Elixir
Page 6
He always tried to impart to them the idea of becoming global citizens, that we are all brothers and sisters, all relatives in the literal and figurative sense. To Jerry, we are all descendants of an Omnipotent, Omniscient, and loving Being. In his eyes, the color of one’s skin, the country of one’s birth, one’s economic and social status, and one’s religion are artificial distinctions that we had needlessly foisted on all of humanity.
According to the wise old man, if we could collectively gather the willpower and the gumption to destroy these self-defeating demarcations, could learn to coexist peacefully, and would be willing to love each other, then all the hate, the killings, and the unnecessary wars would just disappear.
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But after he suffered from a heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, coupled with a chance to do research on life-extending drugs, he decided it was time for a career change.
JT’s mom wasn’t okay with Jerry’s decision. She had been working as a registered nurse at the medical-surgical unit of Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. She didn’t want herself and the then eleven-year-old Jake to get uprooted and transplanted to a foreign place like Iowa (her grasp of geography was horrible). But Jerry felt that the offer made by an upstart biochemical company affiliated with the Iowa-based Ames Laboratory was just too good to pass up.
So, with both parties unwilling to compromise, Jerry moved to Ames, Iowa, and had been working as a GS-14 level senior researcher for the past six years.
CHAPTER 17
THE MISSIONARY GRANDPARENTS
Answering God’s call and committing to a lifetime of becoming His unquestioning and dedicated servant is one of the noblest deeds of all.
To the unbelievers, the supreme act of accepting the call to His service must have occurred under the following scenarios: a) a loaded gun was pointed at the head; b) suffering from a temporary bout of insanity; c) the person was very inebriated; d) the poor, heart-broken person didn’t know what else to do; e) a full pardon awaited for previous crimes committed in exchange for this unfathomable action; or f) all of the above.
How else can one explain such an irrational decision? If the question ever gets asked in the Family Feud: “What vocation would you want a young kin to be engaged in?” It will be a good bet that “a missionary” is at the bottom of that list.
It takes great courage and deep conviction—no, it takes enlightenment and an inspiration from the Almighty—to make that supreme selfless act. It is not an easy choice to make. An uncommon toughness of character, an unbreakable willpower, an uncompromising stance, and a total obedience to God’s call to service are but a few of the requisite qualities necessary to make that ultimate sacrifice.
One of the most famous of this breed of God’s servants is Paul the Apostle. One can study the fifth book of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, for the genesis and purpose of missionary work. But focus on the latter part of the Gospel of Luke (he was an evangelist and companion to Paul) and one can see the beauty and wonder of God’s handiwork. It vividly narrates how some of these dedicated proselytizers were chosen and how they were then inspired and moved by an Omniscient Being to do great work.
We are all too familiar with Paul’s story. He started as a bad guy. He was on the road to Damascus to apprehend the early disciples/Christians, but was stopped by Jesus (blinded by a great light). Paul was then enlightened about his true calling and became a tireless messenger. He was very instrumental in preaching the Gospel of Christ and the spread of the Christian faith across many diverse regions and far-flung places. Many heathens, unbelievers, and sinners were beneficiaries of his indomitable missionary fervor.
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The call to spread the Gospel of Jesus about salvation was answered by Jake’s paternal grandparents, David and Linda. They had decided, when they were in their mid-twenties, to make that unenviable choice to commit to a lifetime of service. It wasn’t an easy choice by any means. They had to uproot themselves from the comforts of home, the warmth and love of family, the luxury of living in a First World country, and willingly moved to the dirt-poor areas of Indonesia. They had to transplant themselves from the vibrant Kansas City to the slum areas of Java, Indonesia. It was a totally different world.
The scoreboard was no longer about how much financial or material wealth a person had accumulated, but rather, how many souls were saved by their dedicated work. Initially, it was a big shock and a rude awakening for Linda. Besides having to make do with less, she was so depressed and helpless at the sight of the plight of these multitudes living in abject poverty. But she learned quickly that in one’s life, there is this Omnipotent, All-knowing Being who has a master plan for each and every one of us.
