One Proud Homeschooling Parent

[Sis Jo Echon is a good family friend we met in China in one of our Filipino gatherings there. Since then she has become our motivator and inspiration to homeschool our son. Now, whether we will succeed and be blessed with our own plans remains to be seen, her life testimony about homeschooling simply overwhelms whatever apprehensions we are having about this. Congratulations to Jopoy and his siblings and to Bro. Sani and Sis Jo for their love and dedication to each other. Please read on and be inspired.]


My Dear Relatives and Friends,

I'm now the happiest Mom on earth. My son Jopoy passed the Accreditation and Equivalency Test! Out of 97,756 only 22,430 passed the test nationwide and he's one of them. Great! It means, he is accelerated and don't have to go through all level of high school formally and he can now go straight to college. Whew no sweat! the beauty of homeschool he he Grabe laki ng savings ng Daddy! ha ha ha.

I consider this a major feat of our homeschool journey. I only enrolled him on his 1st yr in San Juan de Letran Home Study Program and the next 2 yrs bravely, we go independent. It means i didn't enrol him but still keeps on homeschooling him. I borrowed old books from friends and relatives. And not only high school books but even college materials. He told me that he wanted to take up Culinary or IT in college so i bought books in that fields so that he may have the "feel" if he really is into that courses. Since we are homeschool the world is our classroom. They are not bounded by curriculum that we are using but by anything that they put their interest into.

If you can only read my thoughts the last 2 days i was singing a different tune. I was so depress and thinking deeply about our homeschooling. You know, in regular school, when school year is over everyone is in vacation mood. But in homeschool, it's an ideal time to fill in all the learning gaps. So I gave Jopoy and Shan a diagnostic test to find out their learning gaps. The result didn't please me. I end up re assessing our choices. Is homeschooling really for our family? Are we bringing out the best in our children through homeschooling? Are we not depriving them of anything that they should be enjoying as children? Are they learning the things that they needed to be learn? Are we teaching and modelling them the christian values that are expected from homeschool families? Are we molding our children the way God wants us to be? A lot of questions flooded my mind that i cannot answer logically because i am involve. I prayed so hard. I had an intimate spiritual experience with God for 2 days. I ask Him to refresh me, comfort me, show me His ways, to tell me if this is still His plan for our family. I was reminded that homeschooling is the product of our ardent prayer to God when we ask Him to allow us to spend more time with Sani while he's abroad. When we get to know the principle of homeschooling we realize that it embodied our values as family. As i ask God to give me a grace of discernment to know His will for our family, He answered my prayers with a big bang! Last night my sister e-mailed me the web site to access the result of Jopoy's test which was taken last Oct. At almost midnight we are in jubilation. God in a very special way reassured me that He is still leading us to homeschool our children.

I know homeschooling is not for everyone. We are aware that we causes worries and alarm to our families and friends who doesn't totally understand and can't accept the concept of homeschooling. We appreciate their genuine concern for us and we thank them for that. I once learned that there are 3 topics that causes arguments. Money, Religion and Politics. I'll add one, Homeschooling ha ha ha. Right now i can't say until when we are going to homeschool our children or if it will work to all of them. In every steps of they way we ask God's guidance and blessings. We know that the peace and joy we felt in our heart is the fruits of our obedience to God. Our children's mature disposition, deep spirituality and our level of friendship is an assurance that they are really a homegrown kids. After all when my time comes to face my Creator i believe He'll be more concern to ask me about the character of my children than the honors and reward that they are going to gather. Indeed homeschooling is God's gift to our family. With renewed faith and trust in Him i am now ready again to embark in another year of homeschooling.

As my heart swell in joy, please join me in thanking God for His boundless blessings to our family. The financial resources He has been providing us to be able to live comfortably without me having to work just to meet both ends, Catholic Filipino Academy, my children's school and other homeschool families whose personalities and experiences inspired me and assured me that my family is not eccentric but only a family with different values, our family and friends whose concerns motivated us to to do better because our failure will hurt them too, to Sani my dear husband for supporting me in my devotion to our children and understanding my passion for homeschooling, for his bosses whose generosity allows us to travel that makes our "classroom" bigger, wider and fun, for my children for allowing us to mold them and for teaching us virtuous which we never thought we're capable of adapting and to God whose love is awesome and never fail to inspire us to become a better person.

By choosing this less travelled road we know that we'll be facing lots of trials. We'll be hunted by a never ending confusions, frustrations depressions at marami pang "sions" he he he. But my favorite verse and song since high school still holds true, "Seek ye the first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all of these things shall be added unto you Alleluia!".

To God be the Glory!!!

Signing in from Bayan ng mga Singkit,

Jo Echon

Thanksgiving Prayer

Dear Lord,

This day is sentimentally close to my wife’s heart and mine. It is our 10th wedding anniversary.

