"A life journey without prayer would be like traveling across a country with your best friend-but never speaking to each other!  No one travels life's journey alone.  God is our constant companion, accompanying us from beginning to end, even when we get off the path, move too slowly, or take a step backwards.  Prayer is one of the ways we always keep God at our side."

               Toronto, Markham and nearby City of Mississauga went frenzy when Nilo the brother of our batch mate Leah Espino-Ponio came to Canada last spring.  He landed actually a week earlier and has settled somehow in his “Brod’s” house in Mississauga before he was able to visit the exciting City of Toronto and Town of Markham where Rey Bisda and Val Buzon live respectively.  It was almost a whole day affair for Nilo.  He was picked up by Rey at 10:00 in the morning and had lunch with the Bisda Family  after the forty five-minute drive from where he lives.  Val and family came a little bit late because they have to drop off their daughters to a Kid’s Birthday party.  Lunch was just a simple home made pork chops-beef steak style with soya sauce and lots of onions, stir fry mixed vegetables with Tofu and fish balls, crispy fried Tilapia, steamed rice and Leche flan for dessert. 
                After some talks and retrospection about high school days, Val and Chona 
left ahead - this time to pick up their kids from the party.  Nilo was kept busy by Rey browsing through old photograph albums and watching video film taken last year during the Fellowship/Pre-reunion Meeting in Manila hosted by Father Eric Santos.  By the time Rey knew Val and family was already home, he drove Nilo to the Buzon’s Mansion in Markham.  Refreshment was served consisting of truly Canadian beer, pop (soda), nuts, chips, etc.  Pictures were taken before Rey left for home to attend a friend’s party, with his family.
                 Nilo by the way presented Val and Rey an original music album of his late brother Noeh.  He stayed on for a while with Val’s family to meet Renato Buzon, Val’s older brother. Val hosted the Dinner at Hoshim, a Japanese/Korean Buffet Restaurant.
It was already very late before the group realize what time it was.  Nilo did not come home ‘til past eleven only to be greeted again with another party where his “Brod”  was
the host.
           So folks,  Don’t hesitate to come to Toronto  or else you’ll be missing a  lot!!!
 
 

Randell, Russell, Nilo, Rey and Gretchen

North York's Best  Rey and Gretchen Bisda gave Nilo a taste of their finest cuisine (sariling atin) and a great view of the regions north of Toronto from the balcony of their 12th floor apartment. Nilo, shown here toying around with Russell and Randell, enjoyed the Bisda family's hospitality. Nilo candidly offered to wash the dishes afterwards.  Rey almost agreed but Gretchen said "NOPE"...not in our house!!!

     The Bisda cuisine would be a hard act to follow...Val and Chona offered a simple snacks.  Nato joined them later on to chat with Nile for a bit.  We were supposed to take Nilo to Frankie's Tomato but the lineup will take an hour (it was Father's Day afterall)...so we change the plan from Italian to Japanese-Korean at Hoshim.  It was chaotically full inside but we manage to get some tempura and a lot of sushi, sashimi, Korean beef and a host of other dishes.  We manage to talk a lot about Canadian life and we get to know Nilo well and vice versa.  Nilo is such a good buddy that we felt more like relatives than friends.

Dr. Chito Abad, DVM

-----Original Message-----
From: Chito [mailto:chito99@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 5:00 PM
To: Val Buzon
Subject: Greetings from the Philippines!!!
 
 

I was browsing on the net last Sunday and by a sudden stroke of luck I landed on the THS'78 website. I couldn't believe my eyes feasting with awe on the many names & faces of our classmates and batchmates during high school.  A lot of old familiar faces with vivid and vagued memories attached to it. It warms my heart...

Thank you for doing a job well done. Please convey my thanks to those who in one way or another, helped in putting up the website. It's a great site and I'm ecstatic beyond words to have found it. 

Before I forget, my name is Luis Antonio Abad. Friends call me Chito. To refresh your memory, I'm in IV-Sc.1. We were also batchmates in Veterinary School and Chona was a classmate too in one or two subjects in college. I think she was taking a Food Tech course at the time. Now, do you remember me?

Please convey my warmest regards to Chona and the kids. 

A fellow Torresian,

Dr. Chito Abad, DVM

- Angie's Email to Fr. Erick -

hello, 
      i have read your website and it is so incredible, you guys have such an active group and i felt so sad that i could not even find anyone from my batch. i wanted to at least get in touch with someone and then start from there. maybe some of our batch are still back home. does this surnames seam familiar to you? galicha, binuya. cardenas, guttierez, santos, siao, parado if so please help me get in touch with them. i think finding them and remembering our good times is torres high school would be a breather from all our problems, emotional, financial and so on. 
     i was so touched with the articles that you have regarding sir rudy's b-day,actually i remember naz guttierez, her sister alma, was batch"75 too so maybe that's a good start right? i have also navigated to the canadian website, and to my surprise i saw my sister's picture, she is still with torres. use to be a teacher there right? i have so many fond memories of torres high school and maybe someday, i  will come home to visit, i just needed to see my old friends and then i will be very happy. 
      so father eric as i write this letter to you i pray to god that you answer me and that you find my friends, please. 

GOD BLESS , 

ANGIE BATANG 

---------------------
peace and every blessing! 

i think i can recall the surnames cardenas (if i'm not mistaken, he was a troop 85 leader when i was still starting), parado (felix is my friend and batchmate; i know his mother and you must be a classmate of his brother), santos (was he the editor of "ang sulo?" if yes, then, i know him but i don't know if he eventually married my batchmate's sister).

i'm sending your query to felix parado (stationed in so. ca) and our website keeper val buzon (in toronto).  they must have some links to your batch.

i'm sure you've had your silver jubilee homecoming already last december.  i'll try to ask some people in torres; i still maintain contacts with our alma mater.

keep in touch.  here's praying for you and your endeavors. 

fr. erick 

----------------------

hi! i am a torresian batch'75.actually i am froilan's classmate, my name is angie batang, well if he does remember me or any of our friends, like
jopet, deng, sandra, tektek, jee bulaon, riza, dan cardenas, elvira santos and many more. if he does remember us pls. tell him to e-mail me at
sufrage@aol.com.

thanks,

angie

-------------------
felix,

hi! thanks a lot for answering my e-mail,i got your address from your website, and i was so amazed that your batch is so in touch with each
other. i wrote your brother and i hope he writes me back. by the way i emailed fr.eric in the phil.hoping he could find some of our schoolmates batch'75, by the way '76 had their reunion this july and my sister who still teaches in torres (mrs.carmelita samson) said they had a
good time. maybe, just maybe our batch will get together and see each other again. do say hello to your wife and five wonderful kids. again
thanks,

angie 

Satan's Convention

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.

In his opening address he said, "We can't keep Christians from going to church.  We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth.  We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their Savior.  Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.  So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, but steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ."

"This is what I want you to do", said the devil: "Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.  "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles.  Keep them from spending time with their children.  As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice."

"Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive.  To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly.  This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers." "Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day." 

"Invade their driving moments with billboards." 

"Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives." 

"Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night." "Give them headaches too!  If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere.  That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas." 

"Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death." 

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive.  Have them return from their recreation exhausted. Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation.  Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead.  Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences.  Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus.  Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

"It will work!  It will work!"

It was quite a plan!  The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there.  Having little time for their God or their families.  Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives.  I guess the question is, has the devil been successful at his scheme?  You be the judge!  Does "busy" mean:

B-eing
U-nder
S-atan's
Y-oke?