Strange things happening....

[Dondi]

Keep in mind, as your read this story that nothing that happened was really planned...except by God.

My wife is from the Philippines. Having met her some 17 years ago while deployed in the Navy, we married and have two daughters. Now if you know nothing about Filipinos, know that they are very family oriented. My wife has 8 siblings (six brothers and two sisters) all living in fairly poor conditions in a small fishing village.

We very recently took our first trip as a familly to the Phillipine Islands (hencefore will refer to PI), due to a sudden turn of the degrading health of her father, who is 81 years old. Many of our friends, family, and fellow church members joined us in prayer for his recovery. We had assumed the worse would happen and quickly made travel arrangements to fly over in early August and stay for about three weeks. Papang, as we call him (meaning father in the native language), suffered from an enlarged heart, high blood pressure, and liver sclerosis (from years of drinking in his younger days. He doesn't drink now). And though his condition looked dire, he actually came out of the hospital just before we began our trip, but was in weakened condition. We expected that he would be bedridden and gaunt and sickly from his illness. But when we got there, Papang was sitting out on the porch, looking healthy as ever and even got up, came over and gave us a tear-filled hug. Well, prayers were answered. But that's not what was strange...

Our original intention for our trip to PI was to see my wife's father, presumably before he passed on. (At this writing, he's as healthy as a bull and his latest checkup shows normal heartbeat and blood pressure, pretty much a good bill of health, thank God). But since Papang was healthy, we were now better able to enjoy our visit as a regular vacation.

During the first part of the week, we met with the Pastor of the local Baptist church, which has had a long history dating back to the 1950s, in which my wife’s family was one of the founding families (Baptist churches are a bit of a rarity, owning to the fact that the Philippines are about 95% Catholic.) Then I got a shocker when that Pastor told me he wanted me to preach the next Sunday. Me, preach? HA! I’m just a layman. I’ve never step behind a pulpit before. I’ve taught Sunday school classes and conducted Bible studies, but preach? Well, I tried to tell the Pastor that I wasn’t really qualified to preach, but he insisted. So out of respect, I took to the challenge. But I must say I felt an awesome responsibility on my shoulders. I do not take lightly the preaching of the Word of God and prayed that I might rightly divide the word of truth. I sought God for the right message during the week.

Since I didn't know a lot of Tagalog (the official language of the Philippines), I often felt left out of the adult conversation. So I ended up hanging mostly out with my wife's nephew and nieces. Well, I guess they are my nephews and nieces as well, since I married into the family. But anyway, they all spoke fairly good English and I got to talking with them and playing cards and chess. One day, we were stuck sitting around the house due to a typhoon and the kids were sitting on the couch and they began to sing Bible songs in English. So I asked them if they learned them in Sunday school, which they replied yes. Then my wife and I taught them some more Bible songs, most notably “Noah’s Arky (Rise and Shine)”. The song basically goes through the story of Noah. But when I asked the children if they heard of Noah, I was surprised that they said no. So I conducted a little Bible study right then and there. Oh, I tell you, these kids just ate it up! They wanted a Bible study most every day. And then they wanted to learn more Bible songs. And I had them memorize several verses, notably John 3:16 and Romans 6:23. Boy, you should have seen then grab the Bibles we brought with us and sit down to memorize those scriptures. They had such a hunger for the Word. But from these verses I had to explain the Gospel to them, for they hadn’t really heard it (What were these children learning in Sunday school, anyway?).

Another song popped in my head, namely “Seek Ye First”, which led me to make the theme of my sermon, based on Matthew 6:33. So I taught the kids the song and told them they will sing it Sunday morning, along with citing the memory verses, before my sermon. They were hesitant, but I assured them they could do it, and not to be embarrassed to go up.

Since the Bible study with the my nephews and nieces were doing so well, we decided to have another Bible study during a family reunion that was planned to commemorate the death of my wife’s mother, who died on August 11, 1986. Every year, my wife’s family gathers together to remember her, and is the biggest gathering of relatives during the year. Weird that we happened to be there just at that time. Coincidence maybe? At any rate, we had 80 kinfolk show up. I gave a Gospel message and as a result, 12 children (virtually all my bible study lids) and 1 adult (my wife’s sister-in-law) received Christ as Savior. Praise God!

