I Still Believe In Prayers - Part II

Trip to Nashville

Photo credits: Virgin Mary Family

The power of prayers always work miraculously in my life. In my first post, "A Close Encounter" I had a near death experience during a thunderstorm last June, the same month I had a similar experience twenty-two years ago. In this post, there were three significant incidents that made me a firm believer in the power of prayers. My friend driving my truck being sandwiched by ten-wheeler trucks, flashes of lightning providing light for me to see in a zero visibility situation and a flying GI sheet towards me were all saved in my memory bank, as if to remind me everyday to never forget that God is everywhere. Just pray to Him and be one with Him in Spirit!

It was summer of 1990 when I heard the good news from my soon to be employer in Nashville, Tennessee. After thorough performance evaluations among the three of us who were sent from the California duplication facility to do start-up/installations in their printing facility, David James, General Manager of then Sullivan Software Services, later renamed to Nicholstone Software Services, informed me that he was hiring me. He told me that their company is giving me $3,000.00 for moving expenses, and it’s up to me how I am going to relocate.

Later that day,  I talked to Lyn, a friend of mine who worked as a duplication operator in our company, and asked him if he could help me out in relocating my family to Nashville. Lyn was a country music lover, loved parties and an outdoor lover. Upon hearing my proposition that I was going to take him out to every country bars in town that we made a stop-over, he gladly accepted my request. The fact that he hasn’t been to Nashville, America’s Music City, made my offer to him more enticing. The next day, he went to Human Resources and filed for a one-week vacation.

After work, I went to Radioshack and bought two identical Realistic CB radios and installed one of them in my newly purchased, brand new, light gray Nissan pick-up truck. I installed the other CB radio in my white Nissan mini-van. Back in the days, cell phones were not yet popular because they were bulky and expensive. I figured it would be helpful to have CB radios instead in each car, so we can communicate with each other while driving. 

The next day when I woke up I was surprised and upset at the same time, because somebody smashed the driver side window of my pick-up truck and stole my newly-installed CB radio. Luckily enough, both items were covered in my insurance policy and had them re-installed and fixed on the same day. Unfortunately, that cost me one day delay in my trip.

It was clear, and bright sunny mid-day when we left our residence in Santa Clara, California. Before we left, I double-checked the mounting harness connecting my kids’ bikes to the roof-rack of my mini-van, and also made sure all the luggages were tightly packed, and in-place  in both cars.

As Lyn and I just had coffee for breakfast, we decided to have lunch in Gilroy -Garlic Capital of the World, which is about an hour drive from Santa Clara. After lunch, we continued on our trip until we reached Needles. We decided to stay there for the night, and checked-in at Rodeway Inn and Suites Hotel which is directly off Interstate 40, and with a number of restaurants nearby.

After dinner with Lyn and my family, I took him to a Country Bar and Pub House as I promised to him. We had some beers while enjoying live music from the featured folk singer, before settling in for the night. 

We did not cover much on the first day of our trip, as we still woke up in California, and not anywhere in Arizona, which I plotted on my map, one week before the trip. At break of dawn I woke up everybody, and told them to get ready, “We are leaving early today to get a good head start.” 

The sun was just starting to peek from the cumulus clouds and its golden rays showed promise of a clear and sunny day ahead of our long trip, when we headed out of the hotel exit. 

“Breaker, breaker…this is Mad Dog, come in Maharlika, do you copy, over,” Lyn barked on my CB radio. “Loud and clear, 10-4” was my reply. He said he was just testing how far can we get a clear transmission, as he estimated he was already five miles ahead of me based on the mile markers along the road. Later, I heard him singing with my kids joining him. He had Vilmor and Vladimir in the front passenger seat of my pick-up truck. After a while, I heard him cursing. “What’s up buddy?” I asked. “I’m being sandwiched by these mother-fucking truckers,” he shouted back at me. Sure enough when I was able to catch up with him, I saw one rig in front of him, one behind him, and two on his sides. I guessed these truckers got irritated with his singing on the CB plus the fact that we were on the same bandwidth as them; we were intruding on their communication lines. For a while, I was tensed and didn’t really know what to do. The mere sight of my small truck with my kids in it, in-between those big ten-wheelers terrified me. I can’t do anything, except pray that nothing bad happened to them. After a lengthy two-mile run, the truckers dispersed from their formation as if nothing happened, and let my friend go. “Thank you Lord,” was all I could say, as I was still terrified. This was an answered prayer, if I may say.

My friend, Lyn with my two kids: Vladimir and Vilmor

We decided to have lunch in McDonald’s somewhere in Flagstaff, Arizona, since we were driving four hours non-stop already. “This is good, I said to break down the silence of everyone. We had breakfast in California, we’re having lunch in Arizona, and pretty soon we’re going to have dinner in New Mexico.” My kids shouted in unison, “Yehey!”

