Friday, April 14, was a great opportunity for me to meet three persons with wonderful stories.
The most awesome belongs to Mr. Ben Jance, a retiree of Victorias Milling Company.
When he was still active at work and travelling officially from Bacolod to Iloilo, he was seated beside a soldier with a gun which accidentally fired a shot, hitting him at the chest. He fell to the floor, and as people crowded around him, they found that blood was not spurting and suddenly, Mr. Jance got up like nothing happened.
Only the intensity of the shoot threw him to the floor, but it didn’t hit his flesh. Something came between the bullet and his body. Then he pulled out his ultimate protection: a medal of Our Lady of Miraculous Medal that would daily be inside his pocket.
His story is among the 100 stories of Our Lady of Miraculous Medal’s miracles compiled by his daughter Betsy Jance Vonatzigen which had a simple Bacolod launch, the 20th of its launches in various countries.
Valenciano’s model for the face on the cover of the book.*
Betsy is a member of the Legion of Mary and instrumental to promoting the devotion especially in Europe where she resides.
The third person is someone I’ve always wanted to meet, whose paintings using coffee as a medium I have long been admiring. Dennis C. Valenciano did the book cover using his unique medium of course. The lovely lady who was Dennis’ model for the face was also present Friday.*