Tokyo, Australian Faith-Healers and Ricardo Montalban | My Conversion Story

In this post I’m participating in the Bright Maidens blog call out answering the question, Why Mary? Check out the Bright Maidens Facebook page to see the other bloggers who are participating!

Why Mary?

Because she’s our mother and looks after us!

She takes care of us and will bring us back to her Son Jesus if we let her in…even a little bit.

Everyone’s got a conversion story–this one is mine! So what does Tokyo, an Australian faith-healer and Ricardo Montalban have to do with Mary and conversion?

Tokyo

In 1997, I was in the Navy flying SH-60B helicopters out of NAF Atsugi, Japan, an airbase about 25 miles southwest of Tokyo.

My wife and I grew up Catholic (we came from South Louisiana) but neither of us practiced. We both fell away in our teens.

At the time we were both searching for some meaning in life. I always wanted to be a pilot and spent my young adulthood going after that goal. After I got there though, I looked around and thought, “Is this all there is?” I was restless.

Our search took us to the New Age Movement. Crystals, chakras, positive affirmations and Zen meditation were our religious devotions. We learned about about different New Age gurus through VHS tape sets (it was the 90’s) we bought through mail order.

We were fat, dumb and happy–excited to be exploring exotic religions and content NOT to be practicing Catholicism.

An Australian faith-healer

In Tokyo’s nightclub district, you run across all kinds of interesting people. One of my squadron buddies met a girl there from Australia named Wendy. She was into New Age healing and channeling among other things. Shannon and I instantly hit it off with her.

Wendy began a relationship with my friend and we started seeing a lot more of her. Consequently, we got deeper and deeper into the brand of New Age Wendy was peddling.

After a while though, things started going south. Wendy got controlling. We distanced ourselves but she wasn’t easy to shake.

Then weird things started happening like doorbells going off continuously with no one there and strange sounds around the house.

Eventually, Wendy wore out her welcome with my friend too and she was gone. But the experience left Shannon and myself in a little bit of shock.

Ricardo Montalban

She decided she had enough of the exotic and, much to my surprise, started going to the Catholic Mass on base! She didn’t go on Sunday but to a Wednesday evening novena Mass to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The Filippino Catholics on base loved that devotion.

I was perplexed! She got into the Church more and more. I didn’t want to have anything to do with Catholicism. I was fine with my Zen and the other New Age stuff I was studying.

One day we were looking through the catalog for new tape sets to order and Shannon wanted to get a video on Fatima. I didn’t know what Fatima was but I’d heard the word when I was a kid, as in Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church! No way did I want a Catholic video!

Well, she ordered it anyway without telling me! When it came in she said we might as well watch it–so we did! The video was narrated by Ricardo Montalban.

What struck me the most was when the Blessed Virgin showed the children of Fatima a vision of Hell. So many were going there because they refused to believe in God and Jesus. That stuck a knife right in my heart!

At the end, ole Ricardo left you with a choice. What are you going to do about all this? Do you choose to believe it or not?

When the video was over, I turned to Shannon and said, “If this is true, we’re going to Hell!”

The Conversion

Was it real? Did Mary really appear to these kids? Did she really say those things? And, was Hell real too then? I had to know!

The internet was just getting started and our dial up connection in Japan was painfully slow–I mean really slow. But that night we went searching for information on Fatima and appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Ironically, it was a site on Medjugore that gave us the most information. A priest named Fr. Slavco Barbaric posted explanations of the Medjugore locutions. In these explanations, he gave a practical catechesis on Catholic doctrine and faith.

It made perfect sense to me! These were the answers I’d been looking for all this time. I was captivated!

We also wanted to learn what the Catholic Church really taught. Obviously, what we remembered from childhood wasn’t the whole story. So, we did what we always did–bought tape sets! However, this time they were Catholic. Scott Hahn and Fr. Benedict Groeschel were the most influential.

We began praying the rosary every night (we had to get a book to learn how). I started going to the Wednesday night novena Mass (to Our Lady of Perpetual Help no less!) with my wife. Eventually, we started going to Sunday Mass and then confession.

The trouble with Wendy started in December. By February, we were investigating the Catholic Faith. Over the period of a Lent, we studied and struggled. By the Easter Vigil, we were fully back in communion with the Church! It was that fast.

Why Mary?

Why Mary? Because she’s our Mother and protects us from evil. She teaches us like a mother and shields us from harm.

One night, when we started having trouble with Wendy, my wife had a dream. She was in a desert place. The earth was parched and cracked and barren.

There were snakes all around her, slithering all over her. In the New Age, snakes are a good thing but these were scaring her, paralyzing her. She couldn’t move though and felt trapped. She wasn’t free!

A woman came in to this place and picked her up like a child. She stepped on the snakes and they had no power over her. The woman carried her away.

She heard a voice that said, “You’ll never get away. You’ll always be mine!” She woke up with a start and woke me up too. She was wide eyed and knew she had to make a change. That was the beginning!

Mother Mary saved us! She strode into our lives filled with unbelief and shined the light of Jesus. She was our Mother and Protector. She is that for all mankind!