This Bad Turned Out To Be good

by: Mylene Astejada

"A family bucks the odds, with a little help"

It was not the most welcoming sight. The Divine Mercy image visited Mylene's home for a one-week stay as part of its tour of duty in their neighborhood. While most homes receive such arrival with some sort of celebration, Mylene's reception was of a very different kind. In the first place, she was not around.

Her husband, though, was there - as well as a number of his friends, merrily gulping beer in the middle of a drinking session.

And yet, that inauspicious first encounter with the Divine Mercy proved to be significant.

Mylene's family had lived for years without a deep relationship with God. They shifted monotonously from one day to the next, mechanically going about their lives and facing the same problems. They were, simply put, not growing at all as a family. In fact, they were a walking cliche.

First, the family was always buried in debt. Her income as an aircraft cleaner and his as a security guard were just not enough to sustain them and their children. They are parents to three young girls and a boy.

Second, Mylene's husband, Jun, was an alcoholic. Not only that, he had also failed to live up to his Christians obligations. For instance, he had not attended Mass since the baptism of his second child.

Third, Mylene was so caught up between these two, that she, herself, was almost directionless. She knew she had to act to resolve the daily issues of her family, but she had no idea what to do in the long run.

Mylene's family had lived for years without a deep relationship with God. They shifted monotonously from one day to the next, mechanically going about their lives and facing the same problems

Maybe, Mylene thought, renewing their relationship with God was something they desperately needed. So one can just imagine her frustration when the Divine Mercy dropped by only to find her home as a site of Jun's drinking spree.

But something definitely happened that night, to Jun. In the days that followed, Mylene noticed that her husband began to drink less and less. He exerted efforts to be a more responsible father. And for the first time in years, he actually asked the entire family to hear Mass and attended weekly prayer meetings.

Mylene had no idea what was happening to her husband, but his change pleased her very much. When Jun attended a spiritual seminar conducted by devotees of the Divine Mercy, Mylene connected the dots and finally understood where his husband was coming from. The Divine Mercy's visit during one of his drinking sessions started it all.

Mylene saw her husband seek God's forgiveness, receive His love, and invite Jesus into His life as He did with her husband's, she would put all her trust in God as her Lord and Savior. Shortly after that, Mylene likewise wholeheartedly accepted God in her life, knowing fully well that God will be with them every step of the way.

And the next step involved their main family problem - debts. With hard wok and discipline, along with God's guidance, Mylene and Jun slowly freed themselves from the bondage of their debts. At present, Mylene says they have been living well within their means.

"We give all the credit to the Lord for each day that our family is able to eat well, my husband and I are able to work and earn, and our children are able to attend school," she added.

As she told her story, Jun was training to be a Lay Minister. That is a far cry from that drunk man of the house when the Divine Mercy image arrived. If one were to say that that man would become a reformed alcoholic, a responsible family man, and a Lay Minister-in-waiting a few years after that visit, no one would have believed it.