By Sr. Pilar Verzosa, rgs

Ester’s Story

When Ester’s parents learned of her pregnancy, they wasted no time in decreeing that she be locked up in her bedroom with neither visitors nor callers allowed and with the ready tale that she had ovarian cyst. That was to explain the bulging tummy at the start. She was a prisoner in her own room. But more than the four walls which kept her, a chain of bigger yet unseen things kept her I bondage.

Many Chains

Her parents were horrified of what their friends and relatives would think if they found out that their 23-year-old single daughter was pregnant. That was the chain of pride. Hence, the concocted story that she was sick. The chain of deception, unable to face the responsibility of having a child and the ire of his girlfriend’s parents, Ester’s boyfriend left her soon enough. The chain of betrayal. What was to happen to her and to her baby? What future would they both have? The chain of anxiety. And finally, with the world closing in on her and nothing at all left in her control, Ester thought she would do well to kill herself. The chain of despair. Chain after chain locked as the weeks turned into months.

Choose Life

Suicide started just as a thought, but since no more was there to talk to her and give her hope, this thought became a powerful force which took over her will. With a blade poise at her wrist, Ester sat in her bedroom to end her life. All of the sudden, the life inside her kicked hard, as if trying to jolt her to her right sense. “Choose life!” the baby said.

The blade fell from her hand and Ester started crying her heart out, realizing that Jesus was there watching over her. “It was not an intimidating presence, but a merciful one. The kick was actually the Lord talking to me, consoling me and perhaps even forgiving and understanding my pangs of despair”

Turning Point

It became the turning point in Ester’s Life, for then she knew that inspite of her aloneness, Jesus’ presence was very real. She called out to him and turned over her life to Him, seeking His forgiveness and mercy for her sins. “Grace was at work,” henceforth Ester says. When she delivered her baby in a hospital, the only bed available was next to that of a nun and beneath a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary. The encouraging words of the nun she heard in her ears and Mary she heard in her heart.

The responsibility of raising up a son was difficult, but she had decided that with God’s grace she would bring him up correctly. Ester continued to work for a living and stood as both father and mother to Jimmy. As far as value formation was concerned, she drilled repeatedly to the boy: “God first.”

Does Love Kill?

One day, three year old Jimmy came up to his grandfather and asked, Does love kill?” Taken by surprise, Lolo was not able to answer the little boy. After thinking for a moment, Jimmy offered his own conclusion, “Love can kill evil.”

The love of Jesus killed evil in Ester’s life at that moment of conversion, before that and ever after that, up till now. Salvation goes on. And what mother and son have experienced, they are sharing through their respective ministries.

Healing After Healing

Jimmy is now a 26-year-old special education teacher who ministers to children with hearing problems and to children damaged by their broken families. Ester goes around the country lecturing on dysfunctional families, giving retreats and workshops even to nuns, teachers and psychologists themselves. She also fosters babies and does counseling work. Quite a loadful of work, but the rewards have been great because time and again she sees people turning around to Lord – ‘crisis families’ being reconciled, broken single parents being healed, single expectant mothers finding hope. Restoration after restoration. Healing after healing. Miracle after miracle. Great things beyond reach of one’s knowledge.

For now, Ester says, “My role is to help them find their salvation history.” How in their lives, Jesus love can kill evil.

Care and Share Center

Pregnant? There is help. Care and Share Center offers counseling to women in distress over a pregnancy they did not expect. It was set up by Pro-life Philippines Foundation and Living Mary’s Messages Foundation five years ago. Every year, the Center receives over 3, 000 calls through its telephone hotline numbers. Of this, about 60% are pregnancy-related problems and the rest are about mental conflict, boy-girl relationships, or personality problems. Besides the full-time receptionist-counselor, there are trained volunteer counselors who respond with compassion and efficiency to whoever calls. The callers are encouraged to visit the Center for free pregnancy test or referral to medical, legal, psychological, spiritual specialists or to maternity homes.