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| Patrician Javier and husband Dr. Robert Walcher |
This is a true story of Genesis Canlapan, known in Philippine movies as bold star Patricia Javier. I am posting this in the spirit of Christmas. May we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in a profound way, far beyond the din of Christmas parties. May Javier's testimony in video, which I posted below, lead to conversion of hearts to make us grasp the power of faith.
The testimony is done in Tagalog, the major language in the Philippines. For the benefit of those who do not understand the language, I am reconstructing her story. I wanted to translate the testimony and the commentator's intro and side comments but I found many Tagalog idioms and cliches very difficult to translate and feel that I may lose the elegance of the prose in the translation.
So here's her story based on the video. I tried to do some research in the Internet but found only a scanty information about Javier's personal life.
Patricia came from a poor family. In her adolescence, her parents separated. She and her siblings stayed with their mother. To help her mother provide for the family, Patricia joined beauty pageants to pursue a dream and for the prizes which helped to tide things over. Her break came when she joined the country's most prestigious beauty pageant, Binibining Pilipinas or Miss Philippines.
Although she did not win the title, the Bb. Pilipinas pageant opened doors for her into the Philippine movies. As her star rose in show business, she quickly built a fortune she had dreamed of. "From nothing we have built a beautiful home, I was able to travel to many places and met people I had never imagined of meeting in my life," she said in her testimony.
But she paid a high prize for her dream. Appearing mostly in flesh flicks, she allowed herself to be used by men who could give her the luxury in life or more movie breaks. In her testimony, she said that she was happy for a while until she found out that something was missing in her life. That drove her into drugs.
"I really used my body to get what I wanted in life. For a while I was happy but there came a time when I became insecure, I wanted ... (to live a new life), to have a husband who respects me. I hated women who allowed themselves to became mistresses of married men, but then I found myself in the same situation. I tried drugs to escape from that reality. I admit I tried ecstasy," she confessed.
It was at this point that her mother talked to her thoroughly. "She told me 'everything that you have done for us boils down to nothing. You have given us a good life but you are ruining yourself'," she remembered her mother telling her. "I felt more depressed, I felt remorse for everything I had done, I realized that I was sinning."
As it is often said God will work in mysterious ways if you would only seek His help and live a life in keeping with His counsels in the Scriptures. Patricia, who went to the United States for some show biz engagements, meet a Christian who invited her to join a church congregation. Despite her fears that she might lose her career that provided her fortune, she attended church meetings and services and found changes in her life.
"I just kept on attending and then I felt that God was working in me, I felt changes in my life. I forgot all my insecurities, what I had done in the past ... I did not think of the men in my life anymore, the material things. I felt like God was telling me that you will find happiness if you will follow me. I began to realize, so that's it when God is in your heart," she said.
It was then that she met her future husband, Dr. Robert Walcher. When she returned to Philippines after her show biz engagement, people who knew her were surprised at how she had changed. Shortly after, she married Dr. Walcher.
"My name, Genesis, means the beginning. I told myself 'this is the beginning of a new life'," she said toward the concluding part of her testimony. "I said 'God I am giving my life to you, I trust my life to your care'."
Patricia's story reminds me of counsel in Proverbs: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; never lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will show you the right path."
Here's the video.
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