My Good Samaritans

This month of June, the first week was like a hell.  I was so overwhelmed with a lot of pressures in the office, routine activities at home, parenting and bonding with my kids, undesirable employees at work, etc. I felt as if I am carrying the whole world on my back.  God touched me by Good Samaritans and I believe they still exist nowadays.  I truly appreciate their simple acts of kindness because they reminded me that God loves me cares for me through their lives.

1.   Mae, my househelp, chose for me a fashionable gown that fits my budget and the design I like.  I was scheduled to attend then a wedding of one of my nieces-in-law and I still have nothing to wear.  God is good! Through Mae, it only took some minutes to stroll around Market Market and then we were able to get one.

2.   Emy, our Secretary asked me if my Son is entering school and I replied yes.  She mentioned that she has a lot of pencils at home which she also got for free. Then, she voluntarily expressed that she will give free pencils to my son. I just realized that there are a lot of things for free! Praise God for simple kindness of people.

3.   On my way home, I realized I still have not purchased any pasalubong for  my kids and I was also soooo thirsty.  So I decided to drop by a burger stand near Taguig City Hall. I thought I could purchase some mineral water with the money I have but to my disappointment, my only resort is to ask for some free water.  Kindly, I asked one of the crews if he could give me some water.  Not hesistant, he gave me a glass of water!  If only he knew how grateful I am for that refreshing glass of water.  Thank you Lord for your kindness to me through that crew.

4.   Elvie, one of my officemates lent me her MRT stored value so I won’t need to fall in long queu. From the office, I need to spend overnight in Project 3 that night because we are attending an anniversary of my former church.  Our house help, Sam, Ceana along with my mother already went ahead of me.  Praise God for Elvie! The queu in MRT was indeed too long. I was able to save time and energy.

5.   Sir Lino, one of our managers gave me free guinatan for merienda.  I incidentally happend to see Sir Lino in our cafeteria and he said that his favorite merienda was also guinatan so he asked me if I liked one. This 65 year old guy is so generous especially when it comes to food. 

Thank you God for their kindness. Similar to the good samaritan in the Bible, they took pity on me, showed mercy on me and gave me what I needed during those moments when I needed help.  I do not know how I could return the favor but I just pray that I will also be a good samaritan to others.

Luke 10:33-35

[33] But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. [34] He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. [35] The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

MAE Made My Month of MAY

MAY 2011 --- second month that AL left for work abroad. All of us (Sam, Ceana and myself) were still in the process of adjustment.  We’re missing him in so many things but by God’s grace, we were able to move on.  We tried to live a normal life, made ourselves busy to church, family and friend’s activities.  Aside from church service every Sunday, we still had our victory group every Wednesday and Friday for the first 2 weeks.  In the third week, the series on ROOTS started. Thank God for the opportunity to learn the basic foundation of faith – all about CHRIST. I’ll discuss more on this when we finish our sessions because there are so many things to share.

As for my commitment in reading the Holy Scripture, thank God I was able to finish the books of Deutoronomy and Joshua and I was halfway in the book of John by the end of May. The book “26 words that will Improve the Way you do Family” was likewise very helpful in increasing my knowledge, wisdom and desire to live biblical, godly ways and lifestyles at home.  Praise God for the added insights!

In the office, the busyness and preparations I did last month (April) for the company outing eventually turned out to be great and fun.  Though quite far, we travelled 2 and a half hours to reach Blue Coral Beach Resort, the venue was awesome. Aside from the beach, it has swimming pools for kids and adults.  It has several in-door games such as ping pong, darts, etc.  The crew was also approachable.  However, the foods were not that appealing to me (rice is half cooked and the viands are very simple). Overall, the experience was great the fact that the company spent some amount of money for all employees to be away and take some rest and recreation even for a day.  It was also the birthday of my sister who accompanied me in the outing.  Thank God for the company’s generosity!

I was privileged to be invited as one of the godparents in a Chirsten’s birthday party held in Dad’s Restaurant.  It was her 2^nd birthday and she’s the daughter of my former high school classmate, Thereza. Half of my heart is sad while half is joyful.  I was sad that Christen’s parents are not around to celebrate with her, similar to my kid’s situation where daddy needs to work abroad.  Joyful in a sense that the immediate family of Thereza can take care of her including her brother.  Their father is a Taiwanese and they were hoping that this December they will be reunited.

We were also blessed to have visitors from Japan, the Neru family. Ate Jane, first cousin of AL, worked in Japan. I learned that she belonged to a Filipiniana dance group and from there, she earned her living until she met her husband.  We last saw each other when we got married June 2004 and we met again after 7 years.

Just to give a brief background, Ate Jane can be considered as AL’s sister because they grew up together under the care of Ate Jane’s mother, Auntie Mering. Auntie Mering is the elder sister of Nanay Gemma,  mother-in-law.  AL’s mother was already working abroad then.  AL and ate Jane both studied in Cabanatuan elementary school, played together and spent a lot of time together, not until Ate Jane decided to go to Japan for work after high school.  Anyway, the visit was so short but my son enjoyed their stay.  Sam had a great time playing Takuya and Mikah (Ate Jane's children)  though they communicate only through sign language.  Sam cannot speak Nihonggo while they cannot speak English.

The last one I would like to praise God for is my current househelper named MAE MORALES.  She came from the province of Ilocos Norte and is a distant relative of my husband.  She said she has a brother and they were only 2 children in the family.  She was only 18 years old when she started living with us, Ceana was barely 5 months. I just would like to honor this young lady despite the clashes, conflicts, disagreements, a lot of teaching sessions at home, etc. that we used to have.    She said she worked as a househelp for 7 months only and it's her second time with us.  I observed then that she is not used to household chores.  Her previous employment before she worked for us is a Saleslady in one of the stores in Batac, Ilocos Norte.  Sam used to dislike her, they had several fights which I wanted to forget. 

After 2 years, I could say that she really improved and matured in every way.  We celebrated her birthday last May 13.  I bought her a cake and fried chicken for dinner so she won't cook.  We had a short talk and she had teary eyes relating to me all what we went through. Thank God for guiding us.  She is left alone now taking care of Sam and Ceana because our other househelp left for schooling in province. I can't imagine she will be able to take care of my two kids while I'm away working and Al is abroad. I can't believe she will be in good terms with Sam.  I am still looking for a replacement of the one who left but I really can't imagine she will be able to handle the tantrums of the two. I can't believe a lot of things... thank you God above all because you take care of us.

MAE made my month of May. Praise God for all the blessings, favor, mercy and grace!!!