Linda got over any feelings of self-pity swiftly after that realization, graciously accepting the fact that her life was no longer hers and was to be used for the glory of God. She understood why she wanted to become a nurse ever since she was ten years old: her skills and medical knowledge would serve the needy, sick, and impoverished populace of Java, Indonesia.
So it had been this way for JT’s grandparents for the past forty-six years. For these two missionaries, their life was consecrated to helping in any way the wretched, destitute people in their daily struggles to survive, and, more importantly, to make them believers in Christ.
For the young Jake Timothy, he knew all too well why his father wanted him to spend his summer in Indonesia. Jerry wanted his teenage son to learn that life should not be centered on material wealth. Jake remembered his old man paraphrasing a verse from the Bible: “For what good is it, if you gain all the riches in this world but you lost your soul in the process?”
Jerry’s whole objective was for JT to build on his moral fiber, and to acquire—hopefully by observing and through osmosis—a compassionate, caring, and loving heart.
CHAPTER 18
THE ORPHANAGE
Often times, things get tarried and a person becomes impatient. But in the fullness of time, if it is in accordance with the Almighty’s plan, then all these will come to pass and come into being.
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Such was the case with the spacious, nipa-thatched shelter located behind a fish pond that functions so perfectly as an orphanage. There was never an intended plan to build this Heaven-sent gift.
Sister Patricia is a Catholic nun, identified with the religious Sisters of the Sacred Heart. She had been rounding up the strays, the abandoned kids and the homeless, who were loitering and whiling away in the neighborhood. She did her charity work and compassionate deeds in the agricultural part of Dela Paz, Laguna.
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Dela Paz is a sub-urban annex of Biñan. The City of Biñan itself is located about twenty-one miles south of Manila (the capital city) and has a population approaching 400,000. There are still farms dotting the outskirts of the city, although evidence of industrialization is sprouting everywhere. It is not uncommon to see among the frontage of endless rows of agricultural land, suddenly appearing in plain sight is the ubiquitous McDonald’s, situated right alongside a newly built mini-mall.
It is an unfortunate conversion of much-needed farmland into commercial strip centers, restaurants, and fast-food joints. But it is not only this type of transformation that has been ongoing.
A recent transaction that had members of the farmers‘ cooperative up in arms involved a plot of agricultural land sold by the owner who migrated to Canada.
He had liquidated most of his assets at cheap prices due to his haste to move abroad. The real estate agent found a ready and able buyer for a plot of farmland, a rich businessman who offered a mutually agreeable price. Manny, a Manila-based Chinese Filipino astute in the art of the deal, facilitated the closing of the deal, agreeing to an all-cash mode of payment. What riled up the local farmers was the new landlord’s plan for the piece of land. Manny had purchased the property not for the planting of an important staple food source, rice, but for the construction of a tilapia farm. Due to
an ever-increasing Filipino population, coupled with these greed-motivated, mind-boggling, and wanton conversions of agricultural land, the Philippines has seen a role reversal. Three decades ago, the country had a huge surplus of rice, making it a top rice-exporting nation. Nowadays, this Asian country needs huge shipments of the this staple food sourced from Vietnam and Thailand.
Locals were quite upset at this unmitigated, irreversible, and increasing pace of agri-land conversion. Sadly, the Filipino government took no actions, preferring a policy of laissez-faire. Initially, the actions were peaceful protests and picketing. When these methods didn’t work, stone-throwing incidents directed at the construction site, harassments of workers (at the site), coupled with threats of bodily harm were tried next. But what brought things to a boil was the attempted abduction of the construction foreman. Although it was unsuccessful, it did temporary brought the construction of the fish pond to a halt. But both sides knew this was just a brief respite from the nasty stuff going on.
