Laguna has been hit by 3 typhoons in the past month (the last being just a few days ago) and many of the villages have been under water for a month. The flood is not expected to recede till after February next year.

Read about the plight of the children at Goducate.org

There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup.They said, “May we see that? We’ve never seen one quite so beautiful.”
As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke.

“You don’t understand,” it said. “I haven’t always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, ‘let me alone, but he only smiled, ‘Not yet.’

“Then I was placed on a spinning wheel,” the teacup said, “and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I’m getting dizzy! I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, ‘Not yet.’
Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as He shook His head, ‘Not yet.’

Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. ‘There, that’s better,’ I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ‘Stop it, stop it!’ I cried. He only nodded, ‘Not yet.’

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, ‘Not yet.’

Then I knew there wasn’t any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, ‘Look at yourself.

And I did. I said, ‘That’s not me; that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful.’ ‘I want you to remember, then,’ he said, ‘I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot an disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life. And if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.

Goducate helps Asians help themselves

1. A mature person does not take himself too seriously — his job, yes.
2. A mature person keeps himself alert in mind.
3. A mature person does not always “view with alarm” every adverse situation that arises.
4. A mature person is too big to be little.
5. A mature person has faith in himself which becomes stonger as it is fortified by his faith in God.
6. A mature person never feels too great to do little things and never too proud to do the humble things.
7. A mature person never accepts either success or failure in themselves as permanent.
8. A mature person never accepts any one of his moods as permanent.
9. A mature person is one who is able to control his impulses.
10. A mature person is not afraid to make mistakes.

Some people never participate, but are contented to let others do all the work.
They are called “Spec-Taters”. (Spectator)

Some people never do anything to help, but are always finding fault with the way others do the work.
They are called “Comment-Taters”. (Comment)

Some people are very bossy and like to tell others what to do. They don’t like to dirty their own hands.
They are called “Dic-Taters”. (Dictate)

Some people are always looking to cause problems by asking others to agree with them. It is too short or too long, too sweet or too salty.
They are called “Agi-Taters”. (Agitate)

There are those who say they will help, but somehow just never get around to actually doing the promised help.
They are called “Hesi-Taters”. (Hesitate)

Some people can put up a front and pretend to be someone they are not.
They are called “Imi-Taters”. (Imitate)

My dearest and oldest friend,
You have put our friendship to an end.
It is you that I depended on,
In your bad times, I’ve helped you,
For you I emptied what I have and suffered for it.
I thought my friendship grew.
I believed you, but you could not hold your tongue.
You broke my trust, I’m mixed along with the dust.
When I am hurt, I told you how it saddened me,
just so that you could understand, but you silenced me.
For that, I’ve lost something great.
You have closed the friendship’s gate.
When we meet each other, we ignore.
For each other, we don’t exist anymore.

Friends may fail you and betrayed but Jesus will never fail you.
Listen to and read the lyric of this famous hymn:
What a friend we have in Jesus

In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fulness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.