This summer, I’m trying to teach the choir very old gospel hymns, and songs that I’ve learned just going through the hymnal. Some have really caught my heart, so they are really new old songs to me that I’d like to pass on to the next generation. Hopefully, it’ll find a place within them, that one day, they’ll teach the next generation. And maybe, one day, when I’m ready to travel the sweet by and by, they’ll remember me as someone how has had a passion for the hymns. Here’s the one I leaned last year, and one I taught the choir today.
I’ve been meaning to blog for Elle’s 9th month post, archiving what she was up to on her 8th month, but I’ve gotten busy and Elle seems to be a little more clingy. As we speak, I’m speed-blogging while Perze walks her to sleep. That’s their routine and bonding time. The biggest thing she learned at 8 months was walking. Yes! She took her first steps mid-8th month and gained the drive to practice more and more steps as the days and weeks went by. The first time I saw her take a couple steps was on mom’s kitchen table, in front of all of us. Supposedly, this wasn’t the first time she took her first steps, as seen by Perze days before it. But since I’m blogging, we’re gonna go with that for now, but definitely on her 8th month :). That’s a month earlier than her two sisters. Also, she understands some words now like “clap” and “hi” “bye”. She’ll clap and wave her hands. She’ll also raise her hand to the sky when you say “Praise the Lord!” She also started learning “NO”, curious to test what happens when she continues with illegal acts. Sometimes, she’ll smile […]
i write this every year: “i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)” ee.cummings Happy Sixnineteen Anniversary Perze. Thank you for entrusting me to carry your heart in my heart these nine years. Never have I regretted that decision 9 years ago, despite not having all our ducks in row. We took a step of faith, the beginning of many steps we’ve taken together that now led us to here. Thank you for building this life we have together, rooted in […]
Today, I’ve been married for nine years. Through those nine years, I’ve had four different jobs, four different addresses, three kids, one operation; I can go on forever. But despite those changes, there are a couple of things that I know have remained the same. First, I know that my love for her is there and is stronger than what it was before. Second, I still feel a sense of emptiness when she is not in the same room. Third, I still tell her how much I love her on a daily basis because I just can’t not say it and lastly she has been the reason why home is. One other thing that I’ve observed in these past nine years, is that God has never ceased to amaze me with this marriage. How He’s blessed, challenged and nurtured our relationship with each other through thick and thicker. It is my wish that as we go through the next nine years, that I be more like Christ. I wish to be a better husband, I wish I could show my wife what it really means for me to love just as how Christ intends it. For husbands, this means love […]
Tonight during bedtime, I pop quizzed my girls on all the memory verses they’ve learned so far and the Biblical characters from the stories I’ve been telling them each week. They got the stories right, but as far as names go, I’ve gotten Samson & Delia, Davin & Golilah, Abraham Lincoln & Ninang Sarah. Also, I asked both of them if they wanted to be baptized, and Emma quickly said she really wanted to be baptized after I told her what it meant. She said she remembered last year, during the retreat, seeing people baptized by Pastor Ding. Then they both went on saying why they wanted to be baptized. I reminded them that I don’t want them to do it for me, to please me so I would be proud of them, because I already am proud of who they are. But they are so eager to follow Christ through baptism, so I told them they’ll have to discuss it with Pastor Ding. I’m such a sap every year when I see people get baptized during the retreats…sometimes even crying when I see the youth get baptized, how much more my own children? I would have to keep such […]
Today was Father’s Day. I want to say Happy Father’s Day to Perze, who is an amazing dad. You strive and work so hard to give your daughters so much, not materialistically, but by the way of enriching their minds, their worldview, and lives complete with love. You continue to give them words of encouragement and not just correction, letting them know how much you believe in them, everyday helping them to see their potential. You sacrificed years of long commutes, dangerous drives, long nights, and tired mornings carrying them when they were babies then waking up extra early to make it on time for work. And you’d willingly give up your weekends for ministry, also driving an hour weekly to take your family to church. We’re so blessed by you. We love you, Perze. Happy Father’s Day to my dad, Toribio Gelito Fabila. He didn’t want to take a picture because he wasn’t ready. If you know my dad, he’s usually very smartly dressed, creased in all the pleats…but for me, this picture very much conveys my dad- loving. I look at my siblings, how much I love them and close we are, and it makes me really appreciate my father […]
