\t\t\t\tThere are a few more moments of Marge and my trip to Sulu that I want to share with you. The first is that following the civil ceremony and tribute to Frank we were asked to meet with the present Sultan of Sulu, Princess Taharta. She had requested a private interview and we did so. She was robed in an Arabian style robe and she sat across from us during the meeting. She wanted to thank us for all Frank had done for her people. She said he called her \u201chis girlfriend\u201d. He was the first to bring the Muslims and Christians together in Sulu. He even permitted those Muslims who attended his schools to take prayer breaks and use the yards beside the school for their praying. Sulu had Four thousand (4000) Christians and nearly Three Hundred Thousand (300,000) Muslims. I wonder now in 2005 how many of those Christians are still alive. The islands are now completely controlled by radical Muslims and the Philippine Government has given up trying to recover it.<\/p>\n
Another memory is our air trip in a single engine plane, another of Frank\u2019s innovations, to the furthest island in the Archipelago from the main Philippine Islands, Sibutu. It was a mere 15 miles or so (23 km) from Borneo. We could see the shore of Borneo from Sibutu. Our pilot was named Ted, a Filipino. We had Rich, Marge, Ted Father Chalkey and I in the plane. Father Chalkey was returning to his mission in Sibutu. I learned later that the usual number was four people including the pilot, so when we landed and bounced back up into the air I could now see why. The landing \u201cfield\u201d was a strip of cleared field, which as we approached had, dogs goats, and cows roaming around it. They were chased so we could do so. The field was also adjacent to the school building and the students were outside to greet us. We used the entire length of the designated area to come to a stop. We turned around and taxied back to where the students and others were waiting. As we left the plane the students started a chant, \u201cTurzo, Turzo!\u201d We later learned they were cheering because of Rich whom they thought looked like a then teenage idol of P.I. named Turzo. Rich had been down a week or so before so they were ready for him this time with the chant. His Uncle Paul managed to bring this adoration ceremony up several times in the remaining days we were together. (As I was writing this last paragraph we had Rich and his wife Shirley here as visitors. It was the first time Shirley had heard about Rich and his Turzo experience!)<\/p>\n
Sibutu is approximately 150 miles south of the Jolo Island. We learned that another Father had left the night before we did to go to a set of island that were closer to Jolo than Sibutu. It was called Tawi-Tawi. It took him all that night and the next day to get there. This, as we noted, was why the airplane was an innovation of Frank\u2019s that brought the people closer together. Tawi-Tawi is mentioned in the book \u201cIn The Presence of Mine Enemies\u201d as one of the places the kidnapping Muslims were spotted. The book is about a couple who were taking a vacation to celebrate an anniversary and with many others were kidnapped by a group of militant Muslims. They were held for ransom. They were Christian missionaries and had four children. They were working in an area in the middle of the Philippine Islands called Panay. He was a pilot and flew medicine and the like to remote spots around the Islands. They were captured May 27,2001 and since no ransom was paid they were the last of the group. They had been held captive for a year and eleven days. In the action to release them the husband Martin was killed. The surviving wife wrote the book. They spent the year being chased and fleeing around the waters and islands of the lower part of the Philippines. A group called \u201cAbu Sayyaf\u201d which had ties to Osama bin Laden captured them. It is a beautiful story of love, faith, and the struggle in the face of \u201cunnervingly casual brutality\u201d I recall while reading it actually cringing at the cruelty and acts of their guards. Even worse were the things they ate in order to survive. I wondered often if I could have done so. It is a great story and well told.<\/p>\n
On our return trip to Jolo we stopped at Sang-Sanga, a small island south of and part of Tawi-Tawi. We then took an outboard motor boat to the small island of Bongoa, where Frank had the Medical Missions set up a hospital. They were there to serve mostly the \u201cboat people\u201d. They were people who literally spent their lives on a boat. This island and the surrounding ones were referred to also as the \u201csmugglers paradise\u201d in these parts of the world. We are taken for a tour of Bongoa. As we moved through the village of huts and to what they called a \u201cboardwalk\u201d we noticed Marge down a ways in front of a shop. She was with a Chinese man who was holding her hand and in tears. His name was \u2018Chi Tuang\u201d. He takes us into his shop and tells us that the Bishop was responsible for his faith, his education, his work, and his place in the community. \u201cIf I go the funeral, I afraid I kill myself\u201d. The trip to this god-forsaken place, but not Frank forsaken place suddenly seemed worth while. He talked of Frank as if he could walk on water. He went into a drawer and pulled out a form letter from him and kissed it before handing it to us to read. This was a story of one man\u2019s love for his fellow man.<\/p>\n
