My Siblings in Christ, I'm sure this is very unexpected. I hope you take the time to read this complete message. I have been reaching back to home trying to find some family members or friends I could trust. I have some worries that I hope and pray are not true, but here in the Philippines, it’s real hard to get information and even harder to know if that information can be trusted. If you want the easy way, to let you know my intentions, and what has been going on in my life you can look for my blog where I have many articles dating back to 2007 when I first came here.
I know most will never know what I went through when mom passed away. I was absolutely devastated. Mom was a special person in my life, I miss her so much. After she passed, I did a great deal of reflection and thought. I looked at the possibilities of remaining in the US, and the picture looked very bleak. Every day in the news was another instance showing proof that I would never be forgiven by my friends, and much of my family. When mom passed, I was working as an Industrial Electrician for a company in Louisville, but I was sent to Paducah Kentucky to install wiring in a hotel.
I received the call of mom's eminent death from Barry. I had rode to Paducah with a fellow employee, and had no way to get back. Luckily, a gentleman I met, and became friends with, while in prison, had been released, and we talked from time to time. I called him, and he came to Paducah to pick me up, and he took me to Louisville pretty late that night. When I saw mom, I knew it was already too late. Mom was gone, just the machines were keeping her alive. I'm not sure how much everyone knows about the relationship between Barry and I, and normally I would never tell anyone, but right now times are not normal.
I know most will never know what I went through when mom passed away. I was absolutely devastated. Mom was a special person in my life, I miss her so much. After she passed, I did a great deal of reflection and thought. I looked at the possibilities of remaining in the US, and the picture looked very bleak. Every day in the news was another instance showing proof that I would never be forgiven by my friends, and much of my family. When mom passed, I was working as an Industrial Electrician for a company in Louisville, but I was sent to Paducah Kentucky to install wiring in a hotel.I received the call of mom's eminent death from Barry. I had rode to Paducah with a fellow employee, and had no way to get back. Luckily, a gentleman I met, and became friends with, while in prison, had been released, and we talked from time to time. I called him, and he came to Paducah to pick me up, and he took me to Louisville pretty late that night. When I saw mom, I knew it was already too late. Mom was gone, just the machines were keeping her alive. I'm not sure how much everyone knows about the relationship between Barry and I, and normally I would never tell anyone, but right now times are not normal.
Barry immediately locked me out of mom's house where all my cloths, and belongs were, some of them I suppose are still there today, whoever owns the property. With the help of the family lawyer I was able to take one day to get all my belongs out of the house while Barry remained there looking over me, and asking me to hurry up and get out. I think I was able to get about 4 hours to pack out all my belonging, I had a 14 foot uHaul that was filled after 4 hours and we had the bed of the truck available to continue loading but Barry put a stop to any more. I ended up leaving precious memories that I failed to remember where they were located. Mom’s house was pretty big and I tried to put everything of mine out of sight and out of mom’s way. I never found a box of pictures that I had carried around most of my adult life, they are now all lost to me forever. I have not one picture of Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Great Grandparents, my children, Nothing. Many of my electrical and electronic supplies and equipment are lost, many of my clothes, some furniture, and odds and ends. I do not have bad feeling for Barry, he and I had a very sorted past. He blamed me for many things, and though I never did what he thought, he would never forgive me like you would think a family member would.
At the time of Grandmother's, and mom’s passing, I was just starting to get my life together after prison. I was working and living with mom, helping her in any way I could. When she sold my Grandmother’s house, I alone moved everything out of my Grandmother’s house and over to mom’s waiting for the auction, then on auction day moved all of it outside for the auction with some help from the auction company. After selling her mom’s house, mom soon felt that she had rushed into selling it, but it was too late. After mom’s death, Barry verbally attacked me, saying it would be better if I just completely left the community, he claimed he had talked to many of the family members and friends, and that was what everyone seemed to want. There was absolutely no forgiveness for this sinner. During my period of rebuilding whatever life I could have, I made the decision to marry the girl I had been writing with in the Philippines. We were married on October 25, with a ceremony on October 28, 2004. Over the next 2 ½ years, I worked, spent time with my wife on the internet, and about every 4 months came to visit for short periods, while I worked to get her a Visa to the US. That Visa process became impossible, and I so wanted mom to meet Merejen, they would have been such good friends.
