JK : GOD WORKING IN AND THROUGH PEOPLE

 

"See you in court."

After saying those intimidating words, the professor ended our meeting with a firm handshake. The meeting was about my daughter, Jan Kristy.

Twenty years before, right after Kristy was born, my wife and I got scared stiff when the Directress of Sisters of Mercy Hospital, the head nurse, and the obstetrician came into our room and broke the not-so-good news -- our baby got jaundice. It is an indication of ABO blood type incompatibility complication: my wife's antibodies being incompatible with Kristy's blood antigen. Knowing full well the sensitivity of the circumstance, the obstetrician delicately explained to us the implication of such medical condition. Having counted Kristy's ten fingers the first time I saw her, I thought everything was already fine -- until I heard the heartbreaking news.

Later, walking on the hospital's open space, I sensed the sluggishness of the surrounding seemed to weep for the heaviness of our hearts – it's Good Friday. My wife and I, though both baptized Catholics, at that time, were in a period of what Bertrand Russell cried out as "searching for something beyond what the world contains... something infinite... the beatific vision, God. I do not find it, I do not think it is to be found, but the love of it is my life." We found a clearer picture of "it" after we met Pastor Ernie and his wife Fe – and that's another story.

For over a week, a nurse pricked daily the soft sole of Kristy's little foot for blood which I took to another hospital with a laboratory for the blood test. Her jaundice finally disappeared leaving a seemingly mangled little foot.

We named her Jan Kristy as inspired by John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.

The draining experience embedded so deep inside me that it would trigger, now and then, a typical dad's how-dare-you-do-that-to-my-baby indignation, particularly at that time, toward the professor who harassed Kristy with veiled sexual intention in quite a few incidents.

In that particular meeting with the professor, I talked about the situation and hinted during our polite conversation for him to simply apologize for what had happened, so we could just then lay aside the whole matter. Unfortunately, our meeting got so heated that, in the end, he boldly said those intimidating words: "See you in court." As a last ditch effort, I wrote the school's president a letter about the situation, but never heard a word from him.

Standing up to a big and powerful institution in legal clash, my wife and I knew full well it would be harsh and costly. In the first instance, we consulted right away a lawyer-friend Ed who helped us, pro-bono, in making out the bigger picture. All at once, I thought of a David versus Goliath court battle. Consequently, we decided to sell our family car to cough up for the expected exorbitant legal fees.

It was grueling for Kristy and Harvey, her boyfriend. When something of value was at risk, like Kristy's graduation, understandably, one would be in a dilemma and would think twice to do anything about the case. Standing up for her, Harvey persuaded her to stick it out.

During one family meeting in our Couples for Christ community, I shared with them about Kristy's case. After the meeting, Bro Judi mentioned to me in passing a similar case where the complaint was forwarded to Malacanang since the Commission on Higher Education was attached to the Office of the President. He added that another brother-lawyer was working in the President's Legal Office. The advice was manna from heaven. It took only one plain letter signed by Kristy addressed to President GMA's office and saved for us stack of hard-earned money.

Later, we received in a mail a thick volume of documents from the Legal Office of the President about the case. Subsequently, we learned that the school installed a new president, the professor vanished, a reorganization resulted, and the school changed its name – God's invisible hands at work.

My Dear Reader: "God is not looking for people to work for Him, but people who let Him work mightily in and through them." (John Piper)