Go. Stand. Speak.

Since last week, I have been urged to go out again and deliver a particular reading of Matthew 5 to 7, though I was at a loss as to where, up to the last minute, being minded to simply board a jeep and go down where I'm told to. I was trembling with the usual fear that accompanied such a bidding. My stomach was turning inside and my palms were shaking and sweating. I kept breathing out to ease my thumping chest. Everything in me told me, 'No. You'll just choke there with nothing to say.' I simply knew that despite that being true, I only need to trust and obey. It was past 10PM as I went down at a place 2 rides from work in Manila. I asked permission from the local enforcers (baranggay) and the nearby police station, found a worthy slab I can stand on beside a jeepney terminal, and read.

There was nothing unusual about what happened for the next hour. The police and enforcers were surely ministered to as they stood and sat towards my direction, but besides that, some frowns, stares, and bickering were all I was awarded with.

I finished my pleading shaking from cramps in my thighs, and turned around to behold quite a number of road workers and pedicab drivers sitting quietly in the shadows behind me at my feet. At the time I wasn't aware that somebody was paying attention, the Lord graciously brought these beautiful souls to himself. Perhaps they heard about the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ being for the outcasts and simple folk, for the lowly and the drunkards, the common and the poor, the families torn, the wife-beaters and those addicted to vices and substance? The hopeless. Perhaps they heard that God owes tomorrow to no man? That he is both loving and forgiving, but only to the humble and lowly; that God often brings a man to a low point in life for the Gospel to have a place to come into. Surely those who are full of themselves have no such space for anything else.

I ministered to them for a short while and pleaded with them to come to Christ while he may be found. Giving each one a free bible with a tract inside, imploring them to read it for their sake. As I turned to leave, they blessed me. What a great reward from my Lord for my inadequate efforts. God continues to humble me so. I am such a wretch for doubting, but the Lord is with me in my weakness. He loved my at my darkest.

Please remember me in your prayers by asking for more mercy on my behalf.