Sharing the Gospel as a Family: Our DZME Experience

The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”  He called a child over, placed it in their midst,  and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.  Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.  And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.  “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.  What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?  And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.  In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”

 

 

This was the Gospel according to Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14 last August 14, 2012.  My husband and I were invited to share our reflections on this Gospel passage that night in the radio program, Kristianong Pamilya at DZME 1530 khz. We got the inviation to share our reflections through the recommendation of one of our co-parishioners with whom I had a Bible study session one time.  The invitation naturally excited me because it was an opportunity to share God's Word and to inspire others to live out the Word of God. 

 

 

We became a bit worried however when monsoon rains continued that week after causing floods in many areas in Metro Manila around a week before our scheduled radio guesting.  My husband said that if the strong rains will continue on that day, we will call Brother Bobot who hosts the program together with his wife and tell him that we can't make it.  It's dangerous to travel from our place (south of Metro Manila) to Caloocan where the radio station is given the bad weather and the conditions of our roads. 

 

 

So, we prayed for better weather and for God's guidance.  We also monitored the weather reports on the days leading to our radio guesting and on the day itself.  It was still rainy when we woke up that Tuesday but not as much as in the past days and the weather reports did not predict any strong rains in our area nor in the Caloocan area.  Thus, we decided to push through and I left the house together with our kids and our maid to meet my husband in his office so we can go together to the radio station.  We met my mom along the way too so she can watch over our eldest son while my husband and I are sharing our reflections. 

 

 

God heard our prayers.  He made a way for us to get to the station just in time for us to have dinner and have a chat with Brother Bobot and his wife before the actual program.  Even our baby cooperated by sleeping throughout the entire program.  Our eldest son was relatively behaved. :)  And our sharing and discussions with the hosts went smoothly by God's grace. 

 

 

We were about to leave the station already and were just waiting for our copy of the program in dvd when our baby woke up and suddenly vomitted.  We thought that it was nothing to be concerned about because it wasn't much and we thought it was simply due to his awkward position while sleeping in the past hour.  We got inside our car and left for home. 

 

 

Sadly, our baby's vomitting did not end there.  He vomitted some more while we were on our way home.  My baby and I were soaking with vomit.  I breastfed him when we were nearing our house thinking that it would help replenish what he lost but it did not help because he vomitted again after that.  My husband decided that we would rush our baby to the hospital to prevent dehydration and to find out what was causing the vomitting.  

 

 

Our baby was put on dextrose right away and was under observation.  He vomitted one more time while we were at the emergency room.  We were then advised that he will be confined for further observation and tests.  They said that they will get some blood and urine samples.  It was his first time to be confined since I gave birth to him.  I was reminded of the difficulty we experienced getting blood samples from him for his newborn screening.  I prayed that it will not happen again.  But it took two tries before the nurse was able to get some blood sample for testing.  I still thank God for giving us the grace to endure it and that the second try was already successful. 

 

 

At the pedia ER

 

I was advised not to breastfeed him for the next 5 hours to let his tummy rest.  But our baby kept on crying and he could not sleep even when on dextrose.  Thank God one of the nurses came to our room after hearing our baby's cries and told me that I can try breastfeeding again for around 15 minutes only.  That was after around 2 hours since his last feeding.  Then, we'll observe again if he will vomit.  If he does, we will postpone his next breastfeeding session. 

 

 

I kept praying all the while I was breastfeeding him.  I asked God to heal my baby's tummy and that he would not vomit again and that he'd fall asleep.  God answered my prayer.  He slept peacefully in the next hours and he did not vomit again.  Since our baby did not vomit after our last feeding, we went back to our routine of breastfeeding around every two hours but I was still limiting it to 15-20 minutes to give his tummy time to recover gradually.  We were happy again when our baby did not vomit the whole morning and we were able to get some urine sample already.  

First confinement in a hospital.

When his attending doctor arrived, she said that all the tests showed normal results and we were advised to try giving him a bit of solid food again to see if he will vomit again.  We gave him some rice or "lugaw" that day then oatmeal the following day.  Thank God he did not vomit again.  We thanked God as well that he was still playful even while in the hospital.  He even played with his big brother who stayed with us in the hospital overnight.  After 2 days and 2 nights in the hospital, our baby was finally discharged!  Praise God! 

 

Crib party at the hospita with Kuya Yanthy.

 

 

We thanked the Lord for answering our prayer to heal our baby and to provide for our needs while we were in the hospital.  I was thankful that my mom was with us when that happened and she was able to sleep with our eldest son in our condo while my husband and I rushed our baby to the hospital.  We thanked God that our hospital expenses were covered by Medicard and we only paid less than P50.  Most of all, we thank God for the grace to just trust in Him all throughout the time that our baby was vomitting and confined. 

 

 

What were my thoughts about that experience? 


I thought that it was just the enemy's way of trying to rob our family of our victory after successfully proclaiming God's Word through a radio program.  But he was not successful in distracting us or in making us question God's plans or His Will.  We praise and thank God for the grace to be still and to depend on God's mercy and grace.  Instead of feeling bad or asking God why it happened to our baby, we used the opportunity to bond as a family and to count our blessings amid the trial.  We claimed that we are victors in Christ and indeed we were!  That experience did not dampen my spirit or resolve to continue preaching the Good News.  I knew that the God we serve is faithful and He proved His faithfulness once more as He delivered our baby and our family during that time.  To God be the glory!