Day 1: Rest of the Day

Immediately after haircut

After breakfast, I had a haircut. There were 2 options - haircut in an airconditioned room or not. If it was in the air-conditioned room, the cut was P50. Cut in no air-conditioned room was P30. I choose the to have mine in a non-air-conditioned room.

I noticed my shoes had a rip on the side so I had to buy a new pair. Providentially, my sister called and asked if we wanted to go to the local version of Costco. My wife and son came with us. My mother went also with us. The traffic was horrendous!!! Really, 1.5 hours from La Loma to MOA!

We passed by Quiapo and saw the Church of the Black Nazarene. The Black Nazarene has millions of devotees who come to celebrate the feast in January. Manny Pacquiao,  former 8-title Boxing champion comes here after every fight to offer a mass.

Jollibee Champ

We went to have lunch at Jollibee!!! As in all Jollibees, the place was packed. I had the Champ (equivalent to Big Mac), my wife and son also had the Champ. My mother had chicken and mushroom pasta. My sister had chicken sandwich and the driver had lumpia shamghai lunch. All in all for 7 persons, we spent less than P800 (equivalent of less than CA$20)!!!

The servings were a disappointment except for the Champ - well, maybe for North American consumers it is a disappointment. Except for the Champ which is bigger than the Big Mac and tastes a lot better! (That's the hamburger with a double Yum!)

Panoramic view of Manila Bay

Then we went the Mall of Asia (MOA). It is HUGE! According to Forbes, it is one of the top 10 largest malls in the world. We got lost in it but managed to find our way. It has an arena in it and there's lots of stalls. Lots of food outlets, from Japanese, to Chinese, to regional Filipino restaurants. It even has an ice-skating rink. I was wondering if the Philippines would be able to get a hockey team to play in the Olympics - that would be 'cool'.

We went to look for my shoes but could not find one. So we had to walk around and wait for my sister. We went to the edge of the mall which overlooks the Manila Bay. Although this is in a reclaimed area, the Manila Bay was the scene of historic battles between the Spaniards and Filipinos with the Americans watching at the sidelines - waiting for the Filipinos to fight the Spaniards and then come in and swoop the victory off from the Filipinos. Filipino General Aguinaldo was really fooled that time. (2012-09-07 correction - the Manila Bay was where the Americans fought the Spaniards. The Americans however did sit it out and watched the Filipinos fight the Spaniards just to come in an swoop victory off the Filipinos).

Anyway, the place has the largest Ferris Wheel in the country. Did I mention it is also the largest Mall in the country?

We came home and it was raining very hard. We passed through Sta Cruz and the potholes are these still. It is the worst road in the country - probably. Large potholes every where. Add to that, jeepneys stopping any where to drop off and pick up passengers, you get a whole traffic jam. We went home and rested.

Passemgers getting off the jeepneeys

SM North EDSA

But I needed a new pair of shoes so my wife and I went to SM North EDSA, another one of the top 10 malls in the world. I was able to get a new pair of shoes.

One of the interesting things I saw was in their parkade. All the parking slots have a red and green light above it. Guess what these lights are for?

SM North EDSA Parkade

We came home and had dinner and I started to feel sleepy by 8pm. Took a bath and went to bed.

Manila: Day 1 Breakfast

Slept from around 2pm yesterday (5am Victoria time) until around 10:30 pm (1pm Victoria Time). Chatted w/ my family and then went back to sleep. Woke up around 3am and had some breakfast - left over lechon.

 Went to mass this morning and the priest was late. Mass was supposed to start at 6am but the priest came at 6:15. Today is the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. What a fitting feast day today for me. My first mass on my trip is in honor the saint who literally wrote the book on discernment.

Anyway, it was good to go to the old Church where I found my faith. It changed since the last time I was here. All the statues had been moved to the upper level as seen in the pictures. On the left are the statues of Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph. On the right are the statues of saints. This arrangement is quite interesting because when I see this, it reminds me that as we celebrate mass, we are literally surrounded by angels and saints even if we cannot see them.


The priest began with this: Ad Majorem Dei gloriam (For the greater glory of God). Indeed, as I wrote earlier, our purpose in life is to give glory to God. After the mass, he prayed Anima Christi which is an excellent prayer:

Blessed Sacrament Chapel

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ's side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints 
and with Thy angels
Forever and ever 
Amen 


After this, I visited the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. And came home for breakfast - corned beef with pan de sal and rice.

Looking forward to a beautiful day today!

