I was thinking about going on hiatus because things aren't exactly cheerful and happy these past weeks and blogging about it would only seem emphasizing on how messy(pls do not ask me to elaborate on that) things are.. until now. There are things that happened today which changed the depressing course of my week. Things that transpired not to make me feel bad, but rather, it made me feel good about myself and my life. And most importantly, it gave me hope. Hope is good, you know. We could always use a little hope in our lives. Even just one spark of it can make a huge difference in one's life. And today I saw that. I witnessed hope.

Today was the Blood Letting Activity on our church. Representatives from Red Cross were there. I have never donated blood in my entire life. And now, I wanted to try it. It is actually included on the things I want to do this year. So I gave it a shot and to my sheer delight, the doctor said that I am eligible for blood donation :) I laid down on one of the beds they had set up and the nurse started checking on my veins. She kept shaking her head in disapproval. I got confused and asked why. She said, "Masyadong manipis yung ugat mo." Manipis. Is it bad? Will it break if she stick the needle in? Will I be not able to donate blood forever? Haha silly, I know but that's what's going through my head that time. Anyways, she tightened the rubber band wrapped around my arm to have a clearer view of my veins, tapped my arms a couple of times.. and SHOOK HER HEAD AGAIN. Oh my. This is bad. And then she said, "Try lang natin. Pag hindi kinaya ng ugat mo ititigil ko na. Masyadong manipis ugat mo eh." So I nodded. She also said that it's gonna be more painful than how it normally is kasi sa gilid na vein nya itutusok dahil yun na daw ang pinakamakapal (which is manipis pa ren) out of all my veins. >_< style="font-weight: bold;">own blood. I'm telling you, ANG COOL NIYA TIGNAN! :)) And it felt great too! While I was lost in my own world staring at my flowing blood, the nurse interrupted my fantasy by saying, "Tatanggalin ko na, hindi kaya ng ugat mo. Magcocollapse ka." And so she did. I wasn't able to finish the whole thing because their needles are too huge for my veins. :( Pero I won't give up! Maybe I'll go directly to Red Cross to donate blood because they have needles of various sizes there and they could find one that would fit my veins just fine. :) I may sound insane here but I don't care. I really want to be a regular blood donor. That's the least I can do to help, right?

After that, Pastor Jon talked to me and asked for my response to his offer. If you have been reading my previous entries, I mentioned there somewhere that I was called to God's work. This was it. So, he asked and I said yes. I accepted the offer. I do not want to go into details yet but soon enough, I'll be able to. I think that's the thing I lacked last year -- balance. And so now I'm making things right by letting the Lord use me in His work. It's just about to start and I still don't know what to expect. But I know that God is with me and that's really all I need to know right now. :) To God be the glory!

It really is true that when you heed God's call, He has something in return to give to you. I didn't expect a blessing right away because I haven't even started on my ministry yet. But nevertheless, I almost cried when I received the news. It was about Jay. His health improved! He's been hospitalized for a week now and all we hear are sad news. No positive changes at all. Not until now. And there's actually a possibility that he may be discharged from the hospital some time this week. Isn't that wonderful? I believe that's just one of God's many blessings to me for following His call. Thank you, Lord!

These 3 events of the day gave me hope. And I'm going to hold on to this hope for the challenges to come.