More than a year ago, on November 20, 2006, Father Rey Roda, OMI left an offline message on my Yahoo Messenger. He said: “Kumusta na? Ngayon lang akong natuto gumamit ng Yahoo Messenger…. Kagagaling ko lang sa
On December 7, 2006, he again left a message: “Hi! kumusta na ang nagrecruit sa akin sa OMI Juniorate? i was worried pa na hindi mo ako tanggapin sa seminaryo. Thanks for letting me join the OMIs. I feel happy as a missionary here in the Tawi-Tawi islands.”
Finally, last year on February 11, 2007 was his last message in response to my email: “Sorry for the very late response. Nasa tabawan na ako noong nag e-mail ka. I'm happy that inspite of your not so young age you still reach out to help others through CPE. I can surmise that your children are all grown up and with good jobs. You recruited me at the ND Cotabato City Boys last 1970... Matagal na. Si Manny Punzal naman ay nagrecruit kay Pol Yazar and Raul Biasbas. Ikaw din ang nagrecruit kay Nestor Silva na nasa
I will not repeat here anymore the story of Father Rey’s tragic and seemingly senseless (in man's eyes) death a week ago in Tabawan, Sulu. As you all know by now, they buried Fr. Rey yesterday in his final resting place at the OMI cemetery in Tamontaka, Cotabato.
Today, as I sit here and nurse my grief, I do not know what/who urges me to write this. Maybe Fr. Rey does. Actually, it took me a long time to decide whether I should. It has been quite a long time since I last saw and talked to him in person. Maybe 30 years…. since 1976…
I write this now to thank God for making me somehow a worthy instrument in His calling Fr. Rey to the priesthood. And to tell Fr. Rey to please remember me as I still go on my own journey…
4 comments:
Thanks for sharing your experience with Fr. Rey... and thanks po for dropping by, sir. Sounds like you were one of them, am I right?
Greetings from Jolo, Sulu!
Thank you so much for posting something about Fr. Rey. He's my mentor, great friend, and a tatay to me. I'm a witness of his missionary works and love for Tabawan. How he loved Tabawan and its people so much! His memories will continue to inspire us all.
Laleng,
You are welcome! Thanks too for visiting my site. Yes, I am happy there are so many like you whose lives have been touched by Fr. Rey.
I found this site using [url=http://google.com]google.com[/url] And i want to thank you for your work. You have done really very good site. Great work, great site! Thank you!
Sorry for offtopic
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