After one and half month of having a vacation in the Philippines, we are glad to be back here in Thailand!
Have i mentioned that I, Karisse & Joy have moved in a new place? This is about 4 hour-drive from Hatyai.
With our new surroundings, new school, new students & co-workers, new house and new challenges & experiences in life, in Him we give Praise and in Him we put our Trust!
Though our place is quite far from our church now, i am thankful that we could still manage to be there once in a while. And last Friday, after having our last period in school, Joy, Karisse and I took a van going to Hatyai because the Eksilah team was invited to dance in a wedding celebration of Nutch & K.They are members of the church and we have seen their relationship growing as time pass by. We are happy and we do celebrate with them as they take another step to this next level in their lives as one.
By the way, this is my first time to witness a wedding celebration here in Thailand. I am amazed how extravagant they celebrate this occasion compared to ours in the Philippines.
We supposed to dance in the ceremony which was held in the church but since that was Friday and we are working teachers, we sadly declined the invitation. But, thankfully they had 3 celebrations. First in the church til lunch then at the groom's house for their dinner and then finally, whole day of Saturday was in the Bride's house! wowww..just wow! can't imagine how much the groom spent for this... coz i heard, it was the groom who spent..mhh not sure though.. :))) so much for that...
So we had accepted the invitation to dance in the Bride's house since we didn't have class during Saturdays.
Here are the videos of our two dances! :))) Had Practice on this last Friday night and for a short time in Saturday morning then presented these in the afternoon! :D i wanna make excuses again for our mistakes..hahahah... :) but yah, am glad we did these two dances in spite of our very limited time in making the steps and memorizing them... :) Glory to God!
I could sing of Your love forever in Thai lyrics
and this...
Happy Day by the Jesus Culture but this is in Thai Version..
So much fun! yeh we did have fun and very grateful for the opportunity in sharing the gospel in many people through these songs because for sure people understood the message since it was in Thai. Praise God!
Some pics we had.
a pose before going to the venue: Nafia, Whan, Maureen, Karisse, Mimi, Faith, Joy & I
BY the way, we have two new members in our team, Maureen & Mimi. They are new teachers here in Thailand. Glad to have them in our group!
A farther view
A pose with the couple!
A pose with the couple and with our Pastor, Ajarn Simon in Yellow shirt and with the other members of the church.
Im back! :) After 2 months of not posting, excited to open up my point of view about tambourine dancing and also to post this tambourine dance video of our young people from our local church in the Philippines as they bagged as the Champion this year. Praise God!
I had mentioned in my early post last 2013 that we always have a National Youth Camp in Davao City during summer. This is one of the biggest activities that the ECOFI holds every month of April.
One of the contests during this camp is theTambourine Dancing. I was one of the participants on this contest since this had begun... but i stopped joining this when i was already working because i helped the office of the NYO. We have this rule that if you will be one of the officers, you wont be allowed to join any contests. So, i have no choice than to stop my eagerness in dancing during competitions. :D well, that is also to give chance to the others...:))
Even before, a lot of intrigues came in. Just like, why do we make the tambourine dancing a competion? As they said, this is for worship. Why do we have this very expensive contest without any big amount as cash prize for the winners after the camp? (Expensive in the sense that we really spend a lot in the costumes and other props.)
Before, i kept ignoring these questions. But there really came a point that i asked myself and tried scavenging some answers within me. Without hypocrisy, I had this in mind. I did join because
-i want to develop my skills in dancing,
-i want to win,
-i want to challenge myself that if they can do it so i can do it too
-i want to be acknowledged that I am a good dancer.
For sure other dancers would agree with me on this list. But a big part of me seemed to be frustrated to these very shallow answers i had. Are these really the reasons why i joined in? how was the feeling when people said, i wasn't a good dancer coz i did mistakes ....how was the feeling when we didn't win and realized that "i cannot do what they can do" because they are really better???? the answer was FRUSTRATION!
No wonder when we didnt win, we murmored!.. "the judges weren't good..the judges were unfair! we won't join in next time!;( " these scenario really happened... very SAD! :(
Tired of this feelin, decided to go back to the author of all the answers, asking Him whats the purpose of these dances that i am into. I only get this answer. "Dance because you LoVE ME"...
The bible says in Matthew 22:37
"And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
Until, we understand that we do things because we Love HIM, frustrations will always be on our way. I am thankful that i was led to make this realization before i fall fully to this dread of frustrations.
