Roxanne Needs Us!

I am not one to judge a book by its cover. But when I first saw a picture of Roxanne, the first thought that came to mind was Beauty. That was over 6 years ago, when I first met her older sister, C. C and I were part of an e-parenting group and shared parenting tips and secrets over emails. We eventually found ourselves closer friends than ever when we got together to help out a "friend" who was then starting out in show business. Today, C is one of my trusted and closest friends.

Roxanne is anything but ordinary. This chinita lady has features that make young men take that second look, and rightly so, as she is a beautiful girl. You'd, however, be surprised to find out that Roxanne has autism because her beauty overwhelms the beholder. Yes, she was diagnosed at age 3. Since then, she has been schooled at Teacher-Mom, a special school that caters to special needs. It was in school that they saw bowling potential in her. Thus, she was taught proper form and technique. The rest is history.

Today, Roxanne is a top bowler in her field. She has represented our country in special bowling tournaments, and have taken home medal after medal.

2010 SPECIAL OLYMPICS NATIONAL BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP (Starmall, Mandaluyong City)
GOLD MEDALIST - Singles
GOLD MEDALIST - Doubles
GOLD MEDALIST - Team

2010 EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER’S FOUNDER’S CUP

Champion

2009 SPECIAL OLYMPICS NATIONAL BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP (Pangasinan)
GOLD MEDALIST - Singles
GOLD MEDALIST - Doubles
GOLD MEDALIST - Team

2008 FIRST UNIFIED INVITATIONAL GAMES (Baguio City)
GOLD MEDALIST - Team

2007 SPECIAL OLYMPICS WORLD SUMMER GAMES (Shanghai, China)
SILVER MEDALIST - Singles
GOLD MEDALIST - Doubles
BRONZE MEDALIST - Team

2006 SOP NATIONAL BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP
GOLD MEDALIST - Singles
GOLD MEDALIST - Doubles
GOLD MEDALIST - Team

2005 SOP NATIONAL BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP
GOLD MEDALIST - Singles
GOLD MEDALIST - Doubles
GOLD MEDALIST - Team

2005 SPECIAL OLYMPICS SINGAPORE NATIONAL BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP
SILVER MEDALIST - Singles
GOLD MEDALIST - Doubles

2004 10th SOP NATIONAL GAMES
GOLD MEDALIST - Singles
GOLD MEDALIST - Doubles
SILVER MEDALIST - Team

2003 WORLD SPECIAL OLYMPICS SUMMER GAMES (Dublin, Ireland)
GOLD MEDALIST - Singles
GOLD MEDALIST - Doubles
GOLD MEDALIST - Team

2002 4th SPECIAL OLYMPICS ASIAN INVITATIONAL COMPETITION (Malaysia)
GOLD MEDALIST - Singles
BRONZE MEDALIST - Team

Rox or Bruski, as she is fondly called by friends, will be representing the Philippines once again at this year's World Special Olympics Summer Games, happening in June and IN GREECE! Sadly, our country's special athletes receive NO FUNDING from government (if there are funds, Roxanne hasn't received a single centavo). Although Roxanne and her friends are members of SPABA*, we have learned that the athletes need to raise funds on their own, as monetary help from the Philippines' Special Olympics Organization trickle, if at all, to their subsidiaries. Rox has even resorted to making and selling special paper cards to fund her participation in competitions! One of her supporters is Arnold "Igan" Clavio, who once organized a special Wish Ko Lang event to support Roxanne's endeavors in bowling.

In order for special athletes like Rox to represent the Philippines in Greece, they have to seek help from private citizens like you and me. Funding is no joke, especially since we are talking about airfare amounting to approximately $1,200! Yes, and that's just for the plane tickets and travel taxes alone.

Let us not forget our special athletes! They bring home the gold and make us proud!

To support Roxanne Ng, you may get in touch with Cinderella Ng-Choa via email. Or contact Roxanne's head coach, Ma. Cristina Gacuma (Director, SPECIAL OLYMPICS PHILIPPINES) at 0917.8377092 or via landline at 824-2851. You may also email her through spaba.phil@gmail.com or through teachermomspecialschool@yahoo.com. Please indicate that you are sponsoring Roxanne Ng for the 2011 World Special Olympics Summer Games.

