This is the third write up in my mom’s testimony series. Last week I talked about how my mom found out she was Jewish. This week I want to talk about how my mom became a oneness believer of God, and how she met my Dad.
I grew up listening to my mom relay her story of how she came to know the Lord and how she met my Dad. But you know how it is, as a child you paid some attention but not too much. I often thought that I should sit down with my mom when the time comes and get all the details down before she goes home to be with the Lord. But as life often gets in the way of our plans, I thought I had plenty of time to do this, so I kept putting it off. Now, that she’s gone and I’m trying to recall certain things about her story, it makes me wish so much that I had gotten to it as I had been feeling to do for a long time.
The Lord was dealing with me about writing this third blog post but I didn’t know how to go about it. He told me to write about how my mom met my dad and the way she came to know Him and ended up in the Bible School, but I couldn’t really remember everything. I asked my Dad for what he remembers, and he gave me some information he could recall, but still I was hesitant about writing it. As I relaxed and tried to commune with the Lord, my mom’s long time friend, Celia, came to my mind. I wanted to call her because she had messaged me asking if I was going to be attending the anniversary service my cousin was having at the church he is pastoring in New Jersey. They were going to have a moment in their anniversary of remembering my mom. I told her unfortunately I couldn’t make it. She said she would love to go too since she knew my mom from all the way back in Bible School where they had gone together before my mom was married. How did I forget this? But of course! She was my mom’s Bible School classmate! She has been there before my Dad even came into the scene, and many times she was my babysitter growing up. The Lord surely has a way of providing our needs and proving how when He wants something done, and if we’re just willing, He will open the door. So between my Dad’s recollection and Ate Celias’s (Ah-teh’ in Tagalog meaning, older sister; a sign of respect) and my own memories, I think I can justly write the story now. Thank You, Jesus!
According to my mom’s story, before her family came to know the Lord and they all fell in love with Him, their life was in a little bit of turmoil. My grandfather was always sick with asthma and was constantly being rushed and admitted to the hospital. She talked of how they were told that if they broiled lizards and smashed it to smithereens and have my grandfather, my Lolo, drink the juice, it would cure him of his asthma. It came to a point where all the lizards in the house disappeared and they would have to hunt them somewhere else. We’re talking about the hot, tropical country of the Philippines, were these kind of creatures flourished. My grandfather was a high school English teacher and ended up having to give up his job because of his asthma. He still wasn’t cured. My grandmother on the other hand had eye problems and couldn’t really see very well because of her glaucoma. So the bakery store she owned and ran, had to be given up too. She talked about having to change glasses numerous times in order for her to see. Still the dimness continued. In addition, because my mom had four ambitious brothers much older that she was, and because my grandfather encouraged debates and speaking their minds out, sometimes the debates would escalate to a point where the cops had to be called. She said that so often she lived in fear of someone getting hurt. She would literally shake inside because the yelling wouldn’t stop until my Lolo would bring out the machete, and then the cops would have to be called. She said despite of this, they were always a very pious and religious family who observed going to the mass and attending the Catholic Church nearby, especially my grandmother. My grandmother told of a story where she would kneel down and walk on her knees from the entrance of the cathedral to the altar, while saying her rosaries in hopes that God would see her sacrifice and not only heal my grandfather of his asthma but also bring peace to their home. It wasn’t long before the Lord saw their tears and their heartaches and heard their innermost prayers.
My mom met a beautiful Christian friend while she was working as a part time clerk manning a store in Pasay City, who invited her to a church service. Her name was Evelyn. Through her she came to know a wonderful couple that were members of the Bethel Temple church, who would house my mom and feed her so that she didn’t have to travel all the way home and end up missing the church services. She pretty much lived there while she worked part time and started college. Through this church she got baptized and received the Holy Spirit of the Lord. This is where she started falling in love with Jesus. He became a personal friend rather than just a distant deity. He became very real to her. Well, knowing that what she experienced was life changing, she went back home to witness to her family.
It took some time trying to convince them as you can imagine. But a sister in the Lord, Sister Gatdula, another friend from church came to the rescue and went with my mom to pray for my grandfather. He was miraculously and instantly healed of his asthma! This was the beginning of everything turning around for them. My mom’s brother who was an atheist and studying to be a lawyer was convinced, because when he saw that my grandfather wasn’t being rushed to the hospital anymore three to four times a week and was actually getting healthier, getting up on his own and dressing himself up, he said there was no other explanation for it: God has to be true. It was pretty much the same sentiment for the rest of the family.
Before long they were all going to church with my mom. They became so gung-ho with this new God, that wasn’t so new after all, that they all forsook everything else, including their jobs and they all got kicked out of their home. My uncle Wilde who was a womanizer stopped womanizing. My uncle Charlo who was the atheist got healed of his insomnia. My grandmother after fasting for four days, got healed of her glaucoma. Up to the day she died at 95 years old she never visited a hospital or wore glasses again. My uncle Wilde now runs the largest church in the Philippines, with many members all over the world.
