One could call it blind faith. But that would be like making fun — and pun — of a person’s misfortune. 

And tantamount to dismissing Graham Nash’s commentary: ‘Tis sacrilege for us to take advantage of the blind. 

But how else could it be deemed? A boy from Dinalupihan, born, he was later told, with generational hereditary blindness along with three of his five brothers (one of the three lost his eyesight when he was in Grade 6), navigating the world in darkness, never beholding the faces of their father   and mother, who both had normal vision and whose gentle love kept the family together through the greatest of challenges. How did he manage to come from such extreme circumstances to become a preacher, a man who spreads the Word and offers comfort to the homeless, the sick, and those behind bars? 

Rosano Yumul, 38, grew up groping for the light he never found. Until faith showed him the way. 

Now he walks in that spiritual glow. 

From his childhood years when he and a sibling, one of the two who could see, peddled hot pandesal on the streets of Bataan from a sidecar bike — [“Ako po ang pumipidal, yung kapatid ko nasa sidecar at guide sa manibela, pumipisil ng preno at kumukuha ng bayad sa bumibili,” Rosano says.] (I would be pedaling while my brother steered the handlebar and squeezed the brakes.) —  to his present undertaking as owner-masseur of massage clinics at Farmer’s Plaza and Ali Mall in Cubao, and another at Robinson’s Town Center in San Carlos, Pangasinan, Yumul, who is married with two sons of his own, both with normal vision, has gone a long way from the boy who couldn’t even venture out to play. 

“Di ako makalaro sa labas kasi lagi akong natitisod, nadadapa at nababangga,” he says. (I couldn’t play outside because I always bump into something.) 

Rosano initially embraced the dark world he inhabits until he started noticing things he is incapable being part of, like romping with other kids outside. 

Out of the question as well was a formal education. 

“Wala pong nakapag-aral sa’min na magkakapatid na bulag sa normal school,” he says. “Sariling kaalaman lang at sa mga nakakasalamuha.” (We didn’t have any formal education, only self-learning.) 
His parents found a way to help him cope with his condition, however. 

With the help of the DSWD, Yumul, 14 at the time, and two of his brothers were brought to a DSWD-affiliated school for the visually-impaired in Cabalan, Olongapo, some 25 kilometers from their home, staying for five days a week, learning, among others, about mobility and orientation. There he learned that there were other children, many more, who shared his predicament. 

“First time ko lang malayo sa magulang, mahirap po,” he recalls. “Lagi akong umiiyak.” (It was hard being away from my parents.) 

At first, his father, a palay farmer who earns ₱125 a day for backbreaking work, and mother, who accepts laundry, took him to school at the start of the week and picked him up for the weekend. Eventually, Yumul learned how to commute on his own. 

The world was his to conquer from thereon. 

He ultimately became a certified massage therapist, working in hotels and hospitals around Olongapo before hitting a bump. 

When “foreigners” — the last remaining US servicemen — left Olongapo, Yumul says, work became scarce and he was forced to return to Dinalupihan and resume selling hot pandesal for a living up until 2007. 

A window of opportunity then opened for him when a social worker brought Yumul to Manila, got him enrolled at the Ephpheta Foundation for the Blind Inc. in Project 4, Quezon City where he trained in massage therapy for six months, graduated among the top of his class and landed jobs at Harrison Plaza in Pasay City, an Ephpheta-Rotary clinic in Katipunan, Quezon City, and in various malls and clinics in Dasmarinas, Cavite and Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. 

It was in Cabanatuan in 2010 where Rosano met his future wife, Lilibeth, and the couple now have two sons, Yeshua, 19, and Ralph, 10. 

While in Nueva Ecija in late 2013, Yumul got a call from a brother, a masseur at Farmer’s Plaza, and was told that the owner of the massage clinic in the mall was looking to turn over her business and was looking for a prospective buyer. 

Yumul met with the lady owner, whose husband had passed away a few months ago, and an arrangement was quickly made for Rosano to assume ownership. By then he was a licensed massage therapist — a dream of his — having breezed through in 2012 the board examination — theoretical and practical — where the multiple choice theoretical exam was in folders with holes to shade with a pen as designed by instructors from Ateneo.

He and his wife called the place PJoy’s Massage and Reflexology in honor of a family friend in the United States named Pauline Joy who helped raise the capital needed for them to purchase the clinic. Branches were soon opened in nearby Ali Mall and in San Carlos, Pangasinan, giving more than a dozen masseurs work opportunities. 

All the while, as the swirl of finding his own place in the darkness and establishing a future for his family was consuming him, something else was motivating Rosano Yumul deeply, something that was seared into his heart and mind when he was barely eight-years-old, attending bible study with friends in households in Dinalupihan to avail of free hot lugaw and fruit juice, memorizing multiple verses on weekdays and competing with other kids in reciting passages on Saturdays. 

“Laruan at candy po,” Rosano says laughing when asked what prizes were given to winners. 

Yumul, who knows the Braille system, went on to become a noted preacher, sharing the Word of God to families in Dinalupihan and Lubao, Pampanga where he met a respected pastor who further encouraged Rosano’s growing passion for ministry work. 

Nowadays, on weekends, Yumul and his small group can be found either doing street Bible study with homeless folks on the Baywalk along Roxas Blvd., addressing congregations in churches in Pangasinan, Antipolo and Cubao or providing words of comfort to Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) in prisons in Pampanga, Bataan and Quezon City.

It’s a never-ending commitment to what he was introduced to as a boy. 

“Maaga po akong nataniman ng Word of God,” says Yumul. “Kaya pinaparamdam namin, halimbawa sa mga homeless, na kahit isang taong bulag ay nakakatulong sa kanilang spiritual at konting financial na pangangailangan. Kaya huwag silang mawawalan ng pag-asa at pananampalataya.” (Having learned about the Word of God early, I preach, say to the homeless, to look at me, a blind man doing ministry work, and not lose hope and faith because I haven’t.) 

For Rosano Yumul, his hands may provide therapeutic relief to the weary body, but it is the words that come from his mouth that calm the spirit and soothe the soul. 

Does he regret being born blind? Not since I was 18 when I became a Christian, he says. 

Blind faith? Guess one can call it that.