What is a definition of blessings to you?
For me, blessing is a result. Things that happens to me in this present time, whether it is smooth or painful, but if i know that the result of it or i assume that the result of it or even if i dont know the outcome of it, i should rejoice. Because i know that in the end, the result comes out good. I will give an example:
If I fail to inform my roommate that it is already time for he class, i may face the consequence but i still have to praise the Lord because i did not only make a mistake but i agained a knowledge of it, and that's a blessing. Now let's go even more further. If i failed again and again, it dont mean that i am a failure or the result will end with bad result. I still need to praise the Lord for the fact that my roommate is already smarter than earlier that he cannot depend on me. At the same time, it is a blessing for me because i already know that i am weak on this part so in order to improve it, i change my strategy of how to inform him that the class is starting. Either i get an alarm clock or i find a way that i will not fail. so it was a gaining of understanding on both sides.
Blessings
School has a lot of rules nowadays and some of them are pretty much against my interest. But is that mean that i need to go around and say that this is not good and we must go against it? ...NO... It may be not good for me but it is good for others. So how will i be a blessing to this situation. Let's bring it to the term STRIKE in the Dorm. If something is messy in the dorm, i know it's not me that did it. But that does not mean that I am not responsible for this STRIKE. I am pretty much also responsible for it. I should not be complaining that "THE STRIKE SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY AFFECT ON ME" because i myself is also guilty by not stewarding my brother's mess. And if i have an attitude by saying "I DO WHAT I DO AND HE DO WHAT HE DO", I dont think this is the right place for me. So again, what should i do to be a blessing of this STRIKE thing? In order to be a blessing is that i must learn how to have selfless virtue in me before i think about anything else. If i do not have this in me, i would be one of a stubborn and selfish person in this face of the earth. ACTION TAKING is to minister to my brothers by cleaning their mess up and teach them how to live in a clean environment by showing it in my action. I have to be their leaders. Not by words, but by actions. I have to lead them and let them learn from my actions. Word can be said but it's very less effective. but if my brother see me doing it, he will for sure be motivated to do it. This is when i know that i have won his heart because he is already comfortable with my fellowhip of cleanliness. I should think about others more than myself. Am i doing that? In me i say yes. but for others, i would say i dont know because i know that i have blindspots that others can see that i dont see.
Blessing:
A lot of time, when we think that we have a lot to do, it is not true. We jus think that we have a lot to do because we wait and procrastinate until the time is very close and then we start thinking hard. But before, we were relaxing our mind like we were in Chillax Land. I say this because many times i caught myself in this situation. I thought that i was really busy but i was not. it was just works that could have been done simply if i spread them in the week, but i was procrastinating and ended up doing them in one day. So my work for 1 hour a day ended up work a 6hour works. I say six hour because 3 actual hour for the works but the other three is just frustration inbetween. With this result, we can end up with lack of sleep, having headache, possible missing or be late to class, bad mood because not enough rest, and last, we cannot think straight and we get so annoyed by a little things. There is a term, pre-job planning. This mean, we plan our job ahead of time. This only work if we stick on to it. This dont mean that we do things on the actual time we put on our calendar or planner, but this is a guide for us to succeed. How we do it? Let's say that we have three task that needed to be done in a week. the first one we put it on Monday, the second one we put or schedule it on Wednesday and the last one we schedule it on Friday. The pre-job planning is to make sure that these will get done and easily. So now what we need to plan is that we just need to see what time of the day we will do them. Failing to use the pre-job planning, the first task ended up not be done on Monday. Now this already bring pressure to you because you now have to work two consecutive days for these tasks on Tuesday and Wednesday, if you actually do them. IF you fail again, you can end up stressing out trying to figure what to do first because they all piling up to one another. Pre-job planning is a tool that will help us minimize our frustration at work and at the same time, help us not to fail our accomplishment or our works.
What is this has to do with blessings? Very simple. Failing to meet the goal for Monday is now a burden for the next day when you were actually had free time on the next day. For this, it is now taking away the free time that you were suppose to spend with other brothers or sisters for hiking or other good stuff. now you have to stay back and finish this job that was suppose to be done on Monday and missing fun on hikings. Let's keep it real and try not to procrastinate or be lazy but finish the things at the time that we need to finish.
