SPECIAL PARENTING TALK

Do you often wonder why God gave you a child with special needs?
 Do you know God's plan for him/her in your life and in your family?

Learn more about parenting children with special needs the

Biblical way, God's purpose for them and  why He chose you to be
 his/her Mom... 

Attend the "Special Parenting" Talk 

for Mommies of children with special needs,

with Malu Tiongson-Ortiz, author of "Embracing God's Purpose

for My Special Child" at the Mini Theater, 5th Floor, CCF

St Francis Square, Mandaluyong City (behind Megamall)

September 24, 2011 (Saturday) 8am-12nn

RSVP: 09178966258

Embracing God's Purpose for Clarissa

God gave me Clarissa to teach me to seek Him and pray to Him


As I recall those years that I was going through adversity,
I remember feeling that there was nowhere to run for escape.
All I could do was look up and hope that God would help me.
Feeling alone in my anxieties about the present and the future,
I asked God to comfort me. I had nowhere else to go. And God
did not fail me.

I am reminded of this verse,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest,”
Matthew 11:28

The Lord allows us to feel pain and to sense our inability
to carry our burdens, so that we will be drawn to Him. He

wants us to trust Him, and He promises to give us rest. Jesus tells us that He will carry our burdens for us. A relationship with Him truly changes our perspective about our child with special needs and His purpose for him/her.

When I searched for God in those early days, I started by praying. From grumbling and complaining, I began to thank Him for my circumstances, my husband, my children and my daughter’s condition. At Dawn Watch (a weekly 6:00 a.m. service at CCF), Pastor Bert Villa once spoke about his wife who had passed away some years ago. He said, Asmy wife’s heart rate was slowing down and she seemed about to die, I gathered my children around her and we prayed to God. I thanked the Lord for giving her to us.”  This struck me and moved me to
tears. It made me realize I usually
remembered to thank God only in the good times.
Let us remember to thank the Lord constantly for giving
us our children, and for the little changes and improvements
they make. God will release us from our fears if we
continually seek Him and pray to Him.

(Excerpts from "Embracing God's Purpose for My Special Child)

To God be all the glory and praise!  :-)

Brenda

"Brenda" by Clarissa & Malu Ortiz

Brenda and I have gone through a lot of tests as "bilas."  Because we are two different people coming from two different backgrounds, (she being the intellectual type and me an artist and a businesswoman), I used to think that we had nothing in common.

However, when both of us came to know the Lord, God orchestrated our circumstances, drawing us closer to each other through the Praying Wife Ministry.  After knowing her for more than thirty years, I am amazed at how God shaped and still shaping our character through each other.  Today, we co-lead a support group, teach the Bible, counsel and help wives cope with the difficulties of married life and motherhood.

Brenda, a godly wife, a doting mother, a faithful friend, is truly beautiful inside and out.  She is not just my sister-in-law, she is my sister-in-Christ.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."  Psalm 37:4 (Brenda's favorite verse)

Happy Birthday, Brenda!  We love you!

MAMA MIA

Mia's portrait by Clarissa and Malu

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”  Ephesians 5: 22-24

Submission is misunderstood mostly by wives because it is often associated with the word, “doormat.”  But wives were called to submit to their husbands and acknowledge her husband’s leadership in Christ.  It is an act of obedience to God.  They are to show their husbands the kind of self-giving love that Christ showed the church. 

Mia Mapa-Tiongson

A good example of a submissive wife is my sister-in-law, Mia, married to my younger brother, Randell.  They have been married for 20 years and not once did I ever hear Mia complain or criticize her husband.  She submitted to Randell in everything, even in choosing her career.  Randell groomed her to be a financial consultant where she became an expert.  About three years ago, however, she gave up her career to become a servant of God and be the wife and Mom that God had called her to be.  At home, though not a cook, Mia learned to be a housewife, doing the chores and never complaining when they do not have a maid.  She also began to home-school their two sons, Riggs and Chino and I must say, she is doing a great job.

As Mia celebrates her birthday today, I want to honor and salute her for being an exemplary wife and a woman after God’s own heart.  Because she is an admirer of Clarissa’s art works, Clarissa and I toiled for three hours painting her portrait, presenting it to her as our gift.  Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law and sister-in-Christ!  We love you.

As Mia celebrates her birthday today, I want to honor and salute her for being an exemplary wife and a woman after God’s own heart.  Because she is an admirer of Clarissa’s art works, Clarissa and I toiled for three hours painting her portrait, presenting it to her as our gift.  Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law and sister-in-Christ!  We love you.

  

Clarissa painting the hair

Clarissa painting the backgorund

Clarissa finishing Mia's portrait

Malu doing the finishing touches

Malu & Clarissa presents the painting to Mia

Happy Birthday Mama Mia!