The circumstances by which my mom’s prayers were answered was told in a blog (http://sunnimoreno.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-blessed-testimony.html) that I wrote more than a decade back. What was lacking in that account was the other side of the miracle that happened many years earlier.
In the year 1986, my dad passed away, and since mom was left in Iligan City all by herself, she decided to move back to where she lived and grew up prior to her marriage and migration to Mindanao. In Manila, she had a sister who was also widowed and she reckoned that at their age they might work out a way to enjoy the last years of their lives together. My sister was also doing her residency in Pediatrics at a hospital there, which was a perfect set-up for that moment.
Mom was 63 years old then and needed to socialize with people of her age to keep active and happy. It so happened that there was a group in Christ Commission Fellowship (CCF) at Pasig City that was organized for this purpose to which mom’s sister belonged and so mom decided to join them. At this point in the story the only information that reached me in Mindanao was that mom was attending some Sunday activity, that she had an accident while riding on a horse during one of the out-of-town sorties and that she was happy and contented with her life. I didn't have any idea that my Seventh-day Adventist mother - a pioneer in the SDA educational work and a pastor’s wife was regularly attending Sunday worship in Manila.
In the Mid-1990s I decided to bring her back to Mindanao to live with me in the school campus of Mountain View College - the school that she and dad helped pioneer and where they retired after serving for so many years. This place is the bed-rock of SDA education in the central and southern Philippines and it is here where the doctrines of the church are aggressively guarded.
Mom was very discreet with the new beliefs. The only thing that was apparent was her frequent communication with someone by the name of Danny De Guzman. A name that was the addressee of the regular letters that she asked me to mail for her. She also received mail and parcels of reading material on a regular basis from the same guy. Another thing that could have given her beliefs away was when she would sometimes wash her clothes on a Saturday - the adventist holy sabbath. I thought that maybe she was just mixed up with the days of the week and forgot that we should not wash on the sabbath. I also noted that she wasn't particular about the food that we ate in the restaurant - if there was shrimps or pork, etc. But all in all I never suspected that she had a change of heart in terms of religious doctrine.
In retrospect, I think that she was hesitant to open up to me due to my position and employment and it could be possible that I would react negatively towards her.
In the year 2000 mom passed away and 3 years later I had that moment of divine calling that I mentioned in my other blog. About a year from that fateful day I happened to visit Manila to attend a work-related convention, and I took the chance to visit my mom's sister. It was there that I told her of my conversion and the trouble that it was causing my family and the institution that I was serving. My aunt was ecstatic and said that the prayers at CCF were finally answered. She invited me to the Wednesday night service while I was there and after the meeting she took me backstage to meet someone - Pastor Danny De Guzman. All she said to him as introduction was "...meet Sunny Boy," and pastor said "a-te Priscy's son?" When auntie answered yes and added that "he's already born-again" Pastor Danny exclaimed - "a mother's prayer has been answered. Hallelujah!"
Mom prayed and cried and prayed for her children - there's no doubt about that, and I know she had that peace and confidence that her prayers would be answered even if the answer came after she passed away.
No comments:
Post a Comment