Last weekend, the Philippines in general and my main church in particular was blessed to host one of today’s greatest men of God, world renowned speaker and author Dr. Ravi Zacharias. He and his team were in Manila to give an amazing conference called Unshakable: Standing Firm in Changing Times last Saturday; and the next day, he gave the Sunday message for everyone in the congregation, titled Raised To Run.
Because technology is awesome (and so are the wonderful people at CCF), the Sunday message was shown simultaneously via Livestream to the CCF churches all over the Philippines, and that includes where my family and I worship, CCF Cagayan de Oro (though my lucky eldest daughter was able to see him live as she’s there for a youth leadership conference).
This blog entry has the pleasure of featuring Raised To Run – by Dr. Ravi Zacharias in CCF Manila. All you need to do is click on the video below.
I hope you all are having a great Holy Week / Lenten season. As for me, it’s a staycation (staying home vacation) where I just simply rest—which I badly need—and catch up on good books and chilling with family.
One of the highlights of my Holy Week was watching the true story of Joy Tan-Chi Mendoza on TV yesterday. She was a good, very innocent, teenage girl: never had a boyfriend, never been kissed, etc. But then a group of thugs broke into the family home, tied up her siblings (their parents were away), stolen their goods…and then the worst nightmare happened: they (7-8 of them) violated her innocence by raping her. That’s not the end of this tragic yet amazing story, because from rape and tragedy comes forgiveness and victory.
This indeed is the true to life Joy Tan-Chi Mendoza story, and I’m so glad I found the video on youtube. It’s divided into four parts, and I will feature all of them here. WATCH IT!!! I know the story even before the TV reenactment of it, but it’s here where we see where the impact to the family, even many years later, is still so evident and poignant. Enjoy—and prepare to be moved to the very core, as this is one of the greatest examples of the adage that God uses even the most horrible of events for great good.
If you gravitate towards the marriage, parenting, or inspirational sections of the major book store chains, you must be blind not to see the name Harold Sala in many of the books there. He is one of the best authorities of marriage and parenting on the planet, and guess what…he’s coming here to Cagayan de Oro City!
He’s here for The Story of Us couples seminar that the community I belong to is cooking up. Better yet, if you carefully follow the instructions in this blog entry, you can win a chance to spend a weekend with this beloved author…for FREE!! It’s a whopping P9,200 value, and you’re getting it absolutely free. Check out the video first before I explain what you need to do.
(This post is on the video-heavy side. Before reading, I suggest you scroll ahead and hit play and then pause on all the vids so that they start loading while you read the text here.)
I live in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. While I love the place, there are drawbacks. One such drawback I will focus on here, with my version of a solution.
You see, we’re a small provincial city in the 3rd world…and when it comes to concerts, of course the local population cannot afford the big names in the international music world. So what do we have to contend with? Well, if international fare is your thing, you’re gonna have to contend with 60’s, 70’s and 80’s old-timers that have had their heyday before some of us were even born. Good thing if it were The Rolling Stones or U2, but…no. You’ve seen the billboards of the usual fare we’ve had, and with the exception of Color Me Badd and All For One, I am SO not a fan (The Lettermen? Please…).
My suggestion? Event organizers take note: if you guys can get CCM artists over to Cagayan de Oro, that would be the awesomest thing ever. What’s CCM? Well, I’m not gonna tell until the end of this blog entry. Let’s just say that they’re not big-time mainstream artists, so they would likely not fetch the steep price tag. They’d also have a captured audience with many people not only here in the city, but in the Philippines as well, so for sure you’d fill up the Limketkai Atrium if ever you’d have them around. CCM…what’s that? Ah-ah-ah, I said I’m not telling yet.
What I AM gonna do, however, is make a list of THE TOP 10 CCM ACTS THAT I WISH WOULD COME TO CAGAYAN DE ORO. CCM spans many sub-genres, so this list is a mix-up of rap, rock, and soulful tunes…and I’m sure you’ll get what CCM is by the time you reach the end.
