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Francis Arnaiz
Leo Arnaiz
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Remember Francis
Arnaiz, Philippine basketball hall-of-famer and NCAA and
PBA superstar of the Seventies and Eighties? Francis is
back in the Philippines for the first time in 18 years
since he left to start a completely new life in California,
USA. The former long-haired mestizo Ateneo-bred cager
who made colegialas scream and swoon, shared that he was
an insecure, self-centered boy who actually felt worthless
and empty even in the midst of all the adulation and trophies.
"I didn't want people to get close to me because
I thought that if they found out what I was really like,
they wouldn't really like me," he shares. Francis
sought to fill the inner vacuum with drugs and alcohol
taken in small, manageable doses while he was still a
basketball superstar.
But when he left for the United States in 1986 joining
wife Cynthia and their children, there were no sports
or fans to stop him from self-destructing. And soon the
second marriage deteriorated. "I hit bottom. I couldn't
string enough thoughts together that made sense, I had
no place to live," he remembers. He enrolled himself
in a 90-day drug rehab program, but on the very first
day, before the sessions had even started, he saw a poster
on the wall. "It's the usual Alcoholics Anonymous
poster that says, one, 'I have come to recognize that
my life is unmanageable. Two. I've decided to surrender
my life to a higher power.' When I read the second sentence,
something clicked in my mind-can that be Jesus? I went
to my room, cried out to the Lord. While praying, I saw
a hand holding out to me and a Voice that said 'Hold on
to My hand, have faith in me and all will be well."
Francis took that hand. "I entered and rested in
a womb of bliss. For the first time in my life, I felt
secure, at peace, accepted. I needed the Shepherd and
He found me."
That day, Francis experienced an amazing one-day deliverance
from a nearly 20-year bondage to drugs, alcohol and angst.
"I felt reborn, like a small kid saying, so this
is what the world is all about. I saw the sun, birds,
everything in a new light. The tears flowed and I said
Jesus, thank you." From that day on, Christ restored
Francis' life, family, and gave him true self-esteem and
the grace to love others. "When I was a basketball
superstar, I wouldn't go out of my way to hug a fan. But
now God has put His love in my heart for people."
The rest of his story is the subject of a future The 700
Club Asia program.
Many basketball aficionados still remember the good-looking,
fleet-footed Francis, but how many remember his younger
brother Leo? Two years younger Leo, handsome and athletic
in his own right, but hamstrung by a nagging inferiority
complex and jealousy for the fame and adulation accorded
his older bro, hated Francis and also turned to drugs
and booze.. Until he unexpectedly stumbled into the greatest
high of all, leading him to start trophy-winning basketball
camps for out-of-school kids, a fellowship called "Addicted
to Jesus" in Baguio, and praying daily for his still
estranged and drugged-out older brother Francis. Leo and
Francis, at odds most of their growing-up life, come together
for a rare time of bonding, fun, fellowship and reminiscing
about their years of sibling rivalry, healing and new
life in Christ on
The 700 Club Asia. That episode, hosted by Chat
Silayan Bailon replays this Sunday, April 18, 8:00
AM on Studio 23 and 8:15 AM Pacific Time on The Filipino
Channel cable abroad. There will also be a replay
on Wednesday, April 21, 4:00 PM, on Zoe TV 11.
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ASIA IS HERE FOR YOU!
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