About Leila
I grow up on a farm and lived an ordinary life with my parents and siblings in the Philippines. When my mother was diagnosed with bone cancer and diabetes, I stopped going to school and looked after my mother.
When I was 14, I made a terrible mistake and had to run away from home. My mother died and she was buried without me seeing her body. But my mother visited me in a dream and asked me to take care of my four brothers and not to get married until they were old enough to look after themselves. Little did I know, after completed the task my mother gave me, I would get married to someone abroad and go to live in England.
It was a struggle for me to move to a new country and I did not speak good English. I also lost two close family members in the Philippines the first year I arrived England. Together me and my husband Venroy Wilks set up a business venture as well as managing day jobs. We did everything we could to provide for our son Jacky Jean, JJ. We worked hard, trying our best as most parents do. Little did we know, however, that we were putting too much effort in one area of our lives and neglecting other areas which are also important.
In 2007, we changed our plans and went home to the Philippines to live for good. My husband and I were planning to build a home for the orphans and street kids in our city in the Philippines. This was before my husband became very ill.
In 2011, I became a born again Christian in the Philippines, where I discovered life values that I did not know nor understand before. However, a strong typhoon and flood destroyed the city where we lived. Killing more than a thousand people including children and fifty thousand people lost their homes. The day after the flood, I saw lots of children died, their hands were on the rail of their houses trying to come out but did not make it. Seeing these, hurt me so much! And I made a promise that day, that I will do something for the children, as what my husband and I had planned before. That day, we’ve lost everything. My husband was very ill with kidney failure and went in and out of hospitals for dialysis treatment that we had no money to pay for. After the flood and saving our lives, a friend from England booked us our tickets to come back to England. But on the same day we arrived Ven, my husband died.
My book will take you on a journey of my life and many stormy seas I survived. My book will open your eyes to events you may never have seen before in your life, which may have contributed to your sufferings. You will discover how crucial it is to balance important life values, which I called the 5F’s. These are Faith; Family; Finance; Fitness; and Friends. My book demonstrates that when you have too much of one value dominating your life and very little of the others, you will feel empty. You will only have balance in your life and feel at peace when you live your true life purpose aligned with these five values.
After the flood and losing my husband, I have been asking myself why I am still here? And the answer is because I will build a home for the orphans and street kids in the Philippines. My husband’s dream and mine to build a home for these poor children will come to reality because this is the main reason why I have written this book, to build the orphanage, and to tell the world of how God has delivered me from life stormy seas and I am going to give out and pour out what I have given, which are new life; a hope for the future; lots of miracles; and lots of blessings. I have faith in God and I know I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.
