UP CLOSE We were one step closer to seeing our entire family saved.
If you have Jesus with you, you don’t have to be afraid.”
God knew that it would take time to slowly open our father’s heart. When mom’s carecell needed a new host, he agreed to open up their place on Friday nights. Though he never sat through the formal carecell meetings, he would often join for supper and fellowship at the end. This was a perfect opportunity for her carecell members to connect with him. Eventually, he started to attend church service with my mother when he was free. We knew that these were all baby steps he was taking towards Jesus.
One day, he confided in our mother about a conversation with his friends about ghostly spirits. Now a strong and fervent woman of God, she told him this truth: “If you have Jesus with you, you don’t have to be afraid of these ghosts or spirits.” When she shared a prayer he could use when he felt fearful, my father whipped out his handphone to type this “model prayer.” She immediately shared another truth: “If you don’t have Jesus in your heart, this prayer won’t work.” Then, she went in for the landing, “Do you want to receive Jesus into your life today?” “Yes, I want to,” he replied. There and then, my mother led my father to say the sinner’s prayer. God is so good, his salvation occurred a few months before I was to be married! As I look back on this “impossible” situation, I realize that God had stirred this desire to pray for my father so that I could partner with Him by interceding for his salvation.
2012 was the year that I was going to get married. It was also the year when God began to stir in my heart a deep desire to see my father receive Christ before then. “God, I believe Daddy will receive you into his life before I get married,” I prayed many times that year.
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Though my father started to attend services regularly, he was not ready to attend carecell. Eventually, mom started a new carecell because they moved to a new location. This carecell was also incredibly united in reaching out to him, always inviting him to join for outings and meals. Some of them even got his number and started connecting with him one-on-one. They persisted for almost a year, relentlessly asking him to join for carecell meetings. Then, one day, out of the blue, he said to my mother, “I’ll be going for carecell with you tonight.” My mother