Finally the most talked about fight of the year is finally here! Let’s get ready to rumble once again as we await the much awaited Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto youtube video and live streaming

Our very own Manny Pacquiao will try to make boxing history by trying to snatch his 7th world boxing title from Miguel Cotto. This fight is also important as most boxing analyst consider this as an indicator on whether Manny Pacquiao is ready to go one step further to face the undisputed best pound for pound Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Still no losses) I also want this to happen because I would really like to see the trash talking Mayweather father and son eat their own words.

Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao has a shining and sterling 49-3-2 record with 39 knockouts. His recent successive victories over legendary fighters like Diaz (not my relative hehehe), Marquez, Barrera, Morales, Larios, Hatton and Dela Hoya made him world famous. As the only Asian boxer to win five world titles in five different weight divisions, (some say 6 world titles) his record undoubtedly speaks for itself. Pacquiao also snatched the title “best pound for pound” when Floyd Mayweather Jr. retired. Aside from being a highly technical boxer, he is known for his strength, stamina and speed.

On the left corner is young Puerto Rican, Miguel “Junito” Cotto with also an impressive 34-1-0 record, but no doubt still does not match that of Pacquiao’s. He currently holds the WBO welterweight championship.

Most boxing analyst favor Pacquiao’s win over that of Cotto. Personally I believe that Pacquiao is going to win. Besides whatever happens to the fight, I think he is still a sure winner with the millions he is earning (Take note this is in U.S dollars!) and his sure 65 % of pay per view earnings!

So who do you think will win in the fight of the century dubbed as “Fire Power” to be held at MGM Grand Las Vegas this Saturday November 15, 2009? Give me your analysis via comment on who you think will win.

Update: Manny Pacquiao wins by TKO ! Congrats ! Mabuhay and Pinoy !

Finally here is the the Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto youtube video and live streaming courtesy of Solar Sports and Inquirer.net.

In a lot of ways my wife and I are opposites. She is more sports minded, while I am the ever perpetual bookworm. I like sports but sports never learned to like me. She likes to be with people while I may look outgoing and very sanguine but deep inside I enjoy solitude and the people I enjoy to be with most are only those within my private circle. I am more investment and business minded. My idea of helping people is teaching them how to fish. On the other hand my wife is more philanthropic. I want to build my own “Berkshire Hathaway” while she wants to build a philanthropic foundation.

I am thankful to God that despite our differences, He has managed our individual difference and we have complimented each other. In a way my wife makes up for my weakness and I for hers.

Months ago, my wife who is a licensed social worker started a children’s ministry within our compound. I am proud of what she and her staff have accomplished. I do not take an active role in this ministry but I support it through the best way I can. Let me tell you a bit about their ministry, which is called the “Train a Child ministry.” The following is a write up about their ministry.

“Train a Child Ministry was put up with an inspiration from a bible passage that says “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it, Proverbs 22:6.” With a mission of a transformative education that enhances emotional, social and intellectual development tailored to a child’s need, the center offers innovative education among children of urban poor families who are unable to send them to formal school. It caters underprivileged children ages three to fifteen in Barangay Dumlog, Talisay City.

Train a Child Ministry was established on August 8, 2009 and has accommodated about thirty five children at the moment.

The center envisions assisting disadvantaged children with free learning service for the advancement of their learning capabilities. We hold Saturday classes and will be opening daily next year. An e-library will also be opened soon. It will be an excellent venue for children to do their school work and other related assignments.

The center aspires to administer a variety of fun-learning experience which stimulates a child’s motor and social skills that promotes positive relationships among children of different age groups. As much as we can, TCM provides a safe and nurturing environment where a child can learn and develop new skills. The programs provided include: Arts and Crafts; Music; Film showing; Computer literacy; Bible stories and informative games. Through the varied learning activities that people in the ministry provide, we hope to inculcate Christian values among these children towards a healthy and Christ-centered life.

“The child is the father of the man,” and instilling his young mind through innovative learning and Christian values is a good foundation of his adult existence. To learn more about the Train a child Ministry, visit our site at http://trainachildministry.blogspot.com/.”