To get updates on Roxanne Ng, check out her Facebook Page here. To know more about Teacher-Mom Special School, visit them on Facebook here or check them out on Multiply here.

* SPECIAL ATHLETES BOWLING ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES (SPABA), INC. is an organization devoted to promoting the sport of tenpin bowling among special athletes, among other things. SPABA is under the umbrella of Special Olympics Philippines, Inc., an affiliate of Special Olympics International founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver. All organizations are non-stock, non-profit, humanitarian organization created to help individuals with intellectual disability achieve their potentials through an organized year-round program of sports training, athletes' competition and recreation and its affiliate.

Be Encouraged!

This made me tear up. Charlyne Cares Weekly is a free devotional from Rejoice Marriage Ministries. To subscribe to their devotional, sign up at www.rejoiceministries.org.

"Stop Looking At Your Circumstances!"

Are you tired of all the turmoil in your life? Are you tired of all your marriage problems that you are facing today? How often are you tempted to throw in the towel and give up on your marriage ever being restored, since the circumstances seem impossible? Do not be afraid. Trust in your Lord. God can bring good out of your marriage problems, trials or tribulations that you are going through if you will obey the Lord.

Today I was very distressed when I was reading our email. It seemed that every email I opened the bottom line was: "My circumstances are unbelievable." I read email throughout this week that says: "My pastor or associate pastor or counselor or pastor's wife or attorney say that I need to let my spouse go. One pastor said, 'I do not see a future for you and your spouse.' Another pastor said: 'Get a divorce, your spouse has committed adultery. You have the escape clause in Matthew 19.'" I read the next email which said: "I don't think I can handle much more pain and rejection. I was the one that caused our marriage problems so my spouse feels 'justified' and is carrying a lot of unforgiveness." Other standers this week have been saying, "I hurt too much. My spouse says that they are happy and never coming home. My spouse is going to Divorce Recovery. I am too wounded and tired to fight any more. When do you just listen to everyone else and give up? What should I do?"

My prayer is that you will learn to "Stop looking at your circumstances and listening to everyone else, except the Holy Spirit, the greatest Counselor!" I learned at the beginning of my stand it was all about the power of God and God's plan for my marriage and family.

Do you know our testimony? I divorced Bob. I went to my pastor and told him "everything." I told him from beginning to end, even though Bob had repented previously and I had forgiven him. I brought everything back up! I listened to my pastor as he said Bob was never go to change! Yes, my pastor said that. Why? I believe all pastors hurt for the husbands and wives who are going through so many horrible circumstances of marriage problems. Instead of believing for sinners' hearts to be touched and changed and then for marriage restoration, they are giving the hurting spouses an easy way out. They are not living in faith, hope and believing in God's Word for daily living. May you and I always pray for all the Men of God who have such a huge responsiblity being the pastor as the spiritual leader for God's children in God's church.

In reality, Bob did not want the divorce. He was trying to speak reconciliation, but I did not believe him anymore. My heart had become hardened. I had an appointment to go back and speak to our pastor. Bob arrived and our associate pastor told Bob he would have to leave. Bob was devastated. He wanted to talk to both the pastor and myself to work out how we could restore our marriage. The enemy had now blinded me to not believing Bob's heart had softened and was repentant. Just imagine if the associate pastor had taken Bob into his office and opened up God's Word and ministered God's mercy, grace and forgiveness to him. Our divorce may have been stopped forever in 1985. Divorce is still an epidemic in our churches! We need to continue to proclaim to others every day, God does heal hurting and dead marriages!

How was our marriage restored? Bob started dating and going on with his life. But God! Two months after our divorce and me crying out to the Lord every day for the pain in my heart, God sent a couple to our church with a restored marriage. They spoke their testimony to our church family for two services. God is so faithful. He knew my heart and knew I had been deceived by the lies of the enemy, satan. That night my spiritual journey started.

What is the answer for your marriage, your future, your fears, and your hopelessness? Let me share a scripture that the Lord gave me at the beginning of my stand:

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." Mark 11:22-25

What I learned and still teach now is that you personally must "Let go and let God" move your mountain of circumstances. You cannot move or beg or manipulate any of your circumstances. Your response is living a life of faith and obedience in what you know you must do by praising and praying daily. Start each day by reading God's Word. Then put the Armor of God on yourself, your husband or wife and children. Always be sensitive and ready to be obedient to what the Lord may tell you to do. For the Maker is your husband for this season of your life.

