“ The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step out of the frame.”
(via quote-book)
GUESS I SHOULD REBLOG THIS DESPITE THE LOSS
If you have been following this blog or my Twitter, you might have learned how I love the Chicago Bulls. Unfortunately they lost a “should-have-won” game today which led them to an early vacation this year.
I truly believe that they have a big chance to win a championship this season if it was not for Rose and Noah’s injury. It was just sad that everything went down because of health issues. Well, it’s all part of the game.
In any case, I am still proud how the whole team tried to fight back even though the odds are against them. I admire how coach Tom Thibodeau kept this team up. I like coach Popovich but I think coach Thibs should have won a back to back title for coach of the year.
On a positive note, I am happy that they could have an early rest and get bigger, stronger, for next season.
For the meantime, my money is on the Spurs to win the title.
See you next year Chicago!
Christian Love
I received an email from a stranger with the subject: Christian Love.
Here’s the content:
Greetings in Jesus name,
May this letter find you blessed in Christ. I am writing from West Africa and it is a blessing getting to you in the other part of the world. I am not writing for silver nor gold but God’s word. The Lord led me to you.
I am a pastor of a small growing church of about 30 members. I am married with 3 children. My purpose of writing is to ask for your help for 4 copies of Large print Dakes Annotated bibles. The Dakes Bible has a lot of study helps and commentary on bible verses and good for those seeking much understanding of God’s word, 11 Timothy 2:15. It cost much here and we cannot afford it. I need 1 and 3 for my church elders helping to coordinate the church. They have no bibles. Please help! I wish you write back and I will tell you more about our church and our activities.
I need to know first that I’m in touch with a friend in the body of Christ. If you send the bibles through post office a registered postage the bibles will get to us safely. I was told at the post office that EMS postage or post office insured mail is safer. My home and postal address is 51 Uwayuba Street-Gpo 5870, Benin City, Edo State, 30001, Nigeria. I do not have full access to internet but I can check at least three times weekly. Ecclesiastes 11:1 “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days”. Please pray for the persecuted Christians attacked by Muslims in Nigeria. God bless you.
Looking unto Jesus- Hebrews 12:1-2,
Michael Iziekoro: Address, #51 Uwayuba Street-Gpo 5870, Benin City, Edo State, 30001, Nigeria
You may be thinking the same thing as I was when I received this mail: It’s a scam.
Normally I would just mark this as spam and go on with my work. But coincidentally, the sender was from Africa, same continent I represented during the DVBS, which caught a bit of my interest. As I reread, I observed that there seems to be something wrong with the mail. It’s not asking for money, donations, or bank account numbers. Instead, the person is asking for 4 copies of Dake Annotated Reference King James Version Bible.
If this is legit, I will be more than happy to help their church. So to make sure I am not speaking to a robot, I replied with the following:
Hi!
Got your email! I apologize, but how can I assure that whom I talking to is a real person?
Not to offend anyone, but there are lots of robots and hackers around the globe; and it is very difficult to differentiate whether this email is legit or not. I am more than willing to help if this is indeed true.
Hope you understand.
Best Regards,
I did not receive any feedback for a couple of days so I thought “That was it.” I was indeed speaking to a robot; but then I received a reply:
Dear Brother JeD,
Greetings in Jesus name and grace and peace be unto you. I am writing late because I have to go about 4 kilometres to the internet where I have to pay for ticket to use the computer. Philippians 2:13: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Blessings upon blessing, grace upon grace and His peace be multiplied unto you in Jesus name. I am so happy having to hear from you. Your letter has brought me great joy and I thank you for your concern towards our need for bibles. I have been praying since I wrote you and I know God has answered my prayers. As you sow this great seed into our lives so will God bless you and bring you plenty of harvest. I want to send you two of our pictures by attachment in email and the person assisting me to do it has assured me it would go through. If not let me know and let me have you postal address so that I can send them to you by post office.
