Third-World WORLD -- Philippines

Market place at my hometown -- Castillejos, Zambales

Tricycles: personalized transport -- Castillejos, Zambales

School-yard snack shop -- Baguio

Quick-dry, sunshine fresh -- and free!

Market-place cat napper -- Zambales

Fancy-mancy burial grounds -- Olongapo

Fast food stand -- Zambales

Washing machine woman -- Castillejos, Zambales

Catholic souvenirs

Impromptu clothes line

Mobile ice cream shop -- Olongapo

Hardware shop for everything but the kitchen sink!

But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which GOD has prepared for those who love Him." (I Corinthians 2:9)

Were it not for GOD's gracious orchestration, i would still be in this Third-World world.

Imperial Beach -- my Nature Fix

i've been feeling homesick for GOD's nature for a couple weeks...my heart feeling little sharp jabs like a pin cushion.

i would see a fiery patch of late afternoon sky in between the roof tops...and wistfully imagine how that orange patch might look stretched out over unobstructed horizon.

Or a sunrise with blushing clouds through a dusty glass window...and i would press my nose to the glass to see what's beyond the neighbors' roofs.

Or a glowing sickle moon hanging in an already dark sky after a Zumba class...and i would remember other moonlit skies in the bush.

And i would feel compelled to be physically embraced by GOD's nature. So i finally decided to make time to be comforted -- to encourage myself in the LORD, through His creation...

By the tang of the ocean breeze...by the sight of waves foaming and curling...and eddies rippling.

i talked to fishermen on the pier, practicing my Tagalog with a wrinkled old man from San Narcisso, the little town just after Castillejos in Zambales, where i was born. i spoke rusty Spanish with another old man, who was using a net with mussels for bait. He had three (myself and a married couple, Indians from the Navajo tribe visiting from Arizona) as rapt audience each time he pulled up the net, twice with fish.

Then i checked out the "mussel farm" -- the fisherman's ready bait.

i took this photo of the sitting seagull, posing for me like a sitting duck (i like taking pictures of reflections...and i like reflecting at the beach).

Before i became a CHRISTian, i loved His marvelous handiwork, calling it Mother Nature, as if it were itself a god to be worshiped. Today, of course, i worship the Creator, and stand amazed at all His creation.

Here's a gift from above by way of the sea...though i did re-arrange it a little for this photo-op.

And another...someone else had drawn this, but i knew SPIRIT made me notice it so that my heart may be uplifted. And for me, the bottom line always -- it was from GOD.

This is usually how i put myself in the picture...and this is how i want all else in my life to be -- mere shadows compared to JESUS.