God, do you know what you are doing?: P.S. You've made a mistake!

By Maria Erwin Duncan and Kasandra Erwin

As a child born in the Philippines to a life of poverty, Maria faced many trails, from typhoons to malaria to physical and mental abuse, Maria has overcome some of the hardest trails in life. Most of us would most likely not find the strength let alone survive her journey. If you are honest with yourself, there has been at least 1 time i

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: Feb 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781948779289

Maria Erwin Duncan

MARIA ERWIN DUNCAN is from Manila Philippines and came from a life of hardships and dealt with many trials along the way. In her debut book, she invites the reader to go through her journey with her and experience a roller coaster of emotions and feel the presence of the Lord and also let the reader know that they are not alone in their trials and that it never hurts to question Why God does what He chooses to do; with the help of her youngest daughter Kasandra, they tell Maria's life story and tell about how she overcame all of her pain through the grace of God.

Book preview

Prologue

Proverbs 3:5-6

5.) Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6.) In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

I truly believe that God always knows what He’s doing. He’s never caught off guard, and He never has to explain Himself to us. We are His creation and He is our creator. He will do what is best and what pleases him. He does not need our cou ncil.

Even though I believe this, sometimes the questions come; and I go to God with them. He already knows what we are thinking before we ever come to him. I am thankful that I have a loving heavenly Father, who knows and understands me.

I talk to him, as if I were talking to my best friend. I hide nothing from him. Why should I, he already knows. I am transparent before God. I tell Him everything, even the things that make no sense to me. I go to God with my joy and praise. I also go to Him with my anger and frustration and believe me there was and is a lot. I believe that He would rather me be honest before Him in all that I am about, instead of trying to manipulate or persuade him. I am not afraid to do this because I believe that He sees beyond my anger and frustration to my very soul. He knows me inside and out. He accepts me as I am and for that I am truly thankful.

I have been asked many times to share my testimony to various groups throughout my life. Many of my Christian brothers and sisters, after hearing my testimony, have often referred to me as The Job of the Nineties and have encouraged me to write a book. I decided to share some of the highlights of my life. While this book does not cover my entire life, it does cover various times in my life. Many of my trials and tribulations are similar to Job’s. My experiences however, are spread out over a lifetime.

It has always amazed me that no matter how bad my problems seem to me, whenever I start to feel sorry for myself and have a pity party, the good Lord always reminds me that there is someone who has it worse than I do. When God brings about those divine appointments, He helps me to take the focus off of me and place that focus on being Jesus to that person. Every time that I thought things couldn’t get worse, they did and it was amazing to see how God blessed.

I have gotten a lot better at not asking God if He knows what he is doing however, I still ask sometimes. Now, I ask my heavenly Father what it is that He is trying to teach me or ask me to do. I find this to be a much better approach, as I believe God has something to teach me every moment of my life and He surely has work for me to accomplish every day.

I pray that as you read through this journey of mine, you might find encouragement and peace through your trials and tribulations, and may the blessings of God overwhelm you as you journey through life. Life is like a roller coaster ride and you are about to find out, just how many ups and downs my roller coaster ride has taken me through. Remember that God is always with us and He will not put more on us than we can handle and he will give us a way out. He loves us so much that he sent his only begotten Son to die for us and to save us. He has given his all, why should we do any less. He has lead me to start asking, instead of why me, to ask why not me?

May God Bless you as you read.

The beginning of it all

I was born in Caloocan City, in Manila Philippines. My family was incredibly poor. My father worked in construction, whenever there was work available; and my mother stayed home and raised me, my brother and my sister. We did not have much, but we had each other and that was the most important thing. It was the children’s responsibility to help my mom work around the house, or in the rice fields. My siblings and I did not have much time for each other. We were too busy making sure we had completed everything else we had to do. There was not much change from day to day in our routine. My childhood was not like it is here in America. I never knew what it was to have friends and to have fun. As a child growing up in the Philippines, I had my own responsibilities. My childhood was filled with work, learning, and punish ment.

My days always seemed the same. I would get up at 4:00 in the morning and go with my mom, sister, and brother to the rice fields. We would work until it was time to go to school. By working in the rice fields, it would put rice and vegetables on the tables for our daily meals. We ate the same thing every day, and for every meal. Mostly our meals consisted of rice and fish. I would get a boiled potato as a snack sometimes, but that was very rare, considering how poor we were. This seemed to be a never ending cycle except for a few interruptions from time to time.

The best time of the year was, like most people, Christmas! It was not only my birthday, but it was also a time when I got a new dress and a new pair of shoes from my Godmother. This was the only time of the year I ever got anything new. We also had chicken and a loaf of bread on Christmas Eve. Off the record, the one thing I love about my life now is getting to eat chicken anytime I want to! It was always a special time. My dad would cut down a tree and paint it white. My mom would cut figures out of paper and we would make ornaments out of popcorn and strings and put them on the tree. My siblings and I would go caroling and people would give us some money. We did everything we could to help the family survive.

Our house was a hut, made of bamboo and stood about three feet off of the ground. We called our hut Kubo. We would use blankets to divide the Kubo into rooms, for sleeping, eating, etc. We did not have indoor plumbing, ours was outdoors. It seemed as though something was always happening in my life. My life was certainly not boring. I remember us living through Typhoons, Hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Sometimes our Kubo would be messed up or blown down. My dad always had to repair our hut. Sometimes, we would wake up and the top would be blown off, or the shaking of the ground would wake us up. We never knew what to expect.

We did not have carpet on the floor or air conditioning. We slept on mats on the floor; and we all slept in the same room. Our weather was like the weather on tropical islands. To me it always seemed hot. It seemed as though we only had two seasons, it was either hot or rainy or both.

I would go to school from 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday. Our school was very strict; and we wore uniforms to school. Since we did not have a car, I would walk to school, and back home with my brother and sister. We were expected to come home immediately after school. We did not have time to play; so we had very few friends. When we got home, we had chores to do. I would help my sister cook, and take care of my younger brother.

My mom was a very loving mother