Not My Plan

By MARIA IRRAH ESMERO

I AM Irrah, a social worker from Sta. Fe, Leyte. I graduated from the Leyte Normal University (LNU) in August 2018.

I went to Manila, hoping to find work and find my luck in the city. I was employed at Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE-NCR) as a community facilitator from July until December 2019.

The duration of the project was six months. After that, we anticipated the project would be extended.

But then Quarantine to arrest the spread of the Coronavirus Disease started, and there were still no updates on the DOLE project.

So, I started thinking of looking for another job.

By Divine Providence, I saw a post from an institution looking for a social worker. I applied for the post even as I had no experience serving in a residential institution.

The admin called me for an interview, and so, fingers crossed, I went to the place—the shelter for abused girls established by the Jeremiah 33 Foundation, one of the Mercy Ministries of the Light of Jesus Family.

To my surprise, the director in charge told me that there were only two applicants for the post. But I was the only one who came for the interview. So, I got the job!

God’s Plan

After only a few months on the job, however, I felt like quitting— for three reasons.

First, I found the job really difficult because as I said, I had no experience in this field.

Second, since I was new in the place, I could not relate well with my workmates.

And third, I became an in-house social worker so, I felt homesick. My family is in Leyte. I have a distant relative in Manila but I rarely visit them.

But in God’s Perfect Time, I gradually adjusted with the basics of my work, and, most important, the Jeremiah girls, the personnel, eventually have become my friends, my second family, actually.

And also, I’ve realized, amid this Pandemic where thousands have lost their jobs, I still have this work.

But really, I must say, what I have is not only a job.

Jeremiah 33 is a shelter for young girls, aged 10-18, particularly victims of sexual abuse.

Bro. Rey Ortega, who spearheaded the establishment of the shelter, based the name of the Foundation on the Biblical verse Jeremiah 33:6-7.

The shelter provides for the basic needs of the girls, health care, pastoral counseling, and spiritual nourishment—all to give the girls a new life of dignity.

So now, serving our Jeremiah girls is not just work for me. It is a big blessing for me from our big God. It’s a mission that gives me inexplicable joy.

For what better way to live joyfully than to do what God wants us to do, to take care of the least of our brethren: ‘Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

–Matthew 25:40 (NIV)