So, without further ado: CDO event organizers, if you guys can bring these CCM artists over here, you guys would rule my world!!
What I forgot to mention was that today, May 19, 2013, Nick Vujicic gave the Sunday messages in the CCF Center as well. What a treat that was to the congregation there. The previous two events I mentioned are ticketed events that charge for admission. But the one today? Hey, that’s just going to church…and the one giving the Sunday message is one of, if not THE most inspirational speaker on the planet.
And CCF, delivering its usual awesomeness, already has the video up on youtube. Boy, that was quick! And so, for those of us who missed it, and those who want to be inspired, here’s the video of Nick Vujicic’s Sunday message in the CCF Center in Manila. Enjoy!
Check out Nick’s book, Unstoppable, as well as his other books. He truly is an inspiration to us all. Thank you so much, Nick Vujicic, and congrats to CCF for a job well done.
(This blog site, Lessons Of A Dad is mostly about parenting, marriage, and other topics aimed to develop the reader’s mind, body, and soul. I’d consider it an honor if you’d follow or subscribe to this site. You can also go to my Facebook page here, and I’m also on Twitter at @lessonsofadad)
One of the most popular and powerful inspirational speakers on the planet, limbless Nick Vujicic is live in Manila starting this Saturday! Got your tickets yet?
This Saturday, May 18, he will be in Christ’s Commission Fellowship or CCF for short (if that sounds familiar to you as a follower of this blog, it’s because I go to CCF-Cagayan de Oro, and I often blog about the activities there). On April 20, Nick would be in the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Here’s his promotional video of his upcoming Manila visit.
If you haven’t heard of this guy yet, you must be living under a rock. For the past few years, he’s been taking Youtube by storm. His videos have been giving hope to over 100 million viewers.
I’m not supposed to be blogging. I’m supposed to be checking my students’ essay-based literature exams, which will take me all night. But something about our reaction to Manny Pacquiao’s loss keeps me from working properly, and I need to express it here on Lessons Of A Dad before I go back to my work.
I’ll let a former student’s Facebook status update tell you what irks me:
“I love how Filipinos always find something to blame…The reason why Pacquiao lost is because he stopped being a Catholic and stuff about God. Really, man. Really.”
I’m sure there’ll be comments like what she’s calling out, and my knee jerk reaction was, “Manny’s new-found love for God is in no way responsible for his loss.”
But then, as I reflect further, maybe God, indeed, was responsible. Let me explain.
I heard the sad news yesterday morning, but I wasn't able to make a blog entry about it because it was a very busy day at work. I'll make my tribute now, better late than never.
We lost another beloved author in 2012. First, we lost 7 Habits' Stephen Covey; yesterday, we lost one of the greatest motivational speakers and authors in Zig Ziglar, who died yesterday at age 86.
I have two of his books at home, and I remember that my dad considered his greatest work, See you at the top, as life-changing.
One of the most passionate and dynamic speakers (and therefore one of my favorites) in the Christian world is Francis Chan. I’ve written a post about him last year, and it’s high time I include another video of him now.
I recently spoke in my church’s youth group last weekend, and at around the beginning of my talk, I showed them this powerful Francis Chan video clipon how God answers prayer so powerfully. Check it out and be wowed.
This was supposed to be a no-blog day, since my workload is crazy heavy (not to mention I’m in the kitchen crew this week) and I have to prepare lessons, talks, and whatnot. But what I saw in the news shocked and saddened me to the core; so much so that I had to drop everything and write a post.
Steven Covey, author of the granddaddy of self-help books, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has died at the age of 79. He didn’t die of a lifestyle disease or anything like that. He died from complications of a bicycle accident. He was active, and highly effective, to the very end.
This amazing man’s work has touched millions of lives, including mine and so many of my friends’.
Simply put, he made our lives better. He made us better people.
Not only have our personal lives have been touched by his work, but his influence even extends to my professional and ministry life.
