On Seminars

I was invited by our church's school to conduct a seminar on reading. Yesterday I presented the power point presentation and the seminar, I think, went well. Reading is very imporatant in learning. Even in this age where we have the power to gather information at the touh of a keyboard, it is still reading we do to acquire information. In our educational system reading is still one of the most neglected aspect of learning.

Unfortunately there is no formula on how to make pupils like reading. All the teacher can do is to model, encourage, arouse and provide guidance. Reading is still an acquired taste. Teachers can't work on the pupils by feeding them , all they can do is learn the principles and the factors that contributes to the pupil to like reading. John Holt's theories and observation on reading is helpful in understanding how reading should be made into a fun activity in the school rather than make it into a read, evaluate, humiliate activity that most traditional schools do. In his article "How Tachers Make Children Hate Reading" Holty proposed to make reading a wholly free activity of the pupils--no evaluation, just guidance.

Anyway, reading is all about discovery. I was looking at my daughter and I was hoping that because she always see me holding a book, she will imitate me but she doesn't. I can't force her to read becuase she will hate reading more. The only thing I can hope for is, that because of the books lying around our house, she'll pick one by accident, read a few lines, and then...get hooked on reading. Like what happened to me. I was on my third grade when I first read "Mythology" by Edith Hamilton, my first real book, and then the rest of the story is a sweet love affair with books.

This was the second seminar I conducted for the school, the first was on the Art of questioning--a skill often neglected by teachers.

It's a strange feeling for an undergraduate old student to conduct seminars to veteran elementary school teachers.

(The church school has eight teachers and fifty students.)

Manicure Nightmare

I am trying to learn classical guitar so I grew my nails long so that I can finger pick the strings. My nails are thin; that is my problem. The thickness of the nails affect the sound (or is it the tone) of the strings played. If the nail is thin, the sound produced is…hmmm...thin, metallic like, and nylon classical guitars are not supposed to sound like steel stringed guitars; although there are pieces for classical guitars that need that steel like sound (or is it tone), still, I don’t want my playing (which is not that good) to sound like I’m playing a ukulele (I have nothing against the ukulele; I play the ukulele too).

I saw my wife having her nails done. I looked at my nails and it looked like the nails of a grave digger. There’s black matter inside it, although I clean it all the time with toothpicks, but the ever present dust and soil and all that matters that creeps under one’s nails keep getting under my nails. So, I thought why not have it manicured. After my wife’s nails were done, I had my nails done too. I am not a manicure or pedicure guy. God has gifted me with nails that do not grow inward. My nails behave nicely, no problem with them. I thought of having that manicure because I want my nails shaped and then applied with natural colored nail polish to thicken them. That’s the reason. Now, I didn’t know that (or somehow I knew it but I thought that manicurists don’t do it with guys) manicure is not just all about cutting nails and polishing, I mean, the way I see it, manicure is, from what I experienced, a surgical operation. The manicurist looked at my hand, put a towel under it, scrubbed it with some pink colored liquid, then she got out this scalpel like thing and started ablating my nails, then she took out an instrument that looks like a miniature scissor and started cutting around my nails (it was painful but I’m a big boy so I didn’t even wince) removing I don’t know what, then she started cutting my calluses. I was thinking, “In the name of Odin that’s my guitar calluses!” But I didn’t complain, the calluses are, aesthetically speaking, ugly so removing a few layer will not be bad. After these procedures were done, she scrubbed my hands again. I looked at my nails and I am surprised because they looked the nails of an educated man—clean and shiny and without calluses.

The thing is, a day after the “operation” the edges of my nails especially my thumb felt tender—they were infected. Although they healed a few days after, I can’t still use my thumb efficiently in playing the guitar finger style.

I haven’t played the classical guitar for almost five days now. I’m back to using pick and playing power chords. (Power chords are chords used by rock guitarists. It uses only two notes, the root and the fifth—no minor and no major. When played using a pick it sounds like this: chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug…good for people with broken eardrums… chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug…)

I am passed playing guitar that way.

Anyways, I told my wife that I’m not having my nails done again. My wife looked at me and said, “Tell that to the manicurist.” Ouuuch…I don’t know which is more painful.

