Walk The Talk

by OLITAO, M. | Category: Interview | Apr 2008

We first got to know Marlyn and Samuel four years ago as a devoted Christian couple in the Philippines. Recently, we asked Marlyn to share something of their Christian background.

Marlyn: I was raised in a large Southern Baptist family and personally took the Lord Jesus as my Saviour at age nine, being baptized the following year. I was to discover the challenge of separation early in life when my parents split up and I spent my early teen years in an orphanage at Cotabato. Perhaps God even then was preparing me for other kinds of separation I was still to experience.

And Sam was also a Baptist ...

Marlyn: Yes, we married in 1979, and 21 years later Sam fell sick. Throughout all our struggles with his stroke, weak liver function, prostate cancer and diabetes, the Lord's personal promise, I will not forsake nor ever leave you (Heb. 13:5) was a real comfort. When we took our marriage vows, we said, �in sickness and health�. They were only words then. But later I had to learn what they meant in practice. It's a painful thing; the most painful thing in marriage. There were many ups and downs during those trying years, but we didn't stop trusting the Lord. San rested on the promise of Psalm 73:26: �though my heart and flesh fail, God is the strength of my life.�

And how did you first hear about the Churches of God?

Marlyn: One of Sam's Baptist associates gave him a set of seminar notes from Davao City in 2003. Sam's response was: "It's doctrinally good, but what is the practice?" We set about finding out. What we found was a pattern in God's Word for our service. We had been Baptist in style until this point, but here was something that was so much more than style: it was an actual pattern for how to serve God � one which we saw being put into practice in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, in Mindanao in the Church of God there. We were convinced this was more than mere words then, but couldn't persuade our mission group. They begged us not to leave them. It was a hard separation. We told them, "We will keep coming, but will bring Church of God teaching." But sad to say they did not want this.

Are you still close to your Baptist family relatives?

Marlyn: Yes, but we now serve the Lord in separate ways. They have asked why we no longer attend the usual annual conventions which we had previously joined in with all the family. They said we had broken the family circle. We answered, "We have found further truth in the Church of God." They asked what this new practice was. "Oh, I will tell you," I said. "We now break bread every first day of the week in churches of God which are interdependent one on another, and where all the ladies in the church cover their heads and do not lead the worship ..." Then they said to us, "You are on the right track!" When my sister later invited me to go to listen to my best friend who was the speaker at the women's convention in the place I was staying, I knew the Lord didn't want me to go even though she was my best friend.

On 16 November 2007, the Lord called Sam home. How hard an experience was that for you?

Marlyn: Very. I lost my advisor in life. In all my anxieties especially through his sickness, and when I was down, Sam would say things like, "Don't worry, pray," and, "God will provide for you, because you are His child," and "God wouldn't have permitted it, if you couldn't carry it." There's a song we used to sing: 'As I walk along I just keep trusting the Lord and he gives me a song.'

I sang to Sam when he lay dying in the hospital. He opened his eyes. "Are you looking for me, Sam? I'm here." Then I told him, "If you can see the Lord, just go with Him. If the Lord will really take you from me, don't worry, we will stay serving the Lord." He straightened up. "Are you going?" I asked. Then he closed his eyes and breathed his last. This separation has been the hardest, but I really know that nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. These also are words whose meaning I have really learnt.

OLITAO, M. | Apr 2008
Interview