Cheater

 Q: Help, I’ve cheated on my husband twice but really want to make this work and am very remorseful. I’ve 5 kids.

A: You’re at his mercy now… 

You cheated on your husband rather than just cheating on your partner. That’s different. You broke a vow. Twice. He has every reason to abandon you. If he comes back, it’s mercy. Two families have been destroyed. I’ll get on my knees if I were you… it’s almost unforgivable. I actually feel sorry for you and hope he is kind… and I feel sorry for your kids. Their lives have just been screwed up. And cannot be fixed. Can’t turn back time. 

I am sorry you have to bear such heavy consequences for such actions. I will be here if you need someone to talk to. We are not all perfect. We don’t always get what we deserve. I don’t deserve the life that I live either. So I’ll be a friend. You can pm me if you want. No judgements.

If I were you, I’ll get on my knees and beg him, even if it means begging him in front of your kids that know about it. They have to know it is wrong and that you are truly remorseful and that there are consequences and they don’t look good.

You put yourself in this position, not him. Even if the marriage is not working out (no marriage really is), there is no excuse for what you have done unless he was unfaithful first, and he wasn’t.

So if you haven’t used this already, the key words he is looking for are, “Please forgive me.” And “I promise not to ever do it again.” And “Please give me a chance to make it up to you.” And if all else fails, there is ground zero when you say, “I will do anything for you.” Of course, nothing immoral or that breaks the law.

And one more thing.. I stumbled across a group called ‘The Transformed Wife’. To be honest, I don’t really agree with every single thing they say, but I think in your situation, it would be a good group for you to join, so that some of that ‘Good Wife Vibe’ can rub off on you if you know what I mean — they have some great ideas on how to win a man’s heart. No kidding. These are like the best wives on earth group. I personally find them dangerous, so I didn’t join myself, because I think I’m not strong enough and will take everything they say. Lol. So for my own good, I stayed away. But I’m still thinking of it because, you know,… those amazing ideas. Plus, some of the people in that group helped save my marriage. Worth a shot if you’re desperate.

And as I said, I’m here if you need a friend. Nobody is perfect. And none of us can truly throw stones at you.

Woman Leadership

I am convinced of God’s call upon my life. And am prepared to do anything He asks me to do, whether I receive approval from anyone or not. 

It’s so important to read the Bible in context and to know the history of Corinth and how the women in their temples were prostitutes calling the men to have sex with them as part of their religious ceremony; and how they thought the church would be the same. That’s why the women there were asked to keep quiet.

I am a woman pastor. I am ordained and I am a woman. God calls whom He wills.

When God first created the world, He made man and woman equal. When Eve fell, Adam was standing right beside her (Gen 3:6). He did not speak up but watched, listened, received and ate.

Nevertheless, Christ, as the new Adam, came as the Son of God and Son of Man, to restore what was lost when man fell. Thus, God’s original plan for mankind where male and female are equal, has been restored, and the curse, broken. Women and men are equal again.

Jesus submitted Himself to a woman, marking the beginning of His ministry and first miracle — His mother, in John 2:4,

Jesus said to her, “Woman,  what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come.”

I’ve wondered too many times, why He couldn’t have just called her ‘mother’. Even if it was normal for Him to do that in the Jewish culture, I always know Him to be intentional when it comes to His choice of words. And now I know why.

Because even after disagreeing, He submitted, being already 30 years of age and the Head of His own ministry, with disciples under Him.

As for scripture, 1 Tim 3:2 refers to elders, not pastors. The great question is, what is a pastor? What is an apostle and what is a prophet? 

The term ‘pastor’ is only mentioned once in the Bible in Ephesians 4:11

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,”

To be honest, ‘pastor’ in modern Christianity is just a general term used to classify all clergy who have been ordained, and lay-pastors who have been ordained. 

I do not actually think I have the ministry of a pastor per se, in referring to the five fold ministry. I think my ministry is to be a Marketplace Apostle like Apostle Paul and Lydia. Deborah is one of the greatest prophets in the Bible and I do believe that I could have the ministry of a prophet or evangelist as well. Esther was a Governmental Apostle. Everyone’s different. What’s your ministry?

Did you know that Junia was an apostle? Romans 16:7 NKJV

“Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.”

I hope women be liberated to serve the Lord in whatever it is God has called them to do.

