To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1 – The Holy Bible KJV

Hello again dear reader!

I thank you for your time and interest with my blog “FindingTruth”. My apologies for having a big break, but life happened! The truth is, my dearest husband suddenly passed away last August 2021 after years of enduring debilitating health issues. As you can imagine, there have been a lot of changes and challenges with my new life but I also experienced God’s grace through it all which I will share with you on my future blogs.

Anyway, I want to continue with my story after my high school graduation in 1981 from my previous blog “Humble Beginnings”. If you would like to refresh your memory, just click on the link below to get you back there. https://findingtruth.blog/2021/05/18/humble-beginnings/

The moment of truth! I was just turning eighteen years of age and here I was, facing a major decision of my life that would take me further away from my family. The time had arrived for my classmates and I to find out our results of our College Entrance Examination. We were all hopeful for a very good score to secure our places into University for the next chapter of our lives. I thanked God that I passed with a higher score than expected and my friends did well too. My classmates and I were very excited and envisioned our dream careers. My excitement however was dampened when I remembered my personal situation. The truth is, the lady I worked for had informed me a few days before that she could no longer financially support my tertiary education as she promised because of a certain event in her family life. But she had asked me if I could stay with them until she could find a replacement, someone who was not a college student. She was very happy for me that I did well with my exam and wished me all the best in the future.

My options at that time were to either go back home or search for other employment to support my college fees or pray. I opted for the latter. As I had been raised as a Catholic I went to mass the following Sunday morning to pray there. I thought that if I pray in church surely God will hear me as this is where we are supposed to find Him? I did not know then that God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent; in other words, God can hear us pray whenever, wherever we are and He knows what we are going to pray anyway. God considers the condition of our hearts before an answer is given yes or no or much later and that we must pray in truth and with faith that He is God.

The truth is, my prayer life so far at this stage was restricted to a man-made prayer book and not praying from my heart. For example, how is saying or praying “The Hail Mary” going to tell God about my situation and my needs? Of course God already knew what I needed, but I did not know this at the time that He was the loving Father who would love me to come to Him with a childlike faith to ask Him to meet my needs.

Another prayer I learnt from the prayer book was the Lord’s Prayer, not knowing it was not a man-made prayer, but it actually comes from the Holy Bible (Matthew 6:5-13; Luke 11:1-4). As I mentioned in my previous blogs, whenever I was scared of anything I would pray the “Lord’s Prayer” until I got some peace in my heart and I felt secured. It was my “security blanket” prayer when I really needed it. Not having read a Bible and learnt its contents with understanding I was ignorant of the Lord’s Prayer’s special purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ himself taught His disciples this prayer when they asked Him to teach them how to pray. After years of being a Christian, I have learnt that when we pray we ought to base our prayers using the Word of God in relation to His promises for our needs and to glorify Him. The Holy Bible says that God always honours His Word and none of His words come back to him void.

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

So shall my (God’s) word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11

The Holy Bible KJV

How good is God? He has provided mankind a handbook called The Holy Bible on how to get to know Him! I personally encourage you that you will take time to read the only resource we have on this earth from cover to cover to get to know God properly. I had heard an encouraging statement years ago that the Holy Bible is like God’s “love letters” to us humans. He created all of us, He loves us, He cares about us despite our sinful nature, and He speaks to us through His Word. He longs for a relationship with us through faith and it is through faith that we can have that relationship. Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Back to what happened when I got to church, whilst the priest was officiating, I sat there and joined in the service as expected. Say the “amens” when we were supposed to; sang the songs; kneeled; stood up and sat on the pew at the appropriate order of the mass, but when the time came for prayers, I was seeking God’s special favour in my heart. I asked God quietly for help and guidance as to what to do next. I did not have any revelation from God relating to His plan for me. I did not know what to expect as His answer to my prayers. I went back to the house of the family and carried on with life as usual. The truth is, I did not know and understand that God cares about me and loves me. I had no idea that I am supposed to love Him back with all of my heart, with all of my soul, with all of my strength and with all of my mind. Instead, I was scared of Him as in terrified of Him that He would punish me every time I did something wrong!

