On the deck of a luxury ocean liner bound for the Philippines, amid the glow of an orange sunset, Sister Cecilia, a Filipino Carmelite nun and Lloyd, a Swiss banker, were conversing over tea on a strange topic – how to give to others.
eastwind journals
‘True Tales’ Series – Volume 44
January 20, 2024 – Archives tr438
By Bernie V. Lopez, eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com
Share the link to this article = https://eastwindjournals.com/2024/01/20/lessons-in-giving-the-banker-and-the-nun-44/
Lloyd – Sister, I want you to teach me how to give. I have so much but I have never given because I don’t know how and what to give. I’m not talking of handouts to beggars or donations to large charity foundations. I mean, really giving from the heart.
Sr. Cecilia – You sound so naïve for a banker. They are everywhere, the people you can give to.
Lloyd – Let me see. I see a waiter over there giving coffee to a lady. Ah, I see a child playing with her doll. Lovers looking at the sunset. They don’t need help.
Sr. Cecilia – I see what you mean. You want to give to those in real dire need. Okay, let me walk you through. Hold my hand. (He hesitates.) Ow, come on, Lloyd. (He holds her hand.) Close your eyes. Repeat after me. Dearest Lord, may we ask you a small favor, please. Give me and Lloyd the opportunity to give to people who are really in need. Rend our hearts that we may do this to serve you. Amen.
Lloyd – Amen. That’s it? So short a prayer.
Sr. Cecilia – The length does not matter. Do you believe in God and in praying to him.
Lloyd – I am a devout Catholic, sister.
Sr. Cecilia – Did you sincerely mean what we prayed? Do you believe God will help us.
Lloyd – Yes to both.
Sr. Cecilia – Then let’s see what happens. Stay close to me when we arrive at the Cebu City harbor. Remember, God will help us if we believe he will. Let’s see what God has in store for us. Just have faith in him.
Lloyd – I believe he will help us.
The orange glow persisted as they hit the harbor. There was commotion everywhere – ships maneuvering, porters shouting to would be customers, a policeman managing the traffic of disembarking people.
Sister pointed to a six-year-old boy with no shirt and no slippers, managing a make-shift six-foot boat with a single outrigger. He has a four-foot long three-inch diameter bamboo full of giant mussels stuck to it, glistening luxuriously limousine-black.
Boy – Tahong, tahong kayo diyan. (Mussels, mussels for sale.)
Sr. Cecilia – There you go. We have a target. (Screaming at the boy) Hey, kid.
Sister was drowned by the chaos. The boy moved on, rowing fast across the length of the ocean liner and vanished quickly. In 20 minutes, as we waited for the long line to disembark, he was back.
Sr. Cecilia – Magkano? (How much?)
Boy – 300 pesos. (Frowning) Walang gustong bumili. Masyado daw mabigat.
Sr. Cecilia – (To Lloyd). About six dollars. No one wants to buy because it is so heavy.
Lloyd – Thank you, Lord. Sister, tell him I will buy it. Bring it to the disembarkation area. (He gives the boy a thousand pesos.)
Sr. Cecilia – Are you sure you can trust him?
Lloyd – I sense he is an honest boy. I will take the risk.
Sr. Cecilia gave a quick interview of the boy so she could fill Lloyd in.
Lloyd – Is a thousand pesos enough?
Sr. Cecilia – I don’t know. Ask your heart how much it wants to help people in need. He is the seventh son in a family of ten kids. His father abandoned them. His mother washes clothes to feed the ten kids. That should guide you how much to give.
Lloyd gave the boy another 5,000 pesos. The boy quickly pocketed the money so no one would see the big amount.
Lloyd – Another thing, Sister. Tell the boy I want to see the mussel farm, if he could accompany us. I’m curious how they grow mussels on bamboo underwater. Will you come along as my translator, Sister?
Sr. Cecilia – Yes. See, the Lord works wonders for us, Lloyd, beyond our expectations.
To cut the story short, Lloyd ended up buying the mussel farm and made the boy’s large family the caretaker. Sr. Cecilia ended up selling the mussels on a regular basis to eight religious congregations in Cebu and Iloilo, a neighboring island. The sisters preferred to pick up the mussels at the farm, because they mixed business with pleasure, romping on the beach at the same time.