I would also go so far as to say that when God created the world, He created both man and women in Their image: Genesis 1:26-27 NKJV

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

The Trinity expressed in human form: man, woman, and later, sons. That’s why Jesus was referred to the Son of Man and Son of God. Women being ‘helper’ — Jesus also described the Holy Spirit being our ‘Helper’. Does that mean the Holy Spirit is our maid? Certainly not. The Holy Spirit guides us, teaches us all things, brings to our remembrance all things, and is with us. Jesus even says that blaspheme against the Son is forgivable but not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. So we have God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit — the Helper.

The family unit is meant to express the Trinity of God — but when the role of the Holy Spirit has been disregarded over the years, along with the role of the woman, the church is crippled and helpless, and eventually, powerless. 

Women, rise up.

Passover

Tell them about how Easter started — the goddess Eostre, the goddess of spring and fertility, and how it represents Easter eggs and bunnies and why we don’t celebrate it. 

And that we celebrate Passover with lambs because Jesus is the Lamb of God and celebrated the Passover. And how Passover was taken away because the Jews were blamed for killing Jesus so everything Jewish was removed by Constantine - including all the other important feasts we were supposed to celebrate. Although the Apostle Paul himself celebrated the Passover (1 Cor 5:6-8), and said Christ is our Passover, asking us to “Keep the Feast of the Passover”. The rest of the early church kept the Passover.

So we celebrate the Passover with Jesus as the Lamb, and the afikoman that was hidden signifies Jesus body that was broken because it was the afikoman that Jesus took and said, “this is my body that was broken..”. It was ‘after the feast’ that he ‘took the bread’. That bread is called the afikoman — the last bread after the feast which children are supposed to hunt for traditionally. (My kids had their first afikoman hunt this year.)

What other tradition can we hold during Passover being Christians? To ‘Christianize’ it, we (as in my family) also celebrate Resurrection Sunday being the most important day of the year (more important than Christmas), and eat fish (this is something I came up with) because Jesus ate fish when He rose from the dead — he asked his disciples for fish to eat to prove that he was real, and when he had breakfast by the sea in John 21, he cooked fish even before they brought theirs. This brings us back to those days when He appeared to them again, and it makes this special time feel like we are really there. We also serve bread (my idea again), because when Jesus rose from the dead, he met the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and broke bread with them, causing their eyes to be opened. So when we eat the bread, it signifies that we have a realization of who Jesus is after He has risen. So the bread and fish reminds us that Jesus has risen and is very much alive. And anyway, bread and fish also happens to reminds us of the numerous times Jesus multiplied bread and fish, signifying He will always provide for us. 

And just to top it up, Passover this year for us was special. After having our first Seder, and fish and bread, God blessed us with free groceries — a ton of it, and in the shape of a heart. Truly, He provides for us. This Passover, (tomorrow, 20th April 2022) is also our settlement date for a new house 🏡 that we miraculously got a loan for. More evidence He provides for His people during Passover.

Blessed Passover and Resurrection Week! 

“Christmas is a time we give each other presents. Passover is a time we give to Him our Isaac sacrifices, and a time when He gives to us His.”

No curriculum

 Q: I heard we Biblical homeschooling doesn’t need a curriculum.

A: I don’t believe in a curriculum as much as a method of teaching. Every child is different. To write a curriculum for every child would be to whip up a menu for every child. It’s just not right. The Bible is the textbook, yes. Everything else is just supplementary. Grab your materials and arrange according to Genesis to Revelations. Then fill up the gaps with appropriate content for your kids. There’s no one way to do it. It’s like cooking— Use what you have, buy what you don’t have.

Covid kids

 Q: I think my kids are having covid. Symptoms are showing.

A: The day before yesterday my daughter came down with a fever, flu and cough and I was in panic mode because I live with my parents who are high risk seniors. I got her to take tons of vitamin C. Our goal was 10,000mg a day to kill the virus but she only ended up with 2,000 by the end of the day (each chewable is 500mg and the bubbly tablet drink is 1000mg). But I got the other kids to take theirs as well. They did about 1,500mg and the other 1000mg. I myself did about 1500mg because my tablet is 1000mg but I accidentally took my kids chewable and swallowed it, so ended up with 1500mg instead of 2000mg. I try to spread them out with meals so absorption rate is higher. 

She’s fine now and nobody else got sick. I don’t think the fever made it through the night. Lots of prayer too.

Lockdown fun

 Q: Things to do stuck at home that we’ve never done before?

A: Depends on what you want to achieve. We’ve been in lockdown since 5 August last year and only started going out end of March this year. So we’ve celebrated quite a few birthdays at home. 

Plenty of stuff to do. Our lockdown Birthday tradition includes a bubble ball bath if there’s such a term — bubble bath with pit balls. 

