Shekinah

SHE dropped a suggestion just before she said the last characteristic she can remember about her second child when it was two-years old: “May pa’g e interview ko nimo about sa twins. (You should have just interviewed me about the twins.)”

Joy C Moncada, 36, is referring to her female twins she just gave birth last Oct 21, 2011. She is now a mother of four. She had Jericho Josh C Moncada, 9, first and her second Shekinah C Moncada, 6.

The latter, the subject of the interview, will turn seven on November 18.

Joy recalled that Shekinah, which is Hebrew for presence of God, was not that responsive during her first three months because her vision is still blurred. In its effort to focus its vision on something, the child has the tendency to be cross-eyed. Threatened by the said tendency, I asked her what she does when this happens. Accompanied with a nonverbal gesture, she said she puts her palm on Shekina’s face and slides it downwards.

Shekinah responds though to what she hears, for instance a voice, by moving her eyes to the side where the voice comes from. Joy was quick to recall, being a Psychology graduate in Xavier University herself, that the sense of hearing is the first sense to be developed.

Extremity-wise, the child’s grip was not strong. And it made sense that Joy did not buy any toys during this period yet. Shekinah could not handle her feeding bottle yet through which she feeds from milk.

No solid food yet for Shekinah.

Apparently, the child needs to be held, to be carried. The child cannot walk. She was dependent on Joy.

After 3 to 6 months from birth, Shekinah now responds when somebody talks to her. She opens her mouth, Joy recalled, as a response. It is as if saying Hey, I can talk too! It is the baby’s language.

Other than that, she now has a clearer vision as manifested by the baby’s attraction to colors. Joy said, in an uncertain voice, she bought a big dice with colors on all sides. Her niece, Ashley, who was around, confirmed. And among the colors in the dice, Shekinah was attracted to Red and Green the most.

Not only did Shekinah have the dice as a stimulus but, as advised by the doctor, Joy bought a color wheel. It was not a glance the child was giving to the wheel. Joy observed that Shekinah stares at it.

During this period, Shekinah started to take in solid food, porridge, in particular.

Curious, I asked: Is it given three times a day?

Once in a day is enough, she said. The rest, Shekinah takes in milk or mashed fruits, like apple or banana.

Joy also noted that the baby’s grip is now stronger as compared to the previous months. Shekinah can now lift her feet. Joy demonstrated as she sat in a chair in front of me.

When laid in her crib, Shekinah is now able to turn sideways. She is able to do a prone position –lying face down – as she turned six-month old.

Shekinah learned fast how to walk. This was a highlight during the child’s 6 to 11-month period.

It started with crawling. At 11-month old, she now knows how to sit. She then started to walk all by herself, Joy narrated.

“Pero mas bright pa ko niya (I am more intelligent than her),” Josh, the first child, interrupted as her mother compared Shekinah to him.

Joy continued to recall that Shekinah started to baby talk with words dada and gaga. This she cannot forget, she told me.

As we moved into the next set of months after Shekinah turned one, she paused. She pondered. She almost forgot. But not long after, she said with a sweet smile: Shekinah learned to say Mama.

Joy was a full-time mother then as she is now. She commented: Kaya man diay. Nag full-time mother man ko ato. She is referring to her success in training not just Shekinah but as well as Josh in going to the toilet all by themselves when they feel like peeing or doing number two.

In effect, “dili na siya mangihi sa bed. (She does not pee in bed.)”

Akong ganahan lang sa akong mga anak is wa nako nag diaper sa ila (What I liked about my kids is that I did not use diapers anymore, particularly Shekinah, when she was 1 year and 5 months), she beamed.

Another development Joy observed of her child Shekinah is that she was ngulit. As we both groped for the dialect’s English equivalent, she cited an example: Shekinah pronounces her L as N, so that the word Loloy becomes Nonoy.

Children really go through this stage. They have a difficulty on this part but cute man sad paminawon, she justified.

The chinky-eyed Shekinah came in while her mother continued to cite changes she has observed of Shekinah during the child’s 6-month-to-2-year period, among those she mentioned are: She can now really walk; she was still bald; and she is talkative.