KEEP UP THE STRENGTH AND MOTIVATE OTHERS TO DO GOOD.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Blessings in God's Provision
Before our ministry to the States this last summer, I was debating if i want to buy my ticket to fly to Palau after ministry. But i did not get it until the summer was over. Here is the reason why i did not get it until the end of the summer. even before the ministry, God already have plans for me to stay on campus after our ministry.
Toward the end of our ministry I asked the president of the school if i could stay back on campus when we return and work with the guys. He agreed and so when I came, i worked not under contract but was working as volunteer (which means that i dont get paid and i have to pay for my own food with my own money). Knowing that, I saved enough money from the mission trip so that i could buy my food when i stay on campus. I just had enough. I praise the Lord that He is always faithful and know how to prepare everything for me.
Before I continue about this story, i want to tell you little bit about myself. When it comes to money, i am really bad at it. I cannot manage, and i am pretty much a big spender. But through this past ministry, knowing that our trailer was fully packed and i knew that it was challenging to arrange or find the things inside, i did not want to buy more stuff to fill the trailer and make it more messy and difficult to deal with. So with that thinking, i was able to manage my money and was thinking to spend them in the last place before we leave the states. it was thought about it and i took it into action at the last day of our ministry. I had enough money to shop and buys some gifts for students that were staying back. Not only that, there were also enough money to cover my needs on campus when i served the Lord on campus after our ministry.
When i came to campus, i was astoned with the poles that were surrounding the Cannex dorm. i thought there was a plan of building a fence around it or something. But after two or three days of resting, I found out that there will be overhanging roof outside the Cannex. So during the very next week, I pretty much overcame my Jet Lag so i was able to work with the guys. We started with short devotion in the morning before we start working. I like those devotions because it kept us not forgeting the purpose of our work on campus, that it was not nessessarily how fast, but how the job was done well and how we minister to one another through the felloship of work. There were four gentlemen and five ladies who were the main worker crews, but mostly i worked with the guys.
The first work that i faced was cutting the grasses. I kind of did not have contentment on it but toward the end of the day, i started to like it. i did not like it because this one bush cutter kept dying on me. I brought it to the shop, tried to overhaul it, but i could not pinpoint the problem. So the next day, i changed my bush cutter and used the smaller one and i had more contentment on it. It was small, lighter, but did a great job.
For few days working on campus with the crew, then there was a big project that came about. (While i was working here, I was still questioning in my mind, "Why am I here and not in Susanville or back in Palau ministrying to my mom?") Tim Plaxton, who was managing the work on campus, told us that we are gonna start building the overhang on Cannex. With Tim knowing that i have just little skill of carpentry, he included me on the job of building the overhang. Still, my mind is questioning why I'm here on campus. When the work started, I did not know how this things gonna look like. I have not build any house or shelter on my own or put any idea on building things, but was just a helper. But on this particular job, I was able to exercise my skill and wisdom (mostly imagination and assumtions) in building this overhang. What became challenge is that it was my first time doing it, and Tim never build a house or roofing a house with these kinds of tin roofs. At the same time, one person who was working with us, though he is skilled in some works, but i knew that i had to take charge on this because I have not seen him doing this kind of work and i believed that he did not have much skills on this. I believed that we have almost the same amount of skills. But with another student that i really trust, I knew that he have some skills in building because i can see in his performance of any work on campus. Though I have not seen him building anything, but i believed that he have experience that I need to combine with mine and other guy to make this job complete.
I am a person who like to have prejob planning before i do any kinds of works, especially when it comes to building projects so i can actually see how it gonna look like and how much materials we gonna need to complete the job. But with flexibility and just let things go as it is, we started building it. Starting with the frame, it was tough because. I did not even know what will be on this frame, how the crossmember or the rafters going to be attached to these frames; did not know how the roofs gonna be attached to the wall of Cannex. but with patience, I was just observing and follow what Tim told us to do. There were times that I really wanted to put ideas, but i did not want because i did not see the picture of this project because there was no drawings or blueprints. Listening and following what Tim told us to do, the frame that is attached to the wall was complete and the frame that was hanging on the poles were finished. after those two finished, you know that i already start having imagination on how this project gonna look like.
Those hanging up the frames took us two days because we were kind of catching the idea of how this project gonna look like. After those hanging of the frames, we started with the rafters. It was challenging because now everyone already start thinking and our minds are now preparing what needs to be done next. This is what you call preparation on progress. So with everyone thinking, there were some tensions that happened because of the conflict of skills. And let me show you two things that caused the conflictions.
