Lord, please heal Japan...

I offer the song "Lord, Heal Our Land" to our sisters and brothers in Japan, whose lives were devastated by the recent earthquake and tsunami. I don't know exactly the composer of this song, but the version I'm posting here from YouTube is by singer Jamie Rivera.

Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/jamie_rivera/heal_our_land.html

If my people will humble themselves

Humble themselves and pray

If they seek my face and humble themselves

And turn from their wicked ways

[REFRAIN 1]

I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins

I will hear from heaven and heal their land

[CHORUS]

Lord, heal our land

Father, heal our land

Hear our cry and turn our nation back to You

Lord, heal our land

Hear us oh, Lord, and heal our land

Forgive our sin and heal our broken land

Lord, we vow our knee, we humble ourselves

Humble ourselves and pray

Lord, we seek your face and humble ourselves

And turn from my wicked ways

[REFRAIN 2]

Father in Your mercy, forgive our sins

Father in Your mercy, come heal our land

[Repeat CHORUS twice]

[CODA]

(Lord, heal our land

Father, heal our land)

Hear our cry and heal our broken land

From YouTube account of "pasawaybabe"

maria aragon sings born this way by lady gaga

10-year-old Maria Aragon, a Canadian of Filipino bloodline, captures Lady Gaga's heart and makes the supercelebrity tweet about how this kid made her cry with her rendition of the latter's hit song. Maria also gains instant virtual fans around the globe as her self-uploaded YouTube video with her singing Born This Way by Lady Gaga now has more than 6M hits.

I'm not Lady Gaga's fan, but how this little kid from Winnipeg plays the piano AND sings without missing a beat is truly great! At least, Maria's rendition of the song made me like its melody. And I saw another YouTube video yesterday where a radio station in Canada hooked up Maria with Lady Gaga through phone. Actually, it was quite touching how Lady Gaga reached out to her little fan just over the phone. It was like seeing another (very personal) side to big celebrity like Lady Gaga.

I do hope the best for this little girl who just seemed to have wanted a little fun but has now started to gain some fame. May her obvious talent bring her to places while her feet remain planted on the ground.

Video taken from Maria's YouTube channel.

I pray for Egpyt

Egypt needs everyone's prayers these days. May the many days of uncertainty, near violence, and the massing of people on the streets have a peaceful resolution.

I remember my own country the Philippines's "people power" revolution in 1986 when hundreds of thousands to millions of Filipinos congregated on major roads of the country in a show of force to the dictator President Marcos. People simply got fed up with the alleged excesses of his government for so many years, highlighted in the latter years by the killing of his chief critic then former Senator Aquino, followed by a snap presidential election that pitted Marcos against Aquino's wife Cory. After the believed widespread rigging of the election (and the televised walkout of computer personnel from the national counting being done then where the results were being said to be manipulated), everything went awry, and in the end, Marcos and family flew out to Hawaii, where the former strongman finally met his Creator. (But now his family is pretty much back in power, and much of their "hidden wealth" is still hidden, but that's another story).

But now I pray that God will bless the people power being done by the Egyptians, and with His mighty wisdom, He will see to it that justice will finally be achieved by these people. I hope that Shahira, an Egyptian I met in the early 1990s, and her family are safe.

My highschool's 30th reunion

In 2006, my highschool had its 25th reunion party. This January 8, 2011, we had our 30th reunion party. This was for the Far Eastern University (FEU) Girls High and Boys School batch 1981, which was the last segregated (girls and boys) high school of FEU. As it was in the 2006, I was in the organizing team of this year's reunion and, as usual, it was a hard, tiring job to do.

But seeing how happy the alumni were at the reunion was worth it. I also saw some friends I haven't seen for 30 years, especially some who couldn't make it to our 25th and vowed to be present in this 30th. We held the party in a rented venue--with lots of food, games, raffles, and a live band--that lasted from 5PM to 1AM in Quezon City. It took almost a year to prepare for that. Some 150 alumni came, including many from abroad. We were joined by eight teachers. Some other teachers couldn't join because of previous commitments or, sadly, because they were sick.

The previous day to our reunion party, we held a campus tour of our school, which is located in a busy area of Manila, the Philippines's capital city. After the morning tour, we went to the Holy Mass that we sponsored at the chapel inside the campus. To me, aside from the Holy Mass, the highlight of our homecoming to our school was when one of our batchmates jammed with the FEU Bamboo Band at the start of our tour. Good thing that an angel inspired me to ask the FEU Alumni Office (and Mr. Martin Lopez of that office with whom we coordinated the tour) if it could arrange for the Band to play for us that day. Janette, my batchmate who is among those in our alumni who were former members of the Band (when we were still students), was able to play one piece of music with the Band since, luckily, the instrument that she used to handle was available that morning. Seeing Janette play with the current student-members of the FEU Bamboo Band sent chills down my spine. Mr. Victor Toledo is the original creator of the FEU Bamboo Band, but he is now retired. In fact, we invited him to be among our guest-teachers in our reunion party on January 8, but he's not in the best of health right now, according to his daughter who's also one of our batchmates. God bless him.

Anyway, below are some pictures of our tour and reunion party. I still have to get my hands on some pictures of Janette playing with the Band and the Mass. Below, I'm with my classmates (4-1 girls, of whom many were absent that night though), and a photo with the teachers who made it to our party (except that girls on the leftmost who's actually my classmate but sat along with the teachers during the photo op). The 4-1 boys joined us in the photo with the teachers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR--this girl needs help

Girl with rare disease seeks aid

By Santiago Alcantara
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:01:00 01/04/2011

MANILA, Philippines—Mary Patrice Nicole Siaboc has been diagnosed to be suffering from Langerhans cell histiocytosis, a rare disease among children. Medical records show that only one in every 100,000 children is afflicted with the ailment.

The 4-year-old daughter of Liezel Siaboc of Bangkal, Makati City, is undergoing chemotherapy at Philippine General Hospital. Doctors say her treatment should last for 54 weeks.

“We don’t know where to get the PhP14,647 we need to spend per session because my husband Rogelio works as a janitor at a gasoline station in Quezon City,” Siaboc told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in Filipino.

Those who want to help the Siabocs can contact them at 0909-3923661 or deposit their donations in Rogelio Siaboc’s bank account at Allied Bank (Philippines) (account number 0316007965).

Merry Christmas

...to all of humanity, may each person celebrate Christmas the genuine way because it is, simply, the birth of Jesus.

Maligayang Pasko (as we say it in the Philippines).

Charice goes jingle bell rockin'

It's only a few days to go before Christmas Day. And here's a wonderful Christmas song (one of my favorites) from wonderful singer Charice, when she graced the recent Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Rockefeller Center in New York, USA. (from Raytatlo's Youtube channel)