Welcome

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Through this blog (a companion tool of my Family Matters website), I will discuss issues affecting the Filipino family primarily from a Biblical perspective. not from a legal perspective. For legal discussions of issues that affect the Filipino family, please surf to my Legal Updates blog.

Some topics I will discuss in this weblog are the following:

1. The “covenant marriage laws” of the states of Arizona, Arkansas and Louisiana, the covenant marriage movement in the USA, and how these can be made applicable here in the Philippines

2. Divorce and its equivalents here in the Philippines like annulment of voidable marriages, declaration of nullity of void marriages, and declaration of presumptive death for purposes of remarriage

We don’t have a divorce law in the Philippines, but the Family Code provides for its equivalents as I mentioned above. Over the years, pastors have asked me on what to do with their members who, before they were converted to Christ, were married to persons other than their current partners. My own views are similar to Chuck Swindoll’s discussion of divorce and remarriage in his book “Strike the Original Match.”

According to the DSWD, 40% of couples in the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) are merely living in. Tha’'s about 90,000 couples. Also, some media reports state that there are more than 400 annulment cases filed every month all over the Philippines.

Over the years, I have heard a lot of women cry. Please, take note! I didn’t say, “I made a lot of women cry.” I said, “I have heard a lot of women cry.” I have counseled numerous women who, for various reason, wanted to escape from their marriage. While these women have asked me for legal advice, oftentimes, they just wanted to be heard by someone with a sympathetic ear.

Some of the most tragic stories I have heard come from battered women. We now have Republic Act 9262 or the “Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004.” I will be discussing the details of this law in my Legal Updates blog.

Because of these experiences, I became interested in reading books on marriage and relationships. I now have several dozen books and articles on marriage and relationships, by authors like James Dobson, Willard Harley Jr, H. Norman Wright, Les and Leslie Parrott, Dr. Ed Wheat, etc.

In this blog, I will share with you some of the things I have learned from these authors and from my own experiences in counseling women. I am not married, and so my views may be limited by this factor. (I am, however. praying for a partner in life and ministry.)

I will also inform you from time to time of articles on marriage and relationships from websites of interest. One website that I recommend to you is www.loveandrespect.com by Emerson Eggerichs and his wife. Other ministries which offer a lot of in-depth articles on marriage and relationships are Probe Ministries at www.probe.org and Radio Bible Class at www.rbc.net.

Potentials of blogs for pastors, churches, and missionaries

As you know, a blog is a simplified of a website, capable of posting text documents and pictures, without the need of knowing all that technical HTML stuff. Anyone who knows a word processing program like MS Word can create and maintain a blog. The blog tool that you use may be commercial (that is, you have to pay a fee for its services and the hosting), or free (as provided by some entities on the Internet, although “free” means that ads will be placed on your blog in exchange.)

The blog is a vital tool for Baptist pastors and missionaries, enabling you to have a presence on the Internet. Instead of a website where you will be totally dependent on the guys who know the technical HTML stuff, you can use the blog to post articles (sermons, Sunday school lessons, devotionals, profiles of the staff and members, etc), schedules of activities and special programs, and pictures of church events.

Through a blog, Filipino missionaries to local and foreign fields can keep their supporting churches informed about their activities, schedules of deputation, needs and prayer requests. If you are interested in using the weblog, whether you are a pastor, missionary or group leader in your church, I can help you for free in three ways.

I can show you how to put up a weblog (although as I said, learning how to put up a weblog is easy when you know any word processing program).  

I can conduct a seminar for you or your church staff on writing news, features, editorials, and photography.  

You may be a Filipino missionary to a foreign field interested in putting up a blog, but you’re not that proficient in written English. You can e-mail me your articles (“post” or “posting” in the blog language) first. I will then edit your posts and send them back to you by e-mail. You can then post these edited articles into your blog.

I was a journalism teacher and schoolpaper adviser (Quezon City Science High School 1983-1984, and Rizal High School in Pasig, from 1984 up to 1995). Helping pastors, missionaries, and churches put up and maintain a weblog is one of my ministries. You can e-mail me at gtgalacio@yahoo.com, and we can arrange the schedule.

Free seminars for churches, schools, and barangays

I also give free lecture-seminars to churches, schools, barangays and other organizations on the following topics: (1) Essential Provisions of the Family Code; (2) RA 9262 Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004; (3) Procedures in Administrative Cases Against Teachers; and (4) Photojournalism for grade schools and high schools, and youth groups. Any group which wants to hold these seminars can just contact me at gtgalacio@yahoo.com for available schedules.

While these seminars are free, you need to help me in terms of transportation expenses, especially for churches outside of the Metro Manila area.

Churches may hold these seminars as part of their outreach to their communities. Last summer, I had the privilege of lecturing on Republic Act 9262 in places like Laguna (Kalayaan, Lumban, Victoria, Alaminos), Batangas (Sto. Tomas) and Cavite City. The hardworking municipal and city SWDOs coordinated these seminars. Previously, I conducted two RA 9262 seminars for the DSWD Region IV-A social workers held at the Haven for Abused Women, and at Max’s Restaurant in Ayala Alabang Town Center.

November 24, I was invited through Ptr. Vincent Santos Diaz, to give a legal lecture as part of the symposium of the Baptist Missions Partners (BMP), an organization under the leadership of Missionary-Pastor Edwin Tan. The conference was held in La Vista Resort in Pansol, Laguna.

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.“For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”

James 4:14-15