There are so many blessings to count.  My staff members’ talents are put to use and I see them develop in their jobs. Creativity is called forth in the day to day.

Even though I’m an unschooled ordinary girl in the culinary world, the Lord has allowed me to see what His grace can enable me to do.  When my brother in law, Kirk, suggested that I take up a culinary course, it really appealed to me to officially be a chef.  But after attending three sessions at ISCAHM, several acts of God happened.  My father passed away and I was absent three weeks from the wake, burial, and mourning. Then Typhoon Ondoy came. Then the unique phenomenon of a Fujiwara storm—the departing storm is pulled back by the incoming storm so the resulting Typhoon Melor came back with a vengeance.  I had so many absences that I pondered God wasn’t prospering my quest to have a title.  This way, I couldn’t credit a school but it would point to Him as the Enabler.

He’s been giving the joy and privilege to help people celebrate wonderful milestones and  tributes for loved ones.

It is truly a delight to witness not just the overt celebrations but also the quiet reconciliations, the father-and-daughter bonding over homework, an adult son taking his elderly mother out for merienda, people getting a refreshing break from their routines, and all the wonderful sharing and caring that bread-breaking provides the platform for.

I get to meet people from the North, South, and from outside the country.

At times, I feel like a Cheers bartender.  Sometimes the Lord allows for people to share with me their struggles or circumstances— a young man is struggling with a drastic change in circumstances, a mother worried for her faraway child, a grown daughter saddened to see a usually strong mother weak, sisters who haven’t spoken to each other for years, a wife experiencing a turbulent season in her marriage.  It becomes an opportunity for praying.

The family kitchen is usually where these exchanges could take place in a home.  I’m blessed to have the humble little shop as the venue for life to turn with graces from God.