"Sing with me Mama"

"Sing with me Mama"

Josiahs sweet voice floated across the room to meet my heart. 

So much to do. I was tired and grouchy because our baby son had been up most of the night teething. I was missing family that week and for the first time in ages was feeling inexplicably "hmmmmph". I never really felt like singing.

Our toddler's scrambled, but melodic phrases of his favorite worship songs filled the room as he pretended to play his overused keyboard. He had arranged for himself a captivated audience of mini plastic people and animals. Even little Eli was joining in with a whistle his brother gave him. He banged it off the floor and chewed it once in a while. :)

"Come on Sing with me Mama"

So i did.

A very simple but true reminder to rise above how we may feel and sing anyway. Don't let your emotions, the world or the enemy's lies steal your song. Don't let any situation or any person rob God of the worship that He deserves.

There are lots of things in our day to day lives that are out of our control. But one thing we always have the choice to do is sing out or speak out the truth of who He is. The unwavering truth of who He is never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. I'm thankful He is.

"She died in my arms"

I really wasn't intending to write tonight. It's after 2am. Both our babies are in a peaceful sleep.After yestedays Monster Typhoon there are mothers mourning the loss of their children and families sleeping on the floors of evacuation centers .Here are my boys-healthy- safe.
I am thankful.
I just feel I need to tell you about another Warrior Mother. My heart can't rest tonight thinking about her.
Her name is Lorna.
She lives in the "temporary housing" within the dump site area.
She has 5 children and she also looks after her 2 young grandchildren. Their mother is a bubbly sweet girl but just a  teenager when she had both these children. The pressure got too much for her this year and she fled Tondo leaving mummy Lorna with the 2 babies. Lorna cares as best she can for all of them.

2 weeks ago Ate Lornas youngest daughter Janet passed away. She was 6 years old.

taken 2012-  Janet at her healthiest

I remember the first time we met Janet. She was  a baby. Ate Lorna told us she thought she was sick. Ron held her to pray for her and right away knew that she had something far more than a fever or a cough. Her body was limp and eyes unresponsive. After tests she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

I can witness that Ate Lorna has cared for Janet. She was always so protective of her. Only she carried her from place to place with gentleness. We had a lovely occupational therapist recently volunteer with us whom we asked to dedicate time to Janet. She was so sensitive to Janets needs, but even then Ate Lorna was a little afraid for Janet being moved in new positions. Through the years every time we delivered milk, food or medicine Ate Lorna would always be near her child. Another charity once arranged with the families permission to take Janet into long term respite, but after a few weeks Ate Lorna decided to bring her back to Tondo. She kept this child alive when looking at her tiny form, you would have thought she would have died as a baby.

A couple of nights ago I was celebrating my birthday at the dump site and noticed Ate Lorna had come in and was sitting at the back..I was surprised to see her. I went straight over and hugged her. I had no words. It wasn't time for words. But from one mother to another I felt her heart breaking over Janets loss. I cannot imagine a worse pain. I cannot even imagine. We embraced and wept together. In 6 years of knowing Ate Lorna I have never seen her cry, even through all the struggles that come with fighting to keep your children alive in that community. As tears fell from our faces, she paused and then uttered words that were so unexpected and felt so very out of place;

"Thank you. Thank you for all the big help to my family and Janet."

If I were in this woman's position I think that "Thank you" would have been the very last thing on my mind. Even now writing, the genuine tone of her broken voice echos in my ears. Lorna is a shy woman and often talks with he rhead a little down, but at this moment her eyes were piercing through mine.

"Thankyou"

She continued in a shaky voice to tell of Janets last few moments. I could tell it was important to share the details- how it happened and even the exact time of death. She was a mum telling of the moment when she was forced to let go of her baby. As I held her hand she told me;

"It was beautiful how she died. I saw in her eyes and she died in my arms. In our house"

What she was saying was- it was the best way it could have happened.

Janet took her very last breath in the arms of the one who had faithfully held her every day.

Ron and I were talking and just saying how it is impossible to even try to understand this situation. A little girl born into a dump site and enduring suffering for 6 years. I don't know why. I don't know why at the unfairness and injustice that if this little girl had been born in the UK for example she would have received much more care and Lorna more support. I don't know why Ate Lorna had to watch her daughter have a life of suffering and then die in her arms.
When our church in Tondo surrounded her and were praying for her Ron spoke out that the secret mysteries belong to God. These words from my husbands lips have been repeating in my heart.The reality is none of us have an answer for this kind of human suffering, but we have to trust that God is the giver and the taker of life. He decides when we will be born and when we will die. For any of us who has lost a loved one this is easier to say than really believe because for us, the time they were taken feels so wrong and after years feels so raw, but we need to believe that the God who breathed his very life in them, knew it was the right time that they take their last.

I just want you to know there was a little girl called Janet who was loved. And I want you to know there is a mother called Lorna who loved her.

In all the time we have known this family I only ever seen Janet respond on one occasion.
She looked at her Mama and smiled.