We’re back on Interstate 40 after lunch. This time, I decided to lead the way, and had my friend, Lyn following me closely. After about a couple of hours of non-stop driving, I noticed some stratus clouds were beginning to form in the horizon. That’s strange, because it’s summer time and the weather was just fairly clear and bright, although a bit humid. As I passed the blind curve along a mountainous area, I encountered some drizzling rain. Eventually, it began to pour heavily followed by the darkening clouds brought by strong winds. All of a sudden, lightning flashed in-front of my mini-van followed by roaring thunder, as if the mythical gods were playing bowling right above us. I called Lyn on my CB radio and told him to follow closely, so we don’t lose each other. Before he can answer back, twin lightnings struck on the left and right side of the road followed with a much louder and prolonged thunder. “Hey, Vic it looks like we’re having an early 4th of July,” Lyn said, as lightning began criss-crossing our path. Then I heard Vilmor, “Daddy, daddy I’m scared.” Vilmor, who was just seven-and-a-half years old at that time was terrified because that was the first time he encountered something like that. Amazingly, Vladimir who is two years younger than him was awfully quiet according to Lyn.

“Vilmor, calm down. Just pray to Jesus, ok…tell Vladimir to also pray, and give the “mic” back to Lyn.” I told Lyn, “We can’t continue driving like this. I can’t hardly see the road because of heavy rains and gusty winds. I’m going to make an exit at the first sign of a motel or any lodging facility along the road.” “Copy that Maharlika,” replied Lyn. We drove for another five miles at a crawling speed like a turtle under continuous bombardments of lightning and thunder, until I finally saw an unlighted  motel sign made visible by the flash of lightning. Power lines were already cut-off along the stretch of that locality. As we drove, we were continuously praying to the Holy Spirit to guide us and keep us safe from harm. That lightning flash, as I was about to pass the motel sign, was to me another answered prayer. Had it not flashed at the right moment, I would have passed that exit to the motel. 

As we were entering the entrance to the motel, all of a sudden I saw the corrugated GI metal sheet of the motel roof came off and started  flying towards our direction. I accelerated faster and tried to move sideways in order to avoid being hit, but it seemed too late for that maneuver. Besides, Lyn was following me closely, and I didn’t think that he saw the oncoming danger. I closed my eyes and started chanting, “Come Holy Spirit, I need you…come Holy Spirit, I pray.” Then I started praying, “Our Father Thou art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven…” Before I could finish with the Lord’s Prayer, I heard a loud swishing sound. When I opened my eyes, I saw a gust of twirling wind carrying the metal roofing away from our path. Thank you Lord, was all I could mutter.

That was the third time in a day that the power of prayers was manifested by God. Some non-believers might say that it was just mere coincidental. For me, it was my Faith and firm belief in the power of Prayers that saved us that day, and it will remain that way to this day. 

Despite the fact that I lost my faith in the institution that taught me how to pray, I still believe in the power of prayers. Do you?

Close Encounter With Death

Frederick, Maryland
June 29, 2012

Today was a time in my life that my faith in God has been tested twice in the same day. I firmly believe that God is always watching over me despite the fact that I have sinned against his will. Now I have come to a conclusion: first, I am now a believer on what my two Facebook friends have posted on my Wall that said, God is always present when there is love in your heart. The second one is never to underestimate the power of prayers.

It was Friday afternoon around 3:00 PM, when I heard the sweet voice of Aida, my sweetheart on the other end of the phone line asking me if I could pick her up earlier. She had been working ten hours a day for the last several days and she wanted to unwind. I picked her up at 5:00 PM at her place of work. We proceeded to Washingtonian Center where AMC Loews Rio Cinemas 18 is located. It is now becoming our favorite hang-out on Friday nights, which is our date night. After buying tickets for the movie Prometheus, we decided to have an early dinner as the movie won't be showing until 7:30 PM.

We agreed to dine at Guapos Restaurant which is within the theater complex. I ordered chicken pajitas with cold Corona, a Mexican imported beer while Aida had beef pajita and a Margarita grande. We both enjoyed our food and drinks, and the jalapenos were really hot! She shared with me her Margarita, while the waiter was taking pictures of us. After dinner we decided to watch the rock group playing just outside the restaurant near the waterfront. I found out that on Friday and Saturday nights every year, there are free outdoor concerts in the Washingtonian Center during summer.

Although it was hot and humid outside, we enjoyed listening to the rock group because they were playing our favorite songs, such as "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" by Creedence Clearwater Revival and "Tequila Sunrise" by the Eagles, to name a few. We also met Minerva, one of Aida's friends, who was also watching the band by herself. They had a little chit chat while dancing to the beat of the music.

After a while, her friend finally said good-bye. We decided to go inside the movie theater as it was already past 7:00 PM, and besides it was getting more humid outside. We slowly proceeded to our chosen seats and found out there were only a couple inside, so I guess we were a bit early. The seats got filled as the scheduled showtime was about to begin.