The other factor that made me believed that God did not love me was because when I was only about nine years old, I was repeatedly molested by one deceived man (by the Devil), even though he was supposedly married to one of our relatives. What confused me more was that this man had a daughter who was the same age as I was and we became friends. I thought that was the reason why her father was giving me more attention than the rest of my siblings. He was a talker, so everyone was listening to his funny stories and captivated by his charm. Then, the inevitable thing occurred in front of my family!

One evening after dinner, as usual we were listening to his stories and I was sitting down on the floor, and he laid down on his belly in front of me and he asked me to massage his head. After a few minutes of following his instructions on how to massage his head, he then lifted my fuller-styled skirt, fondled my private part and disregarded my innocence, my privacy, etc. He told me not to tell anyone because it would not be good for me if anybody knew (the enemy used him to place the spirit of fear in me). I became his sideline entertainment whenever he came to visit my family. I would try to avoid him but somehow he managed to get what he wanted. I was very confused and became subdued. This went on for a season and my parents were oblivious to what was going on and both parents passed away not knowing this secret that I was carrying for years. One day this man tried to convince me to go with him to a certain place away from my house, presumably he would have raped me then. I was so scared, refused his demands and fortunately it worked. I now believed that God rescued me from worse and the man never came back to visit us after that day.

Even though I was only a child then but I still knew it was wicked. I felt violated, tarnished, disgusted and I was in shock! Why did it happen to me? Now as I read through scriptures I have learnt that the enemy will use anyone to attack anyone. The recent “me too” movement would remind me of that incident but by the goodness of God I was able to put it out my mind because I have been cleansed and washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. I have forgiven that man many years ago after I became a Christian. I know God avenged me of that wrong because He saved me and showed me his goodness despite all the attacks from the enemy. Life is unpredictable but God is constant and it is up to us to keep reminding ourselves that we are not alone. But, it does not mean that we are safe from further attacks as a Christian.

Back to what happened after I prayed. A week later, my landlady’s younger sister and her family paid an unexpected visit to the family. During the course of the visit they talked about my desires to go to college. The sister, her husband, their three year old daughter and a baby son, were relocating to their new place and they needed a helper like me. The sister asked me if I would like to work for them as a live-in nanny and housekeeper and they would pay for my tuition fees and education materials that I would need. The husband worked at the University where they were relocating and he agreed to this arrangement. I got very excited for this opportunity and took the offer but neglected to consider if this was the answer to my prayers. I asked the lady of the house if I could have a few days leave to go back home to the village to see my family and to let them know of my new employer and she graciously agree.

I was very excited to see my parents and my younger siblings again. Our eldest brother was in hospital at this time and two of my older sisters were living away from home. The journey home seemed quicker compared to when I left. I shared with my father and mother that I had accepted an offer from my landlady’s sister in order for me to pursue my education. They were happy for me but sad too because it meant that they would not see me again for a while, so I promised to write to them whenever I could. After a few days I went back to the city where the new family was waiting for me.

I arrived safely and was told that they still had a few weeks to organise their relocation matters. In the meantime, I ended up working for the two sisters’ homes until we departed. I was overworked without pay except for my upkeep with food and a bed to sleep on. Despite these conditions I was thankful to God that He kept me safe, He gave me the strength and endurance but I did feel that they had taken advantage of my vulnerability. But I remembered my mother’s advice about education “nobody can take it away from you”, so I endured to the best of my ability. I can see it now that God was teaching me how to be strong and be the best housemaid anyone could have. He gave me the grace to be patient and hopeful, how to deal with separation by treating this new family as if they were my family. God was teaching me how to be adaptable with my new environment the best way I could. Although I only just met this family, somehow it felt right to trust them that they would honour their word.

The day had arrived for our departure. The family hired a vehicle that the husband drove. We packed everything into this medium sized car with their belongings and my little suitcase. We left around nine in the morning, my job for this journey was to assist the wife with the children’s welfare. We had several stops along the way, including stopping by at the wife’s parents place and having lunch with them. I had a vague idea of where we were heading, then nightfall came and we were still travelling! While the children were asleep, I went to sleep too. I remembered that the car had stopped prior to our arrival at our destination. The husband got out of the car and he came back soon after with a bunch of keys. He spoke to someone for directions, then he resumed driving the car for a good while. There were no street lights but I could just make out that there were shrubs and the occasional big trees on either side of the road. He stopped the car outside a building, it was pitch black and he had a torch for a light to open the door.

