Target Cards by JP Quianzon

Tough Words

A few years ago, I was driving to an appointment in Walnut Creek. I had the book of James playing on my car stereo, and was struck heavily by the following passage:

 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you^..  Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.  Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. (James 5:1-4 NKJV)

I said to The Lord, “Wow, Lord! That is some seriously heavy stuff right there. I totally get all of that, but where in the world would I ever get a chance to use such a heavy teaching?”

A Chance Encounter

I arrived at the business where my appointment was scheduled and noticed that the majority of the staff was Filipino. Sitting near me in the waiting area was a Caucasian man in his 60’s. I went into my appointment, then on my way out, the man said in a joking tone with a bit of a country accent, “Is everyone here Filipino?” I said, “It sure looks like it.” He said, “My wife’s Filipino, and I have a really good story about how I met her. You want to hear it?” With one foot out the door, I really didn’t want to listen to his story – but The Spirit told me to listen to him. So, I reluctantly said, “Ok. What’s your story?”

He said in his country accent, “I’ve been divorced three times. My neighbor, a white guy like me, has a Filipino wife, invited me over to dinner a few years ago. During the dinner, the wife said, “It’s time for you to get married again.” She pulled out a stack of pictures of all her single friends and put them on the table in front of me and said, “You pick whoever you like out of these pictures, and I will hook you up with her.” I chose the picture of my wife, and she hooked us up. Turns out, my wife was the maid of a very wealthy family from the Philippines, which owned properties in the Philippines and here in the Bay Area. The grandmother of the family had a rare eye cancer that needed to be treated at Stanford University, so they sent my wife with her to take care of her while she was receiving treatment.”

Two Target Cards

Being thoroughly entertained by his storytelling, I encouraged him to continue. He said, “My wife and I started dating, but the rich couple didn’t like me. The wife of the rich couple even told me a few times to my face that she hated my guts because I think they knew what would happen if I married their servant. They were so mean to me and treated my wife like dirt. They had this huge home, but let my wife stay in this tiny room in the garage that looked like a closet. We dated some more, got engaged, then finally got married. To our surprise, the rich couple sent us a big, beautifully wrapped wedding gift. We were blown away and thought maybe they had a change of heart. Inside the gift were Two Target gift cards.”

I said, “Two Target gift cards? That’s nice of them.” He said, “Yeah, we thought so too- so I put them in my wallet. A few weeks after our wedding, my wife and I went to one of those Targets with a Starbucks inside. She ordered a latte that cost $7, so she asked me to use one of the Target cards from our wedding. I gave one to the cashier, he ran it and said there wasn’t enough on it to pay for the latte. My wife said, “That’s weird. Honey, give him the other card.” I gave it to the cashier, he ran it, and there still wasn’t enough on this card to pay for the latte. After checking the balances on the cards, we found out that one card had four dollars on it, and the other had two dollars. Can you believe that?”

Shocked, Outraged

Shocked and outraged, I said, “Are you kidding me! That is so wrong, I don’t even know what to say right now.”

He continued his story and, with a flushed face, started to get heated, “You’re telling me! And you know what’s even worse than that? I did some calculations on how much the couple was paying my wife for her years of service. It came out to less than $2 per hour. $2 per hour! I feel like hiring a lawyer and suing them for her wages. I hate their guts so much. They might not have anyone on earth to answer to for all this, but in the end, they’re going to have to answer to GOD!”

God’s Word

And right there, I remembered the passage in James about the rich people, and my goosebumps turned into Holy Ghost bumps. I pulled my phone out, searched for the passage and said to him, “Man, you are never going to believe this- but I was listening to God’s Word today and the passage that jumped out at me addresses your story perfectly. Read it for yourself.”

By this time, he had worked himself up – so he was heated and flushed red. As he read the scripture to himself, I could see the hate and anger slowly leave his body. I told him, “God is telling you to let it go because He’ll take care of them.” He said with a tone of disbelief, “Man, I’ve never met anyone like you before.” I said, “I’m just a witness for Christ and blessed that I could hear your story. Did you believe in God before you met your wife?”

He said, “Nope. I was an atheist my whole life. Then after I started dating my wife, she said, “If you want to marry me, you’re going to church.” So we’ve been going to church every Sunday since we started dating.” I said, “You see how that works? That was Jesus calling you, and He’s telling you now that He’s got it covered.”

A Chance to Minister The Word

We shook hands, said our goodbyes and on my way to my car, I repeatedly thanked The Good Lord for crossing my path with this man. Like a laser-guided arrow from Heaven, The Lord used me to deliver the exact scripture that would bring this man healing and resolution for his tortured soul. The crossing of our paths was no coincidence. It was divinely deliberate – so be encouraged y’all because Jesus, The Good Lord, is most definitely alive!

Thank you for your time,

JP Quianzon

JP Quianzon is an American business man with a passion for serving others and witnessing for Jesus Christ.