An Interview by JoReMi on Orly & Sarah Manuel (BCLP 1)
It was only recently that I met Kuya Orly and Ate Sarah and in relating this to the article here, it was hard to imagine the reclusive and disconnected character that Kuya Orly describes of himself. We always made eye contacts at gatherings but never a deep conversation. This changed when we were both involved in a late-night breakfast team fellowship. We were the only three men left and we discussed everything from politics, do-it-your-self home projects, preferred alcoholic drinks, and local happenings in the community. This was not the man as he described here at one time so it is indeed a paradigm shift to say the least. In a sense, I can relate because I myself grew up an “airline brat” where we would move every 2-5 years in the 50+ years that I spent in the States. So while I had many friends, I had no close friends. In the case of the Manuel couple, what magic BCBP does to a person! Read for yourself and you’ll know what mean …
“A Pattern of Life Lived for a Long Period Speaks Volumes of One’s Attitude and Personality.”
Many years prior to BCBP, I have had few friends and they were limited to those in my most immediate circle. One could be a next door neighbor, a seat mate in school, an office mate or someone closest by virtue of a circumstance, but were simply momentary friends because they would be readily disconnected as I move to another segment of my living and existing. Thus, high school friends were gone since I was already in college, office mates or drinking buddies vanish after a transfer to a new workplace. Mostly, they were just surface relationships akin to unrelated stories and episodes made irrelevant at every turn of a page in my life’s storybook. Friends ordinarily come and go simply because I do not get in touch anymore. In short, I do not keep, nurture nor cherish relationships.
Obviously it comes easy to imagine that after I left my work in a bank and moved to a multinational company, my new set of acquaintances has again relegated the others offstage. Yes, new bunch of friends came along but the strings of relationships were readily tossed away all in a similar pattern as my career saw me through 6 different employments. May be, it is neither surprising that at one point later, I adopted a home to office and office to home daily routine; thereby, keeping my world revolve just around myself, my work, and my family. And so understandably, it follows that I and Sarah rarely had social interactions apart from people in our workplaces.
With so much time for one another, Sarah and I were blessed with 5 children in 11 years after our marriage in 25th of May 1980. And as God’s destiny would lead us, we moved here in Mactan in 1987, without knowing anyone in the place. Predictably again, in the 7 years that followed, we managed for forge friendship with our next door neighbor only. One occasion however, like a gas that cannot be suppressed in a container, Sarah’s cordial personality led her to venture out in the neighborhood and become a Matron Queen of Barangay Gun-ob in one of its festivities but unfortunately for her, I couldn’t be persuaded to be her escort up in the stage on coronation night.
Then BCBP came in 1994. Right soon after finishing BCLP 1, in a lottery pick, I was tasked to head the Music Ministry. And as time rolled on, we were called to serve in different capacities within the chapter and in mission outreaches in the cities of Ormoc, Zamboanga, and Bogo. And finally as chapter head of Mactan in 2015 – 2017. Although we found joy in what we were doing, all along, I incessantly felt doubtful and uncomfortable like I was some kind of a roundly contoured figure forced into a square peg. Suffice to say, not in my wildest dream, if I were to chart my own journey.
Yet all the twists and turns in our service involvement led to a new perspective. As God paved a new way of life for Sarah and me, He also made possible a transformation in outlook and attitude in life. And who could have imagined, from a reclusive manner of life to become someone who now has learned to relate, circulate, forge deeper relationships aplenty. And I may have not completely overcome my old nature but it amazes me how God, though the 26 years of BCBP membership, brought changes in how I look at life, put value in my relationships, and showed Sarah and me a meaningful, fulfilling and gratifying world apart from our own selves.
A paradigm shift, by God’s grace it is! Glory to the One, the Lord of all!