As it turned out the building was one of the University’s buildings where the husband would be working. He had permission to use it as our temporary accomodation while their house was still under construction but nearly completed on the other side of the fence from the building’s boundary . I had no idea what I was going to see the following morning. I told myself to just follow their orders of what to do, learn quickly and adapt the best way I could.

Around five o’clock in the morning I was awakened by hearing voices outside the window, but I could not understand what language the people were using. Then the wife asked me to fetch fresh water from outside where the voices were coming from. Still tired and barely awake, I staggered out the door with an empty water container, to be met by a bunch of Muslim women and children, judging by their attires. I realised that this city’s population is mainly Muslims and they spoke Arabic. The University was purposely built as one of the government’s infrastructure to help the economy in this region.

Then, I spotted a tap about two feet high coming out of the ground and they were filling up their water containers, as well as washing their clothes and themselves. I smiled at them, observed and waited for my turn to fill my container. They looked at me with suspicion, I felt intimidated and as soon as I had filled the container in my hand I went back inside the building as fast as I could! I told my new landlady that I was scared. She peered through the window and assured me that it will be fine as these people understand that the non-Muslims citizens living here are there for their benefit.

Again the spirits of doubt, fear and low self esteem were having a field day in my head. I wondered why I agreed to work for this family? I did not have any money to go back home, my life depended upon this family’s generosity and mercy. Somehow, I managed to pull myself up, focusing on my goals in life and did the best I could to fulfil my duties as housemaid and nanny in between classes and assignments. Sunday was my only day off to catch up on assignments, projects, study time and go to church. The family would go to town on Sundays to buy supplies for the week.

To sum up, my daily routine began with a four o’clock start and bedtime was any time after ten o’clock at night. Saturday mornings were the weeks’s laundry for the whole family and ironing was done during the week or Sunday afternoon. There was a time then that my feet were infected because of the water supply and the length of time my feet would be wet while washing the clothes by hand. Underneath my toes were bleeding and very painful when walking. I thought my toes were going to be detached from my feet but by the grace of God I got healed by prayer through a couple of Christian students who were boarding in this family’s house.

At that time I was ignorant that God can do miracles and I have since acknowledged and thanked God for it. I am grateful for His great mercy even though I was not a born again Christian then. There is a verse in Exodus 33:19, “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. It is God’s prerogative to whom He will show His goodness, mercy and grace.

Then the pressure got too much near the end of that first semester, the family were giving me some grief. In addition, I got attacked on my way to visit a classmate for study time one afternoon. As I looked back at that incident I can honestly say that only by the grace of God I managed to run away from the attacker. I am not a runner, but it seemed like my feet were not even touching the ground as I was running. I was so scared that I just collapsed when I reached my friend’s dormitory door. She took me in and looked after me until I regained my strength and courage to go back to where I lived. I shared with her that I needed to get away from the family and asked her if I could stay with her until my semester results were released in a few days and she kindly agreed. I spoke to the Christian students who prayed with me about my ordeal and plan to leave and asked them to pray for me. A kind neighbour who became aware of my plan to go home gave me enough money for my fares. One very early morning before the crack of dawn while everyone was still asleep, I courageously grabbed my personal belongings and left. I was very nervous but determined, as my friend was waiting nearby and helped me to get to her dormitory room.

My Journey Home

Once my exam results were released and I acquired the proper University paper records, I headed back home. Not knowing what the future held and how my parents would react to my return, I was hoping and praying that another door would open before the next semester. The journey was scary because I was alone at this time but I had written directions on hand, for where to stop for the next bus, ferry, jeepney, tricycle rides and the last part was walking seven kilometres to the village. I finally got to my hometown around seven at night, hungry and very tired. Finding familiar folks from the village was a bit of comfort. They were happy to see me and told me that a lot had changed in the village.