My Senior Year

My college senior year
Is proving to be the most boring
Because most of my teacher
Were recycled
They were the same old faces


It’s not that I hate them
In fact, I love some of them
It’s just being with them
For the last six sem
Is beginning to feel like
I am married to all of them

My wife and I
Only meet at the end of the day
While these teachers of mine
I meet almost everyday
In the classroom or on the hallways
Or in the comfort
Of our uncomfortable comfort rooms


It’s not that I hate my teachers
In fact, I love some of them
It’s just being with them
For the last six sem
Is beginning to feel like
I am married to all of them

Subconscious Expression

Sometimes…err… most of the times I write in a conscious- subconscious mode (I don’t know if that makes sense). That is, I sit in front of the computer, type anything I can think of, anything, and then just let it flow (I have this fantasy that I’m Doogie Howser M.D. making entries in my computer log) and sometimes some sense come out and sometimes nothing comes out but words and words. I don’t think of any topic to write, although sometimes I do write for a specific purpose and theme. Okay to cut the story short, this process sometimes brings out my conscious-subconscious negative thoughts.

Unfortunately I can’t help it and that is specifically became the purpose of this blog—to air those energies. I know some posts here are offensive and some are just plain non-sense while some are good (according to my brother).

Our resident pastor reads this blog and when I found out that he does, I told him to be…err…not to pay attention to some posts about worship, church and theology. I mean…he’ll think very differently of me. Of course I dare not ask our senior pastor if he was reading this blog because I don’t want him to read this blog because if he do read this blog and found out some posts are about his preaching and his Sunday school lessons (every first Sunday of the month he teaches in the men’s Sunday school)…If he found out that I’m being irreverent… I’m dead. I mean not literally dead, just dead as in dead…hmmm…like…he’s not only our senior pastor; he’s also my uncle. (I meant that in a nice way, of course.)

My Son a Miracle Baby

By Nori dela Paz-Lacquian


(This testimony appeared in the ninth anniversary issue (Jan - April 2007) of Moms and Kids, aparenting magazine.)


P’yaise Him, p’yaise him, all ye lit’a chi’dyen God is love, God is love.
A sweet voice singing these words woke me up early one morning. My son was still asleep, but Jimmy had recorded Ycoi’s song and used it as his ringing tone. Ycoi is only two years old but he can carry a tune and pronounce words clearly except for some letters as important as r and l.

For these past two years, I have developed an addiction for staring at my son’s face every morning and marveling at God’s handiwork. My son is a beauty…and certainly a miracle baby.

I got pregnant two months after Jimmy and I were married. I was 38 then. After five

months, an ultrasound showed that we were going to have a baby boy. Jimmy and I agreed to name him Franz Yven a.k.a. Ycoi. He seemed big for his age. A routine check-up showed that I had gestational diabetes. I went on a very strict diet and water therapy.

Ycoi was 26 weeks old—still in my tummy—when I was rushed to the hospital for extreme abdominal pains and vomiting. The initial diagnosis of Dr. Gazelle Baysa—Pee, my ob-gyne, was premature labor. She gave me a medication and a pain reliever to make sure that the baby would not be aborted. After a few hours with no improvement, she decided to give me MgSO4, after first discussing with me its possible side effects which include damage to reflexes and kidneys.

Interns came hour after hour to hammer my joints and check on my reflexes; a kidney specialist visited me three times a day and another doctor monitored my blood sugar. Medical technologists came and took blood samples hour after hour…after hour.

My tumme got bigger and heavier. The doctors came to the conclusion that my intestines were collecting fluid and had grown in size. They had to insert an NGT (nasogastric tube) into my nose and down through y esophagus to suck the fluid out of my stomach. I accidentally pulled this tube out twice so new ones had to be inserted. They were such a terrible source of discomfort.

After five days, my ob-gyne called for gastro specialist to check on me, but she was delayed in coming. Already worried about my supply of potassium and other nutrients detrimental to the baby’s health, Dr. Gazelle consulted her husband, Dr. Gene Pee, a surgeon. With just one look at me he requested for an x-ray to confirm his diagnosis that I might be having an intestinal obstruction. He was right.

An ultrasound was immediately done to check on the baby’s condition. He was as healthy as he could be as shown in the way he moved a lot.

The medical couple prepared me for surgery. Dr. Gazelle asked her husband to talk with Jimmy while she would counsel with me. She said that I needed to have an operation to correct the intestinal obstruction and that she would inject me with antibiotics and change some other medications being given to me. She also gave me a certain kind of steroid to help advance a bit the development of Ycoi’s lungs.

An anesthesiologist came as well and discussed the anesthesia he would use on me. He said that he would be attaching a spider’s web-like device to my spine and that it would have a small ampule where he would inject the anesthesia. The web, which looked more like guitar strings to me, would distribute the medicine to my spine. He said that it was important that I stay awake and cooperate during the entire procedure. My feelings of fear, excitement, and worries would affect mt blood pressure, blood sugar, and other chemicals in my body that would endanger my son’s life. I needed to cooperate with him. I agreed.

