The Church elder who interviewed me, Mario Damo, was born and raised in the Philippines. He is the youngest of his 6 siblings and his dad died when he was only 10. This was made worse by the fact that his mom basically left him to fend on his own when she moved to the US by herself. Since he was the youngest and his siblings were mostly married he had to fend mostly for himself with one or two relatives taking care of him. This was the first crisis in his life and he gradually got into a downward spiral. He started smoking and drinking when he was only 11 and he often got into trouble.
When he was 14 he heard the news that his mom would return to the Philippines. His spirits were lifted and he was hopeful that he could restart his life again. However, shortly after his mom returned she also passed away, leaving him truly alone. At this time he came to the realization that he was an illegitimate child, born of a different mother than the one who raised him, and that was the reason he was not loved as much by his mom and his siblings as he should have been. Even though he was an illegitimate child his mom took good care of him while his father was alive and cared for him like his siblings. At this time of crisis he sought to find his biological mother, who was still alive. She already had a new family with children of her own and he managed to contact her through some family connections. Since she already had a new family she refused to accept him back into her life. So Mario's life continued to get out of hand. He continued to drink and smoke heavily, often getting drunk and smoking 2 packs a day. He didn't do well in high school and by the time he was 17 things were not looking very good for his life.
I forget the exact order of the following events, but needless to say he was in a very desperate situation where he was willing to turn to help from any source. So one day he was watching a TV show called 'The 700 Club', a Christian TV show. At that time he did not even really know anything about God but he desperately needed help so when the show closed with prayer he prayed as well and even though he did not fully understand what it meant to receive Christ into his life, that was what he did when he prayed.
He was able to quit smoking and drinking and turn his life around. Around this time he had to drop out of college because he did not have enough money but he was saved when one of his siblings helped to pay for his tuition. He studied very well for his CPA exams (I'm not exactly sure about the details on this one, it's near the end of the story!) and performed 2nd best nationally. He was invited to give a graduation speech and he was proud that he could publicly announce that Jesus Christ was in his life and helped to save his life. He would later go on to get baptized at the age of 27 and for the past 4 years he has been living happily in Hong Kong with his wife. He is now working for Coca-Cola and his wife is currently studying at the MBA program at HKU.
Next time I should also ask him about how he became a Church elder. I enjoy listening to other peoples testimonies! It helps remind me of how God is working through all of our lives.
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