We spent Thanksgiving with June\u2019s son in Land O\u2019 Lakes north of Tampa. We then headed north for North Carolina. We arrived at Columbus, North Carolina around 6 PM on Friday. We were up there to attend the wedding of Rick Rosetti and Joy Baker. Rick is the son of good friends Lou and Jean Rosetti. Columbus is just inside the North Carolina border. We arrived just as Lou and Jean were checking into the Days Inn where we were going to stay too. We later visited the home of Joy Baker, with Lou and Jean. She is a Veterinarian specializing in horses. Her home was all of wood and fit perfectly in to the wooded mountainside where it was built. You had to go up a dirt and pebbled road named \u201cBaker\u201d. We later learned that it was named after her grandfather who owned this land and a great deal more in the area. Joy\u2019s profession takes her as far away as Bermuda where she tends to client\u2019s animals. Her home and land was in the town of Tryon next to Columbus. You get a great view of the Blue Ridge Mountains from either of these towns. You can also see homes on the tops of small mountains rising in the foreground of the Blue Ridge range. Saturday we rested since we had driven Friday from 6 AM to 6 PM. We had hoped to drive up into North Carolina to the town of Asheville about 40 minutes away but the rest seemed to be a better idea! Asheville is renowned for the Biltimore Estate. We had heard from many others the splendor of the place and it is one of the popular tourist attractions of North Carolina. Saturday night we attended a rehearsal dinner at the Tryon Country Club. We enjoyed the company of strangers who soon seemed like friends. We sat at a table next to Joy\u2019s hairdresser, Tim Horan(?). He had come at her expense from Bermuda to take care of her hair and of all the women in the wedding party. Next to him was a woman named Heidi whom we gathered worked around horses in Bermuda that were Joy\u2019s patients. Apparently Joy noticed Heidi\u2019s hair or the subject just came up, and Joy was then introduced to Tim. He became her hairdresser and thus was there from Bermuda.<\/p>\n
The wedding was held in what they called a \u2018tent\u2019\u2014but it had a regular roof and only the sides were open. The sides were now covered with canvas tarps since it was raining off and on. It was also cold and damp and June and I felt it. We have just been living too long in the warmth of Florida and notice very quickly the cold. The \u2018tent\u2019 was as large as a good size auditorium. It was a building adjacent to the main and larger building of this Equestrian Center. The main building was as large as any Country club we have ever seen. We would have our Wedding meal there. An equestrian \u2018center\u2019 is a place where the horses are brought to practice jumping, to go fox hunting, and the like. We didn\u2019t get to see much of the landscape due to the rainy weather.<\/p>\n
The wedding party entered to live music played by two young women and later aided by a gentleman on a keyboard. There was a violinist, flutist, and the keyboard. There was also a solo by a gentleman\u2026all, which flowed while the wedding party assembled around the minister about to accept the vows. The Maid of Honor was Rick\u2019s sister Lynn, a longtime friend of Joy\u2019s, and through whom Rick met her. One of the Bride\u2019s maids had Joy\u2019s Labrador retriever on lease as she came up the aisle. His name is \u201cGabe\u201d and is an important member of the family. He had around his neck a white silken bag, which we would later learn, was where the wedding rings were. He sat in front of the Brides\u2019 Maids to the left of the Bride and Groom. As they recited their vows and on a command came forward with the rings! I certainly never expected nor probably ever will we see again a dog as a wedding ring bearer!<\/p>\n
The wedding meal was in the adjacent building of the Center. There was a porch as you entered on which the refreshments were served. Upon entering the room you immediately notice the large tiered wedding cake in front of the fireplace. We found seats just to the left of the cake table. The meal was a great buffet laid out in an adjacent room. After all had eaten or appeared to have done so they began the cake cutting ceremony. It was done under the careful eye of \u201cGabe\u201d \u2013 whom I almost expected to bring a knife to them for the cutting. He didn\u2019t do that and he seemed to enjoy his piece of cake after the newly weds had their pieces. We left this beautiful country in rain the next morning around 6 AM and had rain off and on all the way back to St. Petersburg but it did nothing to dampen the joy of the weekend.<\/p>\n
We hope you receive this before Christmas Day but know we wish you all the blessing of the day even if it arrives a bit later. Pax Tecum!\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are a few more moments of Marge and my trip to Sulu that I want to share with you. The first is that following the civil ceremony and tribute to Frank we were asked to meet with the present Sultan of Sulu, Princess Taharta. She had requested a private interview and we did so. … <\/p>\n