Three times in a row, she encountered Jesus in quite ordinary circumstances. It left her wondering: What is the meaning of all these? Is she receiving a divine message? Must she enter the nunnery next?

Ivana Alawi (Facebook)

Young actress Ivana Alawi still can’t get over the fact that in her line of charitable work, she would come across the name of Jesus three times in a row recently. The young actress is known for giving away expensive gifts and cash money to people she meets along the way in the course of her filming.

It all started when Ivana posed as a street dweller doing content for one of her vlogs. Feeling lost and hungry under the noonday sun, she pretended she was going to pass out. An elderly man seated nearby asked her if she wanted to eat.“Yes, but I don’t have money,” she said.

The old man, who introduced himself as Jesus, offered to help her. He fished out 20 pesos from his 

pocket and handed it to her. He was left with only 10 pesos.

Such an act of kindness had a lasting effect on her. She couldn’t get it off her mind that someone with so little and so poor, who had nothing in life, would go the extra mile to help her.

When she finished the shoot, Ivana thanked the old man profusely. To the man’s utter surprise, she promised to help him. He didn’t know what had hit him when Ivana said she was going to buy him a small lot. Not only that. She would also build him a house. That would be a good excuse for the old man to leave the city and go back home.

The old man couldn’t believe what he had just heard. He thought it was nothing more than a promise meant to be broken, if not a bad joke from a fellow stranger.

Done with the shoot and soot, Ivana, a Filipino-Morrocan mestiza, repaired at a nearby hotel, ordinary, neither nice nor special.

She entered the lobby not expecting much. It was after all, not any of those swanky hotels she had been accustomed to.  As her eyes wandered around the lobby, she was struck by a certain vision.

Displayed on one side of the lobby were paintings, images, of Jesus Christ all over the place. While taking a quick shower, the thought hovered in her mind.“What do these things mean,” she wondered. “Why am I engulfed with all these coincidences?”

Could they be a foreshadowing of a series of fortunate or unfortunate events? She shuddered at the thought as she wrapped a towel around her waist, stepping out of the shower.

Next step was finding the right person to build old man Jesus’ house.Ivana’s next step was to look for a small lot in the old man’s hometown.

Home is somewhere in Camarines Sur.

She shopped around and the first person she met who wanted to sell her a piece of property was a man called Jesus.

Next, Ivana and her small team looked far and wide, trying to find a proper builder. What do you know? The man they found to their liking was named, what else but another Jesus!

She asked her spiritual adviser, a Catholic priest, what's it all about. He told her, “Jesus is guiding you.”I

Ivana’s kindness marked by repeated acts of charity to everyday people sets her apart from her peers in the industry. So young, so full of heart.  The actress will be seen next in a forthcoming ABS-CBN series, ‘Love is Never Gone,’ opposite Joshua Garcia.