When mom passed, I made the decision to move permanently to the Philippines to live with my wife and try to start a new life. I had long since asked for, and received forgiveness from my Father in Heaven by the power of Jesus Christ, my Savior. My plans are my own and I won’t go into the problems I’ve had, just suffice to say that the rampant corruption here has caused one delay after another, but in the end I will eventually succeed.
But over these many months I began to feel the calling of my Lord and Savior, a calling to do whatever I could, to bring some relief to these good, hard-working people. Wages here are unbelievable. Most residents in our small community make less than 150 pesos ($3.45) per day, and most work 10 hours a day to get that. The fortunate, some who work for us at a small sawmill make @ 700 pesos ($16.09) per day working 8 hours a day. Even skilled carpenters, electricians, masons, and mechanics make only 300 pesos ($6.90) per day. The minimum wage for the cities like Davao and Cagayan de Oro, on the island of Mindanao is 255 pesos ($5.86) per day. Keep in mind I’ve been saying per day, that’s not per hour. The US has not experienced these kinds of wages since WW2, and the jobless rate here is unbelievable.
Unfortunately, the Philippine leadership of the Roman Catholic Church has failed to do their part here. They have failed miserably to instill the Christian values and principles that would, over time, help this country progress. Poverty is widespread, with many living on a small bowl of rice with a few small pieces of fish a day if they are lucky. My heart goes out to these people; there is not one true Christian in this world whose heart wouldn’t break over the plight of these fine people.
Despair has taken hold here; alcoholism is becoming a problem among many who try to escape the reality of life here, teenage pregnancy is on the rise, frequently in the news mothers have deposited their newborn or still-born babies in trash bins, on streets, at the doors of Roman Catholic Church’s all over the country. In May this year an election elected the son of a Hero, Corazon Aquino. On August 1, 2009, after a one and a half year battle with colon cancer, the 76 year-old Aquino died peacefully at the Makati Medical Center at around 3:18 a.m. due to complications of cardiorespiratory arrest.
Benigno Aquino III has promised his nation an end to corruption and to bring economic improvement. He is a progressive man and a deep thinker. I have spent many long hours reading of his plans, his win as President triggered the calling of Jesus. He wanted me to do my best to help this fine man, a Hero’s son. Since Sept 17, I have been on the internet as many hours as possible, usually getting around 2 or 3 hours sleep per 24 hour period, my record so far is 4 hours. At the same time the mission that Christ laid on my heart is a perilous one filled with danger. None of the corrupt officials seem willing to give up their corrupt practices. The area where I live, while never directly affecting me, is ravaged by an armed group called the New Peoples’ Army which profess to be Communist. They regularly collect what is called Revolutionary Tax, ranging from several thousand to many millions of pesos depending on the size of the business. I’ve made a stand against that and so far they haven’t bothered me, but then our businesses are just getting started. I fully expect to be approached eventually, but I will remain firm in my refusal to participate in this illegal activity.
Even the local Government agencies are corrupt, charging anywhere from 1000 pesos to 10,000 pesos per truckload of lumber we ship. I refused to allow this, and as a result the agency has withheld the Land Title for an area we purchased to set up a gas station and ice plant. Partially out of desperation to get these businesses earning I mounted an all out attack against poverty and corruption; naming names of those officials who asked for, but did not receive SOP’s. SOP’s is what they use to hide the fact that it is completely illegal to give or receive them. While I refuse to give these SOP’s some of my representatives out of a desire to get some cash flow going, do offer SOP’s. And they use the American title Standard Operating Procedures, such a disgrace The different forms of corruption are everywhere. In the Government agencies, in high schools and colleges, in health care, in the Church, on the police forces, everywhere you turn there is corruption.
Despair has taken hold here; alcoholism is becoming a problem among many who try to escape the reality of life here, teenage pregnancy is on the rise, frequently in the news mothers have deposited their newborn or still-born babies in trash bins, on streets, at the doors of Roman Catholic Church’s all over the country. In May this year an election elected the son of a Hero, Corazon Aquino. On August 1, 2009, after a one and a half year battle with colon cancer, the 76 year-old Aquino died peacefully at the Makati Medical Center at around 3:18 a.m. due to complications of cardiorespiratory arrest.
