Blessings in Disguise
Rading Decepida 51, a landscape artist and business owner. He lives with his wife, Richie, and their two children, Darren, 20 and Juno, 15, in Antipolo City.
Rading, youngest in a brood of three, belongs to one of the old families in Marikina.
He started to question the Church when, as he said, all the priests did in their homilies was to denounce corruption in the government. It didn’t help that he heard rumors of corruption in the Church too. In protest, he stopped attending Mass.
His Story
I grew up in a regular Catholic family. We went to church on Sundays, prayed the Rosary daily during the Rosary month of October and during the Holy Week, we practised the Way of the Cross and went on Visita Iglesia, visiting various churches for prayer and meditation.
I took up Commerce and majored in Accounting at San Beda College in Manila. In school, I attended the Friday Masses religiously.
After graduation, I worked in a bank for six years until I went back to my first love—landscaping. I put up my own landscaping business in 1992 and called it Garden One. Through the years, I was able to provide for my family and we lived comfortably enough.
Straying Away
I started to drift away from the Church the moment I began working. I was in church physically but my mind wandered away. Either the sermon was too heavy to take in, or I didn’t understand what the priest was saying since the audio was bad.
In 1994, Richie and I got married. And I remember a year after, I stopped going to church. I was busy with my business and I simply lost interest in going to church. I felt like I didn’t need to. I didn’t get anything from attending the Mass, anyway.
To think that our parish church was just a few meters away. Actually, just 50 steps away and yet, I didn’t go.
My usual Sunday consisted of having breakfast, attending to the car — having it washed and cleaned— having lunch at my mother’s house in Marikina with my family, and spending the rest of the day there.
The priests turned me off because they were discussing government issues. For me, the pulpit was an improper venue for political issues. I went to church to listen to the Word of God but all I heard the priest said was how corrupt our government was. And then I heard about corruption in the Church ranks. I thought to myself, why bother to go and listen to the priests? I wasn’t learning anything, I was not nourished spiritually.
I rationalized, anyway, I wasn’t bad. I didn’t offend anyone. So I didn’t need to go to church.
But it was not like I didn’t believe in God. I still prayed every night. Though I realize now that my prayer was self-centered. It was all about me. I never bothered to listen to God. When I faced challenges, I blamed God.
In 2000, I fell into a grave sin. I had an extra-marital affair. And while it was happening, sadly, I never felt that what I was doing was wrong. Until Richie caught me and confronted me about it. She cried and seeing her so distraught, how much my unfaithfulness grieved her, I got back to my senses.
I asked her for forgiveness and my loving wife forgave me. We agreed to go on a retreat at the Carmelite sisters’ convent in La Union province. Our bond as husband and wife became stronger after that.
Meanwhile, my business flourished. Money flowed in.
But still, I felt empty inside. I was at a loss. I felt an inner longing.
Finding The Feast
Something happened in 2013 that made me turn around and question my values.
Around this time, my business began to bog down. The projects came in trickles. Money became scarce, just enough for us to make both ends meet.
Frustrated, I asked my wife, “Why is the Lord making things hard for me? Why is He giving me just enough? He’s going to bless me anyway, why not go all out?”
And then, to make matters worse, our marriage began to wobble again. There was this promo girl I met in a golf tournament— once, twice. She became friendly, sending me text messages now and then. Given my past indiscretion, my wife got jealous. We fought over it.
Stress over my finances and our marital squabble took a toll on my body. I suffered high blood pressure. My doctor instructed me to stay at home and get a good rest for a few weeks.
Call it house arrest, but those two long weeks at home turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me.
At the time, my father-in-law, a religious man, had started following a show on PTV 4 every Sunday at 8 a.m. featuring the talks of Bro. Bo Sanchez at The Feast, then being held at the Valle Verde Country Club, Pasig City.
My father-in-law suggested we watch the show. He often called us on the phone, telling us to turn the TV on once Bro. Bo’s show was already airing. My wife would then turn the TV on and call me to watch the show with her. I would sit, for a while just to please her, but never really listened to what Bro. Bo was saying.
Little did I know, as she listened to Bro. Bo’s preaching at The Feast, Richie was already experiencing spiritual awakening.
When I had to stay home for awhile, she downloaded Bro. Bo’s talks from YouTube and played the talks for me. For lack of better things to do, I watched and after listening to every single talk of Bro. Bo at The Feast, I became a changed man.
