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ikaw ba ay nalolongkot?

sometime last week i got a text from ram, jean, and mary grace – and even an email or two. they were polling on what the next bible study material/topic the group should do. i am not the most faithful of texters, so i don’t think i was able to reply to all of them. i figured i’d settle for whatever the rest of the group chose since i did not feel strongly against or for any of the topics short-listed. (actually, i think any one of them would be great for learning and interacting.)

and so, it turned out, that the group’s consensus was to do the ‘loneliness’ study. since the material is a part of a series that included the ‘self-image’ study which the cveliches conducted in the 90s, we we’re expecting some heart-piercing realizations, at least i was. and i, we, were not disappointed.

ram, the group’s dr. larry crabb (hehe), led the meeting. i was late so i didn’t catch the first part. (i arrived right in the middle of grace’s sharing, and i could have rudely interrupted her with my not-so-quiet arrival – sorry, gwacey.)

let me see what i remember from the discussion, without looking at the actual material. barney, the study’s writer (and namesake of the purple dinosaur! we just had to make the connection 🙂 ), enumerated three types of loneliness: circumstantial loneliness, chosen loneliness, and core loneliness. for each kind’s definition and the biblical perspective on loneliness, you have to join us on wednesday nights! (hah!)

seriously. as the old saying goes, the more the manier! (yeah, yeah, corny.) we’d love to have new people join the group and journey with us as we explore loneliness. fear not, it won’t be all nose-bleeding seriousnes; we promise a healthy dose of looney-ness too! meetings are on wednesdays, 8PM; mcdo philcoa (default, but may be changed from time to time).

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and now for the “bati” portion (ala tambayan logbook!)…

welcome back, k’jaime! 🙂 da tatay is back! yebah.

ram-boi, thanks for leading the study and for procuring the material 🙂

mele, da future national artist – God bless you as you move to your next “mission field.” get settled in bangkok soon – we’re having talks of an invasion next year! and, ‘along those lines’ (hehe), we will miss ya.

jeanix, sheba, and charm – the midnight society lives! shall we meet again? 🙂 (except for you, shebs. nosebleed ka muna kaka-english jan sa esteyts.) jeanix – you took pics last wednesday, didn’t you? upload! salamat sa coordination ministry! 🙂 charm, your honor, hello 😀

grace – thank you for weaving together the different write-ups on rebooked 🙂 God satisfies the hungry hearts!

trina – take care of the hiyas books! (hehe) btw, the dvd you gave me is blank 😦

master roovin – we missya, dude! hope to see you sooner than later. thanks for designing the uber-kewl header image! (ako yung third from the left! cute pala ako pag burado ang mukha! hahaha!)

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aleks”,