I’ll never forget September 26, 2009 and the week that followed after that. This has been a week of disaster after disaster and the vicious cycle just went on and on. I just couldn’t believe it.

I just can’t believe the devastation caused by Typhoon Ondoy last week in Metro Manila. I had been monitoring the news constantly, surfing websites and blogs related to the storm, watching youtube videos on the fury of Ondoy and dropping by the PAGASA website from time to time to monitor incoming storms.

I just can’t believe what happened in Metro Manila. Floods went above the garage flooring and reached as high as two storrey houses and even higher in some areas ! An urban planner who got his degree from Harvard said in an Inquirer interview that it’s not an act of God but sin that caused the floods. The sin he was referring to was the sin of omission particularly the sin of not respecting the environment and the sin of the government in not placing the necessary infrastructure to prevent floods from happening as outlined in the recommendations of a world bank report entitled “Metro Manila Transport, Land Use and Development Planning Project,” which was published in 1977. Well I’ve always lamented the fact that in this country, we have very poor urban planning compared to other highly industrialized nations. I do not even know if we have a University that offers a course on urban planning.

Well whether it was “sin” or both sin and an “act of God”, it does not matter. The loss of lives, people loosing their homes and possessions that they have worked hard for several years, gone in just a few hours is so heart breaking. I just can’t believe what happened.

It is as if it isn’t enough, now here is disaster after disaster, there’s another storm coming this time it’s a super Typhoon Pepeng. Barely 1 week has passed since Ondoy has unleashed its fury in Luzon. The entire Luzon area is now once again under threat.

The Philippines is not the only one that has experienced disaster after disaster from the wrath of nature. Last Tuesday a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Tonga caused Tsunami in the area which killed more than a hundred people and wiped out villages in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. On Thursday, another 5.5-magnitude earthquake hit Samoa.

On Wednesaday, Indonesia got hit by 7.6 Magnitude earthquake leaving more than a thousand dead and a thousand more probably homeless.

Aside from that there’s another super typhoon hovering over the Pacific, code named “Melor” which is expected to hit Guam and will be heading to Japan by next week. It was a relief to hear that according to weather forecasters, Melor will not hit the already battered Philippine Islands.

Last Thursday, a fire hit Archbishop Reyes Ave. in Barangay Luz here in Cebu City. Although there were several persons injured and there were properties that were destroyed, it was a relief to hear that nobody got killed.

SO WHAT ON EARTH IS NEXT ? THIS IS JUST TOO MUCH ! A WEEK OF DISASTER AFTER DISASTER !

Personally, I am thankful to God that no disaster happened to me personally. (The only disaster that happened to me would probably be my hair LOL) Just kidding.

Well these strange events of disaster after disaster happening is not an accident. Jesus said in Mathew 24:6-8 that some of the signs of his coming are that “ . . . Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. . . “

A week of disaster after disaster may be bad news for everyone, but there is one good news I can think about, JESUS IS COMING SOON ! Are you ready ?

The latest Pantene commercial launched in Thailand really did shine. Congratulations to Proctor & Gamble the company who makes the shampoo and of course to their Ad agency, Grey Worldwide in Thailand. Their latest Pantene commercial featuring a Deaf violinist girl has become a buzz in the blogsphere and various social networking site.

The Pantene commercial became an instant hit because it was inspiring and creatively conveys a story. Critics have been quick to judge that they can’t see the connection between the shampoo and a deaf girl playing a violin. A comment in youtube goes like this “Nice commercial and storyline but i just cant relate Pantene with the girl. IN CONCLUSION: Pantene makes the girl goes deaf and mute. The only thing I can relate them both. LOL”

Well, I think they nailed the message. Just as people were hooked about the Promil commercial (People brought Promil milk for their kids hoping they will become gifted too) I think the Pantene commercial drove the message home. If you want to shine and stand out from the crowd, use Pantene hehehehe. (Of course keep on practicing the violin too, or whatever you are planning to shine on)

Anyway, enough of the Pantene commercial. Being a street violinist myself, I was quite interested in the commercial. I had played and had been exposed to music all my life. Although I am quite rusty now, but I have sort of passed my violin playing to my son, and he just had his first violin concert. (Not really it was just a recital hehehehe):-)

Going back to the girl in the Pantene commercial, people might ask, can a deaf person really be good at playing a musical instrument. Of course they can! Some of the world’s greatest musicians are deaf. The great Ludwig van Beethoven produced some of his greatest work after he loose his hearing.

