Awaken to pray

I read somewhere that “The Lord chooses the most inconvenient of times to talk to us”. Without a doubt, 3 o’clock in the morning has to be one of those, but experience has taught me that when GOD knocks, you don’t say who’s there? or later! The last time I had such an unplanned and unscheduled “wake up call” was March 3, 1994. All night I had a recurring dream where I was in the company of a rich and powerful industrialist and a bunch of missionaries implored me to pray for him… As I rubbed my eyes to consciousness I felt led to read the Bible and a particular page.

Half an hour later it became crystal clear to me that the message was not for me but for the Industrialist. After some maneuvering and a creative approach, I eventually managed to find a way to send the message and a Bible to the man. Needless to say, the man took the message to heart, took a radical detour in his plans and eventually found himself winning his battles and being a blessing to others.

Once again I had an unscheduled wake up call at 3 A.M. Sunday. I woke up with a prayer that had to be said and a very sad verse from the Bible that needed to be shared. On the few occasions that I have experienced this, I’ve learned that such proddings are of great importance and one does not trade the spiritual for sleep.

Out of my mouth came a prayer for a little girl whose name I knew not. All I know is that I was suppose to pray for a little girl who ran after her father to kiss her “goodbye” as she always does every morning before “Daddy” went to work. For whatever reason, her father had stepped out earlier than she expected and she was not able to kiss him goodbye. So she ran after her without anybody noticing. That was the last time her family ever saw her. A few days later, she would be seen by balut and tahong vendors asking not to let a man take her, and a woman pulling the little girl’s hair in anger, claiming the girl was her disobedient daughter. One vendor vividly remembers the fear in the little girl’s eyes.

At this very moment she is but one of the many children, mostly girls, who become “kidnap” victims of opportunities generally taken to be sold for “adoption”, slave trade, prostitution or for “parts” where there organs are sold by, and to evil and wicked people.

I knew at 3 A.M. that I needed to pray and so I did. I prayed that GOD himself would liberate that little girl from her abductors, that people would hear her, see her, suspect and act and not hesitate. That GOD and his heavenly hosts would step in and free all the other victims tied up in whore houses, bars or houses wherever they are being kept against their will and violated in ways only the devil and evil people can think of. I prayed that in the midst of many attention grabbing headlines and political concerns of the country, our President and our people would come to realize that the greatest crime and the greatest evil that is in our midst and upon our land is the evil committed against our children.

I prayed and will continue to pray that somehow each of us or at least many of us will hear in our hearts, our conscience and in our minds or at least vividly imagine all those children scream, cry, pray and close their eyes in absolute terror and hopelessness. I pray and personally ask each of you to pray for mothers, fathers and families who’ve been “left behind”, blind in their helplessness, inconsolable in their loss and anger for a moment of weakness or carelessness.

I ask each of you to reflect and recall that night over 2,000 years ago when men marched into a village under orders of a mad man to take and slaughter every newborn baby boy up to the age of two years just to stop a prophecy. Remember how Jeremiah the prophet depicted what happened after that day of madness:

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Jer. 31:15)

Let us all pray that somehow, government agencies will prioritize the helpless and the defenseless. I pray that the DILG under Secretary Mar Roxas or the NSO or National Statistics Office can work with barangays and could figure out a way to do an actual house-to-house survey of families and children and verify through birth certificates who are legitimate children and who may be kidnapped or out of place. I pray that for the first time, the President of the Philippines will take a personal interest in declaring war against kidnappers and human traffickers. Let’s pray that every member of media will prioritize, dedicate time, and sensationalize stories of missing children.

Above all I ask each of you to pray as one; that GOD would step into the fight against these wicked and evil people. Pray because it is the strongest weapon of all. Thank you and GOD bless each of you. (4:22 A.M. Sunday)

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Stand your ground!

As someone from the outside looking in, I strongly encourage Mayor Joseph Estrada and Vice Mayor Isko Moreno to stand their ground and not stand down.  In terms of impact and good publicity, the decision to ban colorum buses or buses without bus stops, from entering the City of Manila has brought about so much change, so much challenge and so much good that to buckle now would be a monumental mistake.

Because of their radical solution, Estrada and Moreno have brought light and also embarrassed other mayors who have been unwilling to deal with illegal buses and illegal terminals, which are the principal cause of traffic jams in Metro Manila. They have also highlighted the ineffectiveness and lack of political will of the LTFRB and finally they have exposed the large-scale corruption and bribery that is at the root of traffic in Metro Manila. One hundred fifty thousand pesos a day just from colorum buses!

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