An Amazing Day!

Do you know why I love being a missionary so much?  Believe me, it isn't because of all of the ants and bugs, the almost intolerable heat, the language barrier or being half-way around the world from my family. All of that can be difficult (and there's more too),but all of the difficulties and challenges pale in comparison to the benefits, namely the joy of truly living out the Gospel of Christ.

Now, you can pshawww all you want, roll your eyes and not believe that what I say is true.  But I tell you with absolute certainty:  in my experience, when I attempt to live my life according to the teachings of Jesus, I am a much happier and joyful person and its much harder for bad moods and grouchiness to take over.  

Example:  Yesterday (Sunday) I spoke with Sister Minerva, who asked me if today (Monday) I could make pizza...for 200 people...by 9am!  Sure I say, with a little bit of trepidation.  On Sundays many stores close early or are closed for the day here, so shopping can be a challenge.  The only grocery

store in town was open, but didn't have ground pork or flour (not a shock!)...but these are little nuisances which were pretty easily solved.  So, I woke up around 4:30am and began making the pizzas. I had some help from the mothers and together we finished making 10 sheet pizzas, with our fantastic oven, just before 9am!!  Hip Hip Horrary!!

But I haven't told you the best part yet... we took the pizzas to the provincial jail to feed the inmates and the guards.  We also took with us our water filtering system, Water With Blessings, and did a demo on how to use them.  There is one part in the movie "Walk The Line" where "Johnny Cash" holds up a glass of water that the inmates drink during a concert at Fulton Prison, it is yellow and a little foamy at the top.  The water at this prison wasn't quite as bad as that, but almost.  We took that water and poured it through the filter, and in just minutes, it was clean, pure water.  The guards drank it and were amazed.

We served the prisoners pizza through a small hole in the wall, and...oh my, it was quite an amazing experience.  They were so grateful to receive a little piece of something new and different.  We made ground pork and garlic pizza because they are rarely served meat.  I can't even express in words the feeling I had, standing facing a wall with a tiny hole in the center, handing pizza and kindness to these men who are locked up.  I remember feeling sad that the pieces weren't that big...in fact, I only gave the big pieces to the prisoners and saved the little ones for  the guards!!  Well, most of the guards had 2 pieces while the prisoners could only receive one, so it evens out!!

After I was finished handing out the pizza to the prisoners, guards and family members who were there to visit someone, I saw Sister Minerva at the wall collecting pieces of paper.  She was looking at the prisoners' prescriptions, seeing if it was medicine we had at the Charity Pharmacy.  If we had the medicine, she kept the script and would have the medicines sent over later.  That is something Oikos does routinely, but I had no idea of that.

That part of our day ended around 11am...It seems like it should have been 5pm, it was so jam-packed with feelings, emotions and work!! 

Visiting prisoners... it is something I have never done before.  I totally could have, Buffalo has prisons too, but I never did, never thought to.  These Sisters and their mission do, they've brought their dental clinic there, they try to see to the prisoners medications, they want to have a group go in to take care of the prisoners' hair and nails, because nobody does that for them.  It's amazing, isn't it?  and yet, to the Oikos Sisters, it is just a "normal day" of giving and loving.  See?  Living the Gospel, loving others...the frustrating shopping, the getting up early, the sweating over a big oven...every single minute of that was worth it to be able to show love and kindness to some people who probably haven't seen that in a while. 

I am filled with gratitude to be shown the way, once again, to love and give to others regardless of who they are.  NO ONE IS OUSIDE OF RECEIVING LOVE.  No one.  What an awesome day!!! xxoo

Messy kitchen, as usual, but see the pizzas in the oven?? :)

Thank you, Nanay's for the help!!

 

Sister Ethel and me

Every single prisoner said thank you or God bless you to me.

That's not lemonade or juice...its their drinking water!!

Sister Ethel gives a demonstration on how to use the filters.  They last for 5 years!

Collecting prescriptions.  love in action!!

 

Ok...Now My Head Is Spinning!!