One Sunday afternoon, I told Richie, “Let’s go and check out The Feast.”
At the time, Bro. Bo had transferred to the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), and so his prayer gathering was then called The Feast PICC. When Richie and I walked in, The Feast ushers warmly greeted us as if they knew us, as if we were regulars. People smiled. The place resonated with joy, I felt goosebumps all over me.
We just wanted to check out The Feast so we didn’t stay long.
For another week, I watched The Feast videos again and again. I never got tired of them. Bro. Bo’s talks sent me meditating on my life, my misgivings, my self-centeredness. I knew then that I needed to attend The Feast.
The following Sunday, Richie and I attended the first session of Feast PICC.
For the first time in 18 years, I heard Mass again. I felt God was there, welcoming me back. Feeling guilty that I’d gone astray, I couldn’t hold back my tears.
Fr. Eric Santos celebrated the Mass, delivering a homily so laced with funny anecdotes, I didn’t get bored as I did in the past. Fr. Eric explained the Gospel so well, that for the first time in so long a time, I readily understood God’s Word.
When Bro. Bo came onstage and preached, I was all eyes and all ears. I don’t know how to describe that day. It was magical, wonderful, and miraculous. I felt like the darkness that had enveloped me, that clouded my reason, vanished into thin air. I felt lighter and more alive. Truly amazing!
Richie and I went back to PICC the next Sunday, bringing along our kids. And from then on, we kept going back.
Not long after, we signed up for a Light Group (LG) with Bro. Ervin and Sis. Malour Montecillo as our heads. There, we met other couples who are now our good friends. We met weekly initially at a fastfood joint but since it closed at 10:00 p.m., we offered our house as venue. That way, our group had privacy and we could stay late in the night and share our stories. We loved our meetings so much, we met regularly, even during LG breaks set by the Feast Secretariat.
Little by little, I was being renewed. I began to see changes in me.
Before, I was self-centered, now I have become selfless. I also noticed that I am calmer. I used to be hot-tempered. Faced with conflicts, say with a business colleague, I’d be plotting schemes against him or, I’d be charging toward him like a raging bull. But since I was renewed, I’d say to an opponent, “Let’s talk about it.”
In times of conflicts, I’d take a deep breath, say a silent prayer for understanding, listen to both sides of the issue, and weigh the situation.
It used to be that when I was on the road, I was impatient over the traffic most of the time. But then in one of his talks, Bro. Bo said we have no control over traffic but we can control our self. So I became a calmer driver.
I’d become not just relaxed, I’d also gained confidence in myself, boosted as I was by Bro. Bo’s talks especially about God’s way of empowering us, His people, that we may live abundantly.
Last year, Garden One, my landscaping business, slowed down. But I did not question God as I did during my pre-Feast days. I did not waver in my faith in God. In time, my business recovered and I realized He allowed the setback to happen for a very good reason.
You see, Richie is a Hotel and Restaurant Management graduate, so we thought about putting her education to good use.
In August 2014, we decided to help her father in his bakery business. I scouted for a place to set up a bakeshop. But I couldn’t find one, so I just offered bakery products on consignment basis to small variety stores and canteens around our place.
The strategy clicked and we raked in a substantial profit. I then realized the reason for my landscape business’ setback. Since the business was slowing down, I had all the time for the bakery business.
And since Richie and I worked together, we bonded well, too— which was really a priceless bonus.
In December, we found a commercial space for our envisioned bakeshop in Sta. Elena, Marikina City. On December 18, we opened our first branch, named Burichie’s— my father-in-law’s pet name for Richie.
The second branch opened on September 1, 2015 along Marcos Highway in Cainta, Rizal. And soon, to our pleasant surprise, my father-in-law gave the bakery business to us! Apparently, that was his plan all along.
Then, as the bakery business flourished, big projects for Garden One came in!
God’s promise of abundance simply came true for us, as Bro. Bo boldly taught us.
Back to the Church
Little by little, The Feast has also guided me back to my Catholic Faith. I began to understand the teachings of the Catholic Church.
I also attend Mass now even outside The Feast. I have found the Mass my respite, my drinking fountain to quench my thirst for God’s Word.
Today, despite the struggles that come our way, I am almost worry-free because I follow and apply the teachings of Jesus.
The verse from Romans 5:3-5 is my guide: “For I know that suffering produces endurance which in turn builds our character and our character gives us hope in God.”
