The Shelter of Blankets

“Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in him, And he shall bring it to pass.

— Psalms 37:5 (NIV)

It was the praying that came first, as one opens a window before beginning the day's work. Every time we went for visitation, we asked the Holy Spirit to lead our way. "Lord, who will we meet today?" we would say, and then, because we truly did not know, "We don't know where we are going today, but please lead us. We depend only on You, Lord, for You are the One who knows everything."

Then the road led us past a ruin. A house lay destroyed, and right next to it, beneath a tree, stood a small shanty whose walls were blankets, moving gently in the wind, as if the little shelter were breathing. Inside, on a bed, lay an old woman so slight she seemed to be dissolving into the cloth beneath her.

Her daughter Andrea was caring for her, always tending, and no one else.

We learned the rest in pieces. The ruin had been their house, newly built, and the real owner of the land had forcibly torn it down. What the demolition began, sorrow finished. Nanay Merlita had grown weak, the way a lamp grows weak when there is nothing left to feed it.

We had only songs and prayers to give, and we offered them to comfort her and ease their sadness.

In the following weeks, we returned and found her very thin, and our hearts ached. So we offered a foot and body massage, our hands speaking where words could not. After a few days, by God's grace, we saw her walking outside her house. Nanay was feeling better, and what relief we felt!

There were times, too, when they had nothing to eat, and we shared our blessings with them. After a month, we came again with the Korean Pre-Missionaries, and the songs rose up once more. Nanay was so happy.

A month later, we wanted to visit them again, but the house was gone. The place had been demolished, fenced, and closed, with a sign that said "NO TRESPASSING: Private Property." We stood there, sorrowful, because we could no longer see them. What happened to them? Where are they now? Will we ever see them again? 

The questions lingered, and no one answered.

Our field is four barangays wide: Baybay, Toytoy, Icanbato, and Bahud. Toytoy is the farthest, a thirty-minute walk from where we live, and so it seemed the least likely place for any reunion.Then, unexpectedly, on the road, we met Andrea. They had been forcibly removed, she told us, and had moved to another location.

That place, impossibly, was near where we do visitation in Toytoy. We laughed; we nearly wept. The two were hard to tell apart. Now Nanay Merlita and Andrea are among our Bible students, ready and eager to listen to the Word of God. I understand now what I could not understand before: when we let the Holy Spirit lead us, He does not send us wandering. He carries us, step by unknowing step, toward the people whose hearts He has already prepared.

Name: Jemaima Catingub | 66th Batch | 1000MM

Mission Field: Icanbato, Caramoran, Catanduanes Island