Lance strengthened by faith

Lance Raymundo has a renewed and  strengthened faith in God. He attributes his fast healing from the freak accident that broke his nose and cheeks, opened his skull and dislodged his eyes to miracles of faith.

Before the fateful accident happened, Lance had just accepted the role of Jesus Christ for Lou Veloso’s Ang Martir ng Golgotta 25th anniversary run. Nora Aunor was invited to play the Virgin Mary.

“Direk Lou originally planned for a cast with me as Jesus, Nora as the Virgin Mary (alternated by Jackie Lou Blanco ). But with the accident and Nora’s busy shooting schedule, his plans didn’t push through. Maybe, someday, it will,” said Lance.

In preparation for the role he was to play, Lance enrolled at a gym, to make his body more toned and fit.  He asked his trainer to device a workout that would help him achieve the Jesus’ slim and muscular built and called the workout, Calvary Workout.

On his first day of training on March 19,  the accident happened. The more than a hundred pounds barbell stacked just three feet away where he was doing the dumbbells routine, fell on his face. Lance who has been going to that gym for years, said, “They were strategically placed na malapit sa workout. Nasagi yung barbell at bumagsak sa mukha ko.” He was oozing with blood, so much blood that he felt he was about to pass out.  He was lucky there was a man, a nurse by profession who was also working out. He told the nurse to bring him to the hospital. Then with all the strength left, Lance called his mother to meet him at Cardinal Santos Hospital.

At the hospital, he overheard the doctors’ discussion on his being near death and the low chances of his face ever coming back to normal. Prayers were held and Masses were offered. Lance heard an “Inner Voice” and saw the Images of Jesus and Venerable Mother Ignacia Del Espiritu Santo on the hospital sheets. Photographs of those images were captured in his cell phone.

“The doctors said it will take three weeks before I am qualified for surgery, then eventually, I had my surgery on the sixth day and was well by the seventh day.”

Lance said that he was more concerned about his kuya, Rannie Raymundo’s reactions to the incident. “Hinahanap ng kuya ko yung trainer. He was not aware na nasa likod niya yung trainer nung dinala ako sa hospital. Tapos, nakaalis na yung trainer nung malaman ni kuya siya pala ung nasa likod niya.”

After two operations and declared fit to be released from hospital confinement, Lance spent more months inside his room. “My room was sterilized at hindi ako pwedeng lumabas. Minsan pumupunta ako sa pool area ng bahay. I had to be perfectly healthy. I couldn’t sneeze.”

With his “new nose and cheeks” (his cheeks are made of titanium), Lance is moving on with his life beautifully. “My true healing began when I found it in me to forgive the trainer. The miracle of faith and the virtue of acceptance and detachment from worldly things helped in my quick healing, especially the first time I looked at the mirror and saw my disfigured face. I accepted it with no resentment,” Lance explained.

Lance is also happy with his new “friendlier look.” It opened opened doors to roles which he could only dream of in the past — friendly, young, bright characters as opposed to the villain roles in the previous films and TV shows. He is also thankful to his team of surgeons at the Cardinal Santos Hospital headed by Dr. John Michael Porquez.

Recently, Lance went to Korea with director Ato Bautista, Mon Confiado and Brigitte and Sheena McBride (twins) for the movie premiere of Gemini at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival.

He is also in the American film, A Thief, A Kid & A Killer, by filmmaker Nathan Adolfson, which premiered in California last March, in London last May and recently had a press screening in Manila. Dates are being set for the Asian screenings which will include the Philippines by the third quarter of 2014. Other Filipino actors in the cast are Epi Quizon and Felix Roco.

Everything looks exciting for him. There are other projects lined up, including a string of singing engagements till January 2015. He has also been invited to talk about his near death experience and healing and has become an inspiration to some.  He has shared his experience with students of St. Mary’s; (Xavier  School has also set a date for a speaking engagement; he also spoke for the entire staff and officers of Greenfield, and  Rockwell. He also had the honor of sharing during the homily of the weekly-televised Mass of the healing priest Fr. Mario Sobrejuanite, Healing Mass for the Homebound, which airs worldwide.