Tuesday 1/4/2011

Tammy and I took off early from Cousin Jessie's home, with his daughter Minky.  We enjoyed the ride to Manila where her university (San Tomas) the oldest one in Asia is.  She's an architecture major there, and her dad said she better study hard so she can design a home for us one day.  Now if only we can have a construction crew from the family!

We went to the old manila area, where spanish architecture is from hundreds of years ago.  We went thru a special tour talking about spanish and american colonialism and the irony of having benefited from modernization, yet also the bitterness of being somewhat exploited and oppressed at the same time.  The guy had a lot of opinions, and many points were well taken, but overall Tammy and I felt a bit saddened and not really sure about whether to laugh or cry over the points made.  The guy is funny to most, but for us, he seemed like a really bitter and sarcastic person disguising his disappointment in humor. 

At any rate, we are now in Bataan.  This is the place where the famous Bataan death march occurred.  My father survived this in World War 2, and later was detained in Corregidor.  Tomorrow will be a very meaningful day for me personally as we visit these historic areas.  Would you please pray for continued safety?  The following day I'll be visiting the land my dad owned, and go to the festival of Ternate.  We plan on meeting several friends from my professional career 10-15 years ago, who are looking forward to reuniting with me in Cavite.  Please pray that we could enjoy that time with family and friends. 

Please also pray for my friend Beth, whose son has been discharged from the mental hospital.  The boy was possessed by demons, and it took 3 pastors to detain him.  What had happened to him was chilling and not natural.  The teenager boy had been dabbling with narcotics which is a doorway for this kind of demonic stuff to happen.  Please pray that this teen, who is now a young adult, who comes from a mother who is a believer, is completely delivered from evil.  I'm not really having my mind on seeing this boy on Thursday, though the family is fromthe same province.  But please pray we are ready for anything should the Lord orchestrate us ministering to them.  I think unless the pastors are there, I'd rather not deal with it Thursday when the festival is going on, and I'm definitely going to keep Tammy away from that situation.

God bless,

Alex