~Wendy

Funny how God can call your heart back to your real purpose. Why do i say this? Just yesterday, I was so blessed by the Lord that He spoke to me in a way that I would have never thought of.

Lately, you could say that I’ve neglected my spiritual duties. He he! (sorry Kuya Ades) And instead of reading my Bible, and spending some quality time with the Father, my ears are glued to the latest tunes of McFly (my fave band—as of the moment), and my eyes explores their website and pictures, my hands busy typing messages in the McFly forum, and giving out reviews and feedbacks. You could clearly see those in my friendster profile and blog, which happens to be all McFly-inspired! But anyway, I am not here to campaign about this band (they have a website to do that). Instead, I am here to tell you how blessed i am.

Yesterday, a few minutes away from my History class, I was at Netopia doing some final research for our report in Entrep 35. However, because i’m a girl, i can multi-task. I was also checking out some music videos of McFly that i don’t have. I guess I’m starting to take a trip down memory lane with my craze for bands and such. I mean, these things happen in high school! I never thought I would be this obssessed since I THOUGHT I am mature enough in college not to be smitten by cute bands which will never know me at all! Anyway, since Netopia is the only place I could actually open YouTube, I took advantage of it by viewing lots of music videos by McFly. Never thought ONE video would make such an impact.

One of the videos is You’ve Got A Friend, a track they revived from James Taylor to serve as a fund-raising song together with All About You for Comic Relief.

Comic Relief is a charity organization that uses the entertainment industry to raise funds to have outreaches and stuff for poor countries. McFly and together with other actors and actresses serve as ambassadors to other countries. McFly currently came back from Uganda after two years and saw a newly constructed building (i think it was a hospital), which was put up because of their single All About You that earned about 500,000 pounds. To know more about comic relief and how YOU can help, visit www.comicrelief.com

Anyway, the video moved me like no other. I was starting to cry in the middle of the video, and i’m still teary-eyed. I actually had to stop the video halfway because I couldn’t take it anymore.

The video is so touching that you would have to be a stone if you don’t feel anything. It showcases children who lost their parents to AIDS, and who has AIDS—the catastrophic epidemic in Africa. And you can just see how these boys (band) were greatly moved when they were playing with the kids, and talking to them as they lie on their hospital beds (or even worse, death beds)….and what crunched up my heart was the scene where Danny, one member, had to hide to wipe away his tears. As far as i know, you don’t get to see genuine help already from bands and artists, they do it only for publicity. But this changed my mind. Comic Relief is a great organization, and it’s going to be BIG! Though I’m not from UK, I would really love to help out. It’s one way of reaching out to other people through this organization. And it also gave me this suddent urge to go on an outreach together with the church. I never tried, but now i really want to.

Just last night, I continued reading on the book i bought from MV Duolus, The Prayer of Jabez for Teens. This book has been lying on my dusty drawer, and last night, i read on. A lot of thoughts came into my mind that I would like to share to the rest of you who are reading.

One, in the prayer of Mr. Pain, as I would like to call Jabez, he asked God to bless him and expand his territories.Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that Thou would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast [territory], and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!’ And God granted him that which he requested."  1 Chron 4:10

Mr. Pain here would love to be blessed so he could bless others. Don’t we want that? It’s so ironic really. Because ones we have the things that we need, we don’t turn to God already and ask for blessings. God in His own capacity is capable of showering us with blessings but WE NEED to go to Him like a child would do to a Father, and ASK for blessings. While reading, I saw that we need to ask God for the blessings, and with His will, and "blessing", He would give it to us.

After viewing this video, I realized that I want to bless other people. It doesn’t have to be in Uganda but just to offer prayers for the people we know, love, and people we don’t even know of but are suffering. And even one way of blessing other people is sharing what you’ve gained when God spoke to you. That is why I was so excited to write this blog not because I want to show off but to be a blessing to you.

Two, Jabez didn’t have a whole book in the Bible that tells about his life like David, Noah, or Abraham. He didn’t even have one chapter. He only got a verse! But he is this really BIG inspiration to a lot of people. He definately is to me. It only shows that you don’t need to a big superstar, or popular to be a blessing to other people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that big charity foundations, big-name philanthropist cannot be blessed with the prayer of Jabez. It simply means that they should be motivated to do more to help without getting their head big, or shall I say, remaining "small" and humble.

Guys and gals, you don’t know how lucky we are to be here healthy and breathing. We have a family, a home, clothing, school, and believe it or not, money. Let’s take a moment to thank the Lord for the blessings received, and say a few words of prayer to help our suffering brothers and sisters, not only in Uganda but all over the world. We are not left alone because we have a God, and these suffering people are not alone too because they got us to help them in the smallest ways, and a BIg GOD to back them up. They got a friend. And we do too. I love you all and life is short, so don’t complain. Make the most out of it, and you’ll realize what great impact your actions are going to be.  DO what YOU CAN! Be Blessed so you could be a blessing to others.

**The video is in my media box. It’s the first video. or you could check it out in Youtube -click. Guys, I really encourage you to view this video to see what i mean. Or, you could view it in my Friendster Media Box. It’s the first video.**