24. Wala ka sa Lolo ko. He was healed through great faith, the Lord bore his diseases.

16 September 2020

Matthew 8

The Faith of the Centurion

10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”

13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 

6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 

9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Matthew 8

Jesus Heals Many

16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 

17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities

    and bore our diseases.”

The centurion displayed great faith in the Lord Jesus, who admitted He had not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

The centurion was also a man of great compassion for the sake of his servant.

I came to personally know a man up close who has the faith of such a centurion, a modern day centurion at that, he is my benefactor in Christ, Ret Lt Gen Hernanie Perez AFP. He is also a man of great compassion for the sake of others, I am one of them.

A modern day centurion.  My benefactor in Christ, in 2006, from right, Lt Gen Hernanie Perez AFP, Ate Becks Perez, Mom of Ate Becks, my wife Marlou, and myself.

Ate Becks Perez, wife of Kuya Nanie, recently on 25 August, informed my wife and I that Kuya Nanie has been admitted at Asian Hospital and Medical Center due to pneumonia.

I then posted request for prayers for him; he passed away two days ago and I came up with this update.

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With sadness, letting you know my benefactor in Christ, Ret Lt Gen Hernanie Perez AFP or Kuya Nani has been called home by the Father, he passed away this afternoon.

"In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2 NKJV)

Maraming salamat po sa inyong panalangin.

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My salute to this modern day centurion.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

Below are the message I sent to my siblings last year, 29 April 2019, thru our viber chat group, and related celfone screenshots.

I will dwell on this matter below.

Our eldest, Ate Nina has her birthday first of May, so my family would travel from Quezon City to her place in Batangas City; my two other siblings are in Canada.

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Findings/Impression:

Minimal focal opacities are seen in the right upper lobe suggestive of an infectious process of undetermined activity. The rest of the visualized lungs are clear.

Ate, Itoh, Ante:

Itong findings lumabas dahil nagpapa cardiopulmonary clearance ako para sa colonoscopy dahil ng polyp sa pwet. 

Walang symptoms, walang ubo, walang plema. Ok ako, nakakapagbasketball ako once a week ng mahigit ng isang buwan.

Meron ako isend galing sa internet, kapag wala sypmtoms, TB infection. Kapag merong symptoms, TB disease.

Nagsimula na akong unimon ng gamot, Fixcom 4.

Kailangan ko sabihin sa inyo. Nagtext ang Ate nangungumbida sa May 1.

Ate, baka hindi kami makapunta. Medyo alalay muna ako, sobrang init din ngayon.

Pray for me. Maraming salamat.

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Now, here is why I posted my viber message to my siblings as above.

Year 2020 is a year of testing of faith for everyone, the whole world at that, without exception, regardless of stature.

Below is prayer reflection I had on 18 March 2020, few days into the quarantine.

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Lord, we offer this moment to reflect on the silence of our surroundings.

As we come to You in prayer, our minds are focused on the situation about the corona virus.

Indeed You have called the attention of everyone. We are at your mercy. Our busyness has stopped. It has not happened before. As we reflect in silence in our apparent helplessness, we humble before you. God, You are sovereign. We, Your children come before You. You, Lord, are a compassionate God, as a father has compassion for his children.

You allowed the corona virus for a purpose. We can only pray if You will stop the deaths and bring healing to people. Lord, heal our land, heal the earth, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.

18 March 2020

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My eldest daughter Vannie asked me if she could post it on fb for our church, Proclaim His Name Christian Fellowship, and I replied yes; she is part of the church IT Team.

At that moment when I had that prayer reflection, the flashback was the year before. 

2019 was a year of testing of faith for me and Marlou, my wife, especially that we are empty nesters; our three children are all married and not staying with us.

2019 started with the two of us, in later part of January, both and at the same time getting  severe case of influenza. Our children have very young children that it was difficult for them to come over to us; they would order delivery food for us. The Lord heals.

Then three months later, in April when I was going through cardiopulmonary clearance for a medical procedure, it was incidental that I got to know I have pulmonary tuberculosis; yes PTB. Thus my viber message to my siblings, we are six, two are deceased.

The pulmonary doctor, wife of a Professor at UP Diliman, where I work, told me I have to take medication for six months. She was saying it could be available free in public health centers but medicines will be dispensed and taken at the center itself for monitoring purposes.

My wife then said, my case being TB infection, no symptoms at that, and not TB disease which is with symptoms, I could be exposed to other patients at the health center. For the cost of the medicines, she uttered, the Lord will provide. Amen.

So I started with PTB medication with side effects, stomach spasm, loss of appetite, and worst, reactive hypertension which when I consulted a cardiologist he said it is side effect of my medication.

Part of the anxiety was having my wife sleeping together with me, although the doctor said my illness was not communicable. To make sure, my wife had x-ray examination and good it was negative.

After taking medication for a month, I was given clearance for rectal polypectomy.

I conferred with my doctor, one of the top colorectal surgeons in the country, Robert Chang MD, and told him the balance of my health card entitlement is about P 20,000. He then told me, I would probably need about P 120,000 from my pocket, and I thus asked him if the procedure could be postponed by new year when the health card is renewed.

Dr. Chang recommended to schedule it soonest, and I replied to him, I need to talk to my wife first because of finances. After I told my wife about the situation, she told me she will contact our children. The response was, have it scheduled and not to worry about money. It was humbling for me. One of our children deposited some money to the account of my wife even before the procedure, done on 5 June 2019.

I have been bothered by the rectal polyp, and even earlier in 2012 I had rectal sphincterotomy done by Dr. Chang.

The polypectomy was punishing, with the side effects of PTB medication, the half-body anesthesia which when I described to my wife, she said it was similar to her caesarean delivery. The pain after the procedure was excruciating, I cannot sit on my butt. I was absent from work for about three weeks. Healing was slow, later needing for me to seat on a neck pillow to be able to drive around.

I had to take strong pain killer that unfortunately caused ringing in my ears, and I had to switch to milder medicine.

In the middle of all these, it was comforting that the polyp is benign.

It came to pass. In August 2019, taking PTB medications  for four months, follow up x-ray came very good. By October 2019, I was fully recovered from PTB.

Going back to the polypectomy procedure, we were surprised we were made to pay only a little more than P 20,000, not P 120,000, because the charges were pegged at health card rates. Indeed, the Lord provides and the Lord heals.

As early as August, the Lord restored my health, I joined our high school batch reunion, with yours truly, as the leader of band for singing happy birthday to celebrants around that time. At that point, there was not a bit of sign that I was sick.

Indeed, my children's children will someday say, wala ka sa Lolo ko, he was healed through great faith, the Lord bore his diseases. Amen.

Month of May this year, our group was assigned to lead the online Wednesday prayer gathering for our church , I shared a devotion, focusing on this particular affliction my wife and I went through, and our other struggles in the past, titled: Helpless That's What We Are, with reference to Psalm 121.

Our faith muscles are exercised through affliction, the greater the affliction, the stronger our faith muscles become.

May you be encouraged through this blog. God bless you dear friend.