About eight months ago, I could not hide my excitement for this day to come. My wife and I have been looking forward to it and have actually laid out some ideas and schemes for this most important occasion in our marriage. I kept on picturing in my mind our Zek and our would-have-been 2-year old Maia walking (or in all likelihood, running and racing against each other) on the church aisle in front of us as we slowly march toward the priest for our renewal of marital vows. I smiled at the thought of how our 30-minute simple ceremony would turn to more than an hour with constant interruptions from our gorgeously angelic daughter and charming and well-groomed son who keeps on pushing and shoving each other like frantic school-children jostling for position to be first in getting the last free cotton candy of the day.

I imagined highlighting our celebration by heading into an overnight beach outing with close family members and we would sit down around bone-fire cooking hotdogs and marsh-mallows as all the Santos kids run back and forth with all their high-pitched voices and laughters.

That day is supposed to be today. I have fully come into terms that it was not meant to be. My dream for this day is not what you have been planning for us after all.

Our daughter Maia left us last October 2008 and we have been spending the last few months just trying to heal our wounded selves and spirits. We were not able to make any plans or preparations on how we would celebrate it. We are living on a day to day basis.

Sadly for me today, my wife is in Philippines while I am still in China because of work commitments and I can only be with her and Zek after two more weeks.

But you have been, you are, and you will always be good and kind to me and my family. Though my wife and I can not perfectly grasp the beauty behind the pain inside us, we believe we are under your protection and love even during this lonely point of our lives.

I am sure you know what I mean. Today is Black Saturday not by mere calendar accident only.

You wanted to assure us that we will fully heal and recover to move on and that our pain pales in comparison to what you have been through. All the derogatory insinuations, mob affront, physical tortures finally taking their toll on your weary and abused body that led to your ultimate death. All of these happened under the truth that you are doing it for them, for us, in order for us to gain back entry into your heavenly kingdom. You suffered because you love us.

You experienced the worst possible pain by a human and by God for that matter.

You more than understand our pain.

Thank you Lord, for allowing my wife and I to share in your pain of loving and losing briefly.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday.

You will be resurrected and be triumphantly alive.

Death and eternal condemnation will be conquered.

You will breathe to your disciples the Holy Spirit who is to be our companion until the end of time.

We will eventually have our own Easter moment in your appointed time. Like a clay pot that needed to was swirled-formed and now being furnace-dried, we are a work in progress and our Maia, even in her short life, has lived a full life that is forever part of our formation into your likeness.

Please kiss and embrace our Maia for us.

Thank you for your mysterious yet unconditional and unequivocal love for us.

We love you. Amen.

Your children,

Rowin and Chie

What One Man Can Do

As Peter Parker was watching the sliding bulletin news of how Spiderman save another New Yorker from tragedy, a man casually walked behind him and said, "You know, I guess one person can make a difference. Enough said." And with a smile, he casually walked away again while Peter pondered at what he just heard.

One man? One woman? Yes, one person can make a big difference, even a sweeping revolutionary difference that will ripple into the people's hearts for years and years to come. Remarkably, these persons, let's call them "difference-maker", did not even need to have superpowers to do that.

Each person only needed love.

In my lifetime, I have been blessed to be a media-informed witness to some of these difference-makers.

Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino once said, "The Filipino is worth dying for." He peacefully battled the Marcos regime from the inception of martial law in 1972 up to his death in 1983.His assassination paved the way to our world-recognized bloodless revolution that toppled the dictatorial rule and gave freedom back to the common Filipinos. His death made the difference

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, endearingly known to all as Mother Theresa, dedicated her life to total selfless and dedication to the poorest of the poor in India's Calcutta. She did this from 1948 until her death in 1997. Her service made the difference.

Karol Josef Wojtyla, as our beloved Pope John Paul II, reached out to all beliefs and religion without undermining the Catholic's church traditions and beliefs. As Pontiff of the Church from 1978 until 2005, he travelled a lot to all point of the world where he felt the Gospel of God needed to be preached or renewed. He tapped the world's youth to help in propagation of the gospel. His energy and openness made the difference.

Normal people with absolute resolve to love. Amazing persons they truly are.

This Holy Week, however, we are called to celebrate the person with the greatest love for all of mankind. Humbling his Godly stature to become one of us here on earth in order to save those who lived before Him and those who are yet to be borne. He, whose intense sacrifice we will commemorate in the coming days, will suffer at the very hands of the people He created and loved unconditionally. He, who took all spit and spite, was scorned and thornly adorned, mocked and flogged and eventually put to death on the cross in Calvary by each one of us whether one is a believer or not. And as unimaginable as it may sound, He already forgave us all even as He was still hanging bloodied on the cross. The heart-piercing proof will be the truth of His resurrection on the third day after His death. His love for us has brought us back from death and into eternal life.

Dear friends, please think about Him this week.
More importantly, let Him be the difference-maker in your (struggling) life to holiness.
Enough said.

God bless.

Big Brother Big Sister

This is the 2009 community outreach program of the passionate and kind-hearted mountaineering youth-group of the Philippines. You can visit their website at http://bbbs.freehostia.com

For those interested to volunteer or share their blessings to the less fortunate children of Mt. Asog, Buhi, Camarines Norte, please contact helpbbbs@gmail.com or Ms. Angie T at agt.angie2@gmail.com

Thanks and God bless.