Shekinah then reported to her mother that the pillow of her maternal cousin, who lives next door is tsada and that the child is like a Barbie doll because she is white-skinned.

It was a case in point.

And oh, not only that, Shekinah also dances well, Joy added.

To which we reacted saying “char!”

Then the kid recalled, “Ah katong wala ko naulaw Ma nuh? (Ah, that time when I was not shy)”

Her mother agreed and said, “Gi itsahan ka ug kwarta sa imong mga Tita. (Your aunts gave you money for that.)”

Josh stole the attention of her mother asking “Ako sa una ma? (How about me?)”

Joy faced Josh and quipped, “Baga man jud ka ‘nak. Dali raman ka in everything. Ikaw man ang original. (You were really a show off. You’re fast in everything because you’re the original.)”

She faced back to me and remembered one important aspect of every child’s life: Play.

Play is in every stage in a child’s growth, Joy said. Shekinah likes to have a playmate around. She’s not the loner type when she was two years old. She enjoys the company of others. She’s friendly. “Dili na siya gapangaway,” Joy stressed.

And lastly, with the kind of toys she plays with, Shekinah, when she was two, can easily be identified as a girl.

“We all have tendencies, right?” Joy asked.

She does not enjoy playing toys cars. She does not play with her kuya’s toys.

Not knowing what else to say, and perhaps because hungriness has taken its toll on her (and on me too), she dropped the suggestion then remembered one last thing about Shekinah when she was two:

Shekinah was and is close to her father than me.

“Where is uncle now?” I asked.

“Their ship is heading to Saudi Arabia,” Joy answered.

Where she is

WHILE trying to finish a cup of strawberry-mango flavored tea with black pearls swimming in it at Da Tsa, I received a text message from my mother. As usual, it was blunt: john, diri ra ka kaon

I struggled to decipher whether the sentence she has constructed sans a punctuation mark was declarative or interrogative. The weird concoction of a stick of probin, a saucer of kwik-kwik and siomai and a cup of froccino primo Oreo at Bo’s before the tea may have taken its toll on me ergo the delay of my reply.

But eventually, I settled for the assumption that it was an inquiry she made, the answer to which will help her decide of her last activity of that day: to cook a meal for me and to leave the door unlock or simply to fall into a deep sleep.

No was my curt reply.

And so when I arrived home, I was not surprised she has sounded intermittently a lot of ZZZzzzsss.

But what if it was a declarative text message and that I did not bother to confirm if it was? This I thought as I quietly sat in our dilapidated sofa and untie my shoelace. That could have caused more gap between me and my Mama. The gap I think exists even more evidently now as compared to those days when Papa has just started to become ill until the few weeks after his burial.

I have always feared that Mama and I will grow as strangers to each other under one roof given the circumstance we are in right now. We both work. She cooks for my aunt’s calenderia, which requires her to sleep early because she has to wake up a little before the break of dawn. While I wake up almost always between breakfast and lunch already and comes home late at night when she’s asleep already.

A couple of days ago, in a rare mother-and-son conversation, I told her of my plans next semester: continue with teaching but take up Professional Education and give up leading Campus Ministry at church or find another job that is still related to writing or to dealing with young people, either way, preferably with a non-government organization.

She conceded with the former. But upon sensing her reluctance caused by the uncertainty of how we can pay for my tuition fee, I suggested to affiliate with one more school to make ends meet.

She beamed with anticipation with the latter option, especially knowing that NGOs pay big time. But I burst her bubble when I mentioned of the possibility of working away from home, either in mega Manila or in metro Davao. She paused. Then she spoke softly, with affection, as she requested for me to come home as often, every week she meant unwittngly, if I work in Davao.

Little did she know that after she made that appeal, the child in me, one who struggles to strike on his own and yet wants to feel safe by a parent’s side (usually the mother), has resurged.

Not that I have completely trashed the idea of working away from home but it seems that for now, I would rather stay in my comfort zone.

