The Warrior is a Child!

The year was 2002 I had just moved into a another Radio Station (Jamie 102.3FM) from the Radio Station that gave me my first break as a Radio Talk Show Host (Killerbee 106.3FM). I did my talk show every Thursday Nights from 9-11pm even before when I was just starting out. However, this one particular Thursday Night was special I had invited as my guest for that evening a lady that was considered to be a celebrity in my country of origin, the Philippines. She was a Beauty Queen, a Movie Actress and a Television Personality. Her older sister won the title of Miss Universe back in the 70s and she belonged to an affluent family. She was married to a man whose family was very influential in the area of business and politics and himself a politician (a congressman in one of the districts in the Province where I was living at that time). Her name is Rio Diaz, in spite of her background I found her to be very humble and down to earth. That night was the second time that I had interviewed her. The first time I met her and interviewed her was three years before that back in 1999 when I was still working for my former Radio Station (Killerbee 106.3FM) and a neophyte in the world of FM Radio. A year or two before that she was diagnosed of having cancer of the colon stage 4. Prior to the time of my first interview with her she had gone through a remission and made the rounds on television talkshows and was featured in almost every newspaper and magazine and other media outlets as she announced to the whole world that she had been healed by God from her illness. This made headlines and so my Talk Show Host Instincts dictated that I should absolutely, positively get her to appear on my Radio Talk Show for full two hours I mean this was just a no brainer and the selfish side of me was also after the ratings. I had succeded in doing that, I remembered that when her assistant called the Station to confirm her appearance on my show I felt like I was on top of the world. The day of the interview came and as soon as she walked inside the studio I felt so starstrucked and dumbfounded by her presence like I have never felt before. Her presence was so overwhelming that I felt like it illuminated the whole Studio ... it threw me off, I was so stoked! I indulged her in a 2 hour conversation about her life, her recovery, her career and her faith in God. She emphatically spoke about her personal relationship with Jesus and shared a verse from the Bible to me something she said that kept her encouraged during the time she was going through treatment it was from Jeremiah 29:11 which sez' "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope". Finally she ended our first interview by asking my permission if she could pray for the people who were listening to us live over the radio. As soon as she made that request I toward the direction where my boss (the Station Manager) was standing and observing to seek for his approval but before he could even give me an answer, Rio went on ahead like a speeding bullet and prayed not wanting to miss the opporturnity. That night many of my listeners were blessed and touched, the emotions were so over the top. Fast Forward three years after, I was preparing for my second interview with Rio this time around at a different Radio Station inside a different studio. As soon as she walked in I noticed that unlike the first interview she looked physically weak not to the point of being lethargic but it didn't take a genius to deduce that she was really sick. Sure enough the cancer had recurred she was given a few months to live. But something that was so distinct about her demeanor was that she had an overwhelming joy and peace in her heart it's like physically she was gradually decaying yet spiritually she was renewed daily. We spoke for another two hours once again she talked emphatically about her love for God and her faith in Him but I could sense that she had a bittersweet feeling of being happy to finally see the person she considered to be her personal Lord and Savior and sad to leave her husband, teenage son and her two young children. But she boldly declared that she was not scared of the thought dying and that she knew where she was going. My heart broke as I listened to her sharing her experience of being a Christian suffering from a debilitating disease but her faith was stronger than her pain her hope greater than her grief. She ended the interview once again by praying for my listeners and after the show I asked her to sign my guest book and then and we hugged each other and parted ways. Two months after, during my Talk Show's New Year's Special I asked her to join us through Phone Patch and after we both talked on air I asked her to stay on the other line while I asked my wife (she and Rio knew each other personally as she was the pre-school teacher of Rio's kids) to sing her favorite song live on air. The title of the song is "A Warrior is a Child". She was so pleased to have heard my wife sing the song live on the radio. Well in essence Rio is a Warrior it is not easy to go through what she had gone through and she fought hard with the courage and strength that came from her faith in a Supreme Being. She was a child coz' whenever we would talk through my interviews with her she would always s have this peculiar childlike faith in her God that allowed her to move on in spite of her difficulties. Our conversation during my Show's New Year's Special was to be our last. Months later Rio Diaz, The Celebrity, The Beauty Queen, The Movie Star, The Television Personality, The Wife, The Mother, The Daughter, The Lady who publicly claimed that she was a Chlild of God passed away at the tender age of 44. I paid tribute to her days after news broke out of her death on my Talk Show by playing her favorite song ..."The Warrior is a Child". Some of you may be Skeptical about the story I had just shared but I believe that a large majority of human beings are scared stiff of the idea of dying and the afterlife. Truth be told my interviews with Rio Diaz put things into perspective for me and the people who worked with me on the show. It even made believers out of some of them. Are you afraid of dying? It is not too late to settle this issue within yourself while there is still time.

1Peter 4:11