Entrepreneurs get rich because of their tenacity and business acumen. But this mixed-breed magnate is much more than that. He is both compassionate and an outside-the-box thinker. He didn’t go with the fight-fire-with-fire route. Instead of hiring the meanest goons he could find to fight the protesters, vandals, and would-be kidnappers, he chose to take the high road. He prayed hard for guidance and wisdom. After many days of contemplation and deliberation, he decided on a course of action. He would build a peace offering. The unused part of the fish farm, located at the back of the lot, would become the site of an orphanage.
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Imagine the mixed emotions that ran through Sister Pat’s (her nickname) head. When Manny asked his trusted aide to fetch the nun, she couldn’t help but speculate why. Did one or two boys under her ward do some mischiefs again? When Manny told her about his plan to put up a large, spacious orphanage at the back lot of the fish farm, she was dumbfounded. She burst into tears of joy, tightly shaking the benefactor’s hand first, followed by an awkward hug, all the while, thanking this generous soul over and over again.
This is better than manna from Heaven. While the free food from above fed the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert, this gift-wrapped, Heaven-sent shelter would prevent the orphans and the homeless from meandering aimlessly, for these poor abandoned kids would now have a place to call their own. Sister Pat was still in a state of shock one hour after receiving the good news.
Why?
She had been supplicating in her twice-a-day prayers for just such a permanent place for a growing number of disadvantaged and needy kids, whom she was caring for in the past several years.
CHAPTER 19
A CRUEL MISTRESS
There was an uneasy peace that descended among the tilapia aquaculture group and the neighboring farmers. Even with the announced intent of constructing an orphanage, both sides only interacted when necessary, treating each other with a healthy dose of suspicion and disdain. The good thing was that no further untoward incident occurred after the attempted abduction. Each day that passed unfolded the steady progress in the construction of the much-needed shelter for the orphaned kids.
Simultaneously developing was the aqua farm project. The fish pond was slowly but surely taking shape. In light of these developments, relations between both groups became less frosty and were showing signs of guarded optimism. After four months, the culmination of the twin projects was a sight to behold: a fully functional fish pen, ready for the rearing of tilapia fingerlings, coexisting with a very spacious utilitarian shelter.
The constructed orphanage might be inelegant and spartan, but in conjunction with the fish farm, the two created a symphony even the New York or Vienna Philharmonic couldn’t rival. The aqua farm provided the fish for the hungry kids’ daily nourishment, while the orphanage provided these young, impoverished souls educational and spiritual sustenance. There was this masterful orchestral performance unfolding. The fish farm provided the “feed them for a day” part, but equally important, the orphanage did the nurturing and teaching of these helpless kids, contributing the “teach them how to fish, then you feed them for a lifetime” component.
London Symphony Orchestra, join us in saluting a newly arrived, highly capable competitor!
After a well-attended and much-publicized benediction by Father Art Rosales, a priest from the local parish, both the fish pond and the orphanage buckled down for business. The fish-rearing cycle could typically take between four to five months, but the hungry kids got their allocation of tasty fillets from undersized or sickly fish, the trimming of the population of these fresh water creatures due to exceedingly high stocking density, disposal of wounded or picked-upon tilapias, etc.
The aqua farm avoided the hatchery part of the business, preferring to focus its energy on the growing out of the young fingerlings into full-sized, commercially-desirable tilapias.
The younger kids residing in the back-lot shelter derived much pleasure and thrills in watching these “mini-boogers with tails” swimming and racing each other furiously.
The ultimate goal of the business side of this aquaculture was to bring the fingerlings to marketable size (typically around 0.75 to 0.95 pounds) in an economically viable and most profitable way. Sister Pat had, by then an odd mix of some thirty-plus young children and teens. Roughly half of these were orphans, while the rest were the abandoned, the runaways, ex-rugby sniffers, or ex-street beggars.
