Fresno: Day 4

Jojo was more relaxed today. He only spent a couple of hours in daycare and stayed away from the crowds most of the day. After three days of eating sub-standard hotel food, we discovered a great Armenian restaurant a couple of streets away! So we had lunch there today. Christine had lamb shishkabobs and I had a beef and vegetable stir fry dish. Mm-mm-good.

I had another great meeting today with a pastor by the name of John. We met at a Starbucks by the Fresno Convention Center and he was pretty excited about us. He invited me to come out and speak sometime in August.

Something cool I did during one of the sessions was skip out and go on a prayer walk around the whole building. I prayed for those inside, including everyone I met with so far. Right after I finished, I saw a plane flying overhead and I asked the Lord to make a way so we could be on a plane to Manila in January.

Tomorrow the BGC Annual will be over and we'll be heading to another event: The Filipino-American Pastors' Annual. Well, Josiah's asleep on my shoulder now. I'm getting good at typing with one hand! :-)

Fresno: Day 3

Today was packed with meetings. Once again, it was beneficial but extremely tiring. I almost fell asleep in the lobby while waiting to meet with an important contact! Thank God for Dr. Pepper! ;-)

Pray God grants wisdom to the following people who are now praying about how God wants their churches involved in our ministry: Pastor Tim, Pastor Jeff, Global Outreach Pastor Tom, and a Worship Leader named Jeff, who actually went to school with us at Biola!

Please pray *especially* for the possibility of partnering with Tom's church. The Lord has blessed them with a strong heart for the unreached and given them the means to make a significant difference through giving. He seemed excited about our calling to help equip Filipinos for strategic underground ministries in closed countries.

We're worried that Josiah's being overstimulaed. I think he's old enough to realize we haven't been home in a while. He seems bugged. We'll try to keep him in the room most of the time tomorrow so he can relax.

Fresno: Day 2

Today started out slow but got really hectic right after dinner. We were at the opening session and a huge meet-and-greet thing, too. Of course everyone wanted to see Josiah! But we're now extremely tired.

Thank God two pastors invited me to speak at their churches a few months down the road and indicated the possibility of support. I also set-up a number of face-to-face meetings with key contacts for tomorrow. It was cool to see a lot of missionaries and staff from the Illinois office as well. We even got to see our friend, Lynette, who has now reached 100% of her support and is finally leaving for service in Uruguay! It took her one and a half years to raise the amount of money we have raised so far for our mission to the Philippines.

Many were a blessing to talk to. But some were negative. Pray this doesn't affect me or my excitement for what God is going to do through this week. Pray Christine could get rest so she can watch Jojo during my meetings.

Time for bed. We need a lot of strength for tomorrow.

Fresno: Day 1

We're here! Praise God we arrived safely at the Radisson in Fresno. Jojo slept pretty much the whole trip. Tomorrow morning, I'll be setting up my missionary display at the Fresno Convention Center, which is literally right across the street. I don't even have to give up my coveted spot in the parking lot!

We're on the 7th floor of this huge hotel. When we made our reservations, they said they'd have a crib for Jojo. But when we got here they said none were available and we could go buy one at Wal-Mart if we wanted to! Yeah, right! Christine was a bit miffed at that.

Tonight, we have an informal meeting with our missionary coach, Duane Harms. The BGC just sent a letter to 21 conference churches encouraging them to TRANSFER their monthly support from a missionary family that just resigned and left the Philippines TO US beginning this September. PRAY we would find favor in the eyes of these pastors and most of all that God's will be accomplished in this development.

Preparing for Fresno

Today I had lunch with a great guy named David who is the current Program Administrator for the MA Philosophy of Religion and Ethics Program at Talbot. He and his wife are going to Rwanda on a short-term trip this summer and they are pretty excited about missions. Praise the Lord they are interested in praying for us and possibly supporting us in the future. It was really nice to connect with him over lunch at a Japanese place near Biola.

We do need a lot of prayer support nowadays since we are, I believe, at a pivotal stage in our ministry partner discovery. We have 50% of our support in place and are now praying for a select group of individuals and churches to pledge the final half of what we need to leave for the Philippines.

Next week, we'll be in Fresno meeting with around 15 Pastors who have expressed interest in our work. I've also been invited to speak at an annual event where almost all of the Filipino-American pastors in our conference will be present. I'll be playing some music and singing, too. Please pray that goes well. I know I do this an awful lot, but I can still get nervous. I don't know why.