I came to know about the Dake Annotated Bible when an elder in my church received it from his relative studying in South African. The young man bought it from amazon.com in America and ship to Nigeria directly. The link for where to find the bible as I have searched is http://www.amazon.com/Dake-Annotated-Reference-Bible-KJV-Large-Print/dp/1558291180. This is the exact large print Dake sent to him and it has a larger print making it easier to read and a leather cover making it durable for a life time gift and use. The bible is in King James Version English. The Dake bible has a lot of study help which is help especially to workers in the vineyard.
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31). We thank God often for your extended hand of fellowship and love to us in this body of Christ. Not too many Christians knows that the Christian faith is grounded in the love and grace of God, experienced through Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Here in Edo so called big and rich churches would have nothing to do with other body of Christ, they see nothing beyond their church. This is not the Life of Christ! True discipleship requires that we focus on following in the footsteps of Jesus. As Christian disciples, we would never be passive to our neighbours when they are in need and we are in position to help. Because of what God has done for us, we must offer ourselves back to God and serving our neighbors.
Please send the bibles to us through insured airmail post office or post office EMS. I was there to ask on which safe means to receive them and they told me that. My complete postal address is No. 51 Uwayuba Street-Gpo 5870, Benin City, Edo State, 30001, Nigeria.
By His grace I am a Believer bought and washed by the Blood of Jesus Christ. I am married with three children. I am a pastor of a small local church non denominational or affiliated to anybody. The church was founded in 2006 and now has about 30 members. I gave my life to Christ in 1987 when I was still in the high school at Zaria. A campus fellowship student by name Johnson was my roommate at school and his life of faithfulness unto Christ and his prayer and teaching me the Bible led me to Christ. This Brother told me then that he sensed that God was going to use me for His cause. I was never ready to hear that because my dream or thought was never in the ministry but to finish my studies and get a nice job. Five years after school and already working I started having the stronger urge and sensing that God was calling me but I kept on putting it off my heart because my job and life was sweet to me and I felt I needed nothing else. One day a guest speaker was ministering in our church and he singled me out in a crowd of over a hundred people and told me that God has called me to the ministry and cannot hide. After he left I told my pastor that I have accepted and my pastor and other elders of the church prayed with me. I immediately joined and headed the evangelical outreach of the church and I saw many coming to Christ in the outreach. I let go of my job in 2005 and returned to Edo my State. I joined a small local church and was assisting the pastor as the second pastor. In January 13th 2007 a pastor of a little church of about five families in my area walked up to me telling me that he is leaving the state to his home state where the Lord has asked him to go and start the work. He said he has been praying for over a month that the Lord has asked him to tell me to take over the little church he founded 2006. I have not had relationship with this pastor before now so it amazed me. He asked me to pray to ask the Lord. I did prayed and without wasting time I knew the Lord ask me to hold that little church and that was how I became the pastor of this church called Victory Chapel. The church is a growing church and we meet at a temporary rented building. We are not earthly rich but rich in Christ, riches that will last for eternity.
Continue to be obedient and the Lord will honour you in His time. Exodus 19:5, the Lord spoke to the children of Israel through Moses saying: “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:…” The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25. May the Lord water you with His blessings, the Lord bless you and keep you in His perfect love.
looking unto Jesus… Hebrews 12:1-2, Brother Michael
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
And attached 2 photos:
What do you think?
I am beginning to trust the email, and I am excited to help. Not everyday we get this chance to extend our hands for God’s kingdom. Perhaps I’ll start canvasing for the specified Bible locally, and email Michael for updates.
If you also wish to help, please contact me.
@jedchan
Your Money Goes As Far as Your Knowledge
Whenever I plan to buy gadgets such as cellphones or tablets, I first research about it on the internet. Just like any other normal people will do…
Why are we doing this in the first place? Well, because we need to learn more about the product. We want to know if the specs is worth it for its value. We also look which shop offers the best deal. And so on…
We people are smart. Smart enough to not spend our hard earned money to things that are not familiar to us. We research until we are knowledgeable about the goods, and that’s the time when we finally buy it.
