Minda’s Joie de Vivre

I will never forget the attire that won for her the Best Costume award at the 2009 Light of Jesus Servants’ Christmas party. She came as a Christmas tree. So did I and a couple of others, but hers was more outrageous. While I only had a small metal tree that I used as a head piece and Christmas ball earrings, she was decked out as the whole tree. She had poinsettias and glittery balls pinned on her shirt, a pointy hat with a big star on top, small wreaths for earrings and a scarf of fairy lights. Come judging time for the finalists, she had her lights plugged into the socket. She blew away the competition.

She was that game. She was lovably kooky. She had such a joy for life. It was fun to be with her during our Music Ministry practices, during our service for the Feast and in the Kerygma Conference. But she also had her serious side. There were times when she shared nuggets of wisdom with us as we waited for performances to start.

Minda Obatay will be dearly remembered as a helpful person. Her Caring Group mates shared that she always helped set up or clean up wherever their meetings were held like it was her own home. She was the same in our practices – making sure we all have something to eat during break times and raiding the kitchen when the food is short.

She helped even if she was not a member of the ministry tasked to do something. When we used to set-up the stage as part of our duties for the Creatives Ministry, she’d be setting up the backdrop even before the members arrived. She didn’t even belong to Creatives but helped out anyway just because she was there.

Last night, we said good-bye to this wonderful person at a community mass. All that time she was serving with us she had cancer. But you wouldn’t have noticed because of the energy she exerted in the things she did.

Cancer may have stricken her body but left her generous heart untouched. To the very end her thoughts were of giving. One of her last instructions to her husband was to find the tithes she had prepared before she was hospitalized and to give it to the community.

At the honoring, one of her sons said she was a good mother who never spanked them. At the back of the room, two of my community sisters and I wondered what our children would say about us. We can only hope they would have glowing praises as Minda’s son had for her.

Minda unabashedly praised the Lord. During worship her voice would ring out above the rest to honor and exalt Him. She must have delighted Jesus so much He wanted her in heaven already so she can sing Him praises before His throne.

Sadly, I only knew Minda for a short time, maybe two or three years. And I only served closely with her in the last year. But the little that I know of her has blessed me and infected me with joy. At a time when I am experiencing service fatigue, her life is a timely reminder for me to serve the Lord with gladness.