AT 22, SUPERVISING 72 PASTORS

Not only that I was going to be leaving tons of businesses and opportunities, I most hated the fact that we lost the church in Progreso, Pasay, to Pastor Pol Aguinaldo. I had nothing against Pol, he was my treasurer in the organization, but what was painful was the fact that we considered the church and the building our very own, since it was a monument to our independence. Plus, we worked very hard for it, putting people in it on our own endeavors. I would leave behind the promoting of the movie, "The Cross And The Switchblade," the Subic Bay housing contract, and my helping Wilde Almeda to put up his church in Novaliches. Also, I would now lose money from my supplying electrical materials through a Chinese businessman who trusted me and eventually became my friend. That business was picking up well.

We arrived Cagayan de Oro, in Mindanao, in August of 1975. Venus was due for our third child in the following month. My cousin, Ester, sister of Mario Ayudtud, let us stay with them while we look for our own place. Then Chic, Anna Marie, our second daughter, fell ill to broncho pneumonia. Up to this time we never used any medicine; we only rebuked all illnesses and diseases that came on us in the name of Jesus Christ. Chin was barely three, and Chic over a year old, and Venus was giving birth to Lemuel, who we nicknamed Jones. Looking back to it now, I do not know how I managed all that happened. Venus was over a week old having Jones and Chic was black and blue having a week-old high fever. She was dying and we were not taking her to the hospital. Taking her to the doctor was tantamount to betraying our faith in God. Ester, my cousin, was just observing us. Seeing Chic's labored breathing she said, "I do not understand the kind of God you're believing in. You have been praying and praying and this child is still dying. If you will not take her to the hospital, I will call the police on you." We rushed Chic to the hospital from where just a few days ago Venus delivered Jones. Right away a bottle of dextrose was hooked up to Chic. "My wife just gave birth to our son, and things were just out of control," I reasoned with the doctors. For the very first time in many days Chic's labored breathing calmed down. Her frail body relaxed and went to the original color. Venus, stronger now, came to visit Chic. "She is going to be alright," she said. But something very bad happened that night. I watched Chic having a difficulty to breath. She was red all over. I became very afraid, especially when two children just near to where I was sitting just died moments ago. The nurses became frantic upon seeing Chic. I was holding her, screaming, praying, calling the doctors. They had included an antibiotic in the dextrose which Chic's body was allergic to. The doctors gave her anti-allergy. She calmed down yet death was still on her face. Her eyes had been un-opened for days now, her lips black and parched. Venus came early in the morning and I told her what happened. She rubbed Chic's hair and gently planted a kiss on her forehead. "She is gonna be okay," she said. "The Lord just told me in prayer this morning that He did not bring us here to take away anyone of us. He brought us here to increase us." In three days time Chic got well enough and we took her home.

In a month's time, things settled down. We took a big house in Kimaya, Jasaan where we would be staying for the many months to follow. Meanwhile, in Manila we learned that the Willhoite family was called to go back to the States. They would be replaced by Bro. and Sis. Charles Hanchey. Obviously, Bro. Willhoite had been laboring so hard in the Philippines that he went to a nervous breakdown.

This time I already familiarized with the places where the AMF churches were located. I conducted meetings of pastors in the designated regions. Many of them, who were up in their sixties, thought I was too young to be their leader. I was only 22 years of age, and really boyish in looks. When I spoke, however, they all listened up and heeded my directions. Especially when they saw the money that I was going to give to each of them as their monthly salary. I was the boss on the account of the money. And I was a pretty darn good preacher too. When Venus had the chance to travel with me, along with my children, they only had admiration of her and my family. Venus, who was fair and strikingly attractive, appeared like an American lady to them. Almost all of them that did not know us thought that she was from the United States.

When Bro. Hanchey finally visited Mindanao, we were nine months into our stay. I gathered everyone at the VIP Hotel in Cagayan de Oro. Bro. Hanchey was a heavy set white man with face much rounder than Bro. Willhoite, yet smaller, and much slicker. Hanchey was a salesman when he talked; if he lived in New York he could easily sell the Brooklyn bridge. What a preacher! I haven't heard anyone quite like him. "I want you to come back to Manila," he told me in private. I don't think you are a man for this kind of people." He believed that Willhoite had it wrong when he sent us to Mindanao. "We'll take you to the United States when we go back," he jestingly added.

Our stay in Cagayan de Oro was a time for me to get close to my mother and father. They moved near to our place and so they got a chance to know the three children. My mother and father loved my children, and my children also equally returned the love. My father was overjoyed to see us. My mother endlessly glibbed with Daday, the nickname of Venus, and untiringly told her my story as a child. "We never thought that Boy would ever change," she told Venus. "But when he was born and he almost died I lifted him up to God and told God that if He would just heal him that I would give him to the ministry." She looked up to the sky and said: "And He heard my prayer. Here you are now."

It was not only my mother and father who were very happy and proud. My two brothers who were rising in the ranks of the Assembly of God organization, Pastor Fred and Pastor Ramon, were ecstatic with gladness. They bragged and bragged about me as being their only brother who has gone to Manila and would be going to America soon. They also sang the songs I wrote, "Now is the time to prepare," "I know that someday," and "I'm stranger here." They made the songs famous and even church choirs in many places sang them." God had brought me back to Mindanao for a purpose, to show His power to change a life, and to further teach us about what ministry was really like.

Nearly a year that we stayed in Mindanao, we were again on the ship going back to Manila. This time, Mama Almeda, Venus' mother, who came down from Manila to stay with us for a while, along with Princess and Marilyn, her sisters, and also Sis. Celia, a classmate in the Bible School, were all with us in the ship going back to Manila. That night, in the ship, before going to sleep, I muttered to myself: "Here I come again, Manila!"