Tag Archives: advocate

Be A “Gurong Pahinungod”

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Isa rin sa mga pinagpe-pray ko na gusto kong gawin aside sa hospice project sa farm ay maging isang volunteer teacher kapag retired na (kung will ni God umabot until this age). Andami mong gustong gawin, Tin. Kaya ka nagkakasakit e. 😁

My eldest sister also plans on setting up a foundation or school inside the farm later on since marami ang professional teachers sa family although I did not pursue a career in teaching because writing is my first love. ♥️

Oathtaking of Secondary Education Professional Teachers

It looks like naaayon naman sya sa possible na maging growth trajectory ng bukid namin later on as one of the town’s “agrihoods.” I encountered the term “agrihood” just last week and I shared it to my siblings and told them na ang mga future plans namin para sa bukid ay so far on track naman sa mga developments and environmental changes within the local community. I am also praying we will be able to collaborate with my Aunt and her family who own the farm next to us for future projects para mas diverse ang ma-cater na market and communities. Hopefully, I’ll be able to write an article about agrihoods once I gathered enough data.

I can’t share the business plan I made here though due to privacy concerns. Unless I want my siblings to obliterate me from this planet. lol But, I am grateful that when I first proposed the business plan to them a few years back (mga 100 slides lang naman sa PPT 😅), they all agreed to the mission and the vision, which is all that matters to me.

We all know that plans change depending on God’s will kaya ang mga minutest details, most likely magbabago at magbabago. In everything, let God’s will be done always. For now, I’ll be sharing volunteering opportunities lang muna dahil isa ito sa mga hilig kong gawin bilang isang advocate who supports different causes. 🙏

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters…” – Colossians 3:23

Para sa mga nagnanais na maging isang Gurong Pahinungod, kindly refer to this poster shared by the UP System Ugnayan ng Pahinungod and the UP Office of Alumni Relations.

“MAGTURO. MAGLINGKOD. MAGING GURONG PAHINUNGÓD!

Open to UP alumni and graduating students (this second semester) of any course from any UP constituent unit!

Teaching experience is NOT required — as long as you have the heart for service, you can be a Gurong Pahinungód (GP)!

The GP program is a program of the UP Ugnayan ng Pahinungód, the volunteer service arm of the University of the Philippines. We deploy UP graduates to underserved and marginalized communities as volunteer teachers. Learn more about the program at bit.ly/aboutgurongpahinungod

Register at bit.ly/becomeaUPGP to receive the Zoom link for the orientation. Check the photo for the orientation schedule.”

Source: UP System Ugnayan ng Pahinungod Facebook Page

Circa 2020: Flexing the UP face mask, an initiative of a UP alumnus to support the UP Diliman campus jeepney drivers during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. ✊

If Fred Flintstone Is Here…

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I have long been an advocate of protecting Mother Earth. I grew up surrounded by nature in its luscious state. Nope, please don’t get me wrong. I am no Tarzan nor Jane. *wink*

I just happen to grow up in a humble home (our ancestral home in the province) with a garden containing all sorts of flora and fauna courtesy of Mom and her best helper, Dad. Yup, he is the one in charge of the upkeep of the lawn with the lawn mower – it’s a guy thing. 😀

That is their quality time together as husband and wife on a weekend – tending the garden. The children are the ones in charge of picking the flowers for their own agenda and end up being scolded by Mom. lol

Okay so I am pro nature. Does that make me an anti urbanization? I have my own praises when it comes to industrialization. It is, I believe, in God’s plan that man will benefit from his own toil and hard labor resulting in a convenient life. Imagine Fred Flintstone and the difficulties of Stone Age and the primitive days. I am grateful I am not living in a cave and have to deal with bats and snakes or any squishy, wiggling, crawling, flying, spurting creature every night when I sleep.

But are we maintaining the balance? I was wondering what would Fred Flintstone say if he is with us and sees all the modernity around. I think the time has come for our industrial engineers, landscape architects and land developers to consider creating a change in this rapid momentum of skyscrapers being built everywhere especially in the city.

I see it as an idol, a temple. Not of God’s but of something else. It destroys what God has originally built. I no longer see God in those buildings, nothing God-made was retained.

I believe it is man’s obligation to maintain and preserve what God has built. We have been given free will which gave us opportunity to gain knowledge. Knowledge gave way to innovations. Innovations made life easier. BUT too much of it will destroy the very core of life in this world – Earth. Unless of course those innovations are nature-friendly.

If not, there really is indeed a possibility Earth will be nothing more but a rubble in the future and we’ll be living in spaceships. Ever watched the movie Transcendence? It’s basically the same.

I love Science. I enjoyed watching Sci-fi movies. My Mom was my grade school Science teacher and I was usually the one representing our school in Science quiz bees and competitions. I had that thirst for worldly knowledge back then and I grew up being inquisitive of everything around me.

I started asking the “why”  questions which later on I found out that Science has no answers for all of them. Too many unanswered questions brought me to questioning the reason even for my very own existence.

Good thing there was faith – I was saved from the disillusioned self. Now everything has meaning, everything has an answer, everything has a purpose. That made me understand not just my part but how each living and non-living thing created by God are interrelated.

This now brings us to innovations. Are they really supposed to be part of the picture?

I have been sharing on Instagram those that are all natural or which pertain to nature. I saw the beauty of them that transcends beyond the skyscrapers and high-rise buildings that speak nothing else but of man’s creations.

This made me ask again. Is man trying to outwit, outplay and outlast God?

If we are to compete with God in the Survivor game show, there’s no doubt we’d be eliminated first. Can God create buildings? Of course, He can. So why didn’t He create skyscrapers and a whole lot of them for His creations to live in alongside Earth when He created everything?

Too much is detrimental. It speaks of greed – hunger for power and to acquire more than what is necessary.

I have no control over the industrialization age. But I can help the younger generation appreciate what could be the last remnants of God’s creation at its best and original state – nature. I am hoping the younger and future industrialists, architects and engineers will take it to themselves to preserve what is left of God’s creation.

If they wouldn’t make the change then there’s nothing left for our great grandchildren and the children after them to marvel at when it comes to showing them how God created the world. Garden of Eden for them will just be a far-fetched concept or worse, a myth.

And yes, they will be missing out so much. *sigh*

And yes too, this is the first time I am ending my article with a sigh. BUT with a smile – still hopeful. ☺

P.S.

My Dad, by the way, is a retired civil engineer. He builds bridges and dams and facilitates in the irrigation of rice fields with the National Irrigation Administration. He did these not to destroy nature but to help in nourishing it so nature in return can help the farmers make good use of the resources.

If only man would learn to settle with contentment.

*sighs again*

*smiles again*

“A psalm of David. The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him.” – Psalm 24:1