Sudden Peace

It has been a struggling week as it was off schedule for me to go for work.  My original plan was to get back to work around April or May.  But because of so many circumstances and I myself feeling bored, I was forced to make a decision to work or not to work, where to work and what kind of work? 

It was a very difficult situation and decision that I have recently experienced, it was truly a crossroad, with many concerns actually piling up in my mnd, which include utmost care of relationships.  Accepting a ministry that can break relationships as other invitations need to be turned down.  

But eventually, I had to make a decision, factoring each area of finding God's will has put me on the spot, a decision that I have previously declined.  Well, after my last leg of struggle and surrender to what God wants.  I suddenly was filled with peace and ready for the challenge.   

This can be an example of a Jonah syndrome, where you know God wants you to do a particular ministry and you are lazy to do it because of different kind of fears that engulfs our presuppositions.  Anyway, as a fulltime minister of God, the boss is still God, there is no choice but to heed on His will since we always know that God knows what is best for us.  

I am ready for the challenge and let us get to work! 

The Fear of Growing Pains

Since last week, I felt my life has been a drag.  The cluttered mind needs unwinding for me to see clearly what God wants me to do next for Him.  

There are times, we just want to do things where we are comfortable already, but I was reminded the question, "am I relying on myself and my piled up skills more or am I relying more on God in faith?"  This struck me whether I am having a Jonah syndrome or not.  Even my interpretation of my devotion is siding with what I want rather than what God wants.  In the end, I know that I need to submit since my task is to follow my God. 

My dream to be rich and lazy or to be just a simple houseband someday seems to be so far away from my reality.  

With my previous ministry experiences, though I know my years in ministry were well blessed, there were also many growing pains.  Leaping in faith once again for a new journey makes me hesitant.  Am I really ready for the next challenge and set of growing pains?  

The preacher yesterday reminded me in Hebrews 11 about the list of faith stuffs, but what struck me most was that in verse 1, "by faith, we understand."  We are to have faith first and then understand... not the other way around.  By leaping in faith, and after leaping in faith where we will only understand and get answers to our questions.  Waiting for answers to our questions before acting in reliance on God is no longer faith.  

As I continue to journey this fulltime ministry... as I leap in faith for my next ministry... as I explore another level of faith...  All must continually be centered in God alone.  

God's Time is Right Time and Exact Time

God’s timing is perfect in everything. While you are waiting, perhaps wondering why God doesn’t seem to be acting on your behalf, remember that He’s working behind the scenes to prepare His moment of intervention at just the right time. Trust Him. He knows what time it is. - ODB

People are often impatient with so many things these days that even with our relationship with God, we would want it to be instant.  Many times, our limited thinking fails to understand God's timing.  Especially, when our presupposition dictates that we already lack the needed time to finish a certain task.  God's time is always perfect timing and He is always right on time.  We can think God is late and does last minute decisions, but these are only our perceptions because of our limitations as a man.  

God's timing is always to the dot.  It could be God waiting for us to finished His assigned lesson first that relates to the formation of our being before we are allowed to move on.  It could also be God testing our faith in Him, rather than faith on ourselves.  It could also be God allowing other things to unfold first in order to help us go through a smooth transition.  

No matter what, God's time is right and perfect.... and you will only realized this, when such right time has actually come.  

Blogging Again

It has been years since I stopped blogging.

After accepting the post as principal of Makati Hope Christian School, I prefer to stop blogging since a position such as principal carries a big responsibility on what I say and how I share my personal thoughts.  I could be a big influence positively and negatively to my students, teachers, parents and co-workers.  So, I prefer to keep my thoughts to myself in order to prevent people from using my post as attacks on me.

Some people in this world are fond of creating stories and adding exaggerated meaning to people's thoughts, and there are those around me who are such.  For the past two years alone, in my FaceBook timeline, there were at least 10 times, busy bodies called up my principal in Hope Christian High School accusing me that my posts were pertaining to her, wanting me and my principal to have misunderstandings and divisions.   There are too many busy bodies today and even has the guts to call themselves Christians.  Good thing, I had a very open communication with my principal.

Blogging is actually a good exercise to review and reflect, which is the best method in adult learning. Blogging allows us to internalize things and internalize our thoughts.  I am going back to blogging because I do believe that it would continue to help me improve myself as a person.  I could also focus my blog in educating people.

Lastly, I am teaching my students in Asian Theological Seminary the importance of blogging.  So, I need to join them in their learning journey in quest for deeper understanding in dissecting our thoughts, experiences and  lessons.

Testing My New Keyboard

I really have a difficult time deciding whether to buy this keyboard and iPad 2 dock.  It is quite expensive but I think it was worth the purchase.  My access to many of the important files, especially typing documents is now a blast!

I think iPad will continue to change the landscape of education and I believe the business industry as well.  If using an iPad and being linked to the cloud is so easy, then, what else is next.  You only carry the documents you need and store everything in the internet.

This again is stressing me because catching up with the even faster change of times is giving me an exhaustion though it is not physical but mental exhaustion.

In another perspective, these changes is good and I hope we can continue educating parents and students on the use of this tool in enhancing classroom learning.  Learning has moved from the regular school hours to 24/7.  Information is really at the fingertip of the everyone.  I hope we can move this concept in the mindset of our students soon.  They have to move out of the concept seeing this tool as only a gaming instrument.

Praise God for technology... and I am glad it existed in my generation... :D

iPad Stress to Administrators

Our school has launched the use of iPad this school year.  It has been very exciting for all of u.s as well as being too stressful.  Sometimes people think that the stress is actually on the shoulders of our students or worse the teachers, who needs to spend so much time learning and searching and reinventing their curriculum.  The truth is the burden on the administrators are even worse.

I am also stressed out preparing and teaching our faculty to effectively and maximize the usage of this technology.  I am also stressed in trying to find the right apps for our students and teachers.  We need to understand that iPad is only a tool and not education itself.  And we have a responsibility to our students because we need to maximize their learning experience, parents who are paying for these expensive gadgets, the community who are on a wait and see mode and the whole learning community who are aggressively waiting for results and implications of education in our school.

If we are successful, we expect student population increase; if we fail, we expect a drop in our enrollment.  The school is presently left hanging and we ourselves are in a wait and see mode, though we are in full diligence to make sure this innovation will be successful and inspire the rest of the learning community to innovate.

Exploring the Unknown

X generation individuals though easily adopt to the likes and dislikes of the Y generation or post-modern generation, continue to maintain their identity. We cannot fully cut and paste ourselves to the thinking of the next generation because we maintain our distinct identity.

X generation individual then to reach out successfully to them but in many areas, we can't. For example, e-learning is quite challenging for many of the Xers.

We easily get bored because of these e-learning stuffs, especially if it does not involve interactive activities. It is very stressful for some because this is the unknown. But we will go for the challenge and explore the unknown just to prove to them that we can easily adapt, sacrificing our own comfort zone.

X generation individuals are high achievers. We are babies of Star Trek whose task is to Explore the Unknown!