We have one guy who want to find the best way or fastest way for the job to complete. And there is another guy who is good in math, (especially geometry). The one with good math already know how the job should be done from step one to the ending of just rafting. But other person, he is smart, but he just want the work to finish fast. With the person who want to finish the work fast, he pretty much dont hear or communicate well with the other person. This caused tension and the second person just gave up so he stepped out of the work area to gain his composure. After few minutes then he came back and they both ask forgiveness and continued the works.
Why am i telling this? The reason why I am telling this is because i want to tell that every ministry, there is always a challenge that you face. but that is just a short term situation. And to think about it, the reason for your mission is much bigger than the challenge that you face at that particular moment.
After hanging the frames and overcoming that little challenge, the work went so smooth. We actually put the whole overhanging within a week. But that is not something that is just the tip of the iceberg that i want to tell. The main thing that i want to tell about this is of how God revealed something to me while working on this small project.
Before i started this, I said it before but i will say it again. I did not know why i was coming to campus. it was not taking a risk but i did not know exactly why i came to this campus. but with this working on the overhanging, i learned something that God was teaching me and was showing me. As you know that i have been talking about my ambition to Thailand... I started slacking about my prayer toward Thailand. But there was something that caught my attention with this summer work. When we almost completed the overhang for the Cannex, i found out that i could build the house. It really caught my attention because one of the thing in my mind was "how will i build the mission house in Thailand with no skills; how will i pay for the contractors to build the house if i live by supports." These worries came to my mind and i started to slack on my prayers. Even through this work, i found out that big part of our classrooms were build by a second hand materials. I found out that they built it with materials that were donated by other people, which means that these materials were used for another house before and they actually reused them to build our classrooms. It is such a blessing to hear that because our classroom is strong and there is no leak in it. The nails that they used to hold the lumber and plywoods in some part of our classrooms were actually straightened by one member of our school who was a student during that time. He actually brought these used nails and hammered them until they were straightened and then use them to guild the house.
How amazing is that? how blessing is that? using second hand materials to build the classrooms and now we are using it and no complaint about the leaking or worries that it will fall on us... This caught my attention. It gave me an idea of how to build the mission house in Thailand. That's the reason why i came to work over here on campus after our mission trip. TO LEARN THAT I CAN ACTUALLY BUILD THE HOUSE, AND ALL I NEED IS TO COLLECT THE SECOND HAND MATERIALS TO BUILD THE HOUSE. LESS EXPENSIVE AND THERE IS A SOLID EVIDENCE THAT I CAN USE SECOND HAND MATERIALS AND IT'S STILL SAFE. I not only found out about that one, but i found out about this one brother of mine that when i am ready to build the house over there, i would be willing to bring him to Thailand with me to build that mission house because he is gifted in building houses. So now i know some of my skills and also a person that will be helping me to build the house. Oh, and don't worry. we already talk about it so, YES, he knows about it. This is how God is providing. This is how God is working in our lives.
Okay, just one more example of how God provide. toward the starting of the school, i did not have enough money to buy my books. I looked at the prices and it would cost more than what i have. the day of paying for my books came and i did not know what to do. I had only $30.00 in my wallet and $7.00 on my bank. even before I put those $30.00 for the books, i receive the envelope that was a love gift from Palau Evangelical Church in Guam that contained some money that was enough to knock out two of the books. I was so blessed for that, but i still had some books that i needed to pay. Though i knew i still had some more books to pay for, I was not thinking about that one but was celeberating the fact that i got those money to knock out those two books. I was celeberating the moment and not thinking about what's to come because I did not want to ruin the joy that God is giving me that comes with happiness. It would be sad thing if I receive a blessing and yet i dont have happiness when God already give me a part of what i've prayed for. after few days, then it came a time that i really needed to find the money or the way to get the rest of those books that i needed. I came to one brother and talked about some of the things that i wanted to make them straight, but with this conversation, he actually found out that i need help to buy my books. so I received enough money to cover the rest of the books and the art materials that i needed for the courses this semester. How much blessing would you want to ask from God? God dont give us blessings when we expect them to happen. NO. He gives us when we need them. I praise Him because He is JEHOVAH JIRAH. I praise Him because He is faithful God. I praise Him because He draws me close to Him every single day of my life. I am satisfied with the life that I'm in right now and i want to grow more and more everyday toward Him. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord.
