Friday, August 08, 2008 Escudero: The 'unprodigal son' By Edcer Escudero Wit or without
FORTY-seven years. By any stretch of the imagination, 47 years is not just a long time; it is a very, very long time. It is just three years short of half a century. Imagine!
Well, that's the incredible period of time that I have lost track of an "old" contemporary, a classmate way back in those unforgettable college days in the campus of Mindanao Colleges (now University of Mindanao). The year was 1961 when we last roamed the campus during our senior year in the Liberal Arts department (the same building still stands now).
Friday, August 1st last week, I got the surprise of my life -- a very pleasant one, of course -- when Rolly called up and emphatically declared that he is still more than six feet above the ground, and could I find the time to see him face-to-face in a place farthest from a memorial park?
Of course, I readily said yes! How could I ever have the heart and audacity to decline an invitation from someone I haven't seen for half a century? I would certainly enjoy exchanging pleasantries -- "how are you, where have you been all these years and how's everything with life," etc.
What's so special about Rolly? Well, Rolly is Rolando A. Raganas, currently senior pastor of the United Baptist Church, Carson, California, USA. He's also a Filipino-American, having acquired American citizenship in 1985.
But although an American citizen, Rolly has not altogether forgotten, much less, abandoned his "lupang hinirang." His roots are in Kingking, Pantukan, Davao Oriental, which makes him a blue-blooded Davao boy.
This explains Rolly's annual vacation to Davao, with his wife of 47 years - the lovely Nelly Baja who was a campus beauty during Rolly's college days. Nelly is, and has always been, Rolly's devoted partner in ministry.
But this special couple is not purely and solely on vacation for pleasure. They are involved in a humanitarian project called Heart, which Rolly conceived and executes yearly with the involvement and participation of volunteer medical/dental practitioners from Davao. Heart stands for Health, Education, and Relief Team.
Rolly's life story is a reverse of that of the biblical prodigal son who took his share of the family inheritance and squandered it all in mundane pleasures, and returned home penniless, desolate and a much wiser person.
In Rolly's case, he left home minus an inheritance not to see the world and savor earthly delights, but to pursue a dream and prepare himself for service to his fellowmen. He didn't go to America in pursuit of the mighty American dollar; he went there in pursuit of professional and spiritual growth as a minister of music and bringer of the Good News of the gospel.
Rolly left Davao in 1969 to pursue a degree in church music at the Southwestern Theological Seminary in Forthworth, Texas.
His dream fulfilled, he served as minister of music and youth in Texas, in Campbellsville, Kentucky, in Athens, Ohio, and finally as senior pastor at the United Baptist Church in Carson, California, all in a span of 19 years. He has been senior pastor at Carson since 1991. He plans to retire soon and come home for good.
Materially and dollar-wise, Rolly is an average social being. Spiritually, however, he is a multimillionaire and a spiritual philanthropist who has an inexhaustible desire to share his spiritual wealth with everyone.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Reverend Rolando A. Raganas, a man with a special HEART.
