The Art of Surrender

At 45, he laughs at his receding hairline.  The sight of two-day old black and gray facial hair stubbles immediately tells that he is no longer a teenager one may mistake him for.   The wrinkles deeply etched on his face reveal a life filled with smiles and hearty laughter.  His life, more importantly, proves how a man born with the hands of an extraordinary artist can choose to let go of his paintbrush so he can take off his shoes, bend over and pick up his cross.

Edgardo “Eddie” Trasporte, even as a child, was as shy as he was inquisitive.  His insatiable thirst for knowledge allowed him to discover his atypical abilities at a very young age.  Until the time he could actually read and write, scribbling figures on walls in an attempt to form sentences became a hobby for the young artist.  Building his own toys turned out to be something that nurtured his ingenuity as a child.

“Life was hard then.  I had to wait months before I was able to buy a toy soldier to ride my toy car,” Eddie vividly reminisces.  “I remember I had only two options: wish or improvise.  This potent mixture of imagination and improvisation really did [shape] my creative side.”

From the little boy who got spanked for doodling on walls too much, Eddie grew up being praised by his teachers for his amazing talent in the visual arts.  From participating regional art contests to having his high school projects framed and still hung on the walls of his alma mater, Eddie showed a promising future with his hands.

But Eddie’s talent was not limited to what his eyes and hands are capable of creating, his ears also earned him praises for he was a talented man of music as well.  People are left agape as Eddie displays his skills in handling the guitar, most especially when they observe how he also manages to use his thumb on the bass strings as he plays the instrument to create a fuller sound.

             When he reached college, Eddie was hired part-time by two of his art professors in the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, Philippines.  One hired him to be the art director for an advertising company.  The other hired him to be an in-house designer/artist for Habagat, which is presently one of the country’s most popular manufacturers of outdoor equipment.  Habagat, in fact, is still using the logo Eddie designed.

            Extending to one wall in the fourth floor of the Ayala Mall in Cebu, Eddie’s amazing talent created a large painting of a man in a baseball game.  The painting earned praises from people who passed by and paused to admire the realistic canvas beside the popular Taters store.

Eddie got his big break when he joined a Japanese animation company where he eventually got promoted as the animation supervisor.  For the artist, his ingenious works were well-compensated by his salary and achievements.

“In my five years in the animation industry, I did a lot of Japanese cartoons which [had] difficult titles I mostly couldn’t remember.  Some cartoon flicks that reached the Philippine tubes were:  Megaman, Street Fighter, Slam Dunk, Gundam, Batman, The Little Mermaid, The Goof Troop, some Warner bros. and Walt Disney titles, to name a few.  We even supplied animations for some European, Australian and American cartoon studios. It was a great experience.”

If there was one word to perfectly highlight what Eddie’s life was all about, one would immediately think of it as “color” or “fame” or “talent.”  But, no.  Anyone who knew Eddie’s experiences would definitely agree that the perfect word to describe his life would be “surrender.”

“God’s calling has been with me for many years but I just kept on ignoring it because of reasons I thought were of more importance. I had needs and big dreams and plans and I thought serving Him would mean giving them up altogether. But God, in His own mysterious way, slowly and patiently made me realize that I don’t have to worry about them for He is taking care of all my needs, and that all I have to do is trust the One who I claim to be my Shepherd.”

In 1999, Eddie and his supportive wife Elsa were faced with the challenge of starting a Young Life ministry in Iloilo City, a good 13 hours away from Cebu where they had settled.  This is the same Christian ministry that led the artist into God’s saving arms back in 1982 and the one ministry the couple has been passionately involved in for years.  Eddie and Elsa gave it a go.

“The fear of facing the uncertainties was never absent. But He promised in Isaiah 58:11, ‘I will guide you and satisfy you with good things. I will keep you strong and well. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water that never runs dry.’  Transferring all our things from Cebu to Iloilo was even more difficult than the decision itself.”

 Eddie now works with Young Life-Iloilo as a full time volunteer under the Area Director—you guessed it—Elsa.  A week in his life today means holding club meetings with the youth, leading Bible studies and giving free guitar and art lessons to interested kids.

Every year, Eddie is given the opportunity to pay it forward and share to the youth his life-changing experience during that 1982 Young Life camp.  He does this by serving as part of the program staff in at least three week-long camps Young Life Pilipinas holds annually.  He puts to great use his innate creativity by decorating the campsite, setting the mood of the environment, and painting huge canvases of remarkably realistic sceneries as backdrops to match the themes of the camps.  Supposedly worth thousands of pesos, Eddie does all these for free.

In Eddie’s life, his works of art will never measure up to the eternal worth of his works of heart.  For the passionate man of talent, their decision to follow Christ gave the Lord enough room to perform His holy will in and through their lives.  At 45, Eddie has been in the ministry for more than half of his life. 

“But there’s more beyond all these that makes everything worthwhile—it is watching firsthand God’s miracle unfold as teens are slowly changed before your eyes.  What did I sacrifice? I could hardly remember I did.”