Olga taught me how to do my own laundry by hand. At one point the gal that did my laundry stopped doing it and so I decided I would do it on my own. " 'How hard can it be?' I asked myself." Well, I would stand at the kitchen sink and wash until my fingers were raw and bleeding. Olga would watch me scrub my clothes and would say to me: "Val, don't work so hard. Just run them through the water." I learned quickly to scrub them gently and then run them through the water.
I would get all finished and my laundry basket would be empty. I would hang the clothes up to dry and I would smile with satisfaction. Then, as I went to bed that night, I would throw the clothes I had on into my laundry basket. I learned quickly that there is never an end to dirty clothes.
I think the greatest lesson that I learned from Olga was the importance of visitation. Later, when I arrived in Tagum City, it was the skill of visitation that I had learned from Olga that helped our NEOS ministry to grow. Olga would talk to me during breakfast and say: "What are you doing after school today?Would you like to go visiting with me?" So, we would make a schedule and I would meet her for visitation.
Day after day we would go around Agoo simply visiting people; people from the church, people who were college friends, people who had visited the church, and more. I mostly watched as I didn't know the language. But, as I watched I would ask myself: What is she doing? Why does she do this day after day? What is the reason for all of this visitation? Is it not a waste of time? But, as I watched the joy on the faces of the people when Olga would -- hold their newborn baby, or hold the hand of an old lady and listen to the story of when she got married, or cry with a mother whose child was in the hospital, or take water to someone in the hospital, and then pray with each family before she left their home -- I knew that it was not a waste of time. Olga was making an investment into eternity. Olga was reaching out and touching lives. Olga was teaching me a very important skill -- the skill of visitation.
To this day, I make a point, no matter where I am in the world, to spend time talking to people in order to get to know them. I pray for opportunities to turn the conversation around to godly things. I even work hard to make a point to pray with people. I have prayed with people in their kitchens, living rooms, on airplanes, in hospitals, on buses, in airports, in doctor's offices, in hotels, . . . . and over the phone. The simple skill of visitation and making conversation with people can turn someone's bad day into a good one.
I am grateful for the time I had in Agoo with Olga. I am grateful that she taught me the important skills of going to the market, doing laundry by hand, and visitation. I am mostly grateful that God used her to help change my personality into one that would be an encouragement to others and not a discouragement.
God knew I needed Olga because God knew the way that I would take.