NOW I KNOW THE REASON WHY I DID NOT STAY BACK IN SUSANVILLE OR WENT BACK TO PALAU.
Toward the end of our ministry I asked the president of the school if i could stay back on campus when we return and work with the guys. He agreed and so when I came, i worked not under contract but was working as volunteer (which means that i dont get paid and i have to pay for my own food with my own money). Knowing that, I saved enough money from the mission trip so that i could buy my food when i stay on campus. I just had enough. I praise the Lord that He is always faithful and know how to prepare everything for me.
Before I continue about this story, i want to tell you little bit about myself. When it comes to money, i am really bad at it. I cannot manage, and i am pretty much a big spender. But through this past ministry, knowing that our trailer was fully packed and i knew that it was challenging to arrange or find the things inside, i did not want to buy more stuff to fill the trailer and make it more messy and difficult to deal with. So with that thinking, i was able to manage my money and was thinking to spend them in the last place before we leave the states. it was thought about it and i took it into action at the last day of our ministry. I had enough money to shop and buys some gifts for students that were staying back. Not only that, there were also enough money to cover my needs on campus when i served the Lord on campus after our ministry.
When i came to campus, i was astoned with the poles that were surrounding the Cannex dorm. i thought there was a plan of building a fence around it or something. But after two or three days of resting, I found out that there will be overhanging roof outside the Cannex. So during the very next week, I pretty much overcame my Jet Lag so i was able to work with the guys. We started with short devotion in the morning before we start working. I like those devotions because it kept us not forgeting the purpose of our work on campus, that it was not nessessarily how fast, but how the job was done well and how we minister to one another through the felloship of work. There were four gentlemen and five ladies who were the main worker crews, but mostly i worked with the guys.
The first work that i faced was cutting the grasses. I kind of did not have contentment on it but toward the end of the day, i started to like it. i did not like it because this one bush cutter kept dying on me. I brought it to the shop, tried to overhaul it, but i could not pinpoint the problem. So the next day, i changed my bush cutter and used the smaller one and i had more contentment on it. It was small, lighter, but did a great job.
For few days working on campus with the crew, then there was a big project that came about. (While i was working here, I was still questioning in my mind, "Why am I here and not in Susanville or back in Palau ministrying to my mom?") Tim Plaxton, who was managing the work on campus, told us that we are gonna start building the overhang on Cannex. With Tim knowing that i have just little skill of carpentry, he included me on the job of building the overhang. Still, my mind is questioning why I'm here on campus. When the work started, I did not know how this things gonna look like. I have not build any house or shelter on my own or put any idea on building things, but was just a helper. But on this particular job, I was able to exercise my skill and wisdom (mostly imagination and assumtions) in building this overhang. What became challenge is that it was my first time doing it, and Tim never build a house or roofing a house with these kinds of tin roofs. At the same time, one person who was working with us, though he is skilled in some works, but i knew that i had to take charge on this because I have not seen him doing this kind of work and i believed that he did not have much skills on this. I believed that we have almost the same amount of skills. But with another student that i really trust, I knew that he have some skills in building because i can see in his performance of any work on campus. Though I have not seen him building anything, but i believed that he have experience that I need to combine with mine and other guy to make this job complete.
I am a person who like to have prejob planning before i do any kinds of works, especially when it comes to building projects so i can actually see how it gonna look like and how much materials we gonna need to complete the job. But with flexibility and just let things go as it is, we started building it. Starting with the frame, it was tough because. I did not even know what will be on this frame, how the crossmember or the rafters going to be attached to these frames; did not know how the roofs gonna be attached to the wall of Cannex. but with patience, I was just observing and follow what Tim told us to do. There were times that I really wanted to put ideas, but i did not want because i did not see the picture of this project because there was no drawings or blueprints. Listening and following what Tim told us to do, the frame that is attached to the wall was complete and the frame that was hanging on the poles were finished. after those two finished, you know that i already start having imagination on how this project gonna look like.
Those hanging up the frames took us two days because we were kind of catching the idea of how this project gonna look like. After those hanging of the frames, we started with the rafters. It was challenging because now everyone already start thinking and our minds are now preparing what needs to be done next. This is what you call preparation on progress. So with everyone thinking, there were some tensions that happened because of the conflict of skills. And let me show you two things that caused the conflictions.
