To live and to serve

They say there is a time for everything: There Is A Time To Fight And A Time To Let Go. Last November, it seemed like it was time to go.

Adrian de Veyra, better known as Bro. Andoy, the 47-year-old founder of Turning Point Foundation, a home for drug dependents in Tagaytay, was rushed to the National Kidney Institute with a barely perceptible pulse and extremely low blood pressure. His heart, liver and kidneys were all failing; he had sepsis shock and ammonia poisoning as a result of his liver failure.

It seemed like it was time to let go. After all, Bro. Andoy has had liver cirrhosis and Hepatitis C for around nine years, and this was the fourth time he hovered between life and death.

Yet his wife Malou and their five children believed it was still time to fight. And so they did, on bended knees. Miraculously, Bro. Andoy pulled through.

That episode is but one of many miracles throughout Bro. Andoy’s life that has led him to where he is now, beginning when he gave up years of addiction to follow God 17 years ago.

The typical product of a rich but alienated family, he had his first bottle of beer and first stick of cigarette at the age of 13. What followed were 18 years of heavy addiction that saw him smoking four packs of cigarettes a day, downing a case of beer each night, and taking Mogadon (downers) tablets like M&Ms. And that’s in addition to the cough syrups, cocaine, heroine, and intravenous drugs he regularly took.

The turn-around came in 1988, four years after his wife came to know the Lord, and at a time when he slept with a bottle of beer on one side and a gun on the other.

"I had been praying for him for four years, but I was contemplating on leaving him already," recounts Malou. "Our refrigerator was always empty, he had loans left and right, and we were no longer sleeping in the same room."

That very week, Bro. Andoy chanced upon the book Raptured, which was left by a friend in their house. He took the book and locked himself in his room for two days. "I thought he already committed suicide," says Malou.

But he didn’t. He said to God, "Lord, if you will not change me, then just kill me."

After those two days, Bro. Andoy walked away from all his addictions and never looked back. And he did so without suffering any withdrawal symptoms.

"He had so much peace and joy after that," adds Malou, a firsthand witness to the miraculous transformation. "His complete deliverance was done by the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to earth to set the captives free."

Turning Point Foundation was born about 10 years after that fateful week, born from a call to serve the Lord as full-time missionaries and reach out to others suffering what he himself suffered.

Its beginnings were all providential–from Bro. Andoy’s meeting an American who had a similar past and operated a home for drug dependents and former convicts, to his visiting that home in Los Angeles for two months and being able to send their kids to school despite not having a regular source of income.

So in 1988, armed with God’s promises, the foundation was set up to operate a home recovery center–not a "drug rehabilitation center", they insist. It set out to tell people that drug addiction is not a physical problem but a spiritual one, and that, in Christ, "there is hope after dope."

Turning Point offered a holistic approach in helping people find new lives, backed by strong teachings on the Word of God and the importance of prayer.

It wasn’t an easy task though, and they were met with hindrances every step of the way–from moving into a haunted place in Tagaytay to his being diagnosed with liver cirrhosis barely three months after, the latter a consequence of the life he used to live, at the same time a tool of the enemy to dissuade him from doing God’s work.

Today, they have graduated over 300 former drug dependents, and four of the home’s staff of five are former drug dependents who now lead new lives because of Turning Point.

Turning Point celebrated its seventh year last May 13. Unfortunately, Bro. Andoy wasn’t strong enough to join the celebration.

Since that close encounter with death last November, his health has deteriorated steadily. He suffers fevers every week and has lost 70 pounds. The ammonia poisioning in his blood–a result of his liver being unable to detoxify ammonia as a by-product of protein metabolism–is affecting his mental functions. If it reaches too high a level in his brain, he could go into a coma.

"He badly needs a new liver," says Dr. Jade Jamias, a specialist at the National Kidney Institute, who explains that less than a third of Bro. Andoy’s liver is currently functioning.

Liver donation and liver transplants, however, are not very common in the country, thus the difficulty of finding a donor. If they find a match, the donor would have to donate up to 75 percent of his healthy liver for Bro. Andoy to survive. The other option–finding a matching cadaver donor–has low chances of success as well.

A new liver is Bro. Andoy’s only hope for recovery at this point. But given all he has already gone through, and the fact that he’s still alive, he and his family believe there’s still a reason to continue fighting despite the odds.

"Turning Point is his calling in life," says Malou. "He still wants to live because he wants to reach out to more lost souls. He continues to fight for these souls."

To help, contact Bro. Andoy’s sister Lyn de Veyra at tel 920-0484.