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| My birthday outfit :) |
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| Swimming treat with my Home church family :) |
A few days after, I had a surprise party with Peace Church.
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| Peace Church/EYSA party! |
The following day, we had a staff development trip in the office, and I enjoyed a three-day vacation in the beach with a lot of food and fun. On our last day was a delicious treat with my officemates at a fantastic seafood restaurant. On the last day of May, we had a super awesome treat with pizza and fun. Kaye (my officemate whose birthday was a week before mine) and I decided to end the month-long birthday celebration with a treat.
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| Bonding with office mates and their families :) |
Last month was also full of blessing as my eldest sister, Remilyn, finished her Master's degree from the University of the Philippines-Open University.
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| With my sister :) |
A week after that, my older brother finished his Bachelor's Degree in Ministerial Studies from the Word of Life Bible Institute. Mother's Day celebration also fell on the same day as my birthday, I couldn't ask for more!
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| On my brother's graduation day (missing my other sister and younger brother) |
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| With my brother! |
Also part of the blessed month is a time with my bestfriends and some youth leaders from the Mennonite church in Manila. We spent over night at the Barkman residence in Two Serendra. There we celebrated my birthday, updated each other, dreamt together, chatted, and laughed a lot!
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| A fun-filled overnight experience! |
Because the end of the month was awesome, I thought it's going to be a great welcome for the month of June too. On 31st of May, around 8:15PM, I was chatting with Christina and Ate Kriz at Unit 509 B, Two Serendra. Ate Kriz and I were supposed to go to the mall and shop, but then we chatted a bit, sat down for a while and enjoyed our conversation. Just seconds after we thought we should leave, we heard a loud explosion and felt the whole building shook. I literally felt that the couch I was sitting on bounced. I saw the main door flew open and I glimpsed a flash of red, which I thought was fire. The door flew shut again, and it took us around five seconds to react.
We were shocked and clueless of what happened. Darnell and Cody were in the basement watching a basketball game, and Makai was sound asleep in his room. Christina immediately thought of getting out of the house. I tried to open the door to figure out what's going on, but I couldn't open it. The pressure from the explosion was too much, and the door frames in the building shifted. We went outside to the balcony but realized we didn't have an emergency way out from the balcony [too bad :( ] Christina was in panic, thinking of Darnell and Cody, and how they were doing in the basement. We were crying out for help, but it seemed that even the guards were shocked and didn't know what to do.
Smoke was coming inside the house through the windows, and I was already coughing and my eyes hurt. I tried to open the door again and it finally did! There were shattered glasses at the door entrance (clueless where they came from), so we remembered to wear shoes before getting out of the house. Christina already got Makai and remembered to wear shoes. I grabbed my bag which I was supposed to bring with me to the mall (luckily with my phone and wallet). Ate Kriz, the analytical thinker, thought of grabbing her laptop bag, and so she got her computer, phone, and wallet.
We ran out of the house, took the stairs, and immediately ran to the basement, where we found Darnell and Cody who had no idea what happened outside. They only heard the loud explosion. Then there was commotion, everybody wondering what happened and the after a few small conversations with people, we decided to stay at Fully Booked, where we could sit down and think of what to do.
After a couple of minutes, we went back to Serendra and some good friends led us to another friend's unit where we could safely spend the night together. Sarah and Steve's hospitality helped us have a good night rest, despite of the trauma and a bunch of people sending text messages and calling us.
In about an hour, the news has already spread on Facebook, Twitter, and TV. My family heard of it on TV news, but I immediately informed them of what happened and how we were doing.
The following day, Saturday, I had to go to work for a meeting, which is also good because I could get clothes from the office (where I live). Telling the story to my officemates also helped me in a way to release the trauma we experienced the previous night.
The Barkmans and Ate Kriz didn't have anything to with them, except what they were wearing. Luckily, friends lent some clothes and they went shopping for some basic needs.
Yesterday (four days after the explosion), they were able to get inside their unit for a couple of minutes to grab everything they wanted from inside the house. The whole building is still restricted, and only a few people could get in, with strict supervision.
So now, I have my computer back with me, and some clothes that I left there when the explosion happened. The Barkmans are doing well and feeling great with the love and care they feel from the people around them. Ate Kriz is working as usual, and all of us are analyzing and realizing the huge difference of what a crisis means to the rich and the poor in this country.
This explosion, though inconvenient and traumatic, has opened doors for ministry and witnessing as followers of Jesus in this high-end part of the country. We hope and pray that in the coming days, we would effectively show the love of Christ, the comfort and peace, as we also struggle in how we would make decisions from day to day.
I am pretty sure that this month, which started with an explosion, would be a blast!
Thanks for the prayers, everyone!