Apparently because of the ongoing conflict with the local rebels the “New People’s Army”, the Philippines Regional Defence Department had set up an army barracks in the middle of our village as their base to fight against the rebels in the area. They also informed me that I got there at the right time and pointed out to me a big army truck which was about to head back to the village on which I could hitch a ride. They spoke to the driver of the army truck on my behalf and I was granted favour to hop in with the others at the back (standing position only). After nearly an hour of travelling, the truck stopped outside the barracks which was opposite the house of my Aunt who helped me when I was in second and third year high school. The goodness of God manifested again with free transport and placing me at the right place where I could stay overnight instead of a twenty minute’s walk to my parent’s home in the dark. Back then, I considered it as a coincidence but now I regard it as God’s grace in action!

God bless you and thank you for your time reading my blog. Please feel free to comment below and or follow my blog. I trust the Lord God Almighty encourages you through my story.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1 (The Holy Bible KJV)

Tonight (26th May 2021), we observed one of God’s many wonderful works – the lunar eclipse of the moon. God had ordained the course of the moon to help man see the changes of the seasons besides to give light at nighttime.

He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down. Psalm 104:19.

The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 136:9 Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: Jeremiah 31:35

There are many more references in the Bible about the moon. Here are some of them:

The truth is, to understand who God is, to know him as our Heavenly Father, his works, his creations, his great love for mankind, his commandments and the reasons to obey them, we must put our faith in Jesus Christ, for Jesus himself said in John 14:6 – I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Believe me dear reader, it would be the best thing you could ever do with your life especially nowadays with the intrusion of the current pandemic, society attitudes in the modern world, the ongoing conflict between countries around the world, and the frequency of natural disasters. God is our only hope to help us endure and when our time to pass away arrives, we will go in peace and joy as we meet our Maker and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our life is a gift from God and time is precious! God controls time and we do not. Pray for the Holy Spirit of God to be with you as you make your choice.

Psalm 37:3-4; Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

My first international flight!

It started on October 31, 1984! After five months and a half of going back and forth to the Australian embassy in Manila to have my immigration papers processed, the day of our departure from Manila to Sydney finally arrived, hallelujahs! When I heard the call for the passengers to board our Qantas flight my heart was pounding with excitement and trepidation. I was excited to start a new life with my new husband and our baby which was due in a few months. But, not knowing what our future was going to be like was terrifying, especially for someone who had only become a Christian five months previously. My walk of faith in Christ was literally at newborn stage. I was totally dependant upon my husband’s assurance that God is with us; that God will bless and guide us in every step that we take as a married couple.

But the truth is, I was wondering what kind of reception I was going to face in Australia at every stage of our new life together? The spirits of low self esteem, vulnerability and fear were harassing me! Where were we going to live and raise our baby? What future will I have in this foreign country knowing that my husband did not own anything except his bag of clothes and a bag of Bibles? I did not know anyone; would his first family and his friends who knew of my existence, accept me? Would they like me in person and be my friends too? I now know that wondering is a waste of time and a drain on the emotions, but the best way was to take everything to God in prayer, for He knew all about it! So, I held my husband’s hand for comfort and assurance knowing that that God knew my thoughts and his thoughts are higher than mine (Isaiah 55:9) God then reminded me of his promises in Psalm 37:3 & 4, Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. After hearing these promises, His peace descended into my heart and I knew ALL would be well! I have since learnt over the years that it is much better to wholly trust in God before trusting anybody.

As we walked through the aisle to find our allocated seats, my eyes widened to see how big the aircraft was. With so many people in front and behind us, and folks settling into their seats, others putting their hand luggage into the compartments above, and helpful, friendly crew, I was impressed. One crew member directed my husband to our seats which were located near one of the exit doors, more room to stretch out our legs and with a spare seat as well, so we praised the Lord for these blessings. Then, as I was having trouble putting my seat belt on as required and not being able to adjust it to fit, I felt overwhelmed but thankfully my husband saw how I felt and he helped me.

After a while, the plane’s engines started, the chatters and commotion inside the cabin had decreased and the crew at certain points of the aisles were showing the routine emergency procedures. In my head I prayed, “please God may there be no emergency on this flight!” I could feel the plane starting to move, then gradually getting faster and faster down the runway, my heartbeats synchronised with the speed, and I thought, well, this is it, I cannot get off now, just surrender to the Lord and enjoy the trip. As the plane ascended up higher and higher I looked out the window and I was in awe of the sight of the city lights, I had never seen anything like it before! I watched it until I could not see it anymore and went to sleep.

