A Story of Two Friends

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During somepoint of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the neardrowning, he wrote on a stone:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?" The other friend replied "When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.

"LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.

Send this phrase to the people you'll never forget. It's a short message to let themknow that you'll never forget them. Do not value the THINGS you have in your life.. But value WHO you have in your life!

E-mail sent by Rollie

Our Country Needs Our Prayers

If this world news item is true, we should all be busy on our knees.

Philippines is Asia's 'terror hotspot'

Monday Jul 30 14:22 AEST

More than 1,700 people have been killed or wounded in Islamic militant attacks in the Philippines during the last seven years, the highest number in Southeast Asia, a human rights group says.

In a report, US-based Human Rights Watch blamed two small militant groups based in the southern Philippines for the killings - Abu Sayyaf and the Rajah Solaiman Movement.

The scale of violence in the Philippines, however, has not received widespread attention outside the region, said John Sifton, senior researcher on terrorism and counter-terrorism at Human Rights Watch in New York. "Extremist armed groups have spread terror among civilians in the Philippines," Sifton said. “They have bombed buses carrying workers, food markets where people were shopping, airports where relatives were waiting for loved ones and ferry boats carrying families."

The 28-page report also faulted the Philippine government for not prosecuting those responsible for the attacks. Although some suspects had been arrested since 2000, it said very few had been brought successfully to trial. The group also criticised Manila's new law to fight terrorism, saying it contained "dangerous over-broad provisions that violate human rights standards".

"The Philippines doesn't need a new abusive counter terrorism law," said Sifton.
"The government isn't using the laws it already has, so why does it need new provisions that violate human rights?"

The Philippines is hosting Asia-Pacific's largest security gathering this week in Manila, where it is pushing for Southeast Asian countries to create a regional human rights body. Human Rights Watch said it suspected the Abu Sayyaf and Rajah Solaiman continued to have links with rogue elements of larger Muslim rebel groups - the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The group called on the United States and the international community to provide assistance to ongoing peace talks between the government and Muslim rebels to make sure any deals reached would promote human rights and protect civilian population.

"To end the bombings, kidnappings and other violence, other governments have to pressure Philippine leaders to put a greater emphasis on protecting civilian life," Sifton said.
©AAP 2007

how do we pray?

Dear Batchmates, I'd like to share with you a story by our deacon during today's mass.It was a true story of one of the bishops in the phil.(Bishop Tagle).He was presiding over a group of OFW families,sharing each others stories. One of the ladies came to him and said that her husband was one of the men in the ship that sank in the sea of Norway.Up to this time his body was not found.She was torn between two prayers.One was praying to GOD that he is safe in one of the islands somewhere and that somebody is taking care of him.The other prayer was for GOD to forgive his sins and give him everlasting peace.Whenever she goes to church to visit the Blessed Sacrament,she could not start praying.she doesn't know what to ask from GOD. She would just set there in front of the Blesed Sacrament and cry. She said that the only thing she could offer GOD is her tears.She just wish that GOD will take care of her and her kids.Then the bishop told her,my child, you just taught me how to pray. The second reading in today's mass is "how do we pray". GOD BLESS CLASS 1963 AND OUR FAMILIES!

My Scottish Experience

Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

Scottish Highlands

Inverlochy Castle

Stirling Castle

Linlithgow Palace, Home of Mary Queen of Scot

Mga Additional Palayaw

Here are additional palayaws as initiated by Jossie. Sa may bandang plaza naman ito.

• Binong Galawgaw / Tatang Poon
• Tomas Tumarak
• Ben Tango
• Bertong Abok
• Serging Kapot
• Pidoy na Sanidad
• Naty Pidoy
• Boy Joaquin
• Boy Narsing
• Boy Conching
• Boy Kapampangan
• Rudy Bayawak
• Ruben Aninaw
• Ruben Dokmo
• Manoling Aleman
• Maning Bato
• Maria Pula
• Fredo Palaka
• Victor Badong
• Victor Ago
• Edios na Magiilada
• Pedring Agong
• Totoy Tinding
• Cesar / Nestor Banoy
• Eddie Balubad
• Eddie Doro
• Andres Bomba

Should you have more palayaws, pls. do add to the list. ;)

Choose Your Friends Well Because...

Excerpts from :Your Best Friend Can Make You Fat: study

Thursday Jul 26 18:40 AEST

Could your best friend make you fat?

Researchers who have studied "networks" of obesity think so: they found that if someone's friend becomes obese, that person's chances of becoming obese increase by more than half.

Siblings and spouses also have an influence, although a reduced one - people whose siblings became obese were themselves 40 per cent more likely to grow obese, while people whose spouses became obese were 37 per cent more likely to.

"This is the first (study) to show how obesity spreads through the social network from person to person to person," James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, who worked on the study, told a telephone briefing…

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers said their findings show that obesity is contagious - not like a virus is contagious, but in a social sense…

If someone became obese, their friends were 57 per cent more likely to become obese over the 32 years, they found. If people named one another as contacts, they were 171 per cent, or more than double, as likely to become obese if the other did...

The effect held for three degrees of separation. If a person became obese, their friends were more likely to become obese, but also friends of friends. It also occurred in shorter periods within the 32-year span...

"People look around them and see people gaining weight and it might change their attitude about what constitutes an acceptable body size," he added. "You might say it's OK to be heavier."

The findings held even if people lived 800km apart or even further. But having an obese neighbour did not affect a person's likelihood of becoming obese - which suggests that common environments are not to blame...

©AAP 2007

Be Willing to Wait

This simple meditation was taken from Arthur G. McPhee's
Have a Great Day Every Day!

God answers our prayers one of three ways: "yes," "no," and "wait." Often however, we interpret his answer as "no" when he is really saying "wait." That points to the importance of patience in praying-which has a bitter taste for the moment, but produces sweet fruit in the end.

Jesus spoke a parable one time in order to show his listeners that they should keep on praying and never lose heart. He said, "There was once a judge who cared nothing for God or man, and in the same town there was a widow who constanly came before him demanding justice against her opponent. For a long time he refused; but in the end he said to himself, 'True, I care nothing for God or man, but this widow is so great a nuisance that I will see her righted before she wears me out with her persistence.' "

Now, of course, Jesus' point was not that God wears out with persistence. Jesus' point was even as he said: "When God's answer seems to be no, we should not lose heart, because he may only be saying wait."

Sometimes God says wait because we are not ready to receive the things we ask for. Sometimes he says wait because the conditions aren't just right. Sometimes he says wait because he wants to show us a better option, and yet he gives us the choice between the two. But whatever the reason, it is always for our own good.

I have the feeling, though, the main reason why God says wait is to teach us patience and trust. When we have to wait on God we learn necessarily dependence in the process of waiting. So don't be like the little girl who, after several hours of fishing, threw her pole down and cried, "I quit." "What's the matter?" her father asked. "Nothing," said the girl. "Except I can't seem to get waited on.

When you make your requests known to God and you can't seem to get waited on, just wait on. When you are patient, the answer is sure to come.