Touchdown: Manila

The plane landed 2 hours after schedule. Not bad considering it left 3 hours late. The pilot probably drove the plane like a jeepney driver in Manila.

It was relatively a smooth ride but what do you do on a 13 hour flight but try to sleep and read and type on the computer. Sleeping was difficult considering the guy beside me kept bumping into me.

The landing was excellent - that you can expect from PAL pilots.

I was impressed with Terminal 2. It was new and clean but small though. Not sure why they had that built. What caught my attention was the note to something like, The NAIA is a no WangWang zone. Please fall in line. Well for one, that is a change. None of the faces of shameless politicians.

In any case, I arrived safely. My brother picked me up. There was no traffic because there was no school. The wind was strong, I saw the wave pounding the shoreline on Roxas Blvd.

I went to see my mom first. She was surprised to see me, then to my sister and then to my wife and kids. It`s good to see them. Lunch was special - Pancit ng mga taga Malabon - made in Kalookan. How can it be from Malabon if it was made in Kalookan. But does not matter - it tasted so good!!!

Had a nap and woke up at 10:30 pm! Still on Victoria time. Had dinner (or is it breakfast) lechon and rice. Now time to go back to sleep.

Victoria to Vancouver to Manila

Flight schedule showing delay

I am here at the airport. The flight is delayed for 3 hours!!! It was scheduled to fly at 12:30 am but now, it`s scheduled to fly at 03:35 am. It's almost 12 midnight and thankfully, the airline provided a $15 voucher to use for meals. I was really hungry.

The day started quite well. Woke up at around 5am and prepared for my trip. Since my trip is on a Sunday, I will need to attend the Saturday anticipated mass. I had to make sure that should I miss that - I get dispensation from my pastor which he gave me.

My food - Shitake Mushroom
and Shrimp Noodle

My nephew and I caught the 12 noon ferry. We rode one of the Celebration ships and it was the first time I ate at their cafeteria. We arrived in Richmond at around 2:30 pm. I had a short nap and we went for mass at 5pm.

The readings were about Elisha's the feeding of the 100 and Jesus' feeding of the multitude.

The theme seemed to coincide nicely with my morning reading of John 14:1, "Do not be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me." Maybe this is going to be the theme of my trip. It is quite funny that when I give a talk I always tell my listeners to trust in the Lord, yet when it is told to me, I find it quite difficult to do this myself.

But trust in the Lord, I must. This will eventually lead me to what God has planned. It really does not matter what I think. Elisha told his disciple to give the bread to the 100 and his disciple objected at first. But when he obeyed, God worked a miracle.

Obedience is the key that unlocks the power of God. So obey I must. Ultimately, it is the Lord's will that gives life.

My nephews and niece were gracious hosts. We went to a restaurant and had dinner. For 4 people, we did not even spend $40! We went back to their place and I took a bath before coming to the airport. My nephew and niece brought me to the airport and stayed with me until I went into the boarding area.

The line up was long. It took us more than 1 hour to check in. By 10:30 pm, I was able to come to the boarding area.

Here`s the $15 voucher:

Here`s what I bought:

And this is where I am now – still 2 hours or so left.

Prologue

Many may wonder why the title is Seeking God's Face.

This trip is meant to be a rest for me. It has been a while since I took a long vacation. Rest is an opportunity to get a glimpse of God's perfection. One thing I learned years ago is that when one is searching for something, that person is really searching for God. 


God created us with an inherent desire for him. Some people know this but sad to say, a lot do not. Whether we know it or not, we search for God and to paraphrase St. Augustine, "our souls are restless until it rests in you." 


In the busy-ness of work and daily routine activities, there is a tendency to forget that our purpose in life is not to be successful or to be rich. It is also not only to be happy. But we were created to give glory to God. This is possible only when one stops and remembers the source of all good things and to seek the person who gave the things rather than the things. The Lord promised "every one who seeks finds". This promise is for everyone (believers, non-believers, sinner or saint) - no exceptions. And even now, I claim that promise. 


This vacation is my search for God's face. It is a time for me to get a deeper glimpse of God's perfection. Rest comes not because of getting time off from work or from sleep. But rest comes by finding Jesus. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 12:28). 


I plan to use this blog to write down interesting things that happened to me in my trip - not only the spiritual things but even other things. I'm looking forward to enjoying food, food, food!!! plus some time with family and friends.


My trip begins tomorrow - technically Sunday at 00:30. Looking forward to it. 


Adveniat regnum tuum!