When Dr. Gazelle saw Jimmy, she asked if Dr. Gener had talked with him and he replied in the negative. She found her husband still contemplating how to tell Jimmy that this situation left him without any choice at all. If he were to lose me, he would lose the baby as well. So Dr. Gazelle volunteered to discuss the circumstances with Jimmy and told him the urgency of his making a decision. Jimmy asked for my opinion, and those of our immediate family within reach. After receiving emotional support from them and assurance from me that I would be okay, he signed the hospital waiver. The discussion was done at 4:00 in the afternoon and at 7:00 in the vening I was wheeled to the operating room.

My husband and I are both instructors at a Baptist Theological Seminary and when students heard that I might need blood donors, they flocked to the hospital hallways offering their blood in case I would need it, and offered prayers as well for me and my son. Text mesaages went flying to friends and churches for prayer and support. My brother, Joey, donated blood. During the surgery, the problem was discovered at the very end tail of my large intestine. Uterine surgery done when I was 25 years old left my intestine stuck to the portion where the cut was done. It was like that for more than 13 years but the problem only showed up when the fetus reached a certain size. To put simply, the intestine, iriitated with its attachment, caused it to contract, giving me labor pains at one-to-three intervals.

The surgery was a success. It was not that bloody and complicated after all! Two days later, the plaster on the wound was removed and I was told to move around to make sure that my intestines get back to their normal function. That was also when Dr. Pilit told me that I would have to stand the pain and avoid an overuse of pain reliever because it also had an adverse effect on the baby. Slowly he lessened the dosage. I told him I could stand the pain and would request for it when badly needed. I did not ask for any pain reliever after that. He came one morning and said, “You and your baby are our hospital miracle for this month.” He was right.

The NGT stayed attached to me until the 12th day. Imagine that for 11 days I could not eat or drink. I can stand some days without food, but there were days when I dreamt of swimming in a pool of mineral water with floating ice cubes. Sometimes I imagined the water had turned blue and tasted like Gatorade!

After the NGT was removed I started eating and went back to a normal diet. I left the hospital on the 14th day.

As we waited for Ycoi’s due date, I regularly visited the laboratory for my sonograms. Dr. Mapili, the ob-gyne who was doing the sonograms, showed me what was going on in my baby’s world. Each week I saw my baby on the monitor. I saw the face though I couldn’t quite make out the features yet. I counted his fingers, saw his legs kicking, and understood the bulges he was making on my tummy as he moved, stretched, and yawned.

Dr. Mapili constantly reminded me to prepare for a possible Caesarian Section to avoid my having to push or bear down (“ire” in Filipino) which would put much pressure on my wounds from the very recent operation.

Two months after my surgery, Jimmy brought me to the hospital at 7:00 in the morning for labor pains which had started four hours earlier. Dr. Gazelle believed that I could deliver the baby normal way but also took necessary measures as advised by Dr. Mapili. At 9:30 AM on my way to the operating room my water broke…and after a few minutes, Ycoi was born without any fuss at all! The sight of my baby made me totally forgot all the pain we both went through. The chance to hold him in my arms at last was worth it all.

Today, Ycoi, sings, “Praise Him, Praise Him,” the same song I was singing when I first saw him. Indeed God is to be praised.

( Nori dela Paz-Lacquian is my older sister-George)

Business out of the ministry: Christ's Vission of a Church?

(It's sad when Christ's vission for the church is twisted for selfish reasons. When Christ's vission for the church became man's opportunity for business gains. The church's business is the ministry but it seems that it's the other way round now: Get business out of the ministry. This is not only a mega church problem but even small churches become victims of unscrupulous pastors. This is why sometimes atheism seems to be a good alternative. well, that's life. I'm sure God knows what He's doing. Perdition is reserved, may i say, God will be the judge.)

Excerpts from Earthly Empires

Similarly, the so-called mainline Protestants who dominated 20th century America have become the religious equivalent of General Motors Corp. (GM ) The large denominations -- including the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church -- have been shrinking for decades and have lost more than 1 million members in the past 10 years alone. Today, mainline Protestants account for just 16% of the U.S. population, says University of Akron political scientist John C. Green.

