WHEN GOD CLOSES DOORS …

By: Casiano Mayor Jr. @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer | 06:34 AM May 04, 2011
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/763/when-god-closes-doors-%E2%80%A6

MANILA, Philippines—I went home from work that night with a heavy heart. I had
just lost my job as a subeditor with the Saudi Gazette in Jeddah where I had
worked for the past six years. I was 62.

Losing my job at the twilight years of my life with an eight-year-old daughter and a
wife to look after was surreal. With only a little savings in the bank, we were not
prepared to go home.

It was one of the most trying times in my life. How do I fend for my family? We
came to Saudi Arabia to escape a harsh life in Manila and the prospect of going
home unprepared was a nightmare.

At that time, we were planning to migrate to New Zealand. My wife, a nurse, 14

years younger than I, had barely started to scout for a job there. When I got my
termination notice in January 2005, I saw that dream collapse. We had to use the
money we had saved for that purpose for more immediate needs.

Tragic news
Though shattered, I told my wife about the tragic news as calmly as I could. “Don’t
be alarmed,” I opened up as she settled next to me on our sofa in the living room
to watch TV, “I got fired from my job and we have to go home by the end of the
month.”

I saw shock in her eyes. Instinctively, I assured her that I could still work as a
subeditor in Manila and, with our modest savings, she could open a bigger store
than what we used to have back home before I went to work in Saudi Arabia.

My wife, who quit her job to take care of our daughter when the child was born in
1997, wasn’t convinced and pleaded with me to look for another job, any job, as a
lifeline until we could move to New Zealand or any other western country. Grace
period As I always do in my trying times, I prayed for divine guidance and later
asked my editor-in-chief to allow me to look for another job instead of sending me
home. I was buoyed when the company gave me a six-month grace period to look
for a new job. But it marked only the beginning of a new travail.

After failing to get a job with the Arab News, the only other English newspaper in
Saudi Arabia, I discovered that I could hardly find even an ordinary office job. My
wife, who also started scouting for work, did not fare any better either. My
problem was my age; hers was an eight-year gap in her employment record.

Since my family joined me in Jeddah in 2000, we have been holding our own
private prayer sessions. Through our trial, my wife would occasionally feel a
muted anger against God for “abandoning” us.

I told my wife that probably God was just testing our faith. We held on to faith.
From my experiences, I learned to practice the 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.”

Growing desperation
In June, as I grew more desperate after my applications for published job
vacancies got no responses and the referrals of friends turned out fruitless, I got
an unexpected call from a Filipino, a friend of our next-door neighbor, working in
a construction company. He advised me to see another Filipino in a sister
company, another construction company involved in power plants and related
projects.

I got interviewed and was asked to report for work as soon as I could wind up my
job at the Gazette. God has endowed me with genes that make me look 10 years
younger than my age and I got lucky that the personnel manager who interviewed
me did not bother to look into my curriculum vitae.
I was offered a clerical job that would pay a third less than my previous salary. I
decided not to report for work at once on the pretext that the Gazette had asked
me to stay for a while. I was still hoping to find another job with better pay. I did
not find any.

By August, a month after my grace-period to look for a new job had lapsed, the
Gazette cut my pay by half. It was time to go. I rang up Francis, my Filipino
contact at the construction company but he told me that his boss had accepted a
new applicant who was expected to report to work in the first week of August. My
heart sunk.

Strange coincidences
What happened next was a series of strange coincidences I will never forget ever.
In mid-August, I got an intuitive urge to give Francis another call, hoping for an
unforeseen turn of event. The improbable happened. Francis told me his boss had
a change of mind and was reconsidering hiring me if I would accept a lower pay. I
bit the bullet.

I was happy but the euphoria did not last long. The day before I was to report for
work, I called up Francis for a reconfirmation before I went home from the Gazette
at five in the afternoon. I was dumbstruck to hear that his boss did not want to
sign my contract anymore—for no reason at all.

