April 22, 2020 - Forty years after the ill-fated voyage of the M/V Don Juan, Zeus Montilla Familiaran, had these words to share with fellow survivors, and to the families left behind by those who were lost at sea.
In a post on Facebook, Zeus Familiaran had this to say:
Two things that which are beyond human control: Birth and Death.
Children are born not of parents choice to exactly plan and determine what qualities, talents and gifts a child will possess. Parents can only wait patiently and pray and hope for a normal, healthy, beautiful child to be delivered to a home warmth with love and kindness.
Nobody can say for a certain when and where and for what cause he or she will die. Reason why people die even before they were born. Many died after birth. Many died in their youth, many in middle age and many in ripe old age. Like it or not all will die.
Death is universal. Regardless of race and culture we die. Death is absolute meaning we cannot argue with death when death comes. we cannot say, death will you please come next week or three years from now or when I turn 90 years old.
Lastly, death is certain. We will all die.
If humanity is not and does not have control over birth and death, the question is who is in control? The Bible says, God the creator of Heaven and Earth is in sovereign control not only over birth and death but the whole of His creation. God determines the time and season and purpose. God plan and design all things according to His divine will and purpose.
I survived the MV DonJuan sinking on April 22,1980 to share to you today this Hope and life that which we all have in the righteous loving hands of our Savior redeemer Jesus Christ who place our lives in His time and purpose.
A passage of the Bible found in the Book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 Says;
A Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What do workers gain from their toil?
10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.
13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him."
God bless you all as we celebrate God's grace and love this 40th year anniversary of the MV Don Juan Sinking. For the gift of life for those of us who survived and for the living memories deeply engraved in our hearts for our loved ones who have gone ahead of us to heaven with God.
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I will never forget the morning of April 23, 1980. My mother got off one of those clunky rotary phones to receive such terrible news. The M/S Don Juan was reported to have sunk on its way back to Bacolod, coming from Manila. My mother let loose a loud wail that filled the house upon knowing that her cousin, Tito Batchoy Alunan .....Read More
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Photo Flashback: Some of my old pics taken at Pier 2, North Harbor, Manila.
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