Thirty Years in the Making

This is long overdue. It was supposed to be my birthday blog entry, thus the title. I also played the acoustic background music (and guess who sang in it!) in the 2nd slide entitled "Why Present?". I still have two of the slide's timing off and the volume can get a bit low in some slides. But I may not find time to edit this. As it is, I already used multiple softwares to create/edit the sound and the video. Also, I only used an unregistered software for the PPS to WMV conversion (unless you could recommend a different software). Dami ko pa sinabe noh? Enjoy!

PART 1 OF 3:


PART 2 OF 3:


PART 3 OF 3:

More than Conquerors

I think I had fun – one I haven’t had in a long time.
The Saturday we met was quite unplanned.
He said he likes surprises, contrary to the planner in me.
He joked that he was in a pink car, while I searched around the full parking lot.
As I approached a red car that was obviously his, he faked a panic.
And asked over the line, "Is that you, the beautiful girl walking my way?"
He made me grin up to my ears, and I knew that he knew all about fun.

The conversations we had lasted for about six hours.
He had a lot of things to say about anything.
I learned he was the youngest, half-Chinese, and loved to cook.
He knew how to speak Chinese, loved to work out, and had an adopted sister.
As usual, the planner in me just imagined a meeting over coffee or dinner.
I told myself, "Just plain talk, nothing serious or heavy."
But I was completely unaware of how meaningful it was becoming.

I almost choked as he told me his story here in this foreign land.
After 13 years together and being cheated on once, he was willing to work it out
When she moved to the U.S. on their 9th year, he took odd jobs to visit his love here.
Until he finally decided to leave everything behind to marry her.
Unfortunately, he found out that his love is cheating on him once more.
So he detached himself from everyone he loved, to find himself again.
I almost hugged him to tell him that he had such a beautiful story to tell.

After two years, he is out on a first date with me.
That this is his excuse for any mess he is making.
He expressed his yearning for his family, to make up for lost time with his parents.
He longed for his friends who wanted to be there for him all this time.
I saw an opportunity to speak to him about the Lord.
And I told him about friends within our age group that exists in City on the Hill.
I also said I would understand if this religious talk would scare him away (it did not).

We ended up talking about the purposes of all that happened to us.
That all that happened was out of God’s kindness towards us.
That the Lord will not bring us all the way here just to see us scurry home.
That he can find life in the US and not be married to the idea of life with that woman.
And I sincerely asked God that He protect and heal our wounded hearts.
May we become more than conquerors that those who hear of our stories glorify the Lord.
May the Lord restore what was lost, and may we look beyond our circumstances.

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? …In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." – Ro 8:31, 37-38