In the Christian religion, today marks the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called Easter Sunday. A quick scan at Google provide lots of information stating that long before the coming of Christianity, heathens are celebrating Easter festival in honor of a goddess named Ishtar or Astarte or Eostre (Easter in modern times). I don’t know why this festival got imbedded into the fabrics of the Christian religion but according to Internet information, it was adopted and embraced by the early Christians.
Though I’m having a difficult time connecting Easter and the Resurrection, the Easter celebration is well entrenched in Christian beliefs and doctrines. So, there is no use rustling some leaves.
Allow me therefore to digress from the above discussion. Since this is Easter Sunday or more appropriately, Resurrection day, I would like to talk about co-ops who resurrected from near death experiences and were resuscitated back to life. These co-ops are classic examples of the expression, “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” It means when there is a difficulty, the strong gets stronger in order to overcome the challenges.
One such co-op is the ADTEMPCO of Bangued, Abra. It was registered in 1985 and, for the information of those who missed last Sunday’s issue of Herald Express, it is now a certified Co-op Billionaire. The ride got bumpy at some point, like any ordinary business, and it suffered a serious financial setback sometime in the mid-1990’s. The co-op was losing heavily and the bleeding even got worse when a horde of members is withdrawing their savings deposits. The co-op went to the opposite direction, but like an arrow being stretched backwards, it reached a tipping point and miraculously sprang back to life, this time going straight to the top. It never looked back from then on.
Another co-op that shared a similar dreadful experience is the BSU Multi-Purpose Co-operative. Sometime in the mid-2000’s, the co-op incurred a negative net surplus due to some management indiscretions and loose internal control measures. The members became anxious and jittery. The withdrawal of deposits was dangerously massive. But with sheer determination, the officers persevered until the co-op arrived at a u turn down the road. From that day forward, there was no turning back. BSU MPC is now on the verge of becoming a billionaire.
There are other co-ops that went uncontrollably down and then rose again. Others never made it back to the surface after they reached rock bottom. And out of these unfortunate events, we learned one thing or two. The adage, “quitters never win, winners never quit”, is perfectly true. It is a matter of not giving up. It is being optimistic despite a very discouraging sight. It is about moving on even when most of your friends are leaving.
The great Winston Churchill composed a speech when England was under siege during World War II. One of his oft quoted speech goes this way, “when you’re going through hell, keep going”. When you are facing great adversity, do not quit, do not stop, don’t turn around. For there will be an equally great reward when you eventually come out of that hellhole.