The movie did not turn out to be as hyped in the preview, so I started to get bored although I was impressed by the cinematic effects as we watched in IMAX 3D format. We were half-way through the movie when all of a sudden we saw blinking lights on the sides of the screen and a warning voice came out from nowhere as if they were part of the movie. I looked around and found out that those were warning lights and the voice from the microphone became clear to me. The management was giving us a warning to vacate the premises because of imminent danger. We slowly and calmly went out of the theater and joined everybody outside the theater building.

Within five minutes the fire truck with blazing lights and wailing sirens  arrived. Shortly thereafter, another one came. I was impressed by the response time of the fire department and how fast their crew checked and analyzed the possible threat, or whatever danger there was. It turned out to be a false alarm, so we were ushered back to our seats to resume watching the movie.

After the movie we decided to take a walk, and look for an ice cream parlor as we were getting thirsty. We reached the ice cream parlor after a short walk, only to find out that it was already closed. We then decided to go home to have our homemade margaritas instead of ice cream.

On our way home we were surprised by the gusts of wind in-front of us, while the leaves began twirling around followed with abrupt and heavy rain. All of a sudden the surrounding became pitch black as we passed by Germantown. It was followed by random flashes of lightning, as if we were blanketed by them. It was accompanied by the roaring thunder, as if they were rolling across the towering trees along I-270. For a moment I lost control of the steering wheel because we were swaying sideways, and the front wheels were not touching the ground at all! I tightened my left hand grip on the steering wheel while I put on the sign of the cross with my right hand and began to pray. Lord, forgive me for I have sinned against you and my fellowmen. If it's my time to die at this unholy hour, I beg you to take my spirit. Please spare my sweetheart and protect her from any harm through Christ our  Lord, Amen... As I finished my short prayer, I regained control of the car. At the same time, I heard a frightened voice frantically telling me to pull over. I switched on the car's flashing lights and kept on driving at a turtle speed because there was no way for me to pull over with cars on my right lane moving at the same speed as mine. As I reached the overpass at Clarksburg, I slowly stopped under it. The cars behind me followed suit. I felt unsafe where I temporarily parked with engine running, because on my left lane I could see big rigs rushing by. I figured out sooner or later one of them could hit somebody behind me and possibly cause a major disaster.

When the downpour of heavy rain subsided a little bit, I decided to drive again at 20 to 30 MPH trying to step down on the pedal every chance I got, until I reached another overpass. This time the left lane was open, and I was able to park on the shoulder of the road beneath the overpass. I kept on repeating my short prayer while I try to calm down my sweetheart. I advised her not to touch any metal part of the car, so she won't get electrocuted just in case we got hit by lightning. As we sat still trying to weather the storm, the lyrics - "there's a calm before the storm"  from the song "Have You Ever Seen The Rain," played back in my mind. Meanwhile,  flashing lightning seemed to hit us from all directions followed by roaring thunder which occured in cadence with the music. That's how it played in my ears anyway. We stayed here until the raging thunderstorm slowly weakened, as it moved away from us.

I decided to take advantage of the situation, and slowly but surely drove safely back home. When we finally got home, I thanked God for hearing my prayers. I believed that during our entire ordeal God is with us because I felt no fear at all. I knew God works in so many mysterious ways; whatever He plans for me and my love, I would gladly accept my role.

The next day I read the Washington Post report online to find out more about what really happened the night before... Between 9:30 and 11 p.m. Friday night, one of the most destructive complexes of thunderstorms in memory swept through the entire D.C. area. Packing wind gusts of 60-80 mph, the storm produced extensive damage, downing hundreds of trees, and leaving more than 1 million area-residents without power.

Racing along at speeds over 60 mph, the bowing line of thunderstorms formed west of Chicago around 11 a.m. and by midnight approached the Atlantic ocean. It left a massive trail of destruction spanning from northern Illinois to the Delmarva Peninsula. The National Weather Service has logged well over 800 reports of damaging winds.

On Friday, a historic, record-setting heat wave covered a sprawling region from the Midwest to the Southeast. All-time high temperatures records of 109 were established in Nashville and Columbia, South, Carolina and tied in Raleigh and Charlotte which hit 105 and 104. Here in Washington, D.C., the mercury climbed to an astonishing 104 degrees (breaking the previous record set in 1874 and 2011 by two degrees), our hottest June day in 142 years of records. As this stifling air bubbled northward, clashing with the weather front draped from near Chicago to just north of D.C., thunderstorms erupted. They grew in coverage and intensity as they raced southeast, powered by the roaring upper level winds and fueled by the record-setting heat and oppressive humidity in their path.

As I finished reading this report by the Washington Post, it became crystal clear to me that we just had a harrowing night of close encounter with death that night of June 29, 2012. This will be forever remembered as long as I live...