I have resolved more strongly now than ever that:

(1) I’d find a way for me to take her out to a restaurant, once in a while, to a more fancy resto than the one we went to last year during her 49^th birthday.

(2) I’d be more caring especially now that she is in her menopausal period. These signs of menopause, particularly hotflash, are driving me paranoid.

(3) I’d be more responsible at home and not be bossy.

(4) We’d visit Camiguin Island, her province, if we have the means to do so to relax.

(5) I’d talk with her and be more open.

(6) And that I’d join her eat meals as much as possible.

Seven random facts about myself

I was born one minute past 12 midnight of October 15, 1985. That means my birthdate is on October 16.

I have always thought that my right palm is dirtier than my left. No, it’s not dirt. It’s a birthmark.

My uncle (deceased) thought that a Hercules was born on that day since it was raining hard and it seemed that the night sky, with roaring thunder, was mad when I came out. He thought he was wrong because all my childhood days, I was a skinny lad.

I would like to believe that I am strong not physically though. My paternal aunt, the one next to my papa, gave me the biblical name John David . Just in case I am talking to someone like Landon Carter in A Walk to Remember, here are basic facts about the epitome of my name:

John is known as the Evangelist or the Divine and is one of the one of the 12 Apostles and the brother of James the Great. He is traditionally considered the author of the fourth Gospel, which is the Book of John, and as well as the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible.

David, one of the characters in the Bible that I so love, is responsible for slaying the uncircumcised giant named Goliath. He succeeded Saul as King. He is known to be the author of the Book of Psalms. And my favorite fact about him is that he is a man after God’s own heart.

I grew up at church which was once just at our backyard then moved to the biggest theatre in the city then to one of the busiest markets in the city. I was raised a Born-Again Christian and was taught that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, not through good works or intelligence or religion. From being a Sunday school kid to being one of the teachers in it and to being a director in our church’s kids camp to being a keyboardist to being one of the youth leaders and currently overseeing the Campus Ministry, I practically was a church kid.

They thought I’d become a pastor but I am a teacher by profession. But before I became part of what used to be my department as a college student, I was a telemarketer. I tried it because I was curious what it feels like to be part of the industry that was once at its peak that time. I quit after a paid three weeks of being a greenhorn. Though it was just a short stint but it is worth mentioning that I was a content writer in the short-lived Chum City Radio, the youth arm of the now defunct Mom’s Radio. Then I joined the teaching force of the department of Development Communication. I have been teaching for three years now. I have found my passion.

Pathetic. I once ate inside one of the toilet rooms in the second floor of the Science Center building because, one, I thought that Xavier canteen back when I was a freshman in college is humid, and two, because I was puffy that I do not associate with people I think not in the same plane as me. But I have changed.

Treasures in trials

Think not like a civilian when you are in hardship, but think like a good soldier.

Know that a good solider does not seek sympathy but endures in hardship. Only the best soldiers endure. The brainchild of the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden, was tracked and killed by the best soldiers who are part of the Navy Seal Team Six. The team is one of United States' four secretive counter-terrorism groups. And these soldiers, before becoming a part of such an elite group, have gone through an arduous training.

Know that a strong character is in every good soldier who has endured the hard training. Nothing could be more perfect as an example, from the Bible, of a person who has gone through a lot of hardship in life but Joseph. Think about this: he was sold into slavery by the very people who are supposed to love him and not betray him, his biological brothers; he was locked in prison for he chose to keep his integrity intact by not having sex with his master’s wife.

But behind Joseph’s bitter experience was the wonderful plan of God. He was promoted by God in a very strategic position and became the second most powerful man, next to Pharaoh. These were all orchestrated by God.

And when his brothers came and sought his help during a time of famine, he welcomed and forgave them. He could have retaliated but he did not. He endured and in the process developed a strong character. He forgave and forgives.

And lastly, know that a strong character developed through enduring hardships makes someone optimistic. Job was positive even if the circumstances around him seem to invite him to reproach God – his oxens, donkeys, camels were stolen; his sheeps were burned up by 'the fire of God which fell from the sky; the house of his firstborn collapsed due to a mighty wind and his offspring were killed; and Job himself was smitten with awful boils which he scraped with broken pottery.