"Let go and let God" deal with your husband or wife and all your marriage problems you may be facing right now. May I suggest that you lay all your problems at the foot of the Cross and surrender everything to your Lord for Him to handle them in His perfect will and way daily. Then ask the Lord to help you be a lighthouse wherever you may work or play.

What does the Lord say to you right now? Did Jesus die on the cross for all sinners? How can we ever forget about all the miracles our Lord did here on earth? Have we forgotten about the prodigal son and Saul who was touched by the Lord on the Damascus Road and he was changed and transformed into a man of God to preach the Gospel who was previously torturing Christians? (Acts 9). Is anything too hard for God? Our ministers, priests or rabbis are God's messengers to present the Gospel and to minister God's Word to their flock of sheep. Due to their lack of knowledge of marriage restoration, there are some who have accepted divorce in their churches and are putting your marriage into a casket when the Lord is speaking marriage restoration, love, faith, hope and trust to you personally!

Listen to what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you over and over again. Seek the Lord for His personal answer for your own covenant marriage. Will you remove all your doubt and unbelief and choose to believe for your marriage, your financial problems, for your teenagers' problems and even for your own health problems?

Do not give up on your Lord God! Do not grumble and complain to your Lord about all your circumstances. He knows and sees everything. May you and I never forget the Word of God as we glean wisdom, knowledge and guidance that we need to apply to our daily lives from its pages. Allow Him to fight your daily battles by you praying and "letting go and letting God" turn your circumstances around to good. You need to believe and deepen your faith, trust, knowledge and understanding of God's mighty power which will help you pick up your cross and follow the Lord all the way to your marriage being restored.

Today do not give up on your Lord God. In fact - stop looking at your circumstances! Yes, you may be hurting and bleeding due to the attacks of the enemy, but cry out to your Lord. Choose to surrender your will and way to His divine plan and purpose in your life and marriage. Never give up on what the Lord can do for your marriage or someone else's marriage you are praying for. Pick up your cross and follow your Lord's instructions. There is victory in Jesus Christ! He will direct your steps into victory. In the future, you will be able to share the power of your Lord Jesus Christ in restoring and rebuilding your marriage to many others if you will wait for your miracle of marriage restoration!

He shall say: "Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." Deuteronomy 20:3-4

Piso for Your Thoughts

I am thinking I should re-publish all those blog posts I hid back in 2009. I mean, looking at my blog history on the sidebar, parang how sad naman that I only have few posts up for view. I have tons hidden - due to privacy, controversy, bitter and anger content, etc.

So should I? What do you think?

A's Lunch Today

A has been asking for Spam. It's been a while since she's had any. We try to limit our processed food intake to a monthly treat (but yea, more like a weekly treat in my house O_o). So decided I was going to be nice and give in to her wish.

I wasn't able to make her bento lunch yesterday. We were running late. RL has been having a hard time sleeping at night, due to odd nap hours in the office. He should be napping by 1pm, but lately, he's been staying up 'til 4pm, napping 'til past 6pm. So it takes a while (a long while!!!) to get him to sleep at night. Tuesday night, he was awake 'til 230am of Wednesday (nyar).

So yea, the early-morning-bird in me was JUST A PHASE. LOL! I'm back to the night-owl-K.

Today, I tried to make her lunch extra special. I still need to dig out my new bento stash (still in boxes from the move). I was thinking of doing a Hello Kitty-themed lunch. I have bread presses that are fun to use. So I used the small bread cutters on the Spam slices to make silhouettes of Kitty and her friend Bear.

Hello Kitty and Bear Spam slices. Cute, no?

I planned on doing just bread and Spam. But my daughter is a rice person. When I mentioned I was making her Hello Kitty bread, she looked at me and said "But mom, I want rice!" LOL. So I made Spam Fried Rice to go with her extra Spam pieces, and limited the bread to a few pieces (for extra cuteness lang, hehe).

2-yolk egg for the Spam Fried Rice.

So there. Hello Kitty Spam on a bed of Spam Fried Rice, with a few pieces of Hello Kitty and Bear bread for extra cuteness. LOL!

RL thinks Bear is Special Agent Oso. Pwede!

Close Up. Sorry, old phone cam again. (Must get an S95 soon!)