Fate and faith
It has been our tradition to “change subject” and deviate from the usual legal/socio/cultural/political topics discussed in this column on the last Saturday before Christmas. So this week let me again share with you a heartwarming true story of fate and faith that helps capture the meaning of the season.
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Since the 1990s, North American school children have been encouraged to share their blessings by filling up shoe boxes with toys, school supplies, hygiene items and other goodies that are sent to their counterparts in developing countries. This is part of a program called Operation Christmas Child.
In November 2000, in a small town in Midvale, Idaho, seven-year-old Tyrell Wolfe put together a box filled with a doll and other small toys that were meant for a little girl. Tyrell also wrote a short note and enclosed a photo of himself in a cowboy outfit holding a lasso. He was hoping to quickly hear back from whomever will receive the shoe box and befriend her. But no acknowledgement came. Not until a decade later.
The recipient turned out to be a Filipina, Joana Marchan, of Quezon City. Apparently, the gift meant a lot to her and she never forgot the young cowboy in the photo. She immediately wrote a thank you letter but which never got to Tyrel.
Ten years later, from out of the blue, Joana reached out to Tyrel on Facebook. The latter was of course surprised and initially skeptical but, over time, became convinced about Joana’s sincerity. Both are Christians who share a love for music. Because of the time difference between the Philippines and Idaho, the pair could only communicate either very early in the morning or later in the evening. Their long-distance relationship blossomed.
One day, Tyrel’s mother, Denise, was alarmed by his son’s Facebook post saying “I just want to go to the Philippines. I just want to get on the plane and leave.” She confronted Tyrel and realized how serious the young man was. This led Denise to communicate with Joana as well. She was surprised by Joana’s level of maturity and desire to live out her Christian values.
The pair agreed not to enter into any relationship until Tyrel met Joana’s father in person and obtained his blessing. He made the first of several trips to Manila a few weeks after he graduated from high school. On his first visit, Tyrel sought her father’s permission to date her.
Joana’s father is a pastor while her mother is a volunteer teacher. Now 22, Joana completed a food-and-beverage services vocational course in San Juan City.
Their dating led to an engagement but Joana’s parents would not allow the marriage to take place without having met the future groom’s folks. This presented a problem since Denise could not travel as she was attending to Tyrel’s sister’s medical needs while his father, Ivan, had no interest in undertaking a long-distance trip to a part of the world he was not familiar with. Tyrel begged and bugged his father until he relented to fly to the Philippines last June. The latter endured Manila’s scorching summer heat but which was more than made up by the warmth and hospitality displayed to him by Joana’s family.
Joana and Tyrel got married last Oct. 5 at the Wolfe’s family ranch in Idaho. Joana’s parents were not able to attend the wedding but watched the entire ceremony via Skype. The couple plan another wedding in the Philippines in the future.
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Good neighbor: Operation Christmas Child is the world’s largest Christmas project of its kind and a signature program of Samaritan’s Purse, a non-denominational Christian relief and development organization founded in 1970. Started in 1990, the program has collected and distributed over 100 million shoebox gifts in over 150 countries worldwide. More than 500,000 volunteers are involved in soliciting, shipping and distributing the items which are now not only collected in North America, but in European Union countries and Japan as well. It has not only brought joy but a powerful message of hope to the world’s youth. In 2014, approximately 10 million shoeboxes will be distributed mainly in Latin America and Africa.
Samaritan’s Purse takes its name from the biblical story involving the Good Samaritan who finds a Jewish man robbed, beaten and ailing at the side of the road. Although a complete stranger, the Samaritan brings him to a local inn, spends a night caring for him and the following day, takes coins from his purse to pay the innkeeper. Like that good samaritan, Samaritan’s Purse endeavors to help hurting people regardless of religion, race, gender or socio-economic standing. The organization usually partners with local churches in terms of project delivery and monitoring in the same way that the Good Samaritan partnered with the innkeeper.
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On Giving: We have heard it before but let us remind ourselves again. Christmas is first and foremost a holiday of giving. It’s about putting others’ needs before one’s own and spreading love, joy and happiness whenever you can. And it is not the quantity but the quality of giving that counts. So what can we give this season? What come to mind are Michael Jackson’s now immortal Christmas song as well as the last stanza of “A Christmas Carol” by the English poet Christina Rossetti:
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man I would do my part;
Yet what I can, I give Him — Give my heart.
A giving Christmas to all!
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“What we spend, we lose. What we keep will be left for others. What we give away will be ours forever.”
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