(Lydia Rodriguez Arcellana, Ate Liddy to us, delivered her life testimony on April 26, 2006 before the English service congregation of the Diliman Campus Bible Church. This is a slightly abridged version. –Ed.)

Several Sundays ago, I had occasion to tell Dr. Ken Villanueva something about my life. He then encouraged me to share it and maybe inspire some of you here, especially the ladies. I always jump at any opportunity to witness to others about how the Lord has been moving in my life and so I readily accepted his challenge.

I will now try to condense more than six decades into six minutes.

I have led a charmed life from birth, 61 years ago. I was the only girl of three children born to an engineering professor and dean and a housewife who was the best cook I have ever known. My father tried his very best to give his children everything that we needed and he especially doted on me. Therefore, growing up I had everything a child could ask for — the best food, the best clothes, the best education.

One thing that made me sad though was the thought that my beloved father might go to hell. You see, my father was an agnostic who did not attend Mass with the rest of the family. My mother was a very devout Catholic. I remember my mother asking me to pray for the conversion of my father. And I can still see myself as a very young girl kneeling before the altar and praying for the soul of my father whom I dearly loved.

After graduating with honors from Assumption Convent High School, I spent a year in Holy Ghost College, then on to the University of the Philippines in Diliman. I was one of the first seven graduates of what was then the Institute of Mass Communication in 1966. That makes us the Ruby Jubilarians this year.

In 1968, after two years of teaching, I married a handsome and brilliant UP medical graduate who belongs to a prominent family of academicians and artists. Just a few weeks after our wedding, we went to Wisconsin, USA for my husband’s surgical residency. In the six years that he trained there, we had three wonderful children—a girl, Lara and two boys, Benjamin and Edwin-Franz.

When we came home in 1974, my husband joined Capitol Medical Center and started a very rewarding surgical practice. We were able to build a beautiful house in an upscale subdivision in Quezon City in 1978, when my husband was only 34 years old and I was only 33.

I thought I had it all and honestly did not give my spiritual life much thought, except that I was very careful to make sure my family attended Mass every Sunday and all the holy days designated by the Catholic Church. However, I remember still feeling empty inside and I distinctly remember one Sunday Mass, right after Communion, when I found myself asking the Lord to draw me closer to Him. I readily forgot about that request, lost in the busyness of everyday life as a wife, mother, and home manager. But I guess the Lord saw my heart and He granted my desire. Little did I know that it would come with a lot of suffering and pain.

At this point, I have to tell you that my husband and I were very compatible in many ways. We were both highly educated and had the same interests. We both loved books, music, and sports and enjoyed each other’s company. From all appearances, we were a model couple. However, our marriage suffered from one very serious weakness—my husband’s infidelity. This was something that started in the first year of our marriage and proved to be a recurring theme in our life together. I lived with it for almost twenty years.

In 1987, a very serious situation made me decide to finally separate from my husband. My daughter was then a freshman in college and my two sons were in high school. The younger boy, Edwin-Franz, was so troubled by the separation that he was expelled from school. I was totally confused and did not know what to do. I thought this was the end of my charmed life. But this was when the Lord stepped in and made everything beautiful. It was so strange that after our separation, when my whole world crumbled, a new life began, out of the ashes of the old. And it turned out that this life is far better than the first.

I became a Christian a few months after the separation. A friend who has always been my confidant had come to Christ several years before. She had for some years invited me to attend their church but I resisted her invitation again and again. I reminded myself that I was born and raised a Catholic and vowed that I would die a Catholic, no matter what. But at that point in my life, when I had to hold on to something for dear life, I went to their church, half-hearted at first, I must confess. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Soon after, all my children came to Christ. My daughter, Lara, is one of the founders of UP Pathfinders, the campus arm of the Bread of Life Ministries and graduated from the UP College of Mass Communication, cum laude. After working with Citibank for more than two years, she went to the Asian Theological Seminary for a master’s degree in Christian Education. She plans to be involved in church work, while pursuing a career in the corporate world in California.

My older son, Ben, graduated from UP with a degree in Psychology and became an evangelist. He is now very happily married with two beautiful daughters. Edwin-Franz, who had been expelled from high school, went on to graduate from the UP College of Mass Communication with very high grades. As a student, he became a leader of UP Pathfinders, like his sister. He is now a pastor, ministering to the brethren of the Bread of Life Ministries in Amsterdam and Paris. And remember my agnostic father? He received Christ a few years before he died under my care. The Lord did not forget the sincere prayer of a child many years ago.

Looking back, I realize that my separation was God’s way of getting my attention. I had made my husband my god and allowed my life to revolve around him and my family. The Lord made me see him for what he was, a false god with feet of clay. I know that I am not the only one to fall into this trap. This is true for a lot of wives. They have made the mistake of making their husbands the center of their lives. They have forgotten that they have been made to worship only God, not any man. They fail to realize that the only lover who will never betray them is Jesus, the true lover of their souls.

The Lord also used it to mold my two sons into the kind of men He wants them to be. When Ben learned of his father’s present and past infidelities, he was indignant and asked me why I would not separate from his father. I realized then that I should do what was right. If I didn’t, I would be, in a sense, telling him that what his father was doing was all right. I would be an example of a wife who condoned her husband’s sins, perpetuating the double standard in our society. Now that Ben is himself married, he tells me that because he has seen the consequences of his father’s mistakes, he now tries to be a model husband. Edwin-Franz now also tells me he believes that, by the grace of God, he will be a faithful husband, if and when he marries.

The Lord also found it fitting to bless me in another area of my life—my career, something that I neglected when I was busy raising my children. Without trying too hard, I went on to get my doctorate degree and am now an associate professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, the Director of Alumni Relations, and the Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs of the University of the Philippines.

But most importantly, I am now enjoying a very personal loving relationship with Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, a relationship that nurtures me from day to day in many ways, spiritually, mentally, emotionally and even physically. In fact, Dr. Ken made my day that Sunday when he told me he could hardly believe that I am 61 years old. He said I was actually blooming. What better compliment can a senior citizen have? What better testimony of the power of Jesus to change lives and turn everything for the good of those who love Him and who were created for His purpose? What better manifestation of the power of grace to give peace that transcends all human understanding? Truly the Lord has changed my mourning into dancing. To God be all the glory.