Pray for grace, wisdom and strength for us on this next road trip.

My First Father's Day

It's my first Father's Day! So what's so great about today? Well, just being a dad I guess. It's cool to be "Papa". Jojo and I spent some time playing this morning. He is growing up fast! :-)

Yesterday was Josiah's three-month birthday and he's really starting to develop his mobility. He can now push himself along on his back by digging his heels into the ground and pushing. But the most exciting thing is his work on crawling. He can lie on his tummy while lifting his head up high, push up with his arms, and kick his legs. He doesn't move too much that way, but he's making progress. It's pretty exciting!

See Our Family Picture

The Del Rosarios at Photo Perfections (Brea, CA)

Today we went to the mall to pick up our family picture. It turned out great! Then we went to the garage and found a beautiful frame someone had given us for our wedding (we got a lot of frames!) still in brand-new condition and put or new family picture in it. It's now displayed prominently in our living room. Josiah is almost three months old! Check out his little facial expression! ;-)

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Filipino Independence Day! June 12 is the anniversary of the declaration of independence in 1898 from Spain. Actual independence from the United States didn't occur until July 4, 1946, but it's been a holiday since the 60s.

So what about the 4th of July? It's actually "Filipino American Friendship Day," marking independence from Japanese rule and American colonization. It also honors more than 200,000 Filipino veterans (like my Grandpa who served in the US Navy) who fought side-by-side with their American comrades during the World War II. So there's your history lesson for today!

This afternoon, we went to the park with some friends from church. It was important to us to have a good time of fellowship before hitting the road once again. We'll be Ojai again on Saturday and then it's about a week in Fresno for us to attend two conferences with the BGC.

Del Rosario Photo Shoot

Today we went to the Brea Mall to take a family picture at a photo studio. They took about 20 shots and we chose the one we liked best. Christine had the idea of going with a painted background and sepia toning the picture. We also asked that Josiah's denim overalls be colored blue. He has a cute, almost mischievous look on his face! He's almost three month's old! We're excited to see how it comes out. I'll post the picture next week so you can see the outcome.

New Issue of "Growth"

Last night, I uploaded the June issue of "Growth" (our missionary newsletter) to the site. It's a PDF file which includes articles on our trips, events and an update on our suppport level. Praise God we are now at fifty percent of our monthly financial support! The newsletter also includes some suggestions on how to help us get to the field sooner. For example, by hosting a dessert in your home. Check it out today under the "updates" section of delrosarios.com.

Back at Joy Christian Fellowship

After two weeks on the road away from our church, it was really nice to get back and see our friends. I got to lead worship and present the message tonight. I did a modified version of the "Easy Yoke" study which I originally prepared for last Sunday's appearance in Hayward.

A few people who missed the sermon were bummed so I put the full audio up on delrosarios.com. A little bit of trivia here: I always record my talks, review them, and try to improve my speaking skills so I do better next time. And since I use a digital recorder, it's a snap to get it uploaded to our site. So it's there now. You can check it out under the new multimedia downloads section. It's a 30 minute message and a 5MB mp3 file.

I also plugged our site again at church and encouraged everyone to especially chek out our blog. The thing is, I don't know how many of our people use the Web that much. Tell you what, any JCF people reading this, post a comment and I'll give you a prize at the picnic on Saturday. Don't forget to sign your name! :-)

Christine's Makeover: Part 2

Here's Christine with her new glasses from Lenscrafters. Her grade went up a bit but not by much. Turns out, she really didn't like wearing contacts after all. I think she looks really smart, especially with these frames.

Also, her hair was extremely done up at the salon a few days ago. She could have gone to a prom or something with a hairdo like that! But she didn't like all the hair products they put into achieving that look. This is more of Christine's real style: Simple, natural and comfortable.

So there you have it! Christine's new look for the summer of 2004.

Christine's Makeover: Part 1

Wow! Today Christine treated herself to a brand new hairstyle at Fantastic Sams. Isn't she pretty? I'm one lucky guy.

Being who we are, we did some research on the Web regarding face shapes and cuts and stuff. Christine saved some pictures of people with the hairstyles she wanted to consider. Then I went into Photoshop and put her face on three of them so she could see the hairstyle with her face. She chose the best one and headed off to the salon!

The next stage is a trip to the optometrist for a new pair of glasses and--- get this---contacts! :-)