The Fast and the Furious

Wednesday, our church was doing a Day of Prayer & Fasting. I decided to participate as a way of making a sacrifice to the Lord.

Let me just say that it was quite an experience!

You have to first understand that I have a big appetite. So this is indeed quite a sacrifice for me.

I've heard that fasting will make you replace thoughts of food with thoughts of God. Not sure about that, as I was thinking about food all day!

That said, I definitely did a lot of praying throughout the day.

There were several times when my fasting took some really tough turns, like when my kids were munching on delicious-smelling Whoppers (courtesy of Lola) in the car while I was driving, and going grocery shopping with all the food in the aisles staring at me.

That night, I attended the prayer meeting at church and the hour I was able to stay for was a time of prayer for families, children and marriages, both corporately and in small groups.

As a sinful man, the entire day did make me conscious of my need for the Lord in my life.

I could've taken the technical way out and chowed down at 12:01 AM that night but I wanted to go all the way in my commitment so I didn't eat until the next morning. And I had quite a breakfast: an egg, bacon, rice, a hearty bowl of oatmeal, and a half a Whopper!

I can't believe I made it. I had doubts whether I would do it again but Mildred was very encouraging, telling me how proud of me she was. Some people are proud of doing a marathon, which has no spiritual benefit, but at least now I know the feeling of accomplishing something tough...especially when there is a spiritual benefit for a sinful guy like me.

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Lola turns 62

by Mildred


My mother turns 62 on October 15th. We celebrated with a small party at our house yesterday complete with steak, pancit, and ube ice cream cake.

The highlight of the evening was the "talent show" of all the apos (grandchildren in Tagalog). Alyssa and EB played the violin and viola, respectively, Noelle and Phoebe sang, Lexi did some ballet positions, and then there was more singing from Russell, Zach, and even our little Erik.

After the "show" the kids and grandkids all gathered around to thank God for Mom and to pray that the Lord would continue to show His favor on her. What a blessing it was to see Mom with all the grandkids gathered around. I can only hope that when I am 62, I am as blessed with the joys of seeing my grown kids and sweet grandchildren. Mom has 8 grandchildren....I wonder how many I will have :)

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Cruisin'

Every year, the Moody Church Softball League (of which I lead) holds a postseason party for one last opportunity for fellowship and to present league trophies. The party this year was held on Saturday, Oct 4th. For the third year, we did a boat cruise courtesy of Steve Borgstrom (a league player) and Wendella Boats.

This year was the first time we did a night cruise and it was pretty spectacular to see the city skyline at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to use the camera to capture those types of photos. So here are the few photos I have of the event...

Lexi dines with the adults

Lexi is right at home with the adults at this table during the dinner portion of the cruise



Ethan and the, uh, skyline at night

Ethan shows up in this photo but the city night skyline does not



Ethan takes over the captain's chair during the cruise

Ethan takes over the captain's chair during the cruise



Alyssa sits in the captain's chair during the cruise

Alyssa sits in the captain's chair during the cruise