An Ordinary Man With An Extraordinary Faith

My other entry which made it to the Top 25 of the 2012 Littworld International Writing Competition, written as a salute to the man whose trust in my inferior abilities continues to stun me to this day. 

He has everything that a simple man could only imagine -a prominent family, promising showbiz career, wealth, power, and influence. But what others regard as the “Dream Life” was a journey of challenges that would have tumbled his soul, but he held on to his faith, and he survived.

He rapes women, sells drugs, kills innocent people on screen. But when cameras stop rolling, he is an obedient son, a good father, a protective brother, and a loving husband.  Most elites like him spend time enjoying life’s luxuries. He was different. He held a bible instead of clubhouse brochures. He rubs elbows with the poor and oppressed more than the rich and famous. He prays for guidance in leading his people closer to God, not for more blessings for him and his family. When opponents throw mud at him, he retaliates to them with prayers to survive the cacophony of politics. He always reminds people to do good, become morally-upright and stay on the right track.

When he ran for higher office in 2010, he had limited campaign funds. He had no celebrity endorsers. He was a political David competing with three of the Province’s political Goliaths. He only had his reputation as a good leader, his family’s name, and most of all, his unwavering faith in the Lord.

He won.

Today, he is the Governor of more than three million Filipinos in the Province of Laguna, Philippines. In just two years, his transformative and Christ-centered leadership was able to turn Laguna into the most progressive province in the Philippines. And working for him still stuns me to this day.

He is Jeorge “E.R.” Ejercito Estregan to the rest of the world. But for me, he will always be an ordinary man with an extraordinary faith.