ANSWERED PRAYERS

In December of 1993, I left my family and flew to the United States on a working visa to be employed as a teacher. With financial backing from my sister-in-law's family in Australia, it was an opportune time to venture into improving the family economically, and as the proverbial quote, "search for a greener pasture".

This was the second time I had been in the U.S. In 1986-1987, I obtained my master's degree at the University of Iowa,  Iowa City, as a Philippine government fellow. It was truly a blessing from God to have been granted the rare opportunity to be among the chosen few out of a nationwide screening of teachers to pursue graduate degrees in a foreign university. I had to be away from my family for seventeen months, but my wife and I welcomed this free ride to graduate school. It was like winning the lottery.

Coming back, this time as a teacher, I arrived in Harlingen, Texas with 18 other Filipino teachers recruited by a teacher placement agency based in Houston. We came close to the middle of the academic year, at a time when employment, especially in the elementary level, was extremely scarce. In the eight months after our arrival, we were taken to job interviews in the Rio Grande Valley schools, to job fairs in Laredo, Brownsville, McAllen, San Antonio, and Dallas, while setting aside time to praising God by singing in the St. Anthony's church choir, at first braving the chilly December breeze on foot until new-found friends gave us rides to church. Hearing Sunday mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Valley in San Juan was a special treat to us. We sang at the Latin Mass in Weslaco on the first Sunday of the month. Every night, we met and prayed, sang praise songs, and lifted our petitions to the Lord. We supported one another in prayers. We put our faith in the Lord. Psalm 4:1 "Answer me when I call to You, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer."

One Sunday afternoon I attended a concert of the traveling Celebrant Singers. At the end of the musical concert, I answered the call to go to the front to express my prayer request. I was overwhelmed with emotion when I confided to a member of the Celebrant Singers that I desperately needed employment. I said that I had been away from my family for about eight months without a job, and that I had a family to support. The singer prayed for me and I prayed with him.

(1 John 5:14-15) This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him. In August of 1994, after eight long months without an employment, I finally landed a job in Waco. Eight months later on the job, I petitioned for my wife and two sons to join me. It was a tearful but joyful reunion because we were one family again. The long lonely nights were over. No more tears.

But starting family life in a foreign land was not easy. By immigration law, dependents of working-visa holders could not be employed. With only one breadwinner, there were financial obligations to worry about, yet I trusted that the Lord would provide. It was unusual for my wife to stay home since she was a teacher of 15 years in the Philippines before she came. She did odd jobs like babysitting friends' children, cutting hair, alteration and sewing for which she was rewarded a token amount.

We became parishioners of St. Louis, then joined the sanctuary choir and sang at the televised mass. On alternate Sundays, my wife and I, together with a few other friends, provided music during the mass at the Regis chapel. The Regis was a retirement facility with a nursing home, St. Catherine's, in downtown Waco. For a while we developed attachment to the residents who kept their faith alive despite their age and incapacities. I saw how they deteriorated as they aged and eventually passed away one after the other.

In Waco, we found friends who have provided us with moral, as well as emotional and spiritual support.

I have learned to worship and praise God in many different ways. He deserves my continual praise for the rest of my life because of what He has done for me on the cross. This is the greatest reason for worship. Never should I even wonder what I have to be thankful for.

When my family was having a difficult time getting our green cards as permanent residents we never lost hope. We prayed more. The Lord made it possible for my family to migrate here. I do believe that I was put here for a reason. It had been a decade in the process. We had sought the services of two different immigration lawyers when the first neglected and missed time-sensitive deadlines, resulting in the delay when all the other Filipino teachers in my group had become U.S. citizens.

My wife went through the alternative certification program at ESC Region 12, got certified, and was hired with a work permit. Barely a month into her first job here, she gave birth to our third son. Her working visa was in order, but the approval of my permanent resident status was pending, so I was advised to not take a summer teaching job until the permanent resident card arrived. Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

The Lord touched so many people who helped me and my family. My lawyer friend, Mike, and Danny, a notary public, both of whom are my third child's godfathers, were very supported every step of the way. With followup by the office of U.S. Representative Chet Edwards, the permanent resident card finally came just in time for me to go back to the same job when the school year began. My employer did not drop me off the roster at all. I praise God for that. The Lord is kind and merciful. He answers our prayers.

Jesus says, "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:34)