2020: Thankful No Matter What

For me, the end of every year is marked by our church Year-End Thanksgiving (YETG) worship services. It is the last occasion I ever look forward to annually.  Some other occasions that usually follow this is mom's birthday and of course, New Year's eve.  But yeah, the YETG is the exclamation point to my whole year.

Today is one of the most blessed days of my year 2020. I officiated the household thanksgiving worship of my relatives at the old folks' house. This scene I have not imagined happening but it did! I was moved by simply the sight of my in-laws gathered together to worship and thank the Almighty God for His great love. And there I instantly thanked the LORD for giving me the chance to lead this special occasion. Also amazingly, the four kids behaved all throughout the service. Special mention to my youngest. 💕

#ThankfulNoMatterWhat

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought so many changes in this world but the hymn we sang in the thanksgiving worship service gave us all the more the conviction to carry on and continue putting our trust in God. Indeed, the love we feel for God will never change! #ThankfulNoMatterWhat

This year has been a "realization" year for most. As I've noted in one of my emails to our Management Committee at work: "Thank you and let us all end this year by being grateful for all the things that we may have taken for granted for the past many years, but began to appreciate and love even more when we were forced to be locked down almost the entire 2020." - this was said as a reminder for some of the members to submit their part in the year-ender corporate video which our team conceptualized to be played in the corporate thanksgiving (virtual) party. Grateful by Nimo was a first time music to my ears and I thought it is a good song as its title suggests. The output was awesome! Thanks to the editing skills of sir Raymund.

Over-all, FAMILY IS LOVE. It is the reason for waking up each day. Above all, it is GOD who keeps us going. 

"Sadness will end, for this, too, shall not last--- hardship and pain will forever be past; thus, He has given this vital command: PUT ALL YOUR HOPE IN THE GRACE THAT WILL BE YOURS!" #ThankfulNoMatterWhat

Meet & Greet... work!

It is one of those very rare moments that I get to schedule a meeting at the first hour of a working day. Thanks to work-from-home (WFH) set-up, I still have a lot of time to prepare after performing my duty in church early morning today. Meeting was scheduled at 8:00 A.M., and I logged in 20 minutes before the schedule. While waiting for the participants, I still got to talk to my St. Edward School Marketing colleague, Ina, to discuss Dr. John's preferences with the layouts that are to be posted in our official social media page. We finished our discussion in more or less ten minutes and just in time, our chairman was requesting to be let in the meeting room already. It was ten minutes before 8 in the morning. Being the meeting host, I let him in the meeting room and a usual smiling face greeted me. "Hi, Jon! How are you? Are you in the office?" sir Gerry asked. You just can't get a bad vibe with that executive smile! "Hi sir, I'm good. How are you? I am at home po," I answered back. "Oh, ang ganda ng wallpaper mo ha! Para kang nasa cafeteria," he said. Yes, I set my background to that google meet coffee shop design and my sleeveless batman shirt didn't look so casual. "Ok na rin pala ang work from home, ano?" sir Gerry added. I wasn't expecting that statement from our chairman, so I just smiled widely. Before pandemic, I was pitching it to my boss when she was asking our team how we can help the company find ways to cost-cut expenses for the entire organization. "Work from home!" I suggested, reasoning out that employees (and their bosses) will be more output-based conscious since they will have the free time to finish the tasks they are assigned to do. And the office need not worry in spending too much for electricity (and water) use, six times a week. Well, I just didn't imagine that it will be realized due to a pandemic.

Early morning interview of PRO-FRIENDS Chairman, Sir Gerry Choa
with Philippine Daily Inquirer Property Editor, Tek Samaniego

So Tek joined us a few minutes after and we started the interview session ahead of schedule. It was a great start of day--- to hear wisdom from your big boss. Wisdom about life, how he runs his business, how he planned ahead of the pandemic, and how we transform lives of the stakeholders. It was beyond that marketing-sounding answers, it was more of life's wisdom and realizations. I'm sure Tek gained a lot from the interview as well, aside from the usual questions she was programmed to write about for their section's anniversary feature.

I am simply thankful for meeting a Gerry Choa in my life. How he envisions things, how he takes care of his assets, how he runs his business, and how he looks after his people. Truly, a man with a big heart, and full of humility.