Reminiscing Truths ⚓

Make  brewed,  black,  barako coffee and sit back as the world wonders how you did it.  get right back to work after a quick shower at 2 AM, because you can't afford an extra minute of sleep. Life is pretty tough in teaching. Especially in teaching in a public university. I'm not sure how it goes in other universities. I would like to think that somewhere out there, there is an institution that (1) has the most conducive teacher-student proportion, (2) has all their administrative concerns taken care of by an entirely different set of employees, and (3) has its curriculum and academic activities all properly ironed out all throughout the year, so that all their teachers are left with only the original tasks they are supposed to deal with--teaching a handful of kids, one or two course preps, and focusing on how to be a positive influence to the lives of these souls. But there's never a perfect school in this fallen, crooked world. Every ideal institu...

Joash Maramara Photography (2018) And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” (Revelation 14:13) August has, for the second time in a row, proven itself to be a month of grief for me. The last two weeks have subjected my entire church, and more especially the Maramaras, in deep emotional turmoil with regards to Kuya Ryan's falling ill.   Suddenly, our hands were all filled with tasks and things that we could do for this family who has done so much for us. From entertaining Ethan and Mikki throughout the two very long weeks by playing various board games. (And yes, Dix It is the best.) To setting up "camp" for everyone, to keep the insects out and to have a semi-adventurous feels despite everything. To simply just watching the kids. Or, uh, with the kids. We Youngles had our...

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! (Psalm 46:10) Everyone in our church has been at the edge of one's seat lately, especially the last twenty-four hours. One of our church members, Kuya Ryan, was discovered earlier this week to have a tumor in his brain larger than an eyeball. He was scheduled for a 6-hour operation yesterday to remove the said obstruction, which is progressive (that is, increasing in size every passing hour). I personally have been holding my breath the whole day yesterday even as I went through my classes and other activities. This morning, at about 2:00 AM, he was readmitted to the operating room to have a  second  operation because there was internal bleeding in the area where the tumor was. About an hour ago he was said to have gotten out of the surgery room already, but they need him to wake up first before finding out if everything is back to normal. Just a few minutes ag...

[I presented this testimony earlier this year to the congregation for an evangelistic night. An evangelistic night is a vesper service modified to accommodate the sharing of the gospel to unbelievers, and one part of it is the sharing of the members' testimony of how God saved them. I was one of the first ones to share.] A friend once asked me just a few months ago for my written testimony when I applied for this church. I didn’t think there was any problem, but when I thought more about it, I realized that my testimony I wrote for the church 6 years ago is not something I could share anymore. Not because my salvation story then wasn’t true, but because a lot of God-given, life-changing lessons happened after I was saved. I guess the first thing I realized is that testimonies are always changing because God never stops writing our story. For this afternoon I would like to share who I was before I knew God, what God did to save me, and what God taught me after being saved. ...

[Hi. I'm Rebekah, and I have decided to use a platform different from my Tales and Rhymes blog for my more personal writings. Originally, I have decided several years ago to just maintain one blog site, which would primarily contain only my literary pieces. I've decided to take a step back from sharing what transpires in my life to the digital platform because of  several reasons. Recently, though, my life had me go through a winding roller coaster ride, and it's just full of shifts and changes. L ife has had me drowning from all the salty waves and stormy winds it throws at me—and I could hardly keep my head above the surface. But these storms teach me priceless lessons and reveal to me invaluable realizations. And so I decided to share these lessons in writing, because who knows who might benefit from them? This letter somewhat summarizes the things I have been dealing with these past few months. There are way more than the things I’ve mentioned, of course, but ...