Good move,
but the same concept applies to SAVING and INVESTING.
Everybody thinks Saving and Investing is good yes?
But unfortunately only few people invest, or at least save their money. In fact, only 1 of 10 Filipinos prepare for their retirement. But it doesn’t mean that the other 9 simply do not like to prepare. I truly believe they do, if only they were familiar about it.
If you are part of the 9, this is just your lucky day. Because I will tell you where to put your first investment ever!
Invest on KNOWLEDGE.
To be more specific, invest on FINANCIAL EDUCATION.
Buy and READ/STUDY financial books, CONSULT financial coaches, ATTEND financial education seminars. Dedicate yourself to learning.
I must admit, it may sound boring at first. But as soon as you get yourself into it and see the changes in your life, it begins to be interesting. Kind of like the item that you are about to purchase, at first you are not totally sold until you saw all its features and how it could improve your lifestyle.
Your knowledge about finance is directly proportion to how you handle your money.
***
If you intend to learn, it is already the first step. Now if you do not know what is your next move, I can help you..
Mr. Randell Tiongson, one of the most notable personal finance coach, has organized an annual conference entitled STEPS TO FINANCIAL PEACE CONFERENCE 2012. I was blessed to be invited on his pre-event yesterday in Legend Villas, Mandaluyong, and I already learned a lot. To be honest, this post was inspired by it.
I wished to learn more, so I already registered for the conference that will be held on May 18th at Victory Greenhills Center. I strongly recommend that you join this conference to jump start your financial knowledge. No matter what age you are..it is always not too late to learn. Check out Steps to Financial Peace Conference 2012 to register. I’ll be glad to see you there!
God Bless!
***
DVBS PandaMania Africa Mix Tape
This is the song that we used for the Talents Hour. Jill tsi mixed 3 songs from the original album of PandaMania: How Great Thou Art, He Reigns, and His Great Love.
DVBS PANDAMANIA AFRICA TALENTS HOUR PERFORMANCE
Congratulations to team Africa for winning the 1st place in DVBS’ Talents Hour!!
We thought we are done. Aside from the very limited, an hour and half, practice other teams seems to have brought their whole production staff with costumes and all. While our team has nothing besides white shirt for boys, red shirt for girls, a mixed tape, and our retro chorale style performance.
Thank God we pull it through.
Special mention the the mastermind, Jill tsi, for all her efforts in choreography and mix.
To God be the glory!
DVBS GROUP PICTURES AND MORE
Good thing we still able to take some photos, even with the tight schedule. Tomorrow would already be the last day. More pictures to come!
360 Degree View of Pandamania Africa Classroom Setup
This year’s Daily Vacation Bible School (DVBS) theme is Pandamania - Where God is Wild About You!. Basically it’s everything about Pandas, but at the same time we are on team Africa.
Here’s the finish product of the 2-day classroom decorating activity we had. Honestly, not all was part of the plan. Well, most of them weren’t. But I think we did a decent job considering the limited time to conceptualize and decorate. Before, the school allow 1 week decorating time. For some reason it is now down to 2 days.
The level that we are to handle is incoming second year high school. Technically these kids are not that “kiddie” anymore. That’s why we thought it is better for us to make the room simple and less childish; And I figure that we succeeded in doing it so.
The bulletin board is not yet finished, but that is our intention. We want to make the board more like an activity board. The students will fill it up with details each day until it is completed by the last day.
That’s what we said… in reality, we just want the students to make the bulletin board for us! LOL! :-D
God bless you guys. :)
Concept for Bulletin Board
I will be helping out in this year’s Daily Vacation Bible School (DVBS). And I made them a concept for the African Panda themed bulletin board.
Honestly at first I thought there is such animal as an African Panda, but as I researched, there wasn’t. So I figured using the “African Panda” theme as a “Panda on African tour,” hence the many activities of Panda in different areas of the map.
This is just the initial idea, which may push through… or not. If ever it will, perhaps we will add more details as we go; like Africa’s famous cuisine and attractions.
