by Bienvenido E. Capule (Pastor)
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plan for well-being and not for trouble, to give you a future and a hope.’ Jeremiah 29:11, NLV.
When I was 14 years old, I was staying with my older sister
who was a nurse and her husband, M. G. Jereos, who was the
treasurer of Southern Luzon Mission (SLM) in Bicol.
One day before she left for duty, my sister informed me that the Union
auditor, Mr. Werber Johnson, would be in the house for lunch.
She instructed me to prepare a meal and a tapioca pudding dessert. This
was something I had never tasted and prepared before. What I did was to
follow the printed instructions from the box.
My sister arrived home earlier to check the table and the food that I
prepared. My brother-in-law and the auditor finally arrived.
During lunch, Mr. Johnson made a very particular appreciation for the
dessert and asked what it was and who prepared it. My sister told him that
it was me. Mr. Johnson lavishly expressed his delight for the tasty tapioca
dessert.
At suppertime, my brother-in-law told us how Mr. Johnson enjoyed
the dessert. He commented that if a “young boy” could prepare such
sumptuous lunch and a tasty dessert by following the instruction, it would
make him a good mission treasurer. He suggested that I get some training
at the treasurer’s office immediately. He further instructed to send me to
East Visayan Academy (EVA) in Cebu where I could be assigned at the
business office as a student worker.
After my graduation, Mr. Johnson paved the way for me to take up
Commerce and be a student worker at the Business Office of PUC. I
graduated five years later.
I vividly remember that my first ambition was to be an English teacher
since grade school. However, that delightful tapioca dessert preparation
led me to where I had never imagined. God used tapioca to change the
profession where He deemed I could be used better. May God be praised
for using Mr. Johnson as an instrument to carry out His plan in my life.
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