Please pray for Ate Lorna and the family.


"The secret things belong to the Lord Our God..." Deuteronomy 29:29

Trick or Treat?

I am anticipating some of my good friends will disagree with my feelings below but people have asked me recently my view point on Halloween and so I thought I would just scribble it down.

So apparently there are  a couple of lines of thought to the origins of Halloween- one pagan and one Christian. In my opinion there is nothing Christian about it, in fact quite the opposite. Here in the Philippines and other parts of Asia Halloween is more about visiting the graves of loved ones who have passed. There is nothing wrong with remembering them however there is in my view something wrong with praying for their souls. From my experience in Scotland I would say its more about parties and costumes. But before I dig myself a pit due to lack of cultural and historical knowledge let me just say that although I do think that there is most definatly pagan and Occult roots in Halloween my following thoughts come from simply being a concerned Mama and not a scholar!

In all honestly I just don't get it! I don't get why we would want our children to celebrate Halloween at all.

Why would we want our beautiful faced children to temporarily trade that in for a gruesome Halloween mask?

Obviously not every parent chooses to dress their kids up in a scary costume, but in the last couple of days I have seen toddlers dressed as devils, witches, goblins... and so on.  I don't really understand. Why would any of us want to dress our kids with things that are anything but light, love and laughter?


 I don't get either how it is OK for us to encourage our children to knock on the doors of strangers, or even neighbors to trick or treat. Isn't it a bit of a contradictory message when most probably every other day of the year we are telling them not to take things from from strangers or go to the homes of people they don't know?

We try to protect them from violent images on TV etc and yet it seems that on this one day we drop the standard and leave them open to visual images of blood, gruel and gore.

 I know parents just see it all as a bit fun, a chance for a party and dress up, but my mind kind of boggles as to why we would want to celebrate anywhere around images that could potentially scare our kids. And that's one of the main points of Halloween right? Too scare?

Of course it's not terrifying for us to see skeletons, Frankenstein masks or cut out cardboard of the grim reaper. But yesterday I learned taking a 2 year old to a play area that was decorated with "spooky" images that it's kind of is a big deal for a little guy who has never seen these things before.


A few random facts you may or may not know about the origins of Haloween . Now this is straight from google so don't blame me! :) I just thought it be interesting to google to see what came up! Maybe I am just being a party pooper!

-"Halloween is a celebration to remember the dead and the day when witches begin their rituals".

-"Halloween culture can be traced back to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe. Roots lay in the feast of Samhain, which was annually on October 31st to honor the dead."


-"The Celts believed the souls of the dead roamed the streets and villages at night. Since not all spirits were thought to be friendly, gifts and treats were left out to pacify the evil and ensure next years crops would be plentiful. This custom evolved into trick-or-treating".

-"Jackolanturn/ Carved Pumkin-Occultists also would try to scare away the spirits by carving a scary face into a pumpkin. This horrible visage would hopefully move the spirit on to another home or village and spare that home from destruction. Sometimes the villagers would light a candle and place it within the pumpkin and use it as a lantern (hence the name, Jack-o-Lantern). This is the origin of carving pumpkins at Halloween."

-"some of the games used at Halloween parties derived from divination"


Actually there is loads of information about the origins of Halloween, I have merely picked a few at random. My point is that personally I wouldn't want my kids to be associated with any of the above even if it's "just a bit of fun"Now please I am by no means saying that anyone who dresses up their child in a cute or funny costume is intending to deliberately celebrate the actual meaning of Haloween. However while many of us collect candy at doors, play games and have a laugh over who's costume is the best , the reality is that there are witches and occultists who are celebrating in a more serious way. On this same night there is satanic rituals going on. Whether you believe it is a special holiday to those involved in the occult or not, Im afraid it is.Even in the communities we work in Manila witchcraft and occult practices are very very real.
 Here is a piece of info I came across about real Halloween-


" The Druids were in a secret place, were in satanic worship.  In their own way, they were appeasing the spirits and their god of the dead through ritual known as human sacrifice.  Every year the local high priest would select a virgin and impregnate her, making sure that the baby would be born one month before the festival of the dead.
On Halloween night the baby would be killed, its blood poured over the satanic altar and burned as a sacrifice.  The woman would then become high priestess for the next year, until this satanic ritual was carried out again.  The terrible thing about this is that it is still going on today.  Police reports show that children disappearing increase tremendously during the months of September and October."

Whether due to lack of information, tradition or not wanting our kids to be different from their classmates- Christian mothers I urge you just to re-think and ask yourself if there is really a  good reason that your children are taking part in a Halloween Celebrations.
 My personal opinion is that there is not one.

The Trick of the enemy is to have us think it's just all a big joke when in fact it's far from funny.

Let's have our kids be "followers of God as dearchildren" (Eph 5:1) and think about other creative ways we can let them dress up play games and have fun without it being related to Halloween.


"....proclaim the praises of Him who called you OUT OF DARKNESS into His marvelous LIGHT..." 1 Peter 2:9