Escape

"I'm tired of all of this".."I want out".."I want independence"..I guess we've all felt that way at one time or another. Fortunately, many of us came to our senses before we did anything 'stupid'. But sometimes, people end up learning the hard way that the 'spirit of independence' is not at all Godly and that friends and family just want to help. They don't mean to choke us, they don't mean to act like we can't do anything on our own. That the safest place we can be is in their company and under their guidance. Why the sudden 'realization'?

My/our dearest sister is back. She's pale, skinny, nearly unrecognizable but SHE'S BACK! After around 8 months thinking that she was being rebellious, had been influenced badly by friends, and had basically 'gone wild', we are proven WRONG. Maybe not 'totally' wrong since in the beginning she really did decide to go independent and not tell anyone where she was. But most of time, it wasn't her will after all. It just hurts to think that all this time while we thought she was such a 'bad girl' she was actually experiencing unimaginable torture.

Everyone had tears in their eyes as she explained all she was going through for the past 7 months. How she so badly wished she could go to the meetings. How she imagined being with us in the field service. How she tried again and again to escape but only ended up being caught and beaten again. How she prayed and prayed for rescue. How she was put through all kinds of physical, mental and psychological pain .How the minute she lost hope, surrendered trying to escape and felt she had been abandoned by us all, things just turned out in a very unusual way and she was saved.

Her experience just shows that Jehovah is indeed the provider of escape. He never forgot her. Though she did in a way turn her back on Him and sought independence, when things went terribly wrong, He still helped her. He is an examiner of hearts. According to her, during the torture sessions when she was slapped with a bottle of liquor on her face until it broke, when she was punched on her chest again and again and told to 'vomit blood' , when she was choked, kicked, and other inhumane acts, only the first blow hurt. After that, she could feel nothing until it was over. When her captor abused her verbally telling her 'nobody cared', 'your God has left you' , 'nobody will miss you'....what she heard were reminders from assemblies, watchtowers, talks that made her strong.

Jehovah may have allowed her to undergo all these things but the moment she gave up, the moment she said 'Am I really that bad that you have forgotten me?', she was rescued in a short of miraculous way. Things turned out so that her captor practically walked herself into jail without any effort on anyone's part. Everyone involved had to say it was a very, very unusual turn of events and they called her 'blessed'.

Lesson: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER underestimate the power of prayer. All the while, all who knew her continued mentioning her in prayer. She herself never stopped praying.... :"If you wish, save me but if you don't I'll understand, just give me strength to endure because I know this is all my fault".

The reunion the first time she attended the meetings after that is hard to describe. She amazingly was still able to energetically relate all she'd been through but it just took a hug to bring her to tears. I cried, many of us did. It just was and still is too hard to believe that such wicked/demonic people do exist. I went home and cried as I prayed, I just cried myself to sleep. I still shed tears wherever I am when I think of her and I really wonder if I would have the same courage and endurance as she did.

The story is extremely long, and has a lot of details that are too 'graphic' to mention so I'll end this with the words her mum told her captor with through the prison cell: 'What did you say about our God? You said He'd forgotten an abandoned her? It's OUR GOD JEHOVAH who put you in that cell."

My 'to-meet' list

I've already put together my 'to-do' list but one also should have a 'to-meet' list right? Imagine how many hundreds of faithful men and women of old will be resurrected! Well, so I don't get confused, after much thought, I've finally come up with my top 5 men and women I would love to meet.

Men:
• Moses (humility)
• Abraham (faith)
• Job (obedience)
• Joseph (long suffering)
• David (repentance)

Women:
• Sarah
• Easter (courage)
• Shulamite Maiden (love)
• Abigail (wisdom)
• Ruth (loyalty)

Something I just realized that is super exciting is the fact that forever is a very long time. We usually think of simply 'meeting' these people and maybe asking a little about their lives etc. But we have forever!! That means you don't just have to leave at 'meeting' them, you can actually get to really know them, become their friends! Now, I dunno bout you but that is just super duper COOL...:D
Well, in the new world my dear friends, you won't be seeing me for hmm...maybe a 100 years or so-I'll be too busy with my new friends!hahaha:D

SO? Who are you itching to meet and shall we add become their friend??:)

Just LIke SARAH

Sarah has always and will always be my favorite woman in the bible. Shes the imperfectly perfect example of what it means to be a woman..an ideal mother, ideal wife and loyal worshiper of Jehovah.She is an example of what REAL beauty is-love, loyalty, faith, courage.If there is one person I wish I could be like, it's her..^_^ Pretty soon, me gonna get myself some one on one tutorials from her on how to be just that-"A Godly Woman and a Precious Wife":)

If you were mine♥

This is something I heard over some radio show. The idea was to complete the sentence: " If you were mine_______" Well, here's what i'd say...