Anyway aside from encouraging people to use Pantene, the commercial also drove home a very important point. Having difficulties or problems in life such as having a physical handicap is not a hindrance for somebody to be the best that they can be in life.

Kinds of remind me of the movie entitled “The Soloist” which I saw recently. The movie is based on the life of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician with paranoid schizophrenia. Unlike the fictional Pantene commercial, this one’s based on a true story. I’ll talk about this in another post. In the meantime, enjoy the pantene commercia and be inspired. Remember, keep on using Pantene to shine LOL . . . This is not a paid post, but to show appreciation to the company who made the comercial, if you have girl friend, one of your gifts for her this Christmas should be a bunch of Pantene shampoo. 

This article probably starts my series of pointing out several doctrinal errors that some Baptist churches and even my own church still lovingly cling to. When pastors from my church will read this, I will probably be ex-communicated or something. They will probably hate me for what I am about to say.

Anyway before I start bashing some doctrinal errors that Baptist churches lovingly hold allow me to explain why I am doing, what will be doing.

First of all, I am a Baptist. I still am, despite the fact that I have already been regularly attending a “non-denominational” church. I have not renounced my membership nor have I transferred membership. Not yet. Secondly, I believe that the Baptist church has been used by God mightily throughout the centuries in winning people to Christ, evangelizing the world and doing a lot of mighty and wonderful things in the name of God. Thirdly, although some may disagree with me, the Baptist has the most unique church history among all denominations. However this is just my own opinion. Fourthly, among the denominations, I find the Baptist as the most conservative, most adamant about clinging to the “right” doctrine and the boldest Christians who stand up for what they believe is true. Again this is just my own opinion. Fifth and last in my own personal life God has used the Baptist church as an instrument in order that I might hear the Gospel, get saved and grow spiritually.

Well those are some good things that I have to say about the Baptist church. However despite that, the Baptist as a denomination is not perfect. No individual denomination is perfect at all. Each denomination has its own short coming. It is because denominations are filled with saved but imperfect people who commit honest mistakes.

Sadly sometimes the mistakes most Baptist make are not honest mistakes but stubborn mistakes. Despite the fact of Biblical and logical evidence to the contrary some Baptist still clings to doctrines that are not very Biblical at all.

The doctrine I am referring to first is the doctrine that “Jesus Christ is a Baptist” and the “Baptist Brider” doctrine. Not all Baptist Churches believe in this doctrine but there are many who do, especially from the Independent Baptist and Bible Baptist factions. This doctrine is very popular among the Bible Baptist churches here in my home town in Cebu Philippines and in the Visayas and Mindanao areas. It has also quite a number of following in Luzon and in Metro Manila.

I am really amused with the “Jesus Christ is a Baptist” doctrine. The person advocating this will usually go through this line of thinking. “If you are baptized by the Catholic church then you are a Catholic, if you are Baptized by the Mormons then you are a mormon, but if you are Baptized by a Baptist then you are a Baptist.” The argument seems very logically sound.

However what amuses me is the fact that advocates of this doctrine stretches this logic further and states that “Since Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, hence Christ is a Baptist.” I was in high school when I first heard this, and I never believed it the first time I heard it. I told myself, no person who is in his right mind could believe this heresy. Unfortunately I was wrong. A lot of Baptist believes it and I am really quite amused and somewhat surprised that a lot of good and well intentioned pastors believe this. On the other hand I am not surprised at all. Some Baptist stubbornly believes anything their pastors tell them because they do not study their Bibles seriously at all.