i love these!!!

Alzheimer's Request

Do not ask me to remember,

Don’t try to make me understand.

Let me rest and know you’re with me,

Kiss my cheek and hold my hand.

I’m confused beyond your concept,

I’m sad and sick and lost.

All I know is that I need you

To be with me at all cost.

Do not lose your patience with me,

Do not scold or curse or cry.

I can’t help the way I’m acting,

I can’t be different, though I try.

Just remember that I need you,

That the best of me is gone.

Please don’t fail to stand beside me,

Love me ‘til my life is gone.

the 45th President of the USA

this is SO me...

Hospitality

On Sunday, November 6, 2016, at Grace Church-Glendora, Pastor John Dix's message was on Hospitality, a series he's calling "Sharing Tables." The text was Matthew 26:26-35. Pastor John pointed out that "when Jesus wanted to explain the Gospel story, He didn't give us a lecture; He invited us to a meal."

As I listened to Pastor John's message, I was reminded of my Mom. She loved to entertain and was a great hostess. She believed in hospitality and practiced it regularly. It was something she grew up with because her parents, Severino and Perpetua Alcala, always invited pastors and Christian workers to their house to enjoy a meal with what I'm sure was a boisterous Alcala clan. It was my Mom who taught me the importance of setting a nice table -- everything in the right place and lined up properly -- and planning a proper menu. From a young age, wherever we lived, no matter how large or small our home was at the time, my Mom would always entertain our friends,  the missionaries, fellow pastors and Christian workers who were passing through.

When I was older, even before I was married and had children, I loved to entertain. In college, I used to house sit during Christmas breaks and before my housesitting stint was to end, I would have a dinner party for my friends. (It was during one of these dinner parties that two of my dearest friends discovered they kinda "liked" each other...) Later, after I had graduated from college and was living in an apartment in Whittier, CA, with 3 other girls, we would als0 have dinner parties for our friends.

When my kids were still young, I loved to invite whoever was our current pastor and his family, as well as anyone else who didn't have a place to go for Thanksgiving, to join us for turkey and all the "fixins."  Our home in Pasadena was small, but that didn't seem to matter. What was important was that we all enjoyed the fellowship and breaking bread together.

When we lived in Cebu for 4+ years, Dan and I would entertain often -- the church families for lunch, the young people for dinner and parlor games afterwards, the teachers at TEKNON for a Christmas party or to celebrate their birthdays. I enjoyed putting together a Christmas open house for the church and family friends and, in early January, I would invite these same church folks and friends to our home to celebrate my Mom's life on the anniversary of her homegoing.

Since returning to the States in 2012, Dan and I have not had our own place, so entertaining has not been possible. But, I'm looking forward to being in Palawan next year so we can do some entertaining again. It will be a great opportunity to get to know people in a more intimate setting and to enjoy some good food in the process!

I strongly believe that hospitality is very important! I believe that we entertain "angels unawares" during these types of occasions. I know the Lord Himself entertained -- think of the Last Supper -- and He passed on many truths to His disciples during those cozy dinners. Hospitality is a spiritual gift and one that everyone can have. In the hustle and bustle of today's world, I'm finding out that we need take time to show hospitality to others, fulfilling the law of love that Jesus desires for us.

...rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings… —1 Peter 4:13

If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised by what comes your way. You say, “Oh, I can’t deal with that person.” Why can’t you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time that way.

The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered “according to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God’s purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God’s orders through a shortcut of their own. God’s way is always the way of suffering— the way of the “long road home.”

Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through— we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize— “God has strengthened me and I didn’t even know it!”