If you were mine, you'd wake up every day wondering what silly, fun, exciting, new things I'd be up to that day. ( yep, you'd be addicted but hey, so would I...:D)

if you were mine, I'd tell the world how great you are ( even if you aren't, you would be in my eyes..;)

If you were mine, you'd want to spend every second with me ( did I mention you'd be addicted?:P)

If you were mine, I'd treat you like a king ( I'll keep the details to myself...)

If you were mine, you'd brag about me to your friends (you tell me why...hahaha)

If you were mine, I'd be everything you dreamed of ( you'd forget any other girl you've ever known-OR ELSE..:D)

If you were mine, you'd want to tell me everything on your mind (coz you know I'd remember everything you say....)

If you were mine, I'd make sure you keep your figure (I'm vain about mine so flab just won't do...lol)

to sum it all up:


IF YOU WERE MINE, YOU'D BE THE HAPPIEST MAN ALIVE....^_^

Am I exaggerating here? Nope.. I know myself. And I know what I'm capable of especially when it comes to someone I love.ehem2x.... In fact, the rest of the list shall only be discovered by whoever gets to say 'I'm hers' and 'she's mine'...(cheezy much?)

Ready to die?

There are only two ways we can get to paradise: 1. Keep integrity in this wicked world and if the end comes in our lifetime, get to survive into the new world. 2. To die and get resurrected.

Road #1 is probably what we all prepare ourselves for-the great tribulation, staying faithful etc but I've realized that road #2-the one we seldom think of (who wants to think about death right?) is in a way much more probable than the first. Why?
Think about it-though we can witness so many signs, nobody knows when the end will come. Though there is a chance it will be in our lifetimes, the fact is-we could easily die before we witness it. Sometimes, we think of death to be caused by old age or some sickness. We always picture ourselves with families, settled down, maybe with kids, growing old.....but I just realized that our lives can be cut short ANYTIME..that death can overtake us without notice.

Unforeseen occurrences are become more and more rampant-floods, earthquakes, crime, accidents-anything can happen and anyone can be a victim. Coming to think about it, there have been quite a few witnesses who have been victims of such lately. A landslide took one or two witnesses, then came the flood which took another three...It's something we must understand-we are not exempted from these disasters, we have no special 'protection'..

Our protection lies in our hope..I dunno, it's just that the thought of being 'ready to die' has been on my mind a lot recently. So am I ready to die? I'm not sure...And how about the world? Is the world ready to lose me anytime? I wonder...I wonder who would be heartbroken if anything happened to me.. I wonder who'd regret not caring,....

Well, enough of that...I'll just live, laugh, love and treat everyday like it was my last...:)

Those who care

I'm going to call this the ultimate 'mahay' post. Because that's just what it is...me or should I say 'us' (with a few friends involved) 'hurt' in a way at people's 'lack of concern' should I say..

In times like those , you find that the most 'unexpected' turn out to be the ones who 'show they care' and ask you how you are. Those who were miles and miles away, even in other countries had the time to ask about us...Yes, prayers were a big help but at such a time, we all really needed comfort and 'sadly' should I say, not many were REALLY there even those who could've been and we 'expected' to were nowhere to be seen.

We kept on thinking: "Since they didn't even bother to text, how about if we had died ? Would they even know?" It's not like we're 'soliciting comfort' but c'mon!! It was all over the News, international, local-everywhere. The simple fact that we live in the city should have been enough to get them even a little concerned. Couldn't they spare a second of their time just to make sure we were ok?

Then we argue: they must have heard from others that we're ok so they didn't bother. hmm...not very nice. Whatever happened to 'personal interest'?

And even if we said 'we're Ok', couldn't they read between the lines and imagine what we were going through? It somewhat 'hurt' to see 'friend's' act like nothing had happened and go about their lives not even bothering to ask if we're alive.

