Marvin’s Place

Faithwalk Christian Ministry Inc. was founded in 2003 by missionary Esther Park under the auspices of Global Partners and with partnership of Filipino co-laborers in Christ. This organization is inter-denominational, non-profit evangelical Christian organization that aims to evangelize the lost, nurture Christians and transform society. This ministry is registered with the Philippine government with SEC # 200414144

Because here is where the action is in Dasmariñas Cavite… The Youth are the needy and the unevangelized in Dasmariñas, Cavite Philippines. Dasmariñas, as a matter of fact, is one “boiling pot” of youth. Dasmariñas is the “University Belt “ of Southern Tagalog. It is the home of more than 12 major universities (not including high-schools and elementary levels) particularly De La Salle University—Dasmariñas, Technological University of the Philippines, Emilio Aguinaldo College, AMA College, St. Jude College, Guzman College, Systems Technology Institute, Philippine Christian University and much, much more… In one university alone there are 13,000 students!

Been part of this ministry for a few times when our seminary band played/performed in a couple of campus evangelisms they had.

Check out their website for more info.

http://www.faithwalkministry.com

I was able to replace som major parts of our home desktop. We used to have an AMD Duron 800mhz with “64kb L2 Cache” (overclocked to 1ghz), 8mb Nvidia tnt2 agp video card, 512 mb memory, 160gb HDD. I was able to get a new motherboard (intel chipset), processor (Intel Pentium III 800mhz) and a 256mb ATI Radeon 9600 agp video card.

I was able to reinstall Windows XP without any problems, downloaded drivers for the video card. Was up and running in 2 hours.

Well, I am a bit of a fan of Ubuntu. So I installed Ubuntu 8.04 on the system. Installation went smooth. But when it comes to video card configuration, it was a headache. When I enabled the restricted drivers (closed-source drivers for linux), my monior goes to sleep mode. Tried a few howtos, and failed. Reinstalled Ubuntu to get it clean. It took me almost 3 days (though I’m just working on that for at least 3 hours a day) before I decided to install the drivers that came from ati’s website. And alas, it’s working now.

I was able to configure compiz-fusion (eye-candy of Ubuntu). I haven’t yet checked the 3D rendering on the OS.

Here’s a sample of my desktop with the “cube” effect:

Well, have some things to work on still (TV-out both for XP and Ubuntu). And properly install my Canon Pixma IP1200 printer on Ubuntu (which I think will be impossible, but it’s still worth a try).

With the near end of Windows XP support, and my system not capable of running Vista, and me not having enough budget to buy a new system, I am planning to go to a switch to Ubuntu. Just have to configure the printer and also the desktop to look like XP so my wife could easily adapt to it.

Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC Philippines) celebrated its 60th year of ministry via radio here in the Philippines yesterday, June 7, 2008. FEBC had ministried to thousands of Filipinos via the message of God through the airwaves. FEBC broadcasts different AM stations in the Philippines in different dialects. And its Luzon station, 702 DZAS can be heard also through the internet via www.febc.ph.

FEBC had ministered to thousands of people via the Good News. FEBC’s programs contain devotions, messages, prayers, music, tips for living (household, work, family, parenting, school, etc.), music. Their programs are very holistic, funny, serious, informative, challenging, inspiring, uplifting and filled with the Word of God. I myself was one of the person who was encouraged and blessed by God through this station.

FEBC is a non-commercial company. It’s finances comes from donations and missionaries. They faced many difficulties. Sometimes they were on the merge of completely “signing off” due to financial concerns. But the Lord sustained them for 60 years now. God sustained them because many people learned about Christ through their stations. Many people were encouraged back to faith because of the messages brought to the airwaves.

“Christ to the world by radio” - this their slogan, and indeed, Christ is brought to many people were reached by the Gospel through this station.

God bless them and more power.

Soli Deo Gloria..

Things in our company happens very fast. Yesterday, ten of my co-workers (including me) we’re called to a meeting by our managers and area manager. We’re a bit anxious about the agenda. And when the meeting started, it was (supposedly) a good news for us. We (currently working as a switchboard operator) will be moving (starting next week for the training, too fast) to system sales. Good things that comes with it: it is a higher level than our current level that we have (a sort of promotion, meaning, more departments are now open to us); it’s sales (full system sales) more income.

We should be happy with it, but for me, it is a struggle. The offer is somewhat irresistible (not because I badly want it, but because we cannot decline the offer). During the 3 week training, we have a weekend off. But when we goes to the floor, weekend offs are not guaranteed.

