dude, where are you going?

it's been a long time since i had time to blog. Well, being in production already limits my access time to the internet. Plus, trying to stay unconspicuous is really hard when your bosses are roaming constantly. a new year has entered and the first month just quickly passed by. I can't believe i didn't manage to squeeze in even one blog entry for january. So let this be my salutations for the year 2009.

i planned to stay up last new year's eve and write down my faith goals for the year. I had a lot of them already in my head but i wanted to use that time to write them down on paper - make them more concrete. but it was only after the first week of january was i able to write them down. and i asked also my disciples to do the same. here a re some samples from what i wrote.

• To complete my G12 by the end of the year
• To win one soul every month for this year
• To mentor 10 singers to be worship leaders
• To start my own business
• To save Php50,000 in the bank and pay for our house
• To become a registered midwife
• To commit consistently with my walk with GOD

I forgot the others. yet as the end of january came and went, my #2 goal was, let's just say, temporarily forgotten. Hanna, one of my disciples, asked me why i'm asking for their goals for this year. I answered so i might know how to lead you. Knowing where you want to go would help a lot. Lifting them up to GOD would bless your year. That simple statement brought about ideas afterwards.

Why should you bother knowing your destination? Isn't it more fun to just enjoy the journey and be surprised by how it goes and where it leads you? Maybe. But i think getting into something without the slightest hint of where you want to go is a waste of time and effort. I mean, you don't actually get to your destination just by looking down on your own two feet. You got to know where you're heading and setting out goals is the way to do that. Otherwise, it's not a journey you're taking-that's just wandering.

I've know a lot of people who get into sticky situations and find themselves just making excuses that they're just enjoying the ride rather than getting real and finding the purpose for what they want to accomplish in this life. Most are really hard headed in saying that they make their own decisions and no one is the boss of them. Full of pride they stick with their choices even if takes them down hill. I can hear sinatra sing "i did it my way..."

I shake my head just thinking about the heartache and sorrow they can be saving themselves from if they just learn to submit their lives to the orchestrator of life. The wisest king who ever lived once said: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6).

reflect and ask yourself "dude, where are you going?"

it's a happy day

* a dose of daryl, karen and au at the MMH Emergency Room/OPD


It was raining earlier this morning. I had to come in much later that i would have wanted because i had no umbrella. still i arrived fairly early at our assembly place. I was still very sleepy and still feeling tired from the shenanigans i did yesterday. I tidied up kuya glenn's and ate niqz' kitchen after eating dinner and decided to go home since it was already late (for my mother, that is)I wasn't able to bid my mentors goodbye before leaving - they were very much asleep.^-^

although the weather did not ontribute anything to my efforts of trying to wake myself up, i still had to go. It was already 9AM and we still had nothing. NO case at all. so we decided to go to the canteen (Au, Karen and I). It was a much better use of our time rather than sitting in the ER and waiting for a miracle case to fall from the sky to our laps. Between waitinga dn eating - eating wins by a knock out.

for the last 4 days that we have been together, i had formed friendships and bonds with Au and Karen and felt like I've known them for a very long time. We share stories and experiences: from family, nursing, lovelife, music and many others. the quiet Emergency room would burst with chuckles and snickers when we are around. I feel very close with the two. I hope after our last day of completion tomorrow, they would still remember me. It has been fun.^-^

I don't know what pulled the three of us together. I didn't even imagine that we would be this similar since we had very different personalities. Yet in spite of this, we were still able to connect. maybe because at my very first day of duty i really made it a point that i would make friends with at least one of my groupmates. I believe that's the start of it. If you set in your mind to not judge every person you meet and to make it a point to get to know them first, have a genuine desire to reach out - then maybe this world would be filled with much love and less wars.

it isn't about different gender, ethnicity, the color of your skin, religion and beliefs. These should not be our stumbling block. instead of making it a cause of division and separitism, let it be celebrated and respected. Instead of starting wars and fights, it will spread peace and good will. if we decide to live in love for our neighbors, then i believe we have made most of every breath that the Almighty has blessed us with.

as the hippies say, "give peace a chance."

the cure minus the pain

just got home from my completion duty for my IV therapy. It's in martinez memorial hospital. this will be my home until friday, well just from 7am to 3 pm. today might not have been the most productive 8 hours of my day but i managed to get things done and add cases to my much needed to be completed list (finally!).

i arrived extra early today so as to avoid losing slots to give IV shots in the wards upstairs. i was at the assembly place by 6:30am. lounging there with nothing to do, i took out my mp5 player and took shots of the hospital just for kicks. i didn't wait long for my groupmates as they came one after the other. Ms. Imie, our preceptor led us to the wards andd we collected the medications due for the nest hour. then we went down to the pharmacy. i was not so used to their protocol of having to prepare medications at the pharmacy, far away from the wards where the patients would be waiting to receive their drugs. it was kind of funny, but i think i got good exercise today running up and down the stairs and flying from one ward to the other.

the pharmacy was our bestfriend today. we spent most of our time maneuvering syringes, vials and ampules to prepare concoctions of medication to be injected to our sick patients. i lost count how many drugs i have prepared. then we went to see the patients. MMH was just a small hospital yet it was filled with sick peole of all ages, sex and sizes. even if my interaction with the patients consist only of a curt "good morning" and "it's time for your meds", i tried to do my task with care. being shot directly to your veins is very painful especially with very striong and highly concentrated drugs. so taking utmost care is really called for. it reminded me of the reason on why i became a nurse. not because i love seeing people sick but because i believe that this is my calling - to minister to people and care for them when they are physically, emotionally, mentally and even spiritually broken.

but not all "ill" people are found in hospitals or in any health institutions. They're spiritually bankrupt. and this "illness" is worst than being physically defeated by any disease. many of them walk around the earth not recognizing that they are sick in some level of their human existence. Many people try to search for the thing that will complete their life- that object that would make them whole, but fail. for the primary reason that they don't know what they are looking for and where to look for it in the first place.

i had been one of those people. i was proud. i tried to fill the void in my life with academics, accomplishment, friends, relationships - things i could boast about and hope to make me feel better abnout myself yet in my head and heart there was still something missing. Until i found what i was looking for in Jesus. i was a christian when i was born, but it had been only in the recent years that i have really known what it meant to have HIM be Lord over my life. Now i feel i am never in want of anything because now i know that it is only in my savior that i am fully satisfied.

if our hearts our broken, if our bodies are weak...God is our only cure, His presence is our resting place. it wouldn't hurt any of us to try HIM for once in our lives because left to our own efforts we might end up wandering all over the universe yet find our existence devoid of any meaning, our efforts a waste, and our momentary happiness fleeting. and this cure, unlike being given an IV push, will never be painful. He is in the business of making people new and this is a guarantee.

try HIM and see for yourself. my life will boast of my SAVIOR's "therapeutic claims".