20k Run

The day after Luke's birthday I was able to join a 20k run at the Fort, in Global City. Got up early at 3am to get ready and at 4am was picked up by a friend to go to the race. Keren, Kurt and I went there and were surprised to that the event was so different from the one we just recently joined a few weeks earlier. This was definitely smaller and less of a hoopla. The 20k race started at 5:15 and off I went with all the other runners. I started on a good pace and tried to do a 9 minute mile. After hitting 10k that's when I started to get tired. Mentally I had to quote verses and remind myself of the race I am in as a Christian. It really helped me to meditate on the Word and sing songs in my head. This was a harder run than the ones previous half-marathon I've done. This is the first time I ran without a partner. I used to run races with Nathaniel but since he's had knee injury he had to stop running. But anyhow, the Lord helped and sustained my strength until the finish line. I finished it at 2hrs, 5 min. Praise the Lord for his mercies!

Luke's 12th Birthday

December 10, 2010



Luke turned 12 a few days ago. We're so thankful for our son. He was all excited, everyone was excited for him. He got up early to play basketball with his dad, then we had breakfast in the terrace. Nathaniel had a little devotion before breakfast and shared from Psalm 127 " Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward...blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" He opened up his presents and of course he knew most of the things he got from his wish list. We took him later on to watch the Narnia movie "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" at Greenhills. Later that afternoon he had another basketball game with his friends. What a great blessing it was to celebrate our firstborn's 12th birthday.

Singles' Conference- One Single Passion

So thankful that we were able to take some of our young people (about 20 of them) to the singles' conference entitled "One Single Passion" at Higher Rock Church last November 29. Nathaniel was one of the speakers at the session. It was a wonderful time of learning and fellowship time with singles from other churches. There were about 300 young people who attended the conference. Praise God for all that we learned and what He will accomplished in the lives of these singles as a result of this conference.

Christmas Decorating 2010

Well, it's that time of the year where the Christmas trees and Christmas decorations are dusted off and they get put up as a reminder of this wonderful season of Advent. This is the time of the year where we as a family always make an effort to make Christmas decoration a tradition.

We love seeing the reactions of the kids as they open up the boxes to get the decorations and remember all the fun memories of what those things represented. It's truly precious!

Here in the Philippines, they start putting up their Christmas decorations as early as September, which they call the "ber" months. We usually wait until right before Thanksgiving to put up ours.

We love this time of the year where we remember the birth of our Lord, the Incarnation of Christ. "Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name 'Immanuel'
which means, God is with us."

10K Run

truly thankful that I was able to participate in a 10k run last Nov. 20. I've been wanting to do more running races here in the Philippines but it's been hard to find a race scheduled on Saturdays. Most of the races are on Sundays and our conviction has been that we don't do any sport activity on the Lord's day. Nathaniel has not been able to do any running activity because of his knee problems. I enjoyed being able to run with some friends from church. We are scheduled to run another race on Dec. 11, this time 20k.

CCBC Ladies Quarterly Fellowship

Last November 21, our ladies group
held our last quarterly fellowship for the year 2010, entitled "Give Thanks."

We all got together, young and old, to share with one another all the blessings and the trials that we encountered for the year 2010. We gave thanks to the Lord knowing that He gave us those trials and blessings for our eternal good.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Kids and I baked cakes, cookies and pumpkin pie in the morning. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in the Philippines so Nathaniel had to go to class in the morning.

We had friends who came over for dinner, Feliciano (who is here visiting from our church in CA), the Cortes family (Joey, Xandra, Allie and Joaquin) and Kurt.

After supper the kids provided entertainment for us by playing the piano.

We are truly grateful to the Lord for all of his provisions for us. We are thankful for our family, our church family, and the work that He has allowed for us to participate in for His Kingdom.

GBC Escondido 20th Anniversary Greeting

This past October, our home church in Escondido, CA, Grace Bible Church, celebrated their 20th anniversary. We are so privilege to have a wonderful home church who loves us, supports us and prays for us. Praise God for his faithfulness!

This is the video greetings we sent them for their anniversary.