Whew! What a day it’s been today! Just a few days before the year 2012 ended, I was busy moving my blog from the more complicated content management system (CMS) called Joomla! to WordPress which is I feel easier to work with and more appropriate for my blog — since it’s just a blog. This blog site is now in WordPress platform. I think that I’ll move some more of my other websites to WordPress soon.

Maintaining and Updating Websites

For today and yesterday, I was busy trying to update our national church’s website since its contents has really been outdated for some years. It’s not finished yet but it sure does take a lot of work. It’s in Joomla! CMS.

A few days earlier, some church friends have begun to take interest in translating some of our English articles into the various local dialects. That is why I have begun updating our GCI Philippines website — getting it ready. Besides, it’s a new year and a time to update the website.

It was interesting for me to look back and to “discover” back again my previous work of some 7 years in that site! It was the first website I created using FrontPage. For a good number of years, I was sending weekly updates through email worldwide to our church membership. Back then, sometime in 2001, I started an e-mail newsletter just for the fun I get out of doing it not knowing it will become a “web ministry” for years to come where the Lord has placed me. I was brought back down into memory lane when I “found” the page again at this link!

And I’m back doing the same thing again since 2010. I stopped for a while in 2009. Thank you Lord for allowing me participate in this way through creating and maintaining websites. What a day!

An Hour Before New Year

Last night, the last day of the year 2012, just less than an hour before the new year, we had a chance to talk to our daughter working abroad. We missed Christmas this year with her. But thanks to modern technology we can get in touch with our loved ones anytime no matter how far they may be. What a great difference the way it was during my younger days.

During the Seventies

Back then, during my college days in Manila, I had to write a letter then go to the post office to send it to my parents in Mindanao. We had no phones, no TV, no laptops, no ATM cards—just plain and simple student life without much of the conveniences taken for granted by many young ones today.

When I needed tuition money and allowance I had to send a telegram and wait for my parents’ response. And then after 3 days you go and check the bank if the tuition money has already arrived through telegraphic transfer. You go back to the bank the following day if it has not yet arrived and hope again. What a big difference it is nowadays. For a teenage freshman from the province who has newly arrived in the big city, it was always kind of lonely for many months without hearing from loved ones so far away. But those were the days.

I’m just glad communication is easy nowadays. We can talk and even see our loved ones each and everyday if we want to even if they’re so far away. I salute all the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are sacrificing their lives to support their families at home.

Welcome to the new year! Happy new year everyone and to all OFWs out there!

Wow! What a year it was! It’s December 31, 2012 and it’s a year-end, the last day of this year! And these past few days, I’ve been thinking and looking back at my blog posts. (I have just transferred my blog from Joomla! to WordPress) What a year it was! I now can see the value of a blog.

It used to be that diaries were used to record one’s thoughts, activities and whatever—and it was a private thing that you do. With the advent of the internet, what used to be written in diaries are now in blogs—and it can been read by everyone if you wish to to make it public. This year-end gave me the time to do just that.

Looking Back at Year-end

As I read my past blogs (many of those posts sounded “theological“—sorry about that hehe…), I can’t help but thank the Lord for helping me and guiding me all the way through my ups and downs in life. I started this blog right after my retirement from full-time ministry in February 2009. And from reading and looking back at all those years, all the thoughts and emotions during those turbulent years of my life came back. I thank the Lord for helping me out through those years.

This year has been a challenging year—filled with joy as well as sorrow. For example, on March 1, I had my first experience of what it was like to have a very high blood pressure which made me dizzy—the whole world turning around in front of me—as I was driving at high speed at the expressway!

It made me realize I’m no longer young and I’m no longer able to do things which I was able to do so easily during my younger days. I’m no longer as healthy as I used to be. Life is so fleeting—“here today and gone tomorrow” as the saying goes. This year also, a fellow pastor and dear friend who was a pilot passed away so suddenly—just like that—and he’s gone. But life goes on and those of us who are left behind have to carry on with life and live it to the fullest. It will be interesting as I become a senior citizen in a couple of years—God willing.

Looking Forward at Year-end

Life has always been filled with challenges. We have our triumphs as well as our trials. But we don’t give up. We’re filled with hope. We have hope in Jesus Christ. He gave us his assurance. He is preparing a place for us. Life can be tough but he will never leave us nor forsake. No one—no, nothing whatsoever—can separate us from God’s love. We will be with him when the time comes (Second Coming) or when our time comes (when we die)—whichever comes first.

And what is even more reassuring is that even right now—in our present life—we can already enjoy, participate and fellowship in the loving relationship of our Triune God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is already with us right now. Despite our trials and challenges, we can have inner joy all the time even in this our lifetime.

This year, I hope to write more often and more openly about my thoughts and feelings as a Christian going through life and love in Jesus Christ.

Thank you Lord for the past year. Looking forward to another wonderful year. Happy new year to all!