This Filipino preacher (not me) needs help...would you ?

Samuel (Sammy) Nacionales is an ordained Filipino preacher whose church, Gospel Baptist Church, is in Catbalogan City, Samar, Philippines. I met him and his wife back in the late 60's when my wife and I were newly married. In a manner of speaking, I have given him the flip many times, when he began witnessing to me, and when he lovingly tried to bring me back to the fold in the 70's when I strayed away from church and all that.

His wife, Phebe, was a school teacher, a close friend of my wife's, and both Phebe and Sammy, have ministered to my deceased father-in-law, who was a hardcore Armstrong follower.
Early this year, Phebe, who was diabetic, was admitted to hospital, for difficulty of breathing. For some reason, she also contracted pneumonia, and they intubated her, and operated on her twice to do what they call a tracheostomy, or something like inserting a tube.

42 struggling days later, in the first week of March, she died, and went home to be with her Lord.
Well, that left her husband, Sammy, to deal with the after effects of the last 71 years of her life, a big hospital bill.
He was slapped with approximately $50K worth of bills, and in the Philippines, they do not have credit agency penitentiaries like we do here in this country and their accountants do not have the words "write off, bad debt" in their accounting vocabulary. Oh, sure, Filipinos do not go to prison for debts, unless it's for fraud, or, what they call over there as Estafa, which Phebe's death is not, on both counts.

But they will run after any piece of property they can get from you, even if it's church property.
The hospital refused to release a death certificate which is needed to transport her body back to her hometown many nautical miles away to the South, from the capital city of Manila, where she died, to be buried.

So, the wake had to be held at another Baptist church, while they raised funds to settle the bill, and eventually they did put up a deposit of about $10K dollars, on promissory note to pay the balance within 60 days, or on or about the 15th of May this year.

The amount owed was further whittled down to about $30K dollars, give or take, when Phebe's benefits and insurances as a retired guidance counsellor at a college in her hometown kicked in.'

This pastor, who has steadily held his ground at the same spot for almost 50 years, while confident that the God he served all his life will see him through, now also turns to His children, His brethren, all over the world, for help, which, I gather, is not unscriptural, and is in fact, encouraged by the very Head of His churches.
He and I do not share the same soteriology, and eschatology, but he did reach out to us, me and my wife.

Now, we are just two old crows, my wife and I, who have barely any corn to peck on from the ground after using up whatever we get from Social Security, and whatever is left to my wife from her earnings as a tailor at Nordstrom's in Northern California, I have been out of a job for a couple of years now, and nobody hiresme anyway, even if I dye my hair and moustache, and pull my stomach in until I turn gray.

So I had this bright (or maybe not so bright) idea of putting up a go fund me page for this brother last Saturday night, and lo and behold, it did result in over $500 from people who have been gifted with generous hearts, some of which are fellow Baptists of the same order as myself, and a couple from another order, but, the campaign is not really kicking up.

So, I thought maybe I would post this here, and see how it goes.
For those of you who want to take extra precautions and really really REALLLLLLLLY make sure you are not being "played" by this evil Primitive Baptist (chill, just kidding, okay ?), I give you permission to inquire from the brother himself, Sammy, at [email protected], or from the hospital itself which is the St. Luke's Hospital at Global City in Metro Manila, email:[email protected] or their phone number at 632-789-7700.
The account IOU is under Phebe Nacionales.

Yes, I know, it's ridiculous.
Who'd want to email, much less call, right ?
But, I just had to put it out there.

The go fund me page is:


Well, there you are.
Thank you for reading through to here, guys.

P.S. If you think you won't be able to donate, how about helping disseminate the web page to your friends, etc., who you think would be inclined to help out ? the url is www.gofundme.com/tophebesfund...

 

wow. 130 views and not one reply. great spirit. well, I'll try again. bumping.

 

one donor. thank you.