Benigno Aquino III has promised his nation an end to corruption and to bring economic improvement. He is a progressive man and a deep thinker. I have spent many long hours reading of his plans, his win as President triggered the calling of Jesus. He wanted me to do my best to help this fine man, a Hero’s son. Since Sept 17, I have been on the internet as many hours as possible, usually getting around 2 or 3 hours sleep per 24 hour period, my record so far is 4 hours. At the same time the mission that Christ laid on my heart is a perilous one filled with danger. None of the corrupt officials seem willing to give up their corrupt practices. The area where I live, while never directly affecting me, is ravaged by an armed group called the New Peoples’ Army which profess to be Communist. They regularly collect what is called Revolutionary Tax, ranging from several thousand to many millions of pesos depending on the size of the business. I’ve made a stand against that and so far they haven’t bothered me, but then our businesses are just getting started. I fully expect to be approached eventually, but I will remain firm in my refusal to participate in this illegal activity.
At this point let me make one thing absolutely clear; I am not asking for any financial assistance, and if offered, I will refuse. I just need a little bit of moral support to help me maintain this fight. It is a fight I will never give up.
But, recent discoveries have enveloped me in darkness. Jesus is still here with me tenderly telling me to be still and listen. While searching out some moral support and looking into the possibility that a good old National Revival is what was needed here to fix these problems of missing Christian values and principals, I stumbled on to a video showing President Obama extolling the goodness of the Islam religion and Muslim faith. When I saw it I could not believe. I immediately searched out the Democrat site in facebook and wrote them. That letter if not removed by someone by now is at my blog site listed as "End of Days???" I am so terrified right now, I have lived my life knowing of the Last Days, but always expecting that they were some many years in the future.
About 5 to 10 minutes after I left my request for clarification, a Gentleman sent me a message on facebook the text of that message and the following ones are in that article, as well as a discussion with a Christian Filipino Brother living in America. Please take time to read this article, and take a look at my other articles to catch you up on my gentle but escalating attacks on the poverty and corruption.
Unfortunately during the last 20 days there has started some uproar in this country. A man dressed in a costume of a Philippine Hero Rizal, carrying a sign which read DAMASO which roughly translates to “evil friar” interrupted a Roman Catholic service. The Roman Catholic Church over-reacted and had him arrested sparking immediate reactions, the church further compounded its mistake by planning to file charges against the man.
Now there are those of us who want to help this country calling for calm and a stop to the attacks, but I fear the battle cry has been answered. The church also is calling for the excommunication of the President, further fanning the flames of irritation. Only the most delicate moves right now will calm these people so we can all get back to solving the problems. Before that incident there were many of us working together to provide positive avenues to meet the challenges that this country faces, but right now most of us are on hold not knowing which direction to take to get things back under control.
My dear friend, this country needs your prayers; they need the prayers of good, loving Christians to put a stop to this reckless path they are now on. I ask you to pass this on to as many who will hear. I do ask for forgiveness, but right now I believe the world is at stake, and it is more important to concentrate on the world picture; that if my discovery about your President is true this world might be at the start of that awful 7 year period that will test all of us, some of us to death.
About 5 to 10 minutes after I left my request for clarification, a Gentleman sent me a message on facebook the text of that message and the following ones are in that article, as well as a discussion with a Christian Filipino Brother living in America. Please take time to read this article, and take a look at my other articles to catch you up on my gentle but escalating attacks on the poverty and corruption.
Unfortunately during the last 20 days there has started some uproar in this country. A man dressed in a costume of a Philippine Hero Rizal, carrying a sign which read DAMASO which roughly translates to “evil friar” interrupted a Roman Catholic service. The Roman Catholic Church over-reacted and had him arrested sparking immediate reactions, the church further compounded its mistake by planning to file charges against the man.
Now there are those of us who want to help this country calling for calm and a stop to the attacks, but I fear the battle cry has been answered. The church also is calling for the excommunication of the President, further fanning the flames of irritation. Only the most delicate moves right now will calm these people so we can all get back to solving the problems. Before that incident there were many of us working together to provide positive avenues to meet the challenges that this country faces, but right now most of us are on hold not knowing which direction to take to get things back under control.
My dear friend, this country needs your prayers; they need the prayers of good, loving Christians to put a stop to this reckless path they are now on. I ask you to pass this on to as many who will hear. I do ask for forgiveness, but right now I believe the world is at stake, and it is more important to concentrate on the world picture; that if my discovery about your President is true this world might be at the start of that awful 7 year period that will test all of us, some of us to death.
Thank you so much for listening and may the Good Lord keep you, your family, and all my friends and family there safe. God Bless you my friend, I hope we meet by the river.
Sincerely,
Mark Franklin Borders
Your Brother in Christ
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