Lift Your Eyes

“I lift up my eyes toward the mountains; ​whence shall help come to me?” Psalm 121:1

My father quoted this Bible verse often. He was what was known as a PK, a preacher’s kid. Although he did not tell many stories of his father, Bishop D.D. Alejandro, and his mom who was a Deaconess, I know that my grandfather was well thought of in the Methodist Church. My dad’s father was elected in 1944 to be the first Filipino Bishop of the Methodist Church during the Japanese occupation. In 1915, after studying Philosophy in Asbury College in Kentucky, grandfather, or Lolo as I call him, was appointed District Evangelist for Bulacan and Nueva Ecija and became editor of the Tagalog monthly newsletter “Mabuting Balita” (Good News). He also became an instructor in the Union Theological Seminary. 

I like to think of my grandfather, reading and studying the Bible to become a preacher and an evangelist, and then using what he learned to write the newsletter, and teach scripture to many students. One of those students, Pastor Apilado of the Methodist Church in The University of the Philippines, came to give the anointing of the sick to my dad when my dad was nearing the end of his life. When my dad passed away, we found letters among his things that led us to meeting a woman, a Deaconess in the Methodist Church. She too was a student of my Lolo, and she told us that my dad was very generous, always donating to the Preacher’s Kids Association, and even helped her and her late husband, a Pastor, pay for their apartment. 

My grandfather lifted his eyes toward the mountains, my dad lifted his eyes toward the mountains, and now I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Just like Peter, we say, “Lord, to whom shall we go, You have the Words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)