MASSIVE CHANGES

In the period of two years, I transformed from a drunk and street brawler to pastor with radio three daily radio programs and married and in Manila, the largest city. I can imagine myself as the bullet on an archaic stone thrower which went off and hurled me from Sicpao to Manila. My looks had drastically changed to a white shirt and tie attire. Venus and I lived in a three bedroom and two baths house alongside a big building that was our church auditorium within a walled compound. We also had the white bus that we picked up people with for church service which we could also use whenever we needed. We had no expenses whatsoever except that we bought our own food with the salary that Bro. Willhoite paid. I was only two months into my eighteen years of age. Because of ample spaces Venus family, mother, father two sisters came to live with us. It suited well for us because soon after Sheilla, our first born daughter, came to the world. They were a big help. Later, the family of Wilde, Venus oldest brother, also came to live with us in the second floor of the church auditorium. This caught the Willhoites in a shock. From two people, we grew to over a dozen people overnight. Bro. Willhoite was a good man, and he submitted to the change.

The Apostolic Minister Fellowship, the church organization that Bro. Willhoite established in the Philippines, sponsored by the AMF USA. put up another batch of Bible School students in March or 1972 in the church auditorium. My wife and I were the teachers. At nineteen I was the Bible School director with students who some of them were even in their fifties. At this time, the organization grew to many churches and 22 pastors. I supervised thirteen churches that were adjacent to Manila. We had twenty eight students, who were absolutely fed by Bro. Willhoite; their clothes and personals were also subsidized. Pastors Cesar de la Cruz, Domingo de Asis, Paul Aguinaldo, who today are still in the ministry came out from this batch. Bro. Willhoite was the official church pastor and I was the assistant. In reality, however, I was the pastor and Bro. Willhoite was my assistant. It was in this church that Pastor Wilde Almeda, now a pastor of millions of followers known as the Jesus Miracle Crusade, was a church sweeper.

Venus and I got married September 10, 1971 and Sheilla the firstborn was born on August 3, 1972. Chin became very special not only in that she was the first born but due to the fact that Venus almost died during the delivery and after the delivery. She was breach and the labor took a very long time. After a week Venus had acquired German measles. Had she been infected in her pregnancy Chin, Sheilla's pet name, could have been born blind. Venus was in convulsion from a very high fever. I did not know that it was German measles. She was in convulsion for two hours when we told Sis. Willhoite about it. Venus was counting one...two...three..., which mean that she was on the verge of death. Sis. Willhoite bathed her with ice and the fever subsided. She then was taken in an ambulance to the hospital and the doctor declared that she could have died had Sis. Willhoite not come.

The organization grew rapidly and at this time we had acquired over thirty pastors in the Cagayan de Oro area and still growing. We sponsored meetings in the hotel in Iligan and in Cagayan, all with free food to the visiting pastors. We organized them and put a salaried presbyter over them. Bro. Willhoite traveled all of Mindanao with me as a very handy interpreter. We took a bus from Cagayan de Oro to Gatub, retracing my childhood days. We visited the Bartolabas who were noted for their anting-anting or talisman.We went back to Sicpao wherein there was the war between government soldiers and the rebel Muslims. We ducked for cover when heard machine guns ratatat around the house where we stayed at three o'clock in the morning. On day time, we walked on knee-deep mud, the villagers upon seeing Bro. Willhoite would approach him and kiss his hand. We also traveled to the Siargao Island in Surigao. The boat powered by gasoline motor caught fire in the middle of the ocean. Willhoite aimed to jump to the sea when I jumped into the motor and put off the fire. Several plastic containers above us were filled with gasoline and the fire tried to reach them. Willhoite told me afterwards, "You are an angel."

Back in Manila, we traveled to Baguio city and held a crusade there, at the Burnham Park. Then we came down to Urdaneta, Pangasinan to hold another crusade. Sis. Willhoite played the accordion, Mark Willhoite the guitar, and Darla rendered a song. The Ilocanos were very amused at the sight of two oversized Americans with two beautiful young children. "Nasiyaat," they exclaimed. Each place we went to and held a crusade we put up a church behind.

Bro. Willhoite, over fatigued requested the church in the United States to give him a furlough. Late in 1973 the family left to go back to the United States. Bro. and Sis Langham replaced them. It was Bro. Langham that taught me some invaluable lesson to become a man of the world. He taught me independence. There were moments that I could not contain my anger with them, but now in retrospect I had become a better man because of the lessons Bro. Langham enforced for me to learn. I was past twenty years old at the time. He stopped my salary as pastor of the church. I was mad. "Bro. Willhoite would never do this," I told him. "Willhoite is no longer in charge, I am," he told me firmly. To subsidize my family I went into business by making figurines and sell them in Baclaran. I also bought lady's purses in Binangonan, Rizal, and in Angono and sold them to the ladies working in bars and nightclubs. Every Wednesday I sold my chicken figurines in Baclaran. Sis. Titay Cabintoy, my church member sold naptalina alongside me. I screamed, "Alkansiya, alkansiya," pointing to my chicken figurine while telling people to buy my chicken money coin bank, and Sis. Titay screamed her "Naptalina, naptalina." She sold something that warded off roaches at home.

Time passed very quicly and Bro. Willhoite came back. Was I glad to see them! I was very happy. His gift for me was a brandnew Thompson Chain Bible, a long time dream. And he also bought a Torana car to replace their aging Land Rover. After a week of their arrival and things settled down he called me and my wife into a subdued meeting. I felt something not good. His face was sober and he said, "You guys have to make a decision. I want you to be independent." Venus and I looked at each other, and words skipped our lips; we did not know what to say.