Father Ben Nieukey snapped this photo of Uncle Paul and me when we visited him on February 21 this year. It was taken outside his residence at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Lorong Batu Lanchang. He is one jovial figure who is always ready with a smile and some kind words. That is a calabash tree behind us with fruits growing on its trunk and branches. There were several such trees in and outside his compound which were fruiting plentifully.

Father Nieukey explained that the calabash tree (crescentia cujete) originated from South America. This tree can also be found in Central America and the West Indies. It can grow up to twenty five feet in height. The tree produces green coloured spherical fruits about twelve inches to sixteen inches in diameter. It has a woody shell and a pulpy inside. When dry it turns brownish and can be hollowed out to make receptacles, cups, bowls and ladles. Its pulp is believed to contain medicinal properties.

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This blog was flooded with over two hundred comments this morning. Those messages contained mostly urls pointing to domains with the co.uk suffix which in turn were redirects for sites promoting online gambling, pharmaceuticals and porn. It took me nearly one hour to clear all the offending messages with MT-Blacklist. I was wondering why it was taking such a long time for MT-Blacklist to clean up only to realise that each time it despammed some messages, it would also rebuild all the pages. Unlike Movabletype, MT-Blacklist does not have a status indicator for the progress of the rebuilding process. After turning off the rebuild function, it was all a breeze. After I have removed all the spams, I rebuilt the blog with Movabletype. Spammers have the most devious ways in clogging up mailboxes with useless junk and now they have found even more avenues to ply their wares. I strongly recommend MT-Blacklist to anyone who is using Movabletype to reduce the occurrences of blog spamming.

About two months ago, I was greatly disturbed by a family matter that had been dragging on for the past ten years. After several attempts to have it resolved amicably proved futile, I resorted to getting legal advice. The issue is still being pursued by the lawyer that I had engaged. The dispute that stemmed from that whole affair truly disheartened me. There was one particular day that I felt most distressed over the entire episode. That morning, I was praying with the Shalom. It is a booklet with a devotional theme for each day of the month that many Catholics use with their daily prayers. One paragraph quoted from the Holy Bible for that day struck me. It was a conversation Jesus had with His disciples after their last meal. That exchange is known as the Farewell Discourses. Among them, He had said:

Peace I bequeath to you, My own peace I give you, a peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. John 14:27 NJB

I read those verses again and again. For a long time I have not felt the serenity that came over me that morning. More often than not, I had thought that I could make things happen the way I wanted. When they did not go the way I had expected, I would become all anxious and disconsolate. Since my journey with Jesus began many months ago, among others, I have progressively learnt patience and trusting in His providence. Life has become so much simpler. Peace was what I needed most during that distressing moment and peace was what He gave me. What more can I ask for?