My wife cried uncontrollably when I told her about it as soon as I got home. It
turned out that she also failed to get a job she had applied for on the same day.
We prayed for divine succor. I prayed to Jesus to touch the heart of Francis’ boss
who was still at his office with Francis at that time. About 30 minutes after we
said our prayers, my cell phone rang. It was Francis, telling me his boss signed
my work contract at last.

My wife and I wept. We embraced and shed tears of joy. The next day, my wife
called up a hospital where she applied for a job the previous week. She was told to
go there to sign her contract. We got our jobs a few days apart in August.

A long hardship trail

End of our travail? No.
Seven months after I started working at the construction company, I almost lost
my job in a new trial that would further strengthen my faith afterwards. That was
in February 2006, shortly after we moved to a new office. I had a falling out with
my boss, a man with fiery mood swings.
As early as two months into my job, I started telling my wife how unhappy I was,
and that I wanted to quit owing to my boss’ temper. She pleaded with me to hang
on until I could find another job. Her pay was not enough for us to live by. I took
patience but it did not take long for my fuse to snap.
It happened one morning while he was ranting about my work without giving me a
chance to explain. “I can’t take this anymore and I don’t care if you fire me,” I told
him and turned away. As I went back to my desk, he called out to Francis, who
was our payroll officer, to close my account.
“I’m sorry I can’t help you this time. You shouldn’t have talked back,” Francis
whispered when he went over to my desk. Another Filipino, Gilbert, our IT
engineer, offered his sympathy. I put up a bold front. “Don’t worry,” I told him.
“God will take care of me.”
Deep inside I was devastated. How would my wife take this? I prayed silently,
“Lord, I don’t understand all of this, but I trust you. Please don’t leave us in the
midst of this crisis.”
Another coincidence?
While I was packing my things, Francis told me our boss wanted me to stay. I
learned later that our Filipino secretary, who was left at the old office to take
telephone calls and monitor the fax messages while the communication lines at
the new office were being set up, did not report for work that morning. I was to
take his place in the meantime. He never showed up after that.
Francis made it clear to me that it was a holdover job that may last only three
months. I must start looking for a new job. When the telecommunication lines in
the new office were put in place, I had to go. It was a week before March, the start
of summer break for the Philippine schools in Saudi Arabia. I thanked God for the
lifeline, hoping to get a teaching job in any Philippine school when classes opened
in June, no matter if the pay would be smaller.
By May, Francis brought me good tidings. I was to be reassigned to the new office
because the new secretary, an Indian, was not allowed by his previous employer to
transfer. I moved to the new office within a week and worked as secretary to the
newly hired executive manager, Ralph Lorenzo, a Filipino who proved to be an
epitome of civility.

Answered prayers
I had been working with the construction company for exactly two years last
August 30. My wife had moved to one of Jeddah’s two biggest hospitals. Although
we do not see any silver lining to our dream of moving to New Zealand, we take the
Biblical advice in Proverbs “Be still and know that I am Lord.”
I have had my own share of answered prayers since I returned to the Faith after
losing God when I was a journalism student in Manila and I have come to believe
that when God closes doors, He opens new ones. I believe in God’s mysterious
ways.
In 2008, Saudi Gazette rehired me to help launch the Kabayan, a Filipino page,
with a bigger financial package than my previous pay. The page was later
abolished but the Gazette has retained me.
We have abandoned our plan to immigrate to New Zealand after my wife’s visa was
turned down by its immigration office in Dubai in 2009 when recession hit the
world. My wife is also 54 now, a year short of the age cap for immigration to New
Zealand.
We are preparing for our homecoming in three years time when our daughter
finishes high school here, but have not closed the door for other possibilities,
knowing from experience that God oftentimes does things His own way.
HOTS Comprehension Questions:
1. What makes the narrator a good example of a modern Filipino hero? Give
his character traits or events in his life.
2. What makes OFWs and Call Center Agents are known as the new heroes of
the country?
3. Can ordinary people become a hero? Explain.
4. What are some of the things that you can do to serve your community or
our country?