BETTER BE PREPARED, by Albert Villadolid (SD-A)

Early February this year, I got a call from one of our district leaders, Dodjie Marfori, asking me to share my personal conversion story during our district gathering.   And so I obediently prepared one and presented my story to my district, not knowing if I’ll ever need to discuss it with anyone ever again.

Two weeks later, I’m glad I had a story to tell. It began when I boarded a flight to Bangkok.  The flight was full, so I ended up being upgraded  to  the Business Class section  of the plane.  Thanking God for the blessing, and for the onboard food that was being served, I made the sign of the cross and prayed.   Lo and behold, my seatmate, a very big American,  looked at me and said: “DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?  WELL, I DON’T!”

I looked at him, introduced myself, and said, yes, I do believe in GOD.  He then challenged me to prove the existence of God, mathematically, scientifically, logically, my choice.  I had met atheists before, and usually ignored them.  But this guy,   I realized,  was going to be my seatmate for a 3-hour flight, and I would not be able to ignore him. Not only was he bigger than me, he seemed extremely fit, oozing  with self-confidence to the point of arrogance, and he was challenging me to an intellectual discourse of my Christian faith. 

When he introduced himself, I found out that he was a recently retired US Navy Fighter Pilot, with a Masters in Theology from Georgetown University in Washington DC, and a Doctorate in Particle Physics. He also retired from military service with tons of money he earned from patenting a musical  device.  

He said he had already read the bible 25 times, was baptized as a Catholic, then converted to a Baptist Christian, and then realized along the way that since he cannot find a logical proof of God’s existence, he became an atheist.

At that point, I remembered the story of the late Cardinal Sin who related a story of a plane trip he had where he happened to be seated beside  an atheist who kept bothering the late cardinal and telling him there is no God. His story ended well when the plane experienced very severe turbulence to the point where the atheist asked the late cardinal to include her in his prayers for salvation.  I was about to pray to God for a very big turbulence when I realized that this will not work with my seatmate  because he was after all a veteran US Navy fighter Pilot.

I also realized that since he had a Masters in Theology, and had read the  bible 25 times, and still did not believe in God,  it would be futile for me to enter in an intellectual discourse with him.

I tried to avoid his proof challenge  but instead   I asked about his business trip to Bangkok, and  how was his experience in the US Navy, flying  the F14 and F18 fighter jets.

Then, I asked him what triggered his loss of faith in the Catholic faith.  I found out that early in his life, his Catholic father hurt and abused him, his first marriage ended tragically when his first wife and his 18-month twins died in a terrible car accident in the US, and how his plane malfunctioned on a reconnaissance mission over USSR and how we was imprisoned and brutally  tortured by his Russian captors for 3 months before he was rescued by US Navy Seals.   

He told me of the destruction that he had seen all over the world, how innocent people, babies, children, were killed or buried alive, and then he told me, in a very loud voice that the entire business class cabin could hear, IF GOD TRULY EXISTS, HE WOULD NOT ALLOW THESE HORRIBLE THINGS TO HAPPEN TO THESE INNOCENT PEOPLE.”

At that point, the cabin purser approached me, and asked me in Tagalog  if I want to be re-seated elsewhere. I told her I was fine, since I still have not ran out of English.  I told my seatmate about the book “God in the Dock”, written by C.S. Lewis,  a known atheist who rediscovered his Christian faith. I told him that the book was about God’s decision to live dangerously, by giving us free will.

He said he will look for that book and read it. That gave me some nice but short comfort,   because  he said that after he reads it, he intends to tell me what is wrong with the book.

"I'm ready to share my story." Albert Villadolid

I told him that if he was willing to listen to my personal conversion story, I will share my faith with him.  He agreed.  I told him that it is not enough to be baptized and sacramentalized as a Catholic, we also need to be evangelized. I told him my story where, as a young activist student leader, I tried to indoctrinate Christian leaders of a community who ended up evangelizing me.  By the way, on the side, these leaders I was trying to indoctrinate then and who ended up evangelizing me were  Mike Joseph Jr., Francis Ituralde, and Harvey Campos, amongst others.  He  listened to my personal conversion story, and later on told me he liked my story, and he responded by  saying,  “My  wife will like you. She would be happy to know that I met a man of faith like you. I like you. Let’s have dinner together when you and I are back in Manila soon.  Bring your wife along.”

We parted ways when we arrived in our destination. But before we left, I said to my seatmate: “I will pray for you that you may have a Paulinian experience.” He looked at me, and said, “I know that! Road to Damascus, blinding light, voice from above.” I said, “Yes, that’s the one! You know the bible very well.” Then he said, “If providence is kind to us, we will meet again.”  I told him, “Now that’s a surprise, coming from an atheist like you, because the word
“providence” to me is about God’s love.” 

He did not want me to have the last say, so he said. “See, you already had an effect on me just by seating beside me for 3 hours. See you in Manila soon”.  I can only pray and say “Amen”.

- ALBERT VILLADOLID, South A

Editor’s Note:  This sharing was given during the 2010 Good Friday Recollection.