Australia the land down under!

I woke up just before the plane started descending into Sydney international airport. I excitedly opened the window blinds a little to look out the window. My eyes were met with the glistening sky as the sun rose from the horizon. What an awesome sight! Breakfast was served before the plane started descending and a few minutes after 6am we got off the plane. Sydney International Airport was very busy and huge! People were coming and going. It felt like I was dreaming and I kept pinching myself to make sure it was real. After we cleared customs my husband enquired at the information desk as to where he could find the nearest Commonwealth Bank of Australia branch, as he needed to withdraw money for our journey to Queensland where we planned to settle. The lovely lady at the desk informed my husband that the nearest branch was at the domestic airport.

The truth is, we did have a dilemma on our hands because before we left our accomodation in Manila, my husband’s wallet was missing with his CBA card in it and to withdraw money from a bank he would need his bank card to do so. I had no idea how he was going to do it except his faith in God for favour. After hearing my husband’s story about his wallet and the fact that we did not have any Australian dollars in our pockets, she then arranged for us to go on the shuttle bus that would take us to the domestic airport and she showed us where to wait for it. We thanked her very much and we waited for the bus. We were full of gratitude to God for the free transport provided and for the lady’s kindness.

God is omnipresent and omnipotent!

When we arrived at the domestic airport we discovered that the bank was a few hundred meters from the bus stop, so we staggered down with our luggage, it was freezing and very windy. Imagine, my then fifty year old husband and a five months pregnant twenty-one year old me, (do the math to figure our age difference) who were walking down the road with this inclement weather, I think our luggage and bags kept our feet on the ground. I have never shivered like that in my life! We finally reached the bank. It was a smaller building on its own, so warm and I could not see other customers inside as we must have been their first customers. My husband walked up to the counter where the available teller was. He retold his ordeal about his wallet besides telling her that we had just arrived from overseas and that we needed money. By the look on her face this scenario was foreign to her. She called the bank manager on the internal phone and informed him of our dilemma.

The bank manager dutifully came out from his office, greeted us nicely but we must have looked terrible for the bank manager to offer us some refreshments or God told him! He asked my husband what he would like to drink? My husband replied thankfully that he would love a cup of hot white tea but no sugar and I followed with a desire for water or juice if they had it. In my head, I thought wow, all banks in Australia served drinks too? Well, of course not, that was a one-off favour from a bank and I will never forget it. I was observing the mighty hand of God working through the bank manager, the lady at the information desk at Sydney International Airport to meet our needs at that time. He was confirming what He impressed in my heart as I was boarding our flight the night before in Psalm 37:3.

Meanwhile my husband continued to clarify our situation to the bank manager while we were having our drinks. The manager then phoned the Queensland branch manager where my husband’s account was established and informed him of his return. He then handed the phone to my husband as the manager in Queensland would like to verify that it was him. They spoke for a few minutes as well as telling my husband to relay his messages of welcome and best wishes of my new life before my husband handed back the phone to the manager, and after a few words he hung up. The manager then instructed the teller to do the transactions for us. By the time we finished our drinks, my husband had received enough Australian dollars for us to resume our journey. We thanked them very much for their kindness and assistance and followed their direction to the nearest bus stop for the bus to Sydney’s central station. While I was sitting next to my husband on the bus, looking out of the window my mind was blown away! Again I was pinching myself to see if everything that had unfolded so far was real! I was in a new world, totally different to where I had grown up for twenty-one years.

God’s favour was present at Sydney Central Station

We finally arrived at central station, we joined the queue to buy our tickets to Queensland. My husband asked for two sleeper tickets and was informed that the train was fully booked. He pleaded with the ticket seller to check if there was any cancellation. Again, God’s favour descended, the man was so surprised that there was a sleeper that had just been cancelled! After confirming the cancellation he asked for our personal details then proceeded to book it for us. My husband asked the ticket seller if he could have concession price but he couldn’t show him his pension card because it was lost with the wallet in Manila. The reply was, “its okay sir, there’s a promotion going on today of two tickets for the price of one!” How amazing was that? Once we had the tickets in our hands, we put our luggage safely in the hired locker and headed to the cafe at the station for lunch. The train was scheduled for 8:30pm departure so we decided to explore Sydney for the afternoon. My husband took me to Kings Cross fountains, then we took a ferry ride to Manly, and had a glimpse of the iconic opera house. We bought some apples at Manly while we were sightseeing and I had my first taste of one of them on our way back on the ferry. We got back to Central Station after we had dinner at one of the local cafes and were both very tired by this time. We were ready to settle down for the night on the train. Oh, what a day!

