Heart of Faith

My dad was the heir of my grandma who happened to be the matron of the clan. But back in the 1990’s, dad’s business went bankrupt and we had a trouble with our finances. One day, I will ask papa what will his inheritance be for us. Houses? Cars? Jewelries? Bank Accounts? Maybe no. But more than that.

Papa has a lot of inheritance for the four of us. But among the many of those, the greatest is that papa taught us to have a heart of faith to love and serve others.

Papa has been in the ministry for 17 long years. He has been the head of the music ministry and eventually became the head servant of our Charismatic Community after grandpa’s term has finished. But Papa’s life is not all in the ministry.

Prior to that, he had an old life - a life far from God. He was an Atenean since grade school until College. But when he was 18, he entered the military. He was a combat engineer in the US Military. He used to drive tanks. He was a martial artist and he even dreams to be a shaolin. He is a rocker by heart. He loves to play the guitar and he loves music so much. Until one day, he met mama. He fell in love with her smile that he left the military and married mama. He was next in line for west point but he chose mama over his career.

At 22 he was married to mama who was 20 back then. At the age of 23, he was a retired soldier. He was receiving pension for some time which helped us survive my younger years. At 27, he was the sole heir of Lola Nene’s inheritance. But it was one of the hardest times. Losing Lola Nene and having no money left because all the cash was spent for Lola’s hospitalization. The only way out was to get a loan from banks in exchange of our properties. At first everything was going okay until the loans grew so big, the businesses went bad and the properties were being foreclosed by the bank. In 2003, everything went to nothing. In 2004, we reached the hardest part. Losing all our properties, renting and not being able to pay for rent and so we decided to live in the old house of my grandparents. This house is like a storage/warehouse with even no ceiling. My sisters and I managed to live in there knowing that God is our provider.

Today, papa is slowly recovering from all the physical and mental torture brought by the bankruptcy and all. But above all, papa has one strong back up, that is God. Papa has a strong faith in God.

In the hardest moment of our life, I witnessed how we always pray as a family asking God for provision, wisdom, knowledge and strength. Papa taught us that.

Papa is such a humble man. Of all the trials that went our way, knowing he is a strong man, I see papa seek God’s help. Only a humble man can bow down and kneel to God in prayer. Papa taught us that. In life, we cannot be so proud because God can take away everything in a glimpse. Only God can change our lives. The moment we rely on our own strength, God will make us realize that there is nothing in this world who could ever love you the way he does.

Seeing my sisters and I who are all excelling in our studies and careers, we owe everything to our dad. Nene is a candidate for valedictorian, a good guitarist, script writer, preacher at age 16, and a leader. Stella is the class president, a great writer, pianist and running for first honor. Isabel is the class president, running for first honor too and a great artist. These are all because of papa.

This Father’s Day, I want to honor the man who taught us about life. He will always be my first boy friend --- my best boy friend, my brother and my father. I love you Papa! :)