We have one guy who want to find the best way or fastest way for the job to complete. And there is another guy who is good in math, (especially geometry). The one with good math already know how the job should be done from step one to the ending of just rafting. But other person, he is smart, but he just want the work to finish fast. With the person who want to finish the work fast, he pretty much dont hear or communicate well with the other person. This caused tension and the second person just gave up so he stepped out of the work area to gain his composure. After few minutes then he came back and they both ask forgiveness and continued the works.
Why am i telling this? The reason why I am telling this is because i want to tell that every ministry, there is always a challenge that you face. but that is just a short term situation. And to think about it, the reason for your mission is much bigger than the challenge that you face at that particular moment.
After hanging the frames and overcoming that little challenge, the work went so smooth. We actually put the whole overhanging within a week. But that is not something that is just the tip of the iceberg that i want to tell. The main thing that i want to tell about this is of how God revealed something to me while working on this small project.
Before i started this, I said it before but i will say it again. I did not know why i was coming to campus. it was not taking a risk but i did not know exactly why i came to this campus. but with this working on the overhanging, i learned something that God was teaching me and was showing me. As you know that i have been talking about my ambition to Thailand... I started slacking about my prayer toward Thailand. But there was something that caught my attention with this summer work. When we almost completed the overhang for the Cannex, i found out that i could build the house. It really caught my attention because one of the thing in my mind was "how will i build the mission house in Thailand with no skills; how will i pay for the contractors to build the house if i live by supports." These worries came to my mind and i started to slack on my prayers. Even through this work, i found out that big part of our classrooms were build by a second hand materials. I found out that they built it with materials that were donated by other people, which means that these materials were used for another house before and they actually reused them to build our classrooms. It is such a blessing to hear that because our classroom is strong and there is no leak in it. The nails that they used to hold the lumber and plywoods in some part of our classrooms were actually straightened by one member of our school who was a student during that time. He actually brought these used nails and hammered them until they were straightened and then use them to guild the house.
How amazing is that? how blessing is that? using second hand materials to build the classrooms and now we are using it and no complaint about the leaking or worries that it will fall on us... This caught my attention. It gave me an idea of how to build the mission house in Thailand. That's the reason why i came to work over here on campus after our mission trip. TO LEARN THAT I CAN ACTUALLY BUILD THE HOUSE, AND ALL I NEED IS TO COLLECT THE SECOND HAND MATERIALS TO BUILD THE HOUSE. LESS EXPENSIVE AND THERE IS A SOLID EVIDENCE THAT I CAN USE SECOND HAND MATERIALS AND IT'S STILL SAFE. I not only found out about that one, but i found out about this one brother of mine that when i am ready to build the house over there, i would be willing to bring him to Thailand with me to build that mission house because he is gifted in building houses. So now i know some of my skills and also a person that will be helping me to build the house. Oh, and don't worry. we already talk about it so, YES, he knows about it. This is how God is providing. This is how God is working in our lives.
Okay, just one more example of how God provide. toward the starting of the school, i did not have enough money to buy my books. I looked at the prices and it would cost more than what i have. the day of paying for my books came and i did not know what to do. I had only $30.00 in my wallet and $7.00 on my bank. even before I put those $30.00 for the books, i receive the envelope that was a love gift from Palau Evangelical Church in Guam that contained some money that was enough to knock out two of the books. I was so blessed for that, but i still had some books that i needed to pay. Though i knew i still had some more books to pay for, I was not thinking about that one but was celeberating the fact that i got those money to knock out those two books. I was celeberating the moment and not thinking about what's to come because I did not want to ruin the joy that God is giving me that comes with happiness. It would be sad thing if I receive a blessing and yet i dont have happiness when God already give me a part of what i've prayed for. after few days, then it came a time that i really needed to find the money or the way to get the rest of those books that i needed. I came to one brother and talked about some of the things that i wanted to make them straight, but with this conversation, he actually found out that i need help to buy my books. so I received enough money to cover the rest of the books and the art materials that i needed for the courses this semester. How much blessing would you want to ask from God? God dont give us blessings when we expect them to happen. NO. He gives us when we need them. I praise Him because He is JEHOVAH JIRAH. I praise Him because He is faithful God. I praise Him because He draws me close to Him every single day of my life. I am satisfied with the life that I'm in right now and i want to grow more and more everyday toward Him. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord.
NOW I KNOW THE REASON WHY I DID NOT STAY BACK IN SUSANVILLE OR WENT BACK TO PALAU.
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