Have you or any of your friends been guilty of venting or saying something very negative on your Facebook status updates in the heat of anger? A lot of us are guilty of doing so, and the results to these very powerful posts vary from sympathy, to shock, to criticisms, to even being unfriended by people.
How do you feel about this topic? Can you rationalize it by arguing that people have the right to say whatever they want (hey, it’s a free country; and Facebook is free, too)? Or do you belong to the camp that asks the angry FB users to think twice before posting their gripes for all to see?
Before I tell you which side I’m on, I would like to implore you to watch another video clip from Dr. Wayne Cordeiro’s excellent talk, Dead Leader Running. It talks about an excellent principle called “Find A Lightning Rod.” This principle will help our lives (real or cyberspace) immensely, and it very excellently introduces my opinion on the subject.
Enjoy the video, which is based on a church leaders' summit a few years ago. Please don’t read any further until you see the video in its entirety.
I don’t think I have any vices as you’d describe vices to be. I don’t smoke or drink alcohol, my diet is quite good, and I have a daily exercise routine. However, if I do have a vice, it’s this: I have this tendency to over commit. Well, I dunno if it’s my fault, but, man, I just realize I truly have a lot on my plate.
And so this blog entry is for those of us who juggle through so many responsibilities and wear too many hats to the point that we fry ourselves. How do we avoid burnout? What time management skills can we use so that we can still excel even if the demands on our time are so high?
Maybe you can relate to one of my favorite speakers and authors, Dr. Wayne Cordeiro, author of the bestseller Leading on Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion. He suffered from incredible burnout. It was so bad that he was warned that if he doesn’t change his Mach 4 schedule, he’d never be productive again. See his video here, an excerpt from his excellent Dead Leader Running talk:
Yeah, I can relate. A co-worker and close friend calls me “the juggler” because of all the hats that I have to wear, from senior teacher, to husband, to parent, to active church member, to blogger. Mach 4 schedule? Yep.
If you can relate as well, then I suggest you take a hard look at the tips Dr. Cordeiro presents in Leading On Empty. The book is gold.. It would give you tips on how to bring joy back in your work, improve time management, and avoid burnout.
There’s a smorgasbord of helpful lessons in Leading on Empty. Here’s one that Dr. Wayne Cordeiro give in the same talk: Do What Fills Your Tank. Check the excellent vid below:
This was a photo going around on Facebook, and I liked it so much I want to share here. Of course, it’s no longer current news, but I’d like to share it as an example for those of us who believe in Jesus to follow.
As for me, earlier in the history of this blog, I told myself I won’t be so open about my faith in Christ so that I can get a wider audience of parents. I don’t think that became the case, and it surely will be even less so as my blog enters its 2nd year of existence. I’ve decided to be a lot more open about my faith here in Lessons of a Dad, for the same reasons that Tebow is so open with his.
My relationship with Christ is also the most important thing in my life, even above my wife and kids. Shame on me if I don’t declare that here…or anywhere.
So, if you have a similar faith but are scared to share it, I feel ya. I was, and in a large part still am, scared to get that “Jesus freak” label from others. Maybe you felt like this guy:
Here’s two books that could help you in your plight (one of them co-authored by Fireproof star Kirk Cameron):
If I wasn’t so loaded with preparations for my church’s DVBS (which is happening TODAY, please pray!!), I’d want to make an article about all the hoopla going around about Lady Gaga’s upcoming Philippine concert being protested by certain groups.
With my kids growing older and becoming very social, I don’t think I’ll be able to totally prevent them from listening to the songs their friends listen to. Although this is not true for every singer, band, or rapper, artists that my daughters’ classmates rave about often say words in their songs that no parent would like their kids to say, and glorify or even preach a worldview hardly any parent would like their kids to adapt for their own.
