Decades ago, my former boss was kidnapped by the NPA. He was held captive somewhere, separated from his driver, tied to a chair, blindfolded, and divested of his belongings.
He knew he could get killed anytime. He was captured by low-ranking NPAs.
“The lower the rank, the more dangerous,” he told us later, as he recounted what happened to him. “They are trigger-happy and panicky. Not very bright. So you can get killed over something very minor.”
To make matters worse, the general said that he could detect, from the sound of the guns they were fiddling around with, that his captors were armed with high-powered weapons. Which meant that if they decided to shoot him, it’d surely be fatal.
He listened to them as they talked to their superiors on their satellite phones, asking what to do with him and his driver.
“Nakabihag kami ng isang heneral!” They shouted excitedly. They were also high-strung, nervous, fidgety. Their superiors were vague and indecisive. So the general decided to talk to his captors — to find out why they captured him. He told them that no one was going to ransom him because he wasn’t close to the sitting president then.
But true to form, instead of begging for his life, he scolded his captors. He told them to stop “playing soldier” because they knew nothing about being soldiers.
He told them — “This is a time of peace. What are you doing in the mountains, making life harder for the poor whom you constantly harass and steal from? You’re not even trained soldiers and yet you carry guns.”
He continued to give them a full dressing down: “When I was young, I fought in the battlefields with my soldiers, we risked our lives to defend democracy. Now that it’s ‘peace time,’ we are helping the poorest of the poor in Smokey Mountain, Tondo, Payatas, Dasmariñas, and other squatter areas all over the country — to give the poor their own houses and lots, livelihood, dignity, a community they can live in.”
The scolding continued — “Well, what about you? How many poor people have you helped? How many have you given houses to? Jobs? Livelihood? Education? Health care? Have you saved even one family from poverty and starvation?!!”
Silence.
He continued, “I have never been captured or tied down like this in war.
You have no right to do this to me. You have not served your country the way we, the real soldiers, have. Set me free.” Silence again.
When he was left alone, the general, by force of circumstance, had to finally come to grips with the gravity of his situation. He asked himself: If I get killed right now, where am I going? Heaven or hell?
So he frantically tried to recall the verses we had studied in the Bible classes he was attending with us.
You see, before I resigned from my job to take care of our four children (who I had mindlessly relegated to the care of my mom and their yayas), I finally gathered enough courage to invite my boss, the general, to a Bible study. It started as an x-deal.
I told him I’d write a couple more of his speeches IF he went to Bible studies in AIM with my husband and me. He agreed so fast. I was stupefied. No resistance at all! I guess he needed those speeches very badly.
Amazingly, he was hooked from Day One. He went week after week after week. He even told his secretary to block off that specific day and time slot for his Bible study — no other appointments allowed, no exceptions.
Back to the captured general: One thing we must realize is this —when you’re on the brink of death or you face the horrifying possibility of being killed, only one thing is important: Where am I going when I die?
As they say, “There are no atheists in foxholes.”
The general said he remembered only one Bible verse: “Jesus said… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
So the general, who was extremely segurista, fervently prayed again: “Jesus, I surrender my life to You. Please be my Lord and Savior. I believe You are the only One who can bring me to heaven. Please bring me to heaven with you.”
He had prayed that prayer so many times, after each Bible class. Once, I was so annoyed because he’d pray it quite loudly in our AIM classroom. So I whispered to him, “General. You don’t have to keep praying that. Once is enough. When Jesus enters your life, He’s there permanently. He will stay with you forever.”
His reply was always: “I know. But no harm in making sure.”
So in that desolate place where he was held captive, and in constant danger of being killed, the General prayed to Jesus again, for the nth time, to save him and bring him to heaven.
After he prayed, with no explanation, the NPAs came back and set him free.
Untouched. Unharmed. All his valuables returned to him. His driver was set free, too, to drive the general home.
Many years later, before he passed on, the general spoke to my husband and me in a long distance phone call from Stanford. He told us that he wasn’t scared to die — because he knew, he was SURE, that Jesus was in his heart, and was bringing him home to heaven.
What about you? Have you been captured — by anything or anyone? Are you being held captive by something or someone that’s causing you pain, frustration, humiliation or harm?
The Bible assures us, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
(John 8: 36)