Marketing on a silver platter. No muss, no fuss. Just grow the mussels, fed by sea nutrients. This time, they remove the mussels from the bamboo in put them in styrofoam boxes packed in ice. The boy was happy he did not have to sell to ocean-liner passengers, who mostly ignored him.
Lloyd – Sister, I learned a lot about bamboo mussel farming.
Sr. Cecilia – Like what?
Lloyd – They buy the bamboo cheap from a bamboo farm on the other side of the island. Bamboo, when immersed in salt water, does not rot, and becomes stronger, preserved from worms and insects by the salt. So it takes years for them to buy new ones, if they sell mussels without the bamboo.
Sr. Cecilia – You are the salt of the earth, Lloyd. God loves you.
Lloyd – The undersea farm is in shallow waters close to shore were there is a strong current, so the mussels can absorb nutrients and grow fat and big. It takes a lot of study to choose a site. The elderly retired fishermen are consulted. It has to be in shallow water so it’s easy to harvest by simply taking the entire bamboo full of mussels out of the water.
Sr. Cecilia – Selling mussels in bamboo attracts people because it is exotic. But it’s impractical, heavy, costly harvest and transport.
Lloyd – I solved that problem, sister. They don’t sell the bamboo anymore. They just pick the mussels one by one with scissors. Kids and adults alike do the harvesting. Then they grow the next bunch in the same bamboo. With your marketing connections, there is no need for attracting customers.
Sr. Cecilia – Ingenious. How do they produce the baby mussels?
Lloyd – That’s a trade secret. But let me tell you.
Sr. Cecilia – No, no, no. I am not interested.
Lloyd – You see, Sister, there are many ways of helping the needy. You can give a fish, like 6,000 pesos or a rod like a mussel farm. By the way, what were you doing in a luxury ocean liner?
Sr. Cecilia – I work with the ocean liner workers – cooks, waiters, performing bands, serving their religious needs like masses, rosary evenings, even counselling for the lonely and depressed. Eighty percent of them are Filipinos. The ocean liner gives me free passage because I help their workers. I love my work.
Lloyd – Wow. Awesome. Thank you, Sister, for teaching me how to give. I realize how giving is its own reward. I am so happy.
Sr. Cecilia – Same with me. Don’t thank me. Thank him. (Pointing a finger to the sky). Can you teach the sisters to set up their own mussel farms?
Lloyd – No problem, sister.
Share the link to this article = https://eastwindjournals.com/2024/01/20/lessons-in-giving-the-banker-and-the-nun-44/
More Inspirational Articles – eastwindjournals.com.
FOR THOSE WHO NEED HEALING, spiritual or physical (depression, anxiety, loneliness, terminal cancer, covid, diabetes, etc.) – say an online healing prayer with one or both healers below. Terminal patients have been healed in cyberspace. All you need is to have faith and to ask the Lord –
1) Father Fernando Suarez – www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UP3LHBgtIc.
2) Sr. Raquel Reodica, RVM – www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZcwNimBSg
Download free e-book ‘Healing Stories of Sr. Raquel’ at eastwindjournals.com/2021/08/13/healing-stories-of-sr-raquel-e-book-free-download/).
Author’s book. At age 26, the author (eastwind) drifted through Europe, hitchhiking 25,000 kilometers for three straight years. He wrote a book on his adventures, Wings and Wanderlust. He learned deep insights that radically changed his view of life, which he wants to share with readers looking for themselves or wanting to catch the wind. More about the book (get a copy) = https://eastwindjournals.com/2023/02/25/more-about-the-book-wings-and-wanderlust/
Author’s Credentials. Blogger – ex-Columnist (Inquirer) – Healing Ministry – ex-Professor (Ateneo University) – Documentary Producer-Director (freelance, ex-ABS-CBN, ex-TVS Tokyo) – ex-Broadcaster (Radio Veritas) – Facebook “Bernie V. Lopez Eastwind” / Pages “Eastwind Journeys and Journals” and “Mary Queen of Peace”.
amdg
Eastwind Journals 