His wife prompted him to "curse God, and die" but instead, he shaved his head, tore his clothes and blessed the name of the Lord saying: "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return: the Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of Lord."

Know that there is always hope. The biblical story ended happily with Job restored to good health and as well as his possessions. He had acquired 13,000 sheeps; 6,000 camels; 2,000 oxens; 2,000 donkeys. He had 7 sons and 3 beautiful daughters, and he lived up to the fourth generation down his line.

Today, Texas, the second largest state in the US is locked in a historic drought. The water level in Lake Whitney State Park – which is once a perfect place for boating, fishing, scuba diving and water skiing – has receded and has exposed caverns. And this record-setting drought has turned the place into a treasure trove for treasures hunters. They have unearthed from the underwater caverns 8,000-year-old fossils and Native American tools from prehistoric times. Priceless artifacts.

Good soldier, know and find the treasures in your trials.

This is base on Rev Alex Eduave’s sermon on Oct 2, 2011, Romans 5:3-5, at Celebration International Church Network and is for his student whom he knows is going through a rough time.

CCMN aids twister victims

Short-term missionaries of Cell Church Missions Network (CCMN) were here when a twister struck last Friday in two urban villages in Cagayan de Oro City.

Upon learning what befell in Brgy Patag and Bulua, without hesitation, the team raised fund to buy five 50-kilo sacks of rice and four boxes of noodles and gave them to 136 families in Zone 12, Bulua on July 31, 2011, Sunday afternoon.

Ps Homer Eduave of Celebration International Church Network and Foundation (CIFN) introduced the missionaries from Hong Kong and Japan to the people who flocked around the vehicle carrying the relief goods.

“Naa mi dala nga ginagmay nga bugas ug noodles. Tuyo pud nila nga mubisita sa mga balay, sa mga pamilya ug mag-ampo (We brought a small number of rice and noodles. Our visitors would also like to visit your houses and pray for you.),” says Pastor Eduave, who also is a member of the International Disaster Response Network (IDRN).

Chief village police Eduardo Aban helped in the distribution of goods and explained, “Dili man maigo sa tanan, pero dili lang magmahay. Nangayo ko sa pagsabot (This will not be enough for everyone but don’t be upset. I hope that you will understand.).”

The CCMN and CIFN teams moved into the inner part of the village and saw more devastation caused by the twister described by Nellie Ayuban, 58, resident, “wa ko nagdahum ug ingun ato ka grabe nga dilubyo. (I did not expect for a great deluge like what happened.)” She broke into tears as she recounted what happened that fateful Friday afternoon.

She and other residents who received the rice and noodles packed in yellow cellophanes were thankful for the provision.

Nutritious bars called SoyJoy from USA and slippers, shoes, toys, and school supplies brought by the missionaries were also doled out.

“I saw the hands of the children asking for toys. These toys from Hong Kong are donations; they are not used anymore. But here, the children are so happy to receive them. We are so happy to help these children. It is so touching,” Sman Ng, leader of the CCMN team, shared.

These CCMN missionaries have been going for the past five days to Burgos, Consolacion and Tagoloan areas for an evangelistic outreach.

(This article was published in NEWSLINE Mindanao last August 4, 2011)

Papa, can you hear me?

PRAYER
Oh God-our heavenly Father.
Oh, God-and my father
Who is also in heaven.
May the light of this
Flickering candle
Illuminate the night the way
Your spirit illuminates my soul.