Maybe we're overacting? Are we? I mean, it was the main headline for the entire week! I just can't seem to believe that someone couldn't care enough to ask about not only ME but the other brothers...

Anyway, gladly, we were too busy to realize it then and now that we have-it's too late....maybe they were just too busy to care..maybe, they did care but didn't show it...maybe they had their reasons....bottom line-NAGMAHAY MI...T.T

Lessons

Sorry guyz but it seems for quite some time, all my posts will be about the flood. The trauma, stress, and everything in between has taught me a lot of lessons. They may not be new but they are proven personally.I just have to let it all out...

1. Live simply. Everything...literally EVERYTHING-cars, furniture, fancy TV sets, expensive clothes, gadgets was useless and ended up as junk after the flood. The less you have, the less you have to lose. Not to mention the easier the cleaning job afterward. If I ever have a house in this world- I'll only have one set of plates and cups (I'll get paper plates for parties) and minimal furniture. Accumulating wealth is just NOT WORTH IT. All your years of work and saving gone in a single night.

2. Don't look back. Many of those who lost their lives had already left but returned for some reason. Some to make sure the house was locked, others to get some valuable they forgot. When disaster strikes, forget about everything else and just escape with whatever you have on. No life is worth whatever valuables that were saved.

3. Listen and Obey. Sadly, the story of the 3 witnesses who lost their lives goes that they were warned many times, even visited by brothers to tell them to leave but they failed to heed their warning. Before they knew it, the water was too high and they had no way out. They were found inside their house-dead.

4. Pray and Pray. It's amazing how all the brothers who survived said that they didn't cry, they just PRAYED and PRAYED. That's what gave them a calm mind to think of a way out-that's what saved their lives. While others were panicking, they were praying. Some stories are 'unbelievable'. You'd never think of doing such things but they did simply because they prayed.:)

5. Jehovah provides abundantly. Many of the brothers who survived escaped only with their lives. No house, NOTHING. In the beginning, we were wondering how we could take care of all these brothers. We'd already used whatever funds we had and provided for a day or so but what then? Jehovah's hand is not short, in fact this is an understatement.





When relief goods started pouring in, there were times we thought it was the last truck, container van but brothers just kept on sending! Up to now, we have no idea what to do with the clothes that arrived-all the brothers have already probably changed their wardrobe and we still have tons of clothes! Rice? Maybe 20 sacks or more...noodles and cans? Boxes and boxes..the relief center couldn't take all the goods-we now have a '2nd center'!

5. Love abounds. We are not the only organization that had relief operations. In fact, almost everyone I know in the city was involved in some sort of relief. The only thing that sets us apart is LOVE. We take the food, water, clothing to the brothers homes while they pass it out on the streets. We wade in knee deep mud just to help cleaning their houses while they shake their heads and take pictures. These are things only Jehovah's organization does. Brothers had tears in their eyes whenever the goods were delivered- Jehovah was providing for them daily. Neighbors looked on and admired the love ONLY we show.

6.The end is near. In the public talk last week, Jesus words in Luke 21:31 was emphasized. "When you SEE these things ...KNOW the kingdom of God is NEAR". I've heard it on the news, seen it on TV, read it in the paper but actually SEEING it is some kind of a 'jolt'. The end is indeed extremely near. It's nearer than we think. Meaning? Personally, I realized there is really no time to 'worry' about things like love, marriage etc. Whatever happens, happens and weather we are ready for it or not, events are in motion leading to the end of this world.

7. What really matters. This was emphasized in the funeral talk of the 2 SP's. The speaker said that they had 'built a good name with Jehovah' and were 'safe in HIs memory'. How about me? Can I safely say that If I die I will be 'safe in Jehovah's memory'? Well, it's double time in building that name for me now:)

8.Power beyond normal. There is definitely no way any of us could have done what we did without extraordinary strength. At times I wondered if I would be able to wake up to another day of relief operations, I felt my body 'giving up'. I wondered how our brothers could still have the strength to do their talks and conduct the meetings. But amazingly, all of us stayed fit enough to continue, all of us somehow had strength for the day.We just joked that 'we were running on the power of the Holy spirit' because our physical bodies were overworked and there is nothing else that could have kept us going for so long.


Well, nobody should have to experience what we did to realize these lessons. If there's a good side to being able to, it would be drawing closer to Jehovah and his organization, realizing how crucial our times are and how close we are to eternal relief=)