I AM Fidel, born April 20, 1955, in Manila. So, I am now 70 years old.

I am a college undergraduate with a course in Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of the East. I did not finish my studies because of financial problems. Besides, I was too excited to have a job because I was eager to help my parents.

But that dream hardly came true. Unfortunately, my father suffered from hypertension and diabetes, among other ailments. He passed on before I could fully serve him. Sadly, after several years, my mother also suffered from the same illnesses as my father did, and she eventually passed away too.

My relatives are now living abroad. So, I am living alone now. I preferred to be alone. I decided not to get married and to this day, I enjoy my life as a bachelor.

I wanted to be alone– but I would soon realize that all my life, I’ve never been alone.

I have had a string of jobs. I worked as a checker in a brokerage for six months and then became a room boy or bellboy at the Regent of Manila Hotel. But my income was not enough for my needs.

So, I decided to work abroad. I worked in a catering agency, providing services to events in some regions of Saudi Arabia. Although I was financially stable at that time, my life was still full of loneliness.

With that, I decided to come back home to the Philippines.

When I returned, I rented a house in Barangay San Rafael, Rodriguez, Rizal, and worked as a waiter at Harrison Plaza Hotel. But the Coronavirus Disease (COVID) Pandemic happened in 2020, and the restaurant decided to lay off workers. Unfortunately, I was one of them.

My New Family

During the Pandemic, I decided to stay in my rented house. I was able to survive at that time because of my savings and my good neighbors.

Fortunately, in the early months of 2023, I was given a chance to work as a cook in Tapsilogan (serving a combination of tapa or dried beef, egg, and garlic fried rice) at Barangay San Rafael, which is a short-distance from my home.

Yet, around June 2023, I experienced a cloudy area in my eyes, later diagnosed as cataracts. A few months later, I could hardly see, so I decided to quit my job.

The house I rented was in a several-story building near a river. Worried that the place was not safe for me, my friends and neighbors suggested to refer my situation to our Barangay to find a better residence for me. I agreed.

By God’s amazing grace, one of the officials of Barangay San Rafael, Serafin ‘Tatay Apen’ Garibay, used to serve in Anawim Lay Mission Foundation Inc.

He referred me to Anawim. Anawim admitted me on October 27, 2023.

I am deeply grateful that I’ve since received blessings in Anawim. Two of the best:

1.I enjoy a secure life– a home in a comfortable cottage.

2.Medical care. With Anawim’s help, on April 20, 2024, I underwent cataract surgery and it went well. Finally, I can see clearly again.

A priceless blessing is I feel the love of God through the unconditional caring of the Anawim leaders and personnel and my co-elderly– all of them now my new family.

With them and our Amazing God, I’m never alone.

Here, I learned my favorite Bible verse, where Jesus healed a blind man, Luke 18: 42:

Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”

This story was first published in the Feast Family Online News Magazine.

Published by THE FEAST MERCY MINSTRY (August 25, 2024)