Jack waited for his bus. He was heading to the ocean. It was the ocean he’d loved as a child, and it was the ocean where he planned to end his life.  

He’d never been wanted. So, he figured he wouldn’t be missed.  

From the beginning he was at best a nuisance. When Jack’s mother realized she was pregnant, she immediately resolved to kill the baby. While abortion is illegal in the Philippines, that didn’t stop her. She found some pills and, believing they would kill the baby, took the entire bottle.  

The pills failed to kill Jack, but they severely maimed him—destroying his leg and a few fingers—and then induced premature labor. Though premature, Jack survived. 

His father was no better. He was angry and held it against the infant. One night, in a drunken stupor, his father set his tiny body on a table and swung an ax at him. Had his grandmother not intervened, he would’ve died that night. But the tragedies would continue. 

One of his earliest memories was sitting at the kitchen table, watching wide-eyed as his mother took another bottle of pills. Again, to take a life, this time her own. The convulsing. The screaming. His own tears. And then it was over.  

After his mother’s death, Jack’s relatives took him in because his father was too sick to raise him. A year later, news of his death reached Jack. The cancer had finally taken its toll. Jack was now an orphan. Unwanted. Unloved.  

That’s when he’d made the plan that led him to this bus station. 

Jack made his plans. But God wasn’t done with him.  

While waiting for the bus, he met some missionaries who offered him an alternative, a place to stay where he was wanted and loved. Jack accepted. Eventually, Jack found the home he’d always wanted at Obed’s House.  

 Meredith Docena, founder of Obed’s House and ABWE missionary, explained how, because of Christ, Jack’s life mattered. 

And as Jack began to heal from his traumatic past, God began to move in his heart, until Jack accepted Christ.  

Not only had he found the father he’d always wanted, but he found purpose in life. Jack devoted himself to studying Scripture at seminary, and he plans to become a youth pastor.  

Did you know you can change people’s lives just like Jack? 

Through the Global Gospel Fund, you can give ABWE missionaries the opportunity to serve and reach the desperate and the lost, just like Jack. 

Every day our missionaries are housing orphans, providing medical care, translating the Bible, and reaching the unreached for Christ. By donating to the Global Gospel Fund, you’ll support all 1,000 ABWE missionaries as they take the gospel to the ends of the earth. 

Time is short. Eternity matters. And your support makes an eternal difference. 

2,808 suicides in the Philippines in 2020.

241 babies are born alive from failed abortions and allowed to die.

250,000 homeless children flee abusive homes.