Straight From Pastor Ey

“Money is not worth fighting about.” Image source: Keys to Happy Marriage Ambie Bulos, spouse of the editor-in-chief of “Money Sense” magazine, underscored this in their  “Money Sense Live! Family Finance 101” seminar organized by Learning Curve. Her husband, Heinz, pointed out that couples fight over money because they have “ different money personalities” (probably, the husband is a storer while the wife is a spender), they value money differently, “both parties [wanted] to take charge or one is clueless or not interested”, “both parties still live as if they’re single”, they have “difficulty trusting” each other and they are irresponsible. The key is that the couples should see themselves as “one unit” as described in Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” (NIV) For example, they may handle money unlike each other. But unity is not uniformity. Husband and wife just need to agre...

“It’s like watching the stock market,” one of our members texted referring to my son’s platelet count. As you may know, Jessey is in the hospital due to dengue since Wednesday (August 19). His platelet count seems more like the prices of oil, only this time in reverse. It goes down fast but goes up ever so slowly. From 200,000, it slid down to 93,000 then 73,000 till it crashed to 33,000 low before stabilizing at that number. Then, it inched up to 43,000 the next day. As of the last blood test result Saturday morning, it went up a notch higher at 46,000. The doctor assured that it’s a positive trend though it is an uphill climb. God willing, Jessey will be released from the hospital soon, the earliest would be Sunday afternoon. On behalf of our entire family, allow me to appreciate all of our brothers and sisters for your overwhelming support in prayer. It is an opportunity for us all to trust God. Our cell phones kept on ringing due to encouraging calls and text messages. My Facebo...

“What are the factors behind the success of the world’s wealthiest self-made tycoons”? Wilson Lee Flores posed this question in his “Bull Market, Bull Sheet” opinion column (Source: Philippine Star ). Screen grab of The Philippine Star website  He then shared his gleanings from W. Randall Jones’ “The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth.” These are “the inside secrets of America’s self-made millionaires culled from the author’s interviews with the richest self-made tycoons… None of those interviewees inherited their fortune or CEOs of a major Fortune 500 firm.” (Ibid) Among those that Jones interviewed were Microsoft’s Bill Gates , FedEx’s Frederick Smith and Nike’s Phil Knight . (Clockwise from left) Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Nike’s Phil Knight. Image source: The Philippine Star There are those who argue that in order to get ahead in life or business, one must cheat, lie or steal. They scoff at those who would mix the...

To reword a Chinese saying, “The strength of the nation depends upon the strength of its marriages.” This week I participated in the recent 6th National Convention of Solemnizing Officers (6NCSO) spearheaded by the National Statistics Office. One of those that caught my attention was the alarming, growing statistics on the breakup or dissolution of marriages. Last month, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) decried “that there were 7,753 annulment cases filed in 2007 and 7,138 filed in 2006. Prior to that year, the annulment cases had supposedly never breached the 7,000 mark. ” (Here in the Philippines, we have annulment of marriages, not divorce.) But “it is very likely that the number of petitioner for annulments of marriages is much larger” . One reason was that supposedly the petitioners must provide copies to the OSG and the Provincial or City Prosecutor’s Office. The OSG represents the State in contesting those cases “by preventing collusion between the parties, or the fabr...

From http://inquirer.net/ “Tita” (Auntie) Cory, as former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino was fondly called, drew her last breath yesterday, August 1, 2009, at 3:18 A.M., after a brief but brave fight against the big C. She was 76. The news of her death even upstaged the news about the recent meeting between our President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and US President Barrack Obama. She was not only our first woman president in the Philippines (serving from February 1983 to June 1992) but also Asia’s. She was Time Magazine’s Woman of the Year in 1986. She “will be remembered as an icon of democracy, having led a military-backed popular revolt in 1986 that ousted a dictator who ruled the country for 20 years.” ( http://inquirer.net/ ) From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cory_Aquino_-_Woman_of_the_Year.jpg Before her husband, Senator Benigno Aquino, was assassinated in 1983, he said that he pities the person who would succeed then President Ferdinand Marcos. Little did he know that h...