I will dance because I LOVE HIM! So, why worry of the expectations from other people and even from myself? why worry if i won't really the best in the eyes of these people? God always LOVES me regardless of what other people would think or even on what I think? Dance without comparing yourself to others.. Dance because you LOVE Him.
When we love Him, we do our best for Him.
When we love Him, we focus our mind on Him.
When we love Him, we accept with all our hearts what He has given to us and what is meant for us.
We should understand that we have this "competion" not to win the eyes of the people but to win the Heart of God. I should not even say that to win the heart of God cause there is nothing that we can do to make Him love us because He is simply the author of love. He loves us unconditionally.
Having this kind of activity in the camp, develops our attitude of humbleness when we are at the top and develops our sportsmanship when we are at the bottom....how gracious we are in accepting defeats? It is more than what we could see in our eyes outwardly. we have this as a competion to be the spring board in learning lessons in life. If we put this in mind, we would be thinking and doing things for His glory alone and not for ourselves.
One more thing ....Before i end......for me this is very important!
Yes, we should not focus on what the people would think but focus on what God
would feel when He is watching while we are dancing. i wanna emphasize this ones and for all, because i am sickened and saddend on watching dances that portrays lustful actions specially in Tambourine Dancing. I wonder God would be really happy on watching our dances if people won't be blessed on the moves we made as they have portrayed lustful actions???? with costumes that show-off more of the flesh???? What are lustful actions??? well, something is wrong with you when you don't know what i mean! "costumes" that ignites the lustful thoughts of a person???? i dont know if my term is correct, but i have seen a lot. I am not pointing only to some of the dances in our camp but in general. (My apology of mentioning this) But it is true... :( i don't know how do this kind or ways in tambourine dancing seemed to be going on the other side of its real track.
The actions we make would show that we LOVE Him! These movements should be worshipping the
sovereign God, the Holy One, -the Great King and not a show for those who are in the rated bars! My heart bleeds as i am watching some dances that convey the people to think badly.
I am addressing this specially to the choreographers or trainors. When we make dances, let us not forget to pray and ask the HOly Spirit to guide us in making actions. I don't consider myself as a perfect dancer or the best choreographer...not even a tip of it..neither a professional one but this is what God has empressed to me. And even I, God has continually checking my heart as i dance or as i make dances. I am in awe of Him!
If you are convicted on this post, i pray that God would help you in accepting these truths. If you think I am wrong, my respect to your point and i hope you would respect mine too.
This post is done not to look down others but to help. If this isn't helping any, just let go of these mumblings of mine.
Oh yah, i almost forget, this is the video of our district tambourine dancers. Using the song "Our God's Not Dead" by the Newsboys.
They won as the the champion on this year's camp in Tambourine Dancing... my Congratulations to them. They were trained by my sister Joy. Glory to God! Happy to witness these young ladies growing up now.
Yes!!!!!! YES-Hatyai had its 1st Anniversary already... a year of blessings!
What is YES-Hatyai?
"YES! - Hatyai" is the acronym of Youth Empowerment Service in Hatyai. It is a Youth Ministry under the Cornerstone Chapel Hatyai.
YES!-Hatyai dreams to establish a youth ministry whose members cleave to a strong sense of purpose to serve God and His people through their God given gifts and talents.
It aims to empower the youth and prepare them for the work of service through regular Bible study meetings, discipleship training, mentoring, and in fellowshiping with one another.
We thank God for what He has done in the lives of the youth through this ministry. I am thankful to be part of this.
And yah last February 2 we celebrated its 1st Anniversary. Actually the exact date that it started was January 27, 2013. But since February is a heart month, we decided to join these two events last Sunday. :) so we had this.... "1st YES Anniversary & Heart Day Special Celebration"
Part of the program was the opening salvo by the Eksilah dance Team. and yahhhhh..we presented the dance "Joy Unspeakable" of Mandisa.
if we had the "GOD GIRL" of Jamie Grace last year, now here's the "JOY UNSPEAKABLE" of Mandisa. another memorable dance that we have! :)
LOL! no mastery as usual but still had fun... :))
Some pics..
A pose with our Pastor, Ajarn Simon and his wife Ajarn Liz
after the celebration
eating time!!!
activities during the celebration..
Ajarn Liz- the speaker of the event. Talking about the 4 kinds of LOVE! :)
fixing a broken heart by the ladies!
fixing a broken heart by the gentlemen!
and the winners are the ladies headed by this gorgeous lady, Donna! :)
another game: strings with hearts at the ends....partners are those holding on the same string! :))))
another activity that we had... Dear FUTURE Husband! wherever you are........ :)))) the letter will be given to their future husband or future wife on the night after the wedding! Had a prayer declaration as well that this letter should really reach to the right person that God has prepared for each one.