It’s a struggle for me ‘coz I need Sunday’s off for church. But after talking to my wife and praying, we came to a decision, I’ll grab to opportunity - for some reasons. I am planning to leave this company when I reached my goal (pay some debts, pay for the title of our small piece of land <mine and my brother’s>, save some money to start a home business or use it while I am looking for a daytime job, reach my 1 year mark working for this company). It is not that I don’t like this company. I plan to leave ‘coz it’s too far from our place and i don’t want to work night shift anymore (very stressing). And with the opportunity offered to me, we expect a little more from our salary that would help me reach some financial goals I need.

Some might say I should decline the offer coz it would sacrifice my Sunday off (for God, church and ministry). But with my current situation, even though I have weekend offs, I feel very tired and exhausted. Grave yard shift’s killing me (exaggeration). The sooner I reach my goals, the better.

Anyway, I am still praying for God’s perfect plan. Though we decided to grab the offer, we still doesn’t reject the idea that God might have a different plan. Please for me also. Thanks.

Soli Deo Gloria

We conducted a two day seminar for Sunday School Teachers. And it’s been a great one. It is our first conducted by our church, and for us speakers/lecturers, it’s our first time also. 7 teachers attended the seminar.

I want to thank God for the success of this seminar. I pray that what we learned can be applied properly to improve and develop our Sunday School Organization.

Soli Deo Gloria…

Liberty Presbyterian Church will be conducting its first Sunday School Teacher’s Training this coming 2 Saturdays, April 12 and 19, 2008. It’ll be a 4 hour each day Training/Lecture/Discussion on topics/subjects needed by our Sunday School Department. The topics and lecturers are:

Day1

• Basic Doctrines, Refresher course. - Ptr. Ronnie
• Attitudes of a Sunday School Teacher. - Teacher Bernadette

Day 2

• God’s View of the Children. - Teacher April
• Heart to Teach. - Bro. Marvin
• Teaching Strategies/Practices. - Teacher Mercy

All session shall include interactive discussions, activities, and snacks.

Please pray for this activity.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Our church made an abrupt change last Sunday. It was so abrupt that almost half of the members weren’t able to attend the Sunday Service. It is about the schedule of the Service.

When I came in to that Church, Service starts at 10 in the morning. After few months, we have decided to move it at an earlier time (8 in the morning) so we could conduct Sunday school for adults after the service. Sad to say, members doesn’t want to go to church that early, so they came to church around 9 a.m., and later on 10 am. So, our pastor announced that the adult Sunday school shall be 9:30 and Service begins at 10.

Last Easter Sunday, we had our “Sunrise Service” at 5 in the morning. Almost everyone is in the church by 5:20. During the service, our pastor mentioned that he thinks it would be nice if we move our schedule in an earlier time. After the service, some members talked about moving the schedule at an earlier time because of the following reason:

• It feels more relaxed if we go to church at an earlier time
• It is summer (Philippines, tropical country) and it is hot (I mean HOT) at noon time, so if we could go home at an earlier time, we the sun isn’t that “high” yet.
• You can do your “things” that you want to do (cook, go to mall, chat with peers, etc) longer after the service.

Even I, myself, agreed with these. As you can see, the reasons are materialistic and for personal gain.

(more…)

This is a nice article, a reminder to all worship leader (including me)..

Arson or Spontaneous Combustion.

Good new and bad news….

Bad news first…

It disappoints me that some of the teachers in our CE department, for me, doesn’t want to cooperate properly with us. What I mean is, they don’t attend our business meetings. We scheduled a monthly (last Sunday of the month) meeting, They didn’t show up. Even if I announce a week ahead that we’ll be having a meeting, they don’t respond. (BTW, only a couple of them, not all). So we had a meeting last week, even though we’re short of a few teachers. We discussed some plans.

The hard point is my disappointment for some that doesn’t show their commitment for the ministry. I know, we can never give 100% commitment, but hey, show a little sign of commitment! (sighs). I tried not to show or discuss it. But I had to vent. At least my people know what I really feel about the matter. It’s for them to decide now on what action to do.

Good news…. Despite of the said struggles, we were able to establish a plan for our Sunday School ministry. For the following Sunday’s, we’ll be opening a new class, ages 10 -12. I will be the teacher.

2nd and 3rd Saturday of April, we’ll be conducting our own teacher’s training. To be conducted by our experienced teachers for our new (training/assistant) teachers.

We still have people, that despite of business, were giving their time to God for this ministry.

We’ve got to move on…

Soli Deo Gloria