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Rugby is a brand name for a contact cement, the chemical fumes of which are reputed to cause the persons who sniff them a temporary high. Interviews with the “rugby boys” revealed a disturbing reason behind their inclination to do such an idiotic thing. They claimed that being in this fleeting, solvent-manufactured, reality-suspending state allows to escape from the hunger pangs that they oftentimes couldn’t satisfy. The sad reality is that this pathetically unwise move leave these poor souls addicted, and more prone to commit crimes.
This sad plight, coupled with their need for money to finance their debasing addiction, leads them stuck deep in an odious pile of dog excrement. Such is only an example of situations afflicting the needy and downtrodden in many Third World countries, where there are no safety nets and almost nonexistent assistance from the government. The term “starved to death” is a literal possibility for multitudes of poverty-stricken masses.
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Blissful and harmonious situations don’t last forever, but the twin disasters that struck literally one after the other exemplified the fact that fate can be such a cruel mistress.
Barely two months after both projects came to fruition, a weird weather phenomenon, centered primarily around a two-mile radius, occurred with such devastating force (inexplicable violent torrents of water rained down mercilessly, coupled with ninety-five miles per hour winds), lasting twelve long minutes. Much of the nipa material used for the roofing was blown away, many areas of the orphanage were flooded, and some wood panels were destroyed.
But the most damaging aspect was reserved for the fish pond. A mysterious, oxygen-depleting event asphyxiated many of the 12,000 tilapias being raised in the pond.
CHAPTER 20
THE DEDICATED STAFF
A lesser man not blessed with an iron will, dogged determination, and a stubborn refusal to admit defeat would graciously and humbly accepted the unavoidable conclusion that the twin projects were both abject failures. But Manny isn’t. He is built on steely inner strength and oozing self-confidence; he regards setbacks like these to be merely equivalent to working on complex crossword puzzles, solvable with the application of requisite brainpower. In much simpler terms, the wealthy magnate relishes the opportunity to meet the challenges presented by these types of difficult situations.
This temporary setback, according to this wise and experienced tycoon, is the easiest to solve. Any problem that required monetary solution could be taken care of in a jiffy. In this Chinese Filipino’s mind, the amount of material weal
th is nothing but a scorecard, a rough indicator of the successful implementations of interrelated sequential business decisions. Once a person earned enough to pay for the necessities of daily living and occasional indulgences of luxury, in Manny’s opinion, these excess amounts owned are just differentiated by the number of zeros trailing after a nonzero digit, sitting in a dusty vault somewhere or in some pitifully low-interest-paying bank accounts. The pious and devoted Christian sincerely believed that he is but an appointed steward of this material wealth. That was the reason why he had no qualms about donating huge sums to charities, NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), and causes he supported. Money could be earned, could be spent, and could be lost, so it didn’t bother him one bit if the numbers on the scoreboard moved upward or downward. He had such supreme confidence in his business acumen, so much so that according to an oft-told tale of his famous boast: “Put me in an isolated island, equipped with nothing but my razor-sharp mind, and I will not only survive but will thrive in that desolate, trying environment.”
The repair of the damaged orphanage and restocking of the fish farm occurred in military-styled efficiency, needing only the passage of eight Earth days. It is in these very type of categorically disastrous situations that the innate goodness of humanity shows up. The well-known and almost uniquely Filipino term Bayanihan (loosely translated as spirit of community and cooperation) moved hundreds of people, volunteering to help clean up, fix, and rebuild. The unity of purpose and the magnificence of the power of volunteerism were in full display.
The end result of this community spirit was quite evident and stunning. One only needed to look at the spruced-up shelter. It was an improved and more aesthetically pleasing version of the original!
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Choosing the right personnel who were inspired by Sister Pat’s vision and passion resulted in the formation of a highly organized structure that operated in such admirable and superb efficiency. The successful managing of the shelter required the creativeness, boundless energy, and total dedication of all the leaders and staff, so it was both divine-assisted and fortuitous that the right personnel were committed to this noble work.