Papa, can you hear me?
Papa, can you see me?
Papa can you find me in the night?
Papa are you near me?
Papa, can you hear me?
Papa, can you help me not be frightened?
Looking at the skies I seem to see
A million eyes which ones are yours?
Where are you now that yesterday
Has waved goodbye
And closed its doors?
The night is so much darker;
The wind is so much colder;
The world I see is so much bigger
Now that I'm alone.
Papa, please forgive me.
Try to understand me;
Papa, don’t you know I had no choice?
Can you hear me praying,
Anything I'm saying
Even though the night is filled with voices?
I remember everything you taught me
Every book 1've ever read...
Can all the words in all the books
Help me to face what lies ahead?
The trees are so much taller
And I feel so much smaller;
The moon is twice as lonely
And the stars are half as bright...
Papa, how I love you...
Papa, how I need you.
Papa, how I miss you
Kissing me good night..

iJoke

THE BIGgest joke in my life happened today!

You want to know what it is? Here's what happened:

I received a text message from OMF (Christian bookstore) where I bought an NIV Bible (for teenage boys, yes, you read it right, I still look like one, don't I?). The message reads like this:

Good pm sir. This is Hannah from OMF Lit Bookshop. Congratulations, you have just won iRead Booktags from us. Pls claim your prize here at the bookshop and bring an ID. C u!

I was in my cube in the office when I got this message. The inside of me was screaming. I thought it is a gadget because it is 'iReader'. I looked it up in the web and saw images of iReader. A gadget similar to an ebook reader appeared. But I had second thoughts, so I read the message again. It says iReader booktags. it might be just a book mark for an iReader, I thought. But my colleague in the office said it is like Kindle. And I started to believe that it is a gadget that I have won. I was excited, so excited. I replied to the message saying, 'ok' and I followed it up with 'I wonder what it is...'

I was not able to focus in my class and kept thinking how good God is because 'I won a gadget.' My mind wandered and thought how this gadget could make my teaching easier. After class, I headed straight to the mall and went straight to the book shop. On my way, I was imagining what it looks like and how big it is. It seems I could not wait to hold it in my hands and start sliding my point finger on its touch-screen screen. My hands were itching.

The lady in the counter of the bookshop asked me for an ID after I told her, with a wide grin in my face, that I received a text from a certain Hannah. I asked her what an iReader is. She smiled. She got my uni ID, checked my name against the info in their computer. 'Yes, it is him,' she said as she turned to another lady. Then the other lady got something from what seems to be a bundle of paper wrapped in a brown envelope. Then she got on her hand a sticker paper printed with what seems to be calling cards then she said "You can stick this on your books sir, there are a number of tags in this paper." She counted the tags.

And I was like 'so this is the iReader booktag...' as the crack in my face turned into a frown. If you saw my face you'd be dead laughing at me.

I held my phone and pretended that I called somebody up and that I was in a hurry out from the bookshop. I took my exit as if I was not embarrassed. Then to counter my dismay, I went to Bliss and bought a red Vurve tee. My addiction to tees saved me from further disillusion.

But God is still good. I know that one day He'll give me a gadget - iPhone, ebook reader, iPad, whatever.

Lesson learned: read the whole thing, don't be too excited and not all words with' iS' are gadgets.

iJoke

Today, I am reminded of this...

2 Timothy 3

¹ But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ² People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

⁶ They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, ⁷ always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. ⁹ But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

Rape in the Bible

The story involves Amnon and Tamar. Amnon was Tamar's half-brother. King David was both Amnon and Tamar's father. However, Amnon and Tamar had different mothers. Tamar was very beautiful and Amnon thought that he was in love with her. He wanted to have sex with her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it because Tamar was a virgin. Under the Old Testament law, a man who raped an unmarried woman was required to marry her (Exodus 22:16-17). As we see from how the story ends, Amnon did not want to marry Tamar. He just wanted to have sex with her. He wanted it so badly that he was becoming ill. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Amnon had a crafty friend who suggested a way for Amnon to get Tamar alone. Perhaps Amnon thought he could get away with it if no one saw him raping his sister. Perhaps he thought he could convince Tamar not to tell anyone or that she would be so ashamed of what happened that she would not tell anyone about it.