Ken: Dear Future Wife! ....:))
Joy: Dear FUTURE Husband! :))
Genebei on her testimony on the importance of waiting for the right one, translated by Ajarn Liz in thai.
Wann and Ken, on-the-spot "HEART SKIT" :)))
this is the first part of the fixing-a-broken-heart game... getting each piece of the heart in front :)))
and this... :)) speaks about patience and endurance while waiting..:))
-The invitation- :))
Indeed the celebration was successful and with a lot of learning about waiting for the right partner at the right time!
Happy 1st Anniversary YES! and HAPPY Heart's Day to all! :)
Excited to post this first dance that we have for this year 2014!
Starting with this song of Mandisa, "Joy Unspeakable". This is the other song that I like from her. Actually, I like all of her songs! why? because the messages of the songs are really encouraging.
How i wish to make dances in all of her songs even the "slow" songs like "what scars are for", "the distance" and "Just cry" because...i can relate to each one of it! :)......yeppp maybe next time..
But this time, we have this "Joy Unspeakable" as we will gonna use this dance this coming Sunday, the 2nd of February for the 1st Anniversary of YES-Hatyai (Youth Gathering in our church here in Cornerstone that we usually have it every last Sunday of the month) and the Heart's Day Special celebration for the youth in the church.
We really just started practicing this dance last Saturday with the other members of the team.. others were busy so, we really had this dance tutorial after church before we went home, for them to practice in their house and hopefully we can have our final rehearsal on Saturday afternoon.. :)
Even i, ..........i don't master really this dance yet..hhahah...but we will just try our best to have this on Sunday...
so here it is.... after our "OVERCOMER Dance"...presenting to you our dance tutorial for this song
"Joy Unspeakable".. :) Sorry for the mess up... :( got to do this fast...
and here's the whole dance with the song of Mandisa... mmh..yah sorry others can't view this..i don't really know what to do so this could be viewed by others in their tabs or ipads or phone... mmmhh.. well, just view it on your laptops or desktops ...:)))) i think it will work...
mmhhh... just let me post this... this was my first attempt on this dance last Thursday night after connecting all the dance steps... :))
Hope you will learn this dance as well, but yah feel free to change the actions if you don't like it.
And our prayers that as you learn this dance, may you always declare the unspeakable joy that we have in Christ.. the joy that we have in Him that cannot be compared to anything on this world.
oh yah before i end, let me share this last vid....
before shooting this dance tutorial, we had this "glass clap" which we just learned last Saturday... actually this isn't the original song.. we just use this song "Hungry" co'z we don't know how to sing that original song and we are more comfortable to have this 'hungry" song.. we didn't master this yet too.LOL.;))
but the thing is the fun being together as we practice... :))
I just can't let this night pass without posting my first "post" for 2014.. :)
Surprising indeed this day! as we arrived in the house from our job this afternoon, got this news from a friend that we are featured by Mandisa in her Facebook account because of our dance "Overcomer" which is originally sang by her.
We praise God to that as we didn't really expect that it will be noticed by her and by the other people on the other side of the world. It makes us really happy knowing that many people are blessed on this dance. indeed this song is very inspiring!
With this "unspeakable joy", we always remind ourselves that it is not for our fame but for God's glory alone. We continue to declare that all Praises be unto the King!
Speaking of "Unspeakable Joy", ....... "JOY UNSPEAKABLE" is one of the songs of Mandisa that i was thinking the other night which will be our next project for the upcoming celebration this February. Praying that God would speak to us more through this song and give us wisdom as we make the dance steps for this.
For now, i am settled on this! the excitement of hearing that Mandisa might come here in Thailand is overflowing in the brim of our hearts.... :)
We would really love to see you here Mandisa as you inspire us always with your songs and with your life! May His glory shine upon you as always!
Allow me to posts all our "Overcomer" dance performances here... as we didn't start the "Unspeakable Joy" yet... :)
We dedicate these dances to God and to all our fellowmen in the Philippines who are currently affected by the typhoon Agaton and those who were affected by the typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan....we encouraged you our "kababayans" ....don't give up, don't give in... we will all overcome these trials in our lives and in our country through Christ who strengthens us! God bless you Philippines....praying for you!