In contrast, evangelicalism's theological flexibility gives it the freedom to adapt to contemporary culture. With no overarching authority like the Vatican, leaders don't need to wrestle with a bureaucratic hierarchy that dictates acceptable behavior. "If you have a vision for ministry, you just do it, which makes it far easier to respond to market demand," says University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sociology professor Christian Smith.

Especially controversial are leaders like Osteen and the flamboyant Creflo A. Dollar, pastor of World Changers Church International in College Park, Ga., who preach "the prosperity gospel." They endorse material wealth and tell followers that God wants them to be prosperous. In his book, Osteen talks about how his wife, Victoria, a striking blonde who dresses fashionably, wanted to buy a fancy house some years ago, before the money rolled in. He thought it wasn't possible. "But Victoria had more faith," he wrote. "She convinced me we could live in an elegant home...and several years later, it did come to pass." Dollar, too, defends materialistic success. Dubbed "Pass-the-Dollar" by critics, he owns two Rolls Royces (RYCEY ) and travels in a Gulfstream 3 jet. "I practice what I preach, and the Bible says...that God takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants," says Dollar, 43, nattily attired in French cuffs and a pinstriped suit.

So adept at the sell are some evangelicals that it can be difficult to distinguish between their religious aims and the secular style they mimic. Last December, Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Tex., staged a spectacular Christmas festival, including a 500-person choir, that attracted 70,000 people even though the cheapest ticket was $20. Throughout the year, some 16,000 people take part in its sports program, which uses eight playing fields and six gyms on its $100 million, 140-acre campus. The teams, coached by church members, bring in converts, many of them children, says Executive Pastor Mike Buster.

Keys Me by Alyssa Alano

This old but the fun is still there!

Star Spangled Banner-Jose Feliciano (story and 1968 video)

Below is a part of my April 30 post, a few days after the Pacquiao bout. I found the Jose Feliciano on You tube interview and it's tragic that a talented guy's career floundered because of his soulfull rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner." Jose together with Carlos Santana paved the way for Latin artists in the pop world. So before Ricky Martin and his pompoms and JLO and her pampams, there was this small blind guy who can play the classical guitar like a bumblebee.

Geneva Cruz’s performance of the National Anthem created a lot of stir because of the way she sung it. The National Historical Institute blabbed about the law against the desecration of the National Anthem, and prescribed how the National Anthem should be sung complete with a CD playback how the National Anthem should be performed. Good! But why not prescribe a standard size for mangoes also? If the size of a particular mango does not meet the standard size promulgated by law, then the unlucky mango should be declared a non-national-mango and the planters and harvesters sued for desecration of the national fruit. Why not limit it to mango? Why not prescribe a standard weight for carabaos? See, if the National Historical Institute prescribed standard forms for our national symbols, the law of consistency dictates that we apply it all our national symbols. I was reminded of an article on Jose Feliciano (the blind Latino singer and guitarist famous for “Feliz Navidad” and “Once there was a love”…etc.) about the controversy he created when he sung “Star Spangled Banner” in his soulful vibrato de legato de nata de coco style. (The guy is cool. He is a flamenco guitarist and flamenco is all about speed, rhythm and lots of passion.)

Thoughts on the Trinity

I am preparing for my next Sunday school doctrinal class and the next lesson is the doctrine of God, theology. Of course under theology is the study of the doctrine of the Trinity and that is a challenging doctrine to tackle.

The number one problem of the doctrine of the Trinity is that it’s too complicated to explain and to understand. I was reading the historical models of the Trinity and history shows that the problem of the Trinity has hounded Christianity since the church’s existence. Sabellus expounded and espoused the modalisitic model of the Trinity where in the Father became the Son and then became the Holy Spirit successively. Then, there’s the adoptionist view that states that Jesus became the Christ only after his baptism, and there’s the Arianist view that Christ was a created, minor god. The orthodox formula is one God in three persons which is theologically more correct than the other models but it is, unfortunately, the most logically incomprehensible of all the Trinitarian models.

The Athanasian creed gives a summary of the early Church's teaching on the Trinity :

We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost; but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten; the Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten; the Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

(Something in my head shouts: What?)

The church’s visual representation of the Trinity does not help either. Like the Triangle with the eye in the middle, or the three overlapping angels, or the three heads of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit etc. This confounds the problem of the Trinity because it attempts to visualize what should not have been and could not be visualized in the first place. These representations turned the Trinity into creatures, into logos and emblems or signage.