No, seriously... it is literally spinning!!!  So, after the fiesta and all of the partying and all of the recuperating (I did get a little sick after the fiesta- stomach issues and a bad cold, but I am on the mend!) the Sisters had a one day retreat.  It's been a little slow-ish here.  Going to people's houses to eat and then going home to rest...I've kind of gotten used to the flow of party mode, and I guess I forgot about mission mode.  Well, today, it hit me in the face like a frying pan!!

When the Sisters got home from their retreat and began speaking of what is going to be going on in the coming weeks, I got the feeling that they were like bulls scratching the ground with their hooves before attacking...seriously!!  Today I woke up and it has been go! go! go!!!  So, here's what's going on:

...We have been waiting for permission to take down coconut trees in the Charity Village to build a road.  This week permission was given, so this morning we went there and walked the property, marking the trees that need to come down.  Next week, the deforestation (not really, but, you know) will begin as will construction of the road.

...at the same time...the Baking Mamas are baking almost every day and have a steady client.  They want to grow their business so we will be meeting to discuss how to do that and get more clients...maybe a Baking Mama's menu!!

....at the same time...there are nanays that are interested in the baking project but don't like to bake, so they want to form the Cookin' Mamas.  They need a start-up plan and materials to begin...there is even a small canteen available for them to start cooking and selling.  They want to start yesterday. I'm looking into Filipino health codes for catering and taxes and stuff like that.  We'll be meeting with them.

...at the same time, there are quite a few bakeries in Borongan City, but in the small villages or barrios, there are none.  The sisters want to take the baking project into the barrios and teach mothers how to bake there to sell to the barrio people who don't get fresh baked bread really ever because of the difficulty in getting to Borongan.  So, the plans for that are starting and I am working on simple baking recipes to teach them.

...at the same time... On September 28th is the fiesta in our home barrio where Provedince Home is  called Sohutan.  The saint we celebrate there is St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint.  The 28th is his feast day with a big mass, a bigger dinner and the biggest dance party!!  So, the children are practicing songs and we are preparing our house and the barrio for the fiesta.

...at the same time... The people in Sohutan want to build a new chapel.  Ours is too small for the number of people we have attending...a good problem to have!!!  But it will be expensive.  So we are planning a dance on the day of the fiesta to do some fundraising for the chapel...making a presentation for the new chapel and decorations.

...at the same time...on October 4th is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.  He is the patron saint of the Oikos Sisters, so we celebrate his day in a big way.  The Novena begins on the 25th and there is a mass each night at our home in Sohutan.  We are preparing music sheets for the mass and menus for the meals after each mass.

...at the same time...remember in May when we went to South Korea and had a retreat there?  Well, a part of that was a festival celebrating the poor and homeless people.  The Sisters totally loved that idea.  So we are having our own festival for the poor...on September 30th!!  We are preparing food packs and prizes, music and decorations, food and logistics planning...

(Is your head spinning yet?)

...at the same time...the Faith program (Food Always In The Home) is wrapping up in a barrio called Surok.  Early in October we will have an awards ceremony for the people who participated.  Then, shortly after that, the piglet program will be started there.  In fact, right now assessments are going on there while the Oikos Livelihood team assesses who will be a part of the piglet program there.  It is based on prior piglet raising experience and participation in the FAITH program.  For instance, if someone has no experience in raising piglets but had shown hard work and dedication during the FAITH program, they may be eligible to be in the piggie program.

....at the same time...the Oikos Education Dep't is in full swing and the formations and help for the kids is ongoing.  We are going to be working on Christmas letters for the Oikos sponsors soon as it always takes a while to get done.

...at the same time...next week is vocation week here in Eastern Samar and a pretty large group of sisters are going all over the region speaking about vocations in general and their particular order in particular.  That will be every day next week.  I hope to be able to go a day or two.

....but at the same time, I have to get to Tacloban, about 4 hours away, to extend my passport.  I'll probably be going next week on Tuesday and will stay overnight.

....at the same time, when I arrived, I stayed in the mission house in Sohutan, Providence Home, because there was a visitor using my room in our mission house in