by TJ Gregorio

My father, Eduardo San Gregorio, regularly joins my mother, my sisters, and me at Victory Greenhills on Sundays. Over the past couple of years, we encouraged him to join a Victory group or go through ONE 2 ONE with someone, but he always hesitated, mostly because of a speech impediment that he had as a result of a stroke he had suffered six years ago.

After that stroke, my sisters and I committed to praying daily for our father’s recovery, as well as for funds for the hospital bills, medication, and subsequent therapy. We soon took out a loan from a bank, with our house as collateral, to raise funds. Unfortunately, the money we were making as a family was only enough for us to live on; we couldn’t meet the monthly dues for the house.

Still, Tatay’s recovery was our main focus, and we passionately covered him in prayer, both for the healing of his speech impediment and for the courage to start his discipleship journey by being part of a Victory group, or going through ONE 2 ONE with someone.

“It will be so helpful for you, Tatay,” I would say, “because these men will be like brothers for life. They will pray for you, support you, and even help you practice your speech.”

“I would just slow the group down,” he would reply. He would reference how the right side of his body was paralyzed. We would pray, then we would stop pursuing it for that moment.

Over time, however, we knew God was working in his heart. And then one day, by God’s grace and through a lot of prayer and persistence, he bravely went through ONE 2 ONE. Then, February 18 and 19 arrived, the fateful days of his Victory Weekend.

“Do you want to be water baptized?” we asked him.

“Yes,” he said.

“We can have you sprinkled with water,” we offered, knowing he would have a hard time entering and leaving the pool where the water baptisms took place.

“No,” he replied, “I want to go to the pool, no matter what.” We were stunned. “It’s not about me, it’s about my relationship with Jesus. And I want people to know that nothing is impossible with Him.” And everyone saw him go down and enter the pool to be water baptized!

That newfound faith proved to be crucial in the months to come. We still had a balance of almost PHP 300,000 from the loan we took out from the bank. In May 2017, the bank sent us a letter of foreclosure, should we not be able to pay off that loan. Later that year, in September, we received a letter informing us that our house would be put into auction by the 12th if we didn’t pay back what we owed; and we couldn’t!

We had no idea where we could get that kind of money in such a short period of time. Our entire family was literally on our knees in prayer by that point; we were so worried we would lose our beloved house.

Then, God came through! A week before September 12, our uncle, my mother’s brother, heard about our situation and offered to sell a lot in Bulacan, which he owned, to raise funds to pay for the house. God then paved the way for one of our cousins to buy the lot for the money we needed to pay off the loan, keeping the lot in the family.

Just last week, we received the title deed from the bank!

We always knew that God is capable of great things, but it was in that moment when we received the title deed that we saw the results of months of prayer, courage, and faith that comes only from a relationship with Jesus. Today, our father reads his Bible without fail and regularly attends his Sunday morning Victory group. As for me, my mother, and my sisters, it was a powerful faith-affirming moment. Jesus said in Matthew 18:20 that “. . . where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them,” and we saw Him move as we prayed for our father and our home.

Because we have seen in our family that He is truly faithful, we encourage you to cover your family in prayer and trust that God will hear your prayers and answer them according to His will and timing.

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TJ San Gregorio is a worship services coordinator at Victory Greenhills.