So, while I can’t totally prevent their exposure to the music of the youth culture (and I fear that they will resent me if I too strictly put on the restrictions here), what I can do, and do to the best of my time and ability, is to inspire them to like the kind of music that is not only cool, but it inculcates in them a God-honoring attitude. Now, I’d like to share that to you
Easily one of my favorite Christian bloggers is Jon Acuff, owner of the website Stuff Christians Like, author of the book with the same name…both of which hilariously talk about (and mildly satirize) Christian culture.
Jon’s work is a great mix of hilarity and deep theological thought (about a 60%-40% mix, or even more towards humor in many cases).
I will get to some of his articles later on in this post, as well as making a list of his books.
What I’d like to show you right now is a video sample of how cool this guy is. Yes, Jon Acuff is awesome…and even more so when he’s with Wally, my favorite Christian radio personality and another dude who has a similar mix of funny/depth as Jon. As you can see, they feed off each other here, and what you get is a great, banter-filled video post.
During our lesson on leaving a heritage for your children for The Story Of Us retreat, I ran into this wonderful dad quote from Chris Gardner, the rags-to-riches finance guru who grew up not knowing his father and who very nearly lost his son as well, and whose life was made into a movie (The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith). Despite now being a renowned author and a very successful businessman, I love how he puts things in perspective.
“When I look back at the journey from homelessness to prosperity, I hold one thing dearer than all else – my commitment to my son. Doing a movie with the top movie star portraying me, doing a book with an editor who’s last book won the Pulitzer Prize – all that stuff is great, but the most important thing that I will have ever done in my life was break the cycle of men who were not there for their children.“
Beautiful. Makes me wanna get his books (see below) and watch the movie all over again. You can find more of my site’s parenting material here.
(This blog site, Lessons Of A Dad is mostly about parenting, marriage, and other topics aimed to develop the reader’s mind, body, and soul. I’d consider it an honor if you’d follow or subscribe to this site. You can also go to my Facebook page here, and I’m also on Twitter at @lessonsofadad)
Two weeks ago, a student of mine, Florence Velasco (a senior at The Abba’s Orchard Erdkinder) was interviewed in a local radio station here in Cagayan de Oro City.
Florence was one of the participants of the Rotary Youth Week (an event that had students from various schools serve as public officials for a week), where she served as First Councilor. One of the Rotarians, my friend John De Cleene, runs The New J 103.3 FM, the city’s all Christian radio station.
When Mr. De Cleene took note of her great performance in the Rotary Youth Week, especially the final day, and also learned that she’s also a leader in her church’s youth ministry, a radio interview was bound to happen.
And so here it is, a video I made of the interview with (uh oh, proud-teacher-moment) an amazing young woman that I am very proud to call my student.
I heard that Courageous did very well in its opening weekend. According to the FB wall of one of pages I’m a fan of, the opening weekend of Courageous looked like this:
1) More than 1 million people saw COURAGEOUS this weekend. That’s a lot of lives changed!
2) Total box-office was $9.0 million, $2.2 million more than Fireproof on opening weekend.
3) It was the #1 new movie of the weekend! Per-screen, COURAGEOUS averaged $7,752, almost doubling everyone else!
What makes me even more excited is that one of my favorite Christian bands, Casting Crowns (known most for, “Who Am I?”), did the theme song for the movie, titled (what else?) Courageous.
The band’s lead singer and songwriter, Mark Hall, talks about the meaning behind this wonderful song. He’s a pretty funny guy, yet this video short hits home.
Now, I’m proud to present the official video of Courageous. Enjoy!
I truly can’t wait to see this movie. For those of you who have already seen it, and would like to mentor others on the principles featured in it, I suggest you purchase the Courageous Campaign Kit . It has clips from the movie and a good study guide to mentor the dads in your life to raise their kids in a Godly way.
Casting Crowns also placed out a parenting-based song a while back, and I featured it in one of my articles for Father’s Day. Check out the article here, while I repost the video below.
Simply put, he made our lives better. He made us better people.
If you can relate as well, then I suggest you take a hard look at the tips Dr. Cordeiro presents in
