister...

for my siblings: si jones lantawa ang iya nga life jacket, indi masira ang idalum kay kadaku na gid sang iya tiyan. mirakulo naman ini, kay ang baba-ing walang matris ay naging buntis. muwahahaha!

gin-disown namon ni jajen si jones kay grabe iya ya singgitan sang nagapasakay kami sa bangka. asta man lag gali dayon sa li-og ang tubig. ha ha!

i am back in thailand. it's 2007. strange. here are some photos from my trip to the philippines this christmas with amy to visit my sisters and their families.

the trip started from chiang mai to bangkok, where i saw my nephew North play the part of the father of the prodigal son in a class play.

it's a thai school that he goes to, with a bilingual program, so the play was in english. the atmosphere was very festive, and there were a lot of foreigners that teach in that school. most of the kids were in their santa claus attire, a somber reminder that the story of santa is more well known than the story of Jesus. it was a welcome surprise for me that the prodigal son play was unadulterated from its biblical source, and that the story of the birth of christ was told, albeit alongside the story of st. nick.

my sister and her family and i then journeyed to the philippines. jen and i had a grand time laughing at the very thick accent of our filipino pilot. for those who are turned off by this behaviour, i know there is no legitimate excuse, but we'll laugh anyway. :p

i have forgotten how festive christmas time is in the philippines. christmas lights everywhere, christmas music non-stop on the radio... but something was missing. i was expecting a few bangs here and there, but non greeted us when we got out of the airport. not that we were expecting it for us, but this is christmas time. firecrackers should be going off at random intervals. it's almost christmas, for heaven's sake. we later found out that they increased the price of the firecrackers, and they regulated the sale of it to prevent the number of firecracker-related accidents. bummer.

my sisters junel and shaggy picked us up from the airport, along with all their kids. we had dinner at a barbeque place, then junel and the driver of one of the vehicles and i went back to the airport to pick up amy, who was flying in from china. the rest of the group drove back to subic bay, where junel and her family lives.

here are some photos from the subic bay trip:

we went to the zoobic safari (with equally painful names like zoobic mushzrooms) where the kids got to have their pictures taken with a baby tiger

we also went to see a full grown bengali tiger named george. we fed him chicken rfom the comfort of a flimsy screen covering our vehicle. no worries! we only lost a couple fingers!

christmas was fun, although it was a little strange since Subic is far away from iloilo and so very different. it was good to see my sisters again though. i'll post more subic pictures when i get them from amy's camera.

we went to iloilo shortly after christmas, on the 27th, and we went by ro-ro (roll on, roll off) meaning 30 hours of sitting for amy and i, 22 for kat and paul. oh right, we met up with kat and paul in quezon city, and they decided to tag along with us to iloilo!

Kat and paul were in the philippines to be with kat's family for christmas. that's a long way from tanzania where they work. we had a lot of fun, from the ro-ro, to trips to san dionisio, to the beach in alubihod, guimaras...

amy picking rocks and shells in san dionisio, at my brother's land...

aspiring model photoshoot

paul taking some shots, still at fritz' land

on the way to the orchard..

breakfast of ricecakes on banana leaves...

boat on the way to guimaras

alubihod beach, guimaras

that's it for now... we were not able to go to the beach as much as we wanted to because it rained in iloilo for several days. we had a lot of fun though.

aahhhh hahahahahaha!