Whatever the reason, Amnon played up his illness. His father asked if there was anything that he could do for his son. Amnon asked permission for Tamar to come to his house and prepare a meal for him. David, not suspecting anything, granted Amnon's wish and sent Tamar to his house. After preparing the meal, Amnon refused to eat until everyone left the house. He then asked Tamar to serve the meal in his bedroom. Once they were alone in the room, Amnon told Tamar that he wanted to have sex with her. Tamar refused. If Amnon wanted her so badly, he should have asked David for her hand in marriage. Tamar was certain David would have permitted it. However, as we already noted, Amnon was not interested in marriage. Because he was stronger than Tamar, he forced her into bed and raped her.

Once he satisfied his lust, he no longer wanted his sister. She told him that she should now live in his house as his wife (as the Law required) . However, Amnon became enraged and had his servants throw her out of the house.

Do you think that Amnon truly loved his sister or was he interpreting his lust for her as love? Many people continue to think that desiring to have sex with someone means that you are in love with that person. Such an idea is plainly false according to the Scriptures!

Who do you think is guilty of sin? Obviously, Amnon is guilty, but what about his crafty cousin, Jonadab? God said in Romans 1:32, that those who encourage others to sin are as deserving of death as those who actually commit the sinful act. Do you think Tamar also committed a sin? If you said yes, you are wrong. Throughout this story, Tamar tried to convince Amnon to abide by the Law of Moses. Even after the first sin, she still tried to make the best of a bad thing and marry the fool according to the Law. From all that we can see, Tamar did not want to break God's law and tried hard to resist Amnon. Amnon only won out because he was stronger than she.

Let us examine what the Law of Moses taught about rape. In Exodus 22:16-17 and Deuteronomy 22:28-29, a situation is described where a man has sex with a woman who is unmarried, not engaged, and has not engaged in sex with anyone else. The act of sex between the couple could have been willingly done or unwillingly done. In either case, the man must pay the woman's father a dowry of 50 shekels of silver. A dowry is money or things given to the woman's parents for the privilege of marrying a woman. The man was expected to marry the woman, unless the woman's father absolutely refused. In addition the man lost any rights to divorce his wife. Even if the father refused to allow his daughter to marry the man, the man still had to pay the dowry.

Where the woman is married or engaged to be married, the penalty is much more severe (Deuteronomy 22:23-29). In the times when the Bible was written, being engaged was considered nearly the same as married. If the man raped the woman in an area where other people were nearby, it is assumed that the woman willingly had sex with the man since no one heard her cry out. In this case both the man and the woman were stoned to death. If the rape took place where it was unlikely anyone would have heard the woman scream, the man was stoned but the woman was presumed to be innocent of any sin.

A woman has not committed a sin just because she was raped. Unfortunately, many people don't seem to understand this. Too often people assume that the woman must have enticed the man in some way. If not directly, then by the way she dressed or by the way she moved. Imagine that you just had your bike stolen and a friend of yours walks up to you:

"Someone stole your bike. Too bad. You really ought to have been more careful. Serves you right, leaving your bike out where a person couldn't help but want to steal it."

"What do you mean? I locked my bike before I went to class. They cut the chain with a bolt cutter."

"Sure. Even if you did remember to lock it, why did you leave your brand new bike out in front of the building where everyone could see it?"

Do you see how this "friend" is implying that you were guilty of some undefined sin because you had a bike stolen? The same thing happens when a woman is accused of leading a man on. It doesn't matter what she did or did not do from the man's perspective. The man still had sex with a woman with whom he was not married! No matter how you look at it, the man is guilty of sin. Being lead into sin doesn't lessen his guilt one bit. If the woman willingly had sex with the man, then she too is guilty of sexual immorality. However, if she resisted to the best of her ability, then she is innocent before God.

Raping a woman is wrong! It not only violates a woman by forcing her to do something that she did not want to do; it is also a violation of God's law. Rape is just another form of fornication.

Recently, some women have tried to redefine rape as any time a woman has sex and the woman did not want it at that time. This is an inaccurate definition by God's standard. In a marriage, a woman is never to withhold sexual privileges from her husband; just as a man must always be ready to satisfy his wife's desire for sex (I Corinthians 7:2-5). From the Bible's perspective, it is not possible for a husband to rape his own wife.