But the strangest thing was yet to come....

 

[Dondi]

The strangest thing that has ever happened to me...

One of my wife's uncles, whom I'll call Tatay (respected name for an elderly man), was saddened by the fact that his wife suffered a stroke a few days prior to our arrival. Nanay (as I'll call her), was laid up in a local hospital there the next town in a comatosed state. She was not moving at all and pretty unresponsive, except every once in a while she'd open her eyes for just a few seconds and then close right back up. We decided to visit them at the hospital the following Sunday. When we got to the hospital, we met with the family to inquire about her condition and the proceeded to her bedside.

Now since my wife is more familiar with Nanay, I had her speak to her first, in her native language, telling her that we came all the way over from the States to see her and chitchat like that. Then she motioned me over and asked me to speak to her, though I only know English (most Filipinos are able to understand English, even if they don't speak it well). So I told her that we are praying for her recovery and that Tatay wants her to come home.

I don't know why, but all of a sudden Nanay opened her eyes as I was talking to her, and she started staring right at me as I spoke to her. Then my wife began asking in her language if she understood me, and she nodded her head yes, but could not speak. And as we continued talking to her, she began moving her legs around. The rest of the family we as startled as we were that this was happening. She responded to more of my wife's questions and seemed aware of us. Since we just came from church, I decided to sing to her "Seek Ye First", which we sang that morning, and as I was singing, she began to tap her hand on her stomach to the beat of the song. And it occured to me to pray for her salvation, so I started praying for the Lord to save and as I prayed, the more she moved around. Then we asked her if she wanted to be saved and go to heaven, and she nodded yes, so we prayed a prayed to invite Jesus Christ to save her. Then we asked her if she understood what she did, and she nodded yes.

Well, it was time to leave the hospital and said our goodbyes to Nanay and her family. We told the family to keep stimilating her senses, that perchance she could come out of it. But we later got report that she went back to her comotose state almost as soon as we left. She never responded in like manner again.

A few days later, Nanay passed away.

My only explanation for what happened is that God saw Nanay's need for Christ to enter her life. And that God opened up a window of opportunity for us to share the Gospel with her while we were there. Why did He use us? Maybe because no one else told her about salvation through Jesus Christ, and we just happened to be available.


But wait there's more.....

 

[Dondi]

“But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” – Matthew 6:33

I believed that God led me to choose “Seek Ye First” due to the fact that I was to preach before a poor fishing village. Most of my brothers-in-law are fishermen, who spend long hours day and night in banca boats trying to catch fish off the coast of the village. It’s hard during the rainy season and the typhoons, for the seas are too rough to ride and the normally clear waters too murky to see the fish. Often they are not able to fish, or when they do, they net little. Still, there is always rice. As God provides, my wife and I try to help them financially. But it is my firm belief that if we would seek the Kingdom of God first, and His righteousness through Christ, then He will provide for all our needs. I’d like to see my brothers-in-law come to church more often. More importantly, I would they see for themselves the mercy and greatness of God, if they only learn to trust Him. But that Sunday, after the sermon, I saw three people get saved, and many more make a commitment to put God first in their lives.

I did go fishing with two of my brothers-in-law, for I wanted to experience for myself what how they fish. So one clear day we set out in two banca boats, one with a large net, one without, and rode out to the open sea. I was in constant prayer for a good catch that day, though one of my brothers-in-law was not so optimistic. The waters were still murky after the recent storm. They usually spot fish by diving under, but now they had to fish blind. But I was determined to pray for a good day of fishing, hoping God would honor my prayer to exceed my brothers-in-law‘s expectations. I really wanted to show them that my sermon wasn’t just talk. We stopped in an area about 15 kms out, the other boat floating some distance away. The boat I was in trailed a long line that had small water bottles tied as certain intervals along the line. The bottles kept the line afloat, but I think they must have had bait along the line also, for the boat made a wide slow circle to attract the fish. When it was felt the bait was doing its task, we veered over to the other banca boat and let out our net over to them. We separated from the other boat again, letting the net out in a huge circle coming back around to the other side, so that the net would encompass a large area. The net floated on the waters by buoys attached at certain intervals along the net. Once the circle was completed, divers swam to the middle of the circle to scared the fish outward to catch them into the net. Then the net was slowly drawn in. I really didn’t do much but pray.

