The Lord Counts Our Hair

I was searching the net for the Pagasa website because I want to tract down typhoon Ofel's movement.. Eicher's in Tuegegarao City for a job call and will go down to Baguio City all that this weekend. Ofel's heading northwest of the country and I need to inform Eicher about it so he could timed his job and hurried back home to Manila, avoiding the storm. Then, I remembered to open my e-mail, a newsletter from the 700Club Asia came and I read this article-devotion about our hair. I was touched by the story and the verse there seemed to talk to me, "God counts the number of our hair so you don't need to be afraid." I looked at the reference in the Bible indicated there and I found it. It says:

" Are not five sparrows sold for two farthlings, and not one of them was forgotten by God. But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows." Luke 12:6-7

I am sporting a very short hair for 12 years now. When I get here in the tribe, my short hair became offensive, all females should have long hair here. So there are times back then that I needed to wear a veil when teaching the people. Only after I explained why I sport a short hair, did they understood. Now I could go around without a veil.

I did this sporting on purpose. It is both a mourning and a prayer. I told myself that I will make it grow again when God answers my prayer. It's like a fast. In the Old Testament (Bible), a woman who lost her husband cuts her hair short and grew her fingernails long as a sign of mourning. When her mourning is over, she will grow her hair again and cut short her fingernails.

In our time, we grow or cut our hair and fingernails for fashion.

God counts my hair, I wonder when will it be that when God counts my hair again, He'll find it long and many? I am waiting in great expectation and excited about it.

I hope the typhoon Ofel will not take a landfall. My countrymen have enough destruction already, brought by the previous typhoons. Sometimes, too much unbearable calamities make the hearts
faint.

May God stop the birth of typhoons this October to December, a rain to cool the heating earth is enough.

Tams and Joy

Unlike the other married couples in our Badjao community, Tams and Joy's love story is different. The two got married out of passionate love for one another contrary to the Badjao culture of marriage.

In our tribe, if a man wants to get marry, which is usually begins at the age of 13. He will go around the community, or go to other Badjao communities in Luzon and Mindanao to look for a girl he wants to marry. It is not out of love but out of want, mixed with the interest in the status of the girl and her family. If he finds a girl he wants, he will then, with his family elders, post a dowry dictated by the girl's family. If the girl refuses to accept the dowry of the man, she will be "legally liable" to the community and the man's family that she has to pay a certain amount as moral damages penalty for refusing the man. Most of the girls really has no choice but to accept and marry any man who would post a dowry in the liking of their families.

And I saw how these loveless marriages work in the community. They often give me headache . Annulment of marriage costs only P2,000 depending on the business sense of the tribal leader.The jewelries and monetary dowry will be divided. The children are automatically awarded to the father.


But Tams and Joy are different. Their families do not approved of one another because Tams is poor. He was a sea diver. Joy comes from the Abdullah clan, well to do. But the two eloped so they won't be separated. And in their culture, if a woman is seen with a man, she is already perceived as " not virgin anymore." So the families got no choice but to wed the two regardless of the dowry.

Theirs is the only marriage that didn't cause me headache. They are harmonious. Though very poor, I don't hear or see them arguing about jewelries, food and money which most couples do after a long week of selling pearls by the men. They speak sensibly about life and their faith in God. Their children are quiet and well behaved. I see how Tams rear his 2 boys to serve God in their early years, teaching them to recite memory verses from the Bible and how to worship Isa Almasih. Tams is one of my student in our training class. He is grade zero, as he calls himself. He never attended school in our community because he needs to sell pearls everyday because of poverty, yet he strove hard all by himself to read and write... and he does now! His diligence to study the Word of God, attend my training class and read and write, he is now one of my finest speaker in class. And his wife Joy is a very good song leader.


Looking at Tams and Joy during our Sunday Worship Service, I can't help but smile and utter a wishful prayer to have a family like this. The smile continue a smile.


Cruising along Manila on Eicher's "mercedez benz" ha ha ha! The rain suddenly poured.
O my gosh! It's raining! And Eicher started calling out my name telling me it's raining and as if I could do something to stop the rain from falling.

I started to pray and look at the sky, " Lord, make the rain to stop. I don't want to get wet!"
The answer came right away- the rain stopped!
"Ha ha ha galing mo hah!", said Eicher.
A tinkling idea flashed to my mind, " If I can make the rain to stop from falling, then I can make the miseries to stop coming in to my life.". Yeah, I can!

A friend texted me this puzzling quotation : " Do one thing. Do it right. Finish it."
I will follow the rain principle and finish it!

My headache persists as I am making this screwy plan in my life. My mom was sleeping with the radio on beside her. The announcer said, " When God speaks that He will do something in your life, He will do it in your life 100 percent!". Oww gosh, the heavens is screaming on my ears again! Ha ha ha ha! Here comes the sun! the sunflowers and the sunburns! he he he!

I will wait upon the Lord.
He's been so good to me!

Consolation of the Rain

Reading gives me consolation after a very tiring and dissapointing day. It's a hobby thats worth the effort of scanning and comprehending the written lines. As writers put it: there's hidden "jewels" there.

In my effort to save and keep the school going, I devised a lot of ways to reach my objective. I met a lot of disappointment, shed a lot of tears, got sick and withdrawn a little from the crowd to think, re-think, sink and get up again.

It's my one of those days today. My burning drive to work was met in the middle by a heavy rain! My red dress got wet and my asthma-caused-by- stress attacked. I was forced to stop watching the rain goes down, flooding my way. I managed to get to my office, at least, to stop and wait for a chance to continue my hitting the road.

"The rain kills my opportunity today!" I said to myself.
I pulled out the red book from the shelf, read and waited for the rain to stop.

1. Give with all your heart and mind. When you stop giving, the creation will also stop giving...to you.
2. Sometimes appreciate the animals around specially the birds. I don't like animals. Their feathers and hair make me allergic. But dear, it is right! The kittens playing on my roof give me some sort of enjoyment by just watching them. One of the little things I forgot.
3. Break your mental bondage. Limitations are in our minds only. We can do things only if we like them to. Set our mind free from limitations. The rain limits my action today but that doesn't mean I have to stop. I can't stop now.
4. Humans has the capacity to succeed and victorious. We also have the capacity to fail and be defeated. Our mind is the difference.
5. The void in us can give us the ability to "bend down" without breaking in times of difficult and harsh situations. The void in me must dictate me not to give up and not to stop until my goal is realized.
6. Perfect timing is a very valuable element of success.

The rain didn't at all ruined my opportunities... it made me to stop and give thought on those things. It's not bad after all.