The BEST Business Partner For Any Kind Of Business

At last, the long wait was over...

That's me standing on one of the tuna fishing boat's palatik. 

Ramil hurriedly entered my office when he saw that I already arrived for work to inform me that IJ fishing boat was already set. By the way, it was called "IJ" taken from the initials of my name and that's I for Ivan and J for Jude.


If i'm not mistaken, It was only 5 days before Christmas and everyone was getting very excited about their plans for celebrating the holidays. For me, this long-awaited good news made me more excited. And so, Ramil and I decided to have it dedicated to the Lord by weekend.

The owners of this boat. 

Since it was my first time to attend a fishing boat blessing, I really had no idea how it would go. I thought that we would need to prepare a lot of things. I asked Ramil if i can be of any help to him in preparing for this event. Luckily, he told me that everything was already taken cared of by his family in Alabel.

I also inquired if I needed to bring some food for the celebration. I was thinking to buy a lechon (filipino roasted-pig) or some other delicious stuff. I managed to save a good amount of cash at that time and I wanted the celebration to be somewhat grand.

Filipino Lechon. Photo Credits

But, Ramil won't agree with me when I told him my thoughts. He said that I'd better not spend the cash for those things. Instead, he told me to save it for we will surely need a bigger amount for its starting capital. Also, for the celebration, he wanted it to be as simple as possible. Explaining further, he said that it's not the food that's important but the ACT of dedicating the fishing boat to the Lord. And I agreed with everything he said.

Then came the d-day. From Polomolok, Ramil and I went to their house in Alabel very early in the morning. Johven was also there to attend the dedication. I saw a lot of new faces and, when everything was set, all of us went to the shore.

IJ Tuna Fishing boat at a distance.

I saw IJ Fishing boat floating from a distance and, seeing how pretty it was, made my heart leap for joy. I wanted to climb up at it immediately but, because the water was already deep, we can't simply walk towards it. We waited for the pakura(small scout/ranger boat) to reach the shore and, when it was already there, the three of us hopped in right away.

Ramil, Johven, and I on a pakura (small ranger boat)

When everyone was aboard the fishing boat, the dedication started with silence. One could clearly hear the waves of the sea smashing at each other. The pastor opened his sermon by reading a number of passages from the Holy Bible. I really liked it when he explained its meaning and how it was related to our fishing business venture.

The crew with their families eating a very simple lunch.

One thing that I could never ever forget about his sermon was when he said that because Ramil and I dedicated our fishing boat to the Lord and acknowledged the fact the we are only the stewards of His creations, our boat now doesn't belong to us alone but to Him as well. The Lord has become our partner in our fishing business and that He will surely lead our boat to a good catch just as He did with Peter.

My eyes were close when I was listening to his message and I couldn't do anything but to nod and agree with all that the pastor said. He even thanked us owners for building the fishing boat that could provide more jobs to the jobless and bring more food to the table.

Right before he ended his talk, the pastor said that there is no other greater partner for a business owner to have than the Good Lord.

And I strongly agree with him. Do you?