I tell you, my mom’s family doesn’t do things by halves. When they understood what God was all about they wanted to follow Him all the way through. So much so that they ended up having to live in their new friend’s house, Pastor Montilla, who happened to be well off and could afford to house them all in. Thank the Lord for always providing! Every Saturday night Pastor Montilla would have a church service in his house and my mom would lead the services. He was the one who took care of my parent’s wedding and provided the beautiful Mercedes-Benz for my mom to be taken to the church with on her wedding day.
One day a missionary from America, Brother Willhoite, came to visit the Bethel Temple church and preached to them about the oneness of God. That Jesus Christ was not just the second person in the godhead, He was God Himself robed in the flesh. He was the Heavenly Father incarnated in the Son. He was not separated from the Father, but was the Father Himself walking in the human body that He called Son. The Body was called the Son, but the Father was inside of Him. This was a new concept to them and yet Jesus told the Jews in His time here on earth,
“I and my Father are one” {John 10:30}
He also told them,
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” {John 8:58}
He further told one of his disciples, Philip, because he was asking the Lord to show him the Father. The Lord said to him,
“Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” {John 14:9)
Also Apostle Paul tells us,
“For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” {Colossians 2:9}
Then we have Isaiah who beautifully described the Son of God to us:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. {Isaiah 9:6}
It took some time trying to convince the rest of the family, because they weren’t all in that service when Bro. Willhoite preached. But eventually after the study of the word, they all followed my mom’s leading and got re-baptized in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ, as Apostle Peter commanded for everyone to do in Acts 2:38,
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Very soon after my mom’s friend she had met before the Bible School, sister Carmen, came to my mom to tell her that Bro. Willhoite is opening up a Bible School for anyone interested for free. My mom was at a crossroad here and was seeking the Lord for direction in her life, whether she should continue with her college degree or follow Him. When she went to just check out the school and see what this was all about, she felt in her heart that this was the course the Lord wanted for her to take. So she went full time to attend the Bible School.
The school started in January of 1971. By the middle of February a group of young men from the province of Mindanao came strolling in during the middle of a church service, which my mom was leading up front. She said this was when she went cold and her heart started beating so fast, because a handsome man, my Dad of course, was walking in with them. Everything went blurry and all my mom could see was my Dad. My Dad remembers that moment too and said, “Wow, what a beautiful girl. She’s the prettiest one here.” Well, my mom’s heartbeat almost went into a cardiac arrest because when she looked next at who was accompanying her on the guitar as she sang acapella the song, “Christ Is The Answer”, she saw my Dad. She couldn’t believe it, he could play the guitar! She was very pleased that he knew how to play the guitar and was accompanying her! She loved music!
After the church service, trying to be polite my mom went to say hello to the new comers to welcome them. My mom said that my Dad went up to her and introduced himself and squeezed the living daylights out of her hand. My Dad said he wanted to make sure she would not forget him. He didn’t have to worry about that, because very soon after this my mom would go up to my Dad and would ask him if he could show her how to play the guitar. Well, my Dad would have to hold her hand to properly place it on the guitar and put her fingers on the frets, and then the other hand to show her how to strum the strings. Her brother Ceasar, who was also in the Bible school, seeing how she was acting, put two and two together and told my Dad, “Brother Boy, my sister likes you, you should court her.” This was enough encouragement for him to say the least, so he became bolder in going up to her and talking to her. Very soon after they started talking more and trying to spend time together.
Now my mom had a lot of suitors in the Bible School. Besides my dad she had two other young men that adored her. According to my mom and confirmed by Ate Celia, there was this guy named Joey who was an engineer and well off and could also sing and play the guitar. Whenever my mom would fast he would be ready with a take out meal to feed my mom’s friends in the church so that my mom could have something to break her fast with. Her friends all looked forward to seeing her fast so that when she broke it Joey would also feed them. But unfortunately for him, he didn’t have my Dad’s looks. And my mom as hard as she tried to convince herself he would be better for her, couldn’t get herself to really like him back. Her inner struggle got to a point where they started hearing her say she just wanted to be a eunuch. People were appalled. One minister said, “This is ridiculous!” Well, this idea didn’t last long because a couple of months after the Bible School was over, on September 10, 1971 my parents were married. The Lord showed my mom the scripture in Ecclesiastes when she sought Him what to do:
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. {Ecclesiastes 4:9-12}
The End.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank You so much for Your truth in my life. I thank You that Your love never changes. You remain the same yesterday, today, and forever. I love You, so much.
I pray Lord Jesus for more of You in my life. Help me to love You more and spend more time knowing You. Without You my life is meaningless. I am lost without You. No one else can fill and satisfy like You, Lord. Give me more love and faith in You. I pray this Father, in Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