Source: http://lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVstudies/GrowingUpInTheLord/Boys/11Rape.htm

Bye

I am no longer a Hotmail. ;)

Pursue and rescue them

Who says plunder is unlawful?

The term plunder may have a negative undertone especially here in the Philippines after the infamous President Joseph Estrada was ousted from his office in 2001 during a people power uprising for charges of it (perjury, included).

But in the Bible, specifically in 1 Samuel 30, plunder was the means to take back what was rightfully possessed by David thereby putting it in a good light.

David and his men recovered everything that the Amalekites, considered as the terrorist in their times, had taken. The Amalekites have taken captive of the women and children and all who were in Ziklag, where David was sent to by Achish after the commanders of the Philistines refused for David and his men to fight with them against the army of his former boss, King Saul. The wives of David – Ahinoam and the beautiful and intelligent Abigail were captured too.

David could have reacted right away given the harsh situation where their loved ones were abducted and the place they live in was destroyed by fire plus the fact that the people talked about stoning David probably because they blamed him for what happened. But he did not.

Instead, David called for the priest Abiathar (Because they sound the same, I have always think of Avatar after the first time that I read this name in the Bible), who joined David and his troop after he escaped from the sword of King Saul who wanted the priests of the Lord dead, and asked him to bring the ephod and inquired of the Lord.

This is what I like about David – he inquires of the Lord. He does not depend on his facility to rationalize. This part of David’s story in the Bible has never made sense for me not until post youth camp. Every after youth camp, the question I always ask myself as a leader is ‘what’s next?’

At this juncture, I believe that the Lord also tells us to “Pursue them” the same way that the Lord answered David with regard to his query of whether or not he should pursue the raiding party (the Amalekites) and overtake them. And what a wonderful promise of victory God has given to David and his men – “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”

I listened intently to the testimonies of the campers on the last night of the four-day camp, and my heart was crying especially to those whose parents are unbelievers because I once knew how it is to be a child to a set of one. It is not easy, I thought. Memories of that time when my father would come home so drunk especially during pay days and would start to become violent and that time when my mother mocked me for being ‘Buang (Crazy)-Again’ flashed in.

When the campers have retreated to their rooms that night and after I received instructions from one of the speakers of the camp, I caught sight of one of the campers who is dear to me. I approached him and had an intimate conversation with him. He has mentioned the same thing – that he almost was not able to join the camp because his father warned him not to because it is a ‘Born-Again’ religion activity. I put on a smile and explained how it is not about religion but about having a relationship with Jesus Christ.

During my devotion the following morning, the burden to pray for the parents was still in my heart. I continued to cry out to the Lord to rescue these young people and as well as their parents.

A day after the camp, I dropped a ‘hi’ to that camper in Facebook and asked him how he was. Eventually, he confided to me that his dad would not let him join the same camp next year anymore. I told him not to worry because there are still 365 days to spend for in prayer before next year’s camp. Things can and will change.

Everything that the enemy, the Amalekites, had taken was recovered when David and his men heeded of God’s green light signal to attack the enemy. The Bible tells us that nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl plunder or anything else they had taken. David was able to bring everything back.

All will share alike

The mission to pursue the enemy and rescue the people poses a challenge.

The challenge lies not on who they were fighting against. It is worth mentioning that the favor of the Lord really rests upon David because He has not given him to the hands of his enemies (particularly King Saul) and he even became a friend to his enemies (the Philistines). God even used an Egyptian slave of the Amalekites, who is a potential threat to David, to defeat the enemy.

The challenge lies among the circle of David himself. Not all men fought with David. When they reached Besor Ravine two hundred men chose to stay behind because they were too exhausted.

There were evil men and troublemakers too who do not want to share the plunder that they have successfully recovered to which David rebuked them telling them that: “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us. Who will listen to what you say? The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.”

I reckon that this must have been a long-time bad-attitude problem among his men because if it is not, then why did David ratify a statute and an ordinance with regard to this?

This is one of my reflections during the recently concluded Point of Difference youth camp.