I have been thinking and reading, and I think the problem with the explanation of the Trinity is when it is explained ontologically (I don’t know if that’s the right word). The Trinity is explained in terms like ousia, personae, substance etc. These terms does not convey any meaning at all. Even scholars today are having difficulties because the way these words meant and used during the days of the council of Nicea may not mean as it does today! Our ontological explanation of the Trinity today may not be what the church fathers meant during the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Here, Hippolytus and Tertullian’s economic view of the Trinity may be the best way to explain the Trinity. (A bit vague, one theologian says, but the orthodox formulation on the other hand is, if not vague, is impossible to understand.) Hippolytus and Tertullian viewed the Trinity according to the triune God’s functions and work in the salvation of man. There was little attempt to explore the eternal relations among the three; rather there was concentration on the ways in which the Triad were manifested in creation and redemption. (Erickson). This is easier to understand and this is also Paul’s formula: 2Co 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

The difficulty of the doctrine of the Trinity is that it’s explained and taught in a way that is too abstract, although this exploration of the Trinity is important but, unfortunately, for ordinary Christians this is too heavy. The doctrine of the Trinity musty be understood experientially and this is the advantage of focusing on the Trinity’s activity rather than on their ontology.

__________________________________

How many God fearing and loyal orthodox Christians have died without knowing that their view of the Trinity was “heretical”?

One of my friends, a good Christian, understood the trinity using the analogy of water: ice, water and vapor—Sabellian modalistic model.

I tried explaining the orthodox view and all he can say is: What?

But most Christians will always think of the Trinity this way:

2Co 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

I think this knowledge of the Trinity is a sufficient knowledge of the Trinity that saves.

Forgiveness and Mental Health

In God is healing and riches of the mind for man. Paul tells Timothy that God has given His children a “sound mind.” The great fact in the life of man is sin, which has separated him from God. Of all human needs, the deepest and the most fundamental is man’s felt need for reconciliation with God. In the final analysis, all the problems of the mentally ill are probably problems which arise out of fear and guilt resulting from the presence in their lives of that which they are afraid to face. This statement of Leslie D. Weatherhead expresses well the basic effect mental health of the lack of fulfillment of man’s deepest need: “At our clinic we have had more cases of neurosis due to repressed guilt than any other cause. Whether you look up to the heights to which we have climbed spiritually, or whether you look to the depths in which men wallow in unhappiness and misery, you find the importance of forgiveness. In the end, God’s for everybody is to make him one with Himself. If that is so, then we more and more need forgiveness. If there is any hope of people like you and me ever attaining union with God in any sense of these words, then we realize how we greatly need forgiveness. In fact it is a very interesting and remarkable thing that the greater the saint the more conscious he is of his need for forgiveness. Paul called himself the chief of sinners. John Wesley on his deathbed asserted his sinfulness and prayed, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’”

The great over-all fact is the greatness and goodness of God who loves us better than we do ourselves and whose concern for us is far greater than our concern for ourselves. For mental well-being we must have that lessening of tension resulting from calling wrongdoing by its real name and taking it to the cross of Christ. We must judge our self in His sight. It is impossible to have in our life that which cannot be brought before His eyes without condemnation and be free from the sense of guilt which is the source of most mental illness of the functional variety.

God is concerned about the inner life of the spirit, the state of the heart, which is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Before God we are what we are and are known in our good or evil, love or hate, cleanness or uncleanness, purity or lasciviousness, honesty or dishonesty, sincerity or insincerity, sanctity or sin. Between what we are as God sees us and knows us to be, sinners by nature, and what He has made it possible for us to be, “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,” is a great gulf fixed by man’s sin. This gulf has been bridged by Him whose name is “Jesus: for he shall save his people from sin.”

--C.B. Eavey

Monday

This is one of those when all I want to do is leap and fly. No, I’m not into drugs but sometimes I have this feeling of just wanting to leap and fly. No, I’m not into drugs; this is just of those days when I feel like leaping and flying. No, I’m not being redundant, but this is one of those days that I felt like I want to fly. No, I’m not into drugs; it’s just one of those days.

I want to fly. I want to do something but I can’t; I feel like a catatonic cat. Now why is that?

It’s Monday and it’s cloudy.

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I was looking at my instructor’s grammar book and I read this passage about writing.

“As a writer, you will never be judged by your private vision, only the part of it which shows on paper. It is a mistake for writers to sit around admiring their mental processes, their extraordinary insights, their captivating ideas. Readers are not sitting around in such admiring state. Their demand is “show me,” and they are justified in their insistence…

…..Men and women are first of all interested in themselves…”

–Complete Freshman English Textbook, Shaw.

So true…I’m speaking for myself of course.