I kept remembering the time the disciples were fishing and having a dismal day, and Jesus called out to them to cast their net in a certain manner. But how the disciples were skeptical of Jesus for they had been fishing all night. Yet they obeyed and caught so much fish that their nets could hardly bear it. So I prayed for a similar thing to happen, trying hard not to waver in faith.

Well, we didn’t strain any nets with an overabundance of fish, but we did net than they had expected to get, considering the blind circumstances, which I thank God for being faithful. So we headed back to the beach and had a great grillout.

Sometime later, my niece (a daughter of one of the brothers-in-law I went fishing with) came up to me and told me that her father had been reading the Bible every night. Maybe I'm starting to reaching them...

Still more.....

 

[Dondi]

One day, near the end of our visit, one of my wife’s classmates from college and her sixteen year old daughter came to visit us. And my wife had a such burden to see her get saved and kept urging me to do witness the gospel to her, but I felt strongly that the Lord wanted my wife to witness, so I told her she should do it. She said I could explain it better, but I said that she will listen to you as a friend better. So she took her classmate into the back room and wonderfully led her to the Lord. Then my wife wanted me to help her further understand what her classmate did in getting saved and give some assurance of salvation verses. Then her classmate wanted her daughter to get saved, so my wife took her back and led her daughter to the Lord. The following night, the classmate came back, but this time brought her husband, for she wanted Him saved. So I was able to share with him and led him to the Lord. Praise the Lord!

All in all, we saw 20 souls get saved. And we give all the glory to God, for as I mentioned, none of this was planned. Hallelujah!

I got to think about all this. It seems God is leading me step by step toward something. I think it is largely due to the fact that I and my wife are open to God’s leading. We are making ourselves available to be used in whatever ways He seems to guide us. All of this, of course, in prayers and obedience to His will in other areas of our lives, like our service to the Lord in our home church in the States, our ministries, our tithes, our faithfulness to the church and our pastor, our soul-winning, our love for others in the church.

But I just get that "CLICK" feeling. Like a lock whose tumblers are lining up as the key is being pushed in. thinks are just clicking into place in most pecular ways.

A caveat to my story: While I was there in PI, it just so happened there was older retired U.S. Navy 20-year veteran (a Filipino) in the same town, who used to be classmates with my brother-in-law. And he heard that I was there and that I was a fellow retired U.S. Navy 20-year veteran as well, and so he came to visit me. (Now you first have to understand that this village was small enough that you'd probably would expect too many U.S. citizens to reside here, let alone Navy vets. Most vets if they do retire in PI usually are in Manilla or around Olongapo/Subic Bay area or some other highly populated area. So, to have a U.S. Navy vet in the same village is rare).

Now let me back up a little and say that my wife and I had previously discussed the possibility of retiring to the Philippines, perhaps after the kids had finished school. But I was under the impression that if I was a U.S. citizen, I would have to return to the U.S. every six months and then come back to PI. That I would have to cycle back and forth between the two like that. (I wasn't that up on immigration laws).

But when I talked to this fellow that visited me, he told me that I could get a permanent resident visa in PI for a five year period and not have to travel back to the States at all. And I could still retain my U.S. citizenship. And he showed the fairly simple process in obtaining one and offered whatever assistance I needed should I chose to apply for it.


So I am asking myself why I am meeting people who would just happen to be the right people I need. I, too, am wondering if I'm being "called" to the Philippines somehow, perhaps as a missionary or some such. I dunno, but you can be sure that I am open to do what God tells me to do, all for His Glory, Honor, and Praise!

 

[Kalashnikova47]

I don't know, sounds to me like you've got a spiritual gift my friend...