It was summer 2011; I went to receive my fiancé at Chennai (TN, India)
airport. I was thrilled to meet to her again because I just couldn't wait for
her to see my parents in India.
Mildred, a Filipino whom I had fallen in love with, a woman who loves God and
fears Him.
Back at home in Coimbatore (8hrs from Chennai), my parents and my siblings are
readily waiting to see my girl. Bingo! There she impressed my parents on her
very first day. (To have the traditional parents to accept a foreigner in the
family is remarkable.) My parents liked her very much. The zeal, the passion for
the lost and most importantly, the way she loved me and was willing to leave her
family, culture and live with me.
It was unscheduled that my dad who being a Pastor, took us to another place in
South India for a short mission trip. Mildred agrees and we had a great of
ministry amongst kids and teens. One fine afternoon as we were driving back from
the mission field to our base, I received a text in Ilokano (a language spoken
in Northern Philippines). I didn’t understand a thing and so I passed the phone
to her. Oh!! It was a scene that I didn’t expect. Mildred broke down in tears,
she couldn’t utter a word, she was filled with tears of grief and sorrow. I took
her aside and asked her, what happened? She replied, ‘My father is shot dead in
the Philippines, I need to get back ASAP’. What? This is impossible! We rushed
back to the city and said goodbye as she flew back to Manila on the very next
day.
Mildred and I were asking ‘God, we are to be married in another few months, and
now we have lost her father?’ She reached the Philippines and had completed the
funeral of her father. Before the sorrow could be wiped of our minds and hearts,
she calls me after two months and says that her grandfather had passed away.
This is the second death in her family just in the span of two months. It was
heart breaking!
One verse that caught our attention was, ‘All things work together for good to
those who love God and are called according to his purpose’. We believed that
there is a future hope and God will not let us down.
Things were going very fine. We had planned our wedding on Nov 23, 2011 in
India. Mildred with her family came 10 days before the much awaited day. The
wedding preparations were going very well. But our story doesn’t end here. The
tragedy strikes again! “Sam! Sam! Get into the house now,” Mildred screamed at
the top of her voice. I ran inside the house and saw my mother dead right in
front my eyes. She was a heart patient and survived that disease for many years.
That was her last day, last breath just 7 days before my wedding. Now, I was
shattered into pieces, heartbroken, covered with agony and insufferable pain.
Where is my God? Where is my helper? Whom I feared and worshipped? There is only
7 days for my wedding and I have lost my mother. My dad, my brother and sister
were clothed in deep sorrow. Words could not explain the amount of pain we all
went through as a family.
It was that moment, me and Mildred stepped in front and asked God for ‘hope’.
God, we need you, we desperately need you. We can’t lose another one from our
family. We have faced a series of death just before our wedding; we want to see
that something good comes out from these agonizing situations.
It was then; we heard from God ‘There is a future hope’. He will not leave us as
orphans, He cares for us.
Joseph M Scriven wrote,
‘Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.’
We asked God for a new start. We asked that God would take away those sorrows.
He indeed gave us a new start. We are right now in Bangalore, serving God in an
amazing way. We are reaching out to the Orphans, the poor and more significantly
to children and teenagers.
My dear friends, have you lost hope? You think that there is no solution? Come
to Jesus, come to him just as you are. He will turn your mourning into dancing
and your sorrows into joy just like he did it for us. He gave a beautiful
daughter to us. We named her Bethany Flora. (Flora was my mother's name). She is
a blessing and makes our life more joyful!
God is in control!
Sam and Mildred, India
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