If it’s summer where you are, there’s plenty of outdoor fun. There’s the blow up pool, with super cool floaters with sprinkles or you can make your own water sprinklers. So much fun. Go all out.

Lately, we’ve been feeding the cockatoos and colorful birds at 6pm in the evenings. They also feed early in the mornings but the kids can’t get up on time. I have learned what different species of birds love eating — the colorful birds love fruits while the cockatoos love bread. The magpies eat about anything but they’re too afraid of the cockatoos to come near. I know it’s feeding time when I hear pterodactyls screaming from the rooftops. Cockatoos are really loud.

If indoors, we run a restaurant or cafe with real but different cuisines depending on which real life cafe you want to go to but can’t because of the lockdown — Google Images the menu, and photo reviews to choose our order from that particular restaurant or breakfast cafe and cook it up. Ordering has to be a few days in advance so ingredients get delivered on time. Yes, we’ve signed up for free online delivery for groceries above a small amount. So we end up going to healthy breakfast places — smoothie bowls are so healthy and fun and there are some super cute smoothie bowls on Google Images to compete with. We also love baking, etc. My daughter wants to be a hotel manager so she loves fine dining and decorating the dining room to look like a hotel. She also does Room Service. Haven’t tried the in house laundry yet. It’s free. 

Did I mention the masseuse? They use their feet…. I’ve yet to draw footprints on a t-shirt for them to step on.

Potty Training

 Q: How to potty train without being half naked the whole day?

A: If she wants to potty train, a close watch and well timed schedule is all that’s needed. None of my kids did the naked thing.

Hates Writing

 Q: My kid thinks writing is boring but is ahead in everything else.

A: Try typing first? Writing can come later. I suggest not to force. 

Give him handwritten cards for his birthday by different kids. Have a birthday party and have different cards ready when they walk in, with different colored pens for guests to write anything they want.

If his birthday is too far away, give him special handwritten notes or stick it notes everyday telling him how amazing he is or saying something really funny.

There’s also the LetterSchool app that my kids enjoy. It’s pretty cool.

Teaching colors

 Q: How to teach colors to toddlers?

A: Sing the rainbow 🌈 song. 

If using objects; as long as all the objects are the same and only the colors are different, or Vice versa it would more make sense. 

Try using paint. Primary colors first, then mixing. My 2 year old loves painting.

She knows all the rainbow colors including indigo because of the song but she learns through YouTube. Different rainbow songs and different types of videos - Pinkfong colors with the slide, someone playing toys with different numbers and colors, Mother Goose House Rainbow Song, super simple color song, Cocomelon mixing color song and Blippi.

But if you don’t do videos, I taught my first kid colors by giving her different colored toys in bath everyday. So if today’s color is blue, all her bath toys will be blue, and of course, I’ll tell her it’s blue. You can do the same with clothes and food. Everything on the plate is red for lunch today, for example. 

My girls love rainbows. They want rainbow everything and I guess that’s where the desire to learn colors come from. Start with Noah’s ark.

Hospital Alone

 A: I have been in the hospital alone after a Caesarian and probably not be able to have anymore kids. I need some love from fellow moms.

Q: This reminds me of when I had a miscarriage last year and was all alone in the hospital because my hubby was not allowed to be with me. It was a shared room. And it was the worst possible thing to go through alone. But just before the miscarriage, I was reading ‘Good Morning, Holy Spirit’ by Benny Hinn. And he described how his mother was in the hospital about to give birth to him, and she asked God for a boy and in her dream, Jesus asked her if she could give Him one of the roses she was holding, and she did. Then, she had a boy indeed — Benny Hinn, whom she gave to the Lord in her dream. And I drew a picture of that with a pencil, so kids will have a children version of ‘Good Morning, Holy Spirit’ because it impacted me so much. 

I had already spent weeks watching Jesus Image and Bethel (never watched them before this but YouTube kept bringing their videos up, and I was too sick from the morning sickness to keep changing it.) so I was soaked in non-stop presence of God building up to the miscarriage. So when I had the miscarriage and was in the hospital, the song that kept me through was “Worthy is Your Name, Jesus, You deserve the praise.”

So hearing your story really brings to my remembrance that special time I had with the Lord and what could have been a bitter memory was soaked in the love of Christ.

Controlling Devices

Q: How do you control your kids’ internet access?

A: You can take devices away every morning. 

BUT that being said, kids have to follow the rules or face consequences. They have to learn to make the right decisions and why. They need to be convinced and influenced to do the right thing. There will come a day when we can’t control anything anymore and the last thing we want them to think is that they can now make all the wrong decisions and we can’t do anything about it.