Dear reader, you might think that what happened to us were just coincidences; that God had nothing to do with the favours we received. The truth is, you are entitled to what you believe in life, and I am too. God is a good God, he is a miracle-working God, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE IN HIS HANDS. From everything that had happened on my first day in Australia, my faith in God rose exponentially. Throughout the five months and a half that my husband was in the Philippines with me or even before knowing him, many more blessings have been received which I will share in my future blogs. God is very real and he can be to you too, if you just open your heart to him and put your trust in Him. I believed that the Holy Bible is the only true resource we have on this earth to get to know God as our loving Heavenly Father. You may not have an earthly father at the moment but just know that your Heavenly Father loves you. Perhaps your relationship with your earthly father or mother is broken, I encourage you to get to know Father God and he will help you restore your relationship with your earthly father, mother, relatives, friends, associates or anyone with his everlasting love.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man or woman of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Psalms 22:9, But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. 

Psalms 22:1, I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. 

I am who I am today because of God’s grace! God has planned and ordained my life for his glory!

I came into this world through my dear mother’s fifth pregnancy but the fourth living child. As I got older I learnt that my mother gave birth to a “still-born” son before me. I have two sisters above me and the firstborn of the family was a brother. Then, my parents went on to produce another sister, two more brothers and the youngest child a sister. Growing up with such a big family and living in one of the third world countries (The Philippines) at one of the remote villages, life was hard. My father was a farmer and did his best to provide for his family. My mother did some work “mat weaving” at home to compliment my father’s income. Most of us sisters learnt our mother’s trade to help her fulfil the mat orders she had. We all worked on the coconut farm that my father was the caretaker of. We grew our own vegetables, fruits, corn and raised chickens and pigs.

It was a tough life growing up! We did not have much, most of our clothes were hand-me-downs, our home was a one bedroom village hut, our parents & younger siblings slept in the bedroom (no beds but sleeping on mats on wooden or bamboo floor), the older siblings slept in the lounge floor, like sardines at times when relatives and friends stayed overnight. Despite all that, we were happy, accepted the truth that this is life for us in the village. Generally, when our designated home chores and school homework were done we played hide and go seek, played in the dirt, marbles, rubber bands games or hopscotch to pass the time. For a bit of extra excitement, we used to scare each other with different tricks we have learnt, climbed on trees or slid down from a smaller hilltop with just a piece of hard cardboard or part of the coconut palm leaves wide enough to sit on. Roller coasters, what is that??

One of the things that I admired from my parents for the rest of my life was that they encouraged us all to do well at school, that we may have a better future. My mother used to say to us, “your education, nobody can take it away from you”. Even now, I could still hear her voice saying it, unfortunately though she had passed away last January 2021 at 85 years of age. My father died suddenly in 1983, when we were mourning for the eldest brother’s passing three days prior. It was one of the most tragic moments in my family’s life. I can’t remember much of what happened on that fateful day. I guessed my brain just couldn’t cope and blocked out a lot of things. But, if only I knew more about God then, the creator of the universe, read and studied the Holy Bible, then my understanding and reactions would have been different.

The truth is, the family did not own a Bible, nor have access to one, our knowledge of God’s existence was only through one hour each week at school Catechism teaching, but it did not do much for me personally. I did memorise the Lord’s Prayer which I often prayed whenever I was scared during my childhood, as well as the Hail Mary’s and the Apostles Creed. Family prayer time was not observed except when someone passed away, Christmas time and Easter. Church services were only available in town or if we have a radio we could hear the Catholic mass on it. However, there was a season during my elementary school years that I was involved in the Baptist Church distance Bible study correspondence course. I learnt about the creation stories, the first man Adam and first woman Eve, their fall from grace and departure from the garden of Eden, I learnt about the stories of Noah, Moses, Job, Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection and the story of John the Baptist. To me then, they were just stories, nothing to do with me I thought. I did not understand the importance of all those stories. I was learning them to get awards if I passed the test and not about my eternal salvation. But God’s grace was present then without my total awareness of it.

I started primary school when I was just over six years old by chance. I was visiting the grade one class in our village school one day and I loved it so much that I kept going back. The kind teacher of the class allowed me to continue and I finished grade one as one of the top students that year. It gave me confidence and encouragement to do well for the following years and I finished elementary school with the highest honours. It made my parents very proud and to see the joy on their faces was amazing. It gave them hope that I would continue to do well into my high school years, all through college and then have a good job to support the family as expected in our culture. But, the truth is, life is unpredictable! It does not matter whether a person believes in God or not, what is expected and the choices the child do along the way affects many people. When the parents expectations are not met, it causes disappointments, pain, separation, dysfunctions, etc with everyone in the family. I have learnt now that our expectations and hopes must come from God and not from other human beings. He gave us the gift of life not our parents and we must do our best to live life for his glory and honour.

My first year in high school went well as expected but during my second year in high school, things did not go well and I had to terminate my studies abruptly, left home to live & support my eldest sister who got married to a man she met during her work travels. Her new husband worked location was at one of the bigger cities on the other side of Mindanao island. Unfortunately, the marriage did not work out so my sister and I went back home about two years after. My parents sent me back to high school to resume second year as well as my eldest sister. By this time my sister above me was doing her last year of high school. She then went on to college with a scholarship to do Bachelor of Commerce. All hopes was on her that she will be the one to rescue the family from poverty instead of having our hopes on God. Unfortunately, all hopes were lost when she disappeared for a few years after she graduated. My parents were struggling to pay our tuition fees so I had to leave home again when I was fourteen years old and lived with one of my Aunts who graciously offered to pay for my third year high school tuition fees in lieu of my services which includes house chores as well as taking care of her three young children.

My fourth year in high school took another turn in my life. My mother found another family in a nearby city who needed my services and in return they would provide for all my needs for my last year in high school. I cared for this family’s five young children during the day as well as house chores then I went to school at night. Fortunately, the school was located just in front of their three storey apartment and all I had to do was cross the road and into the classroom. Yes, three storey house is a lot to clean and maintained, too many clothes to wash and ironed everyday, cooking and cleaning the dishes etc. They family were decent enough but the older children were very naughty. How I managed to do everything only God knows.

The truth is, God helped me reached my goals, he sustained me and I finished with honours once again. I can look back into that year now and see with a grateful heart how God provided all my needs with his divine protection and favour over me and I learnt patience, determination and courage to endure this very challenging time in balancing work and studies. My parents came to attend my graduation evening and were very proud to see one of their daughters received awards from my hard work of studying. So what’s next after high school? Did I passed the entrance examination to go into college? How am I going to pay for my college fees and which college or University would it be? Watch this space 🙂

Hello everyone 😊

I am very new to this ‘blogging’. I will learn as I go. It has been busy in the home front that I hardly find time to sit down and type. But as you can see I just posted my first attempt of “blogging” – Humble Beginnings. I hope you liked it. I value any encouraging comments please and you’re welcome to follow my blog 😊

“Finding Truth” was created to share my life’s journey on how I became a born again Christian, and hopefully encouraged others to follow Jesus too. All scriptures quoted throughout my blogs are from the King James Version Bible, my first Bible version I was given and learnt from about God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit as well as how to live in a true Christian living. The Holy Bible is supposed to be our handbook or manual on how to be a good person. My journey so far has been remarkable from my humble beginnings. I thought about writing a book but then I have to find a publisher who would be interested to publish it. When I discovered WordPress, it gave me the idea of maybe this is the way to go. It appears to be user-friendly and publishing is instant once the blog is finished.

I am a mum of two grown ups, a son and a daughter. I have been a wife to a good Christian man for nearly thirty seven years. I grew up in the Catholic faith but I got converted to true Christianity just before I got married. I am so grateful to God for my life with Christ as my personal Saviour. It is great to live with a purpose and the assurance that God is always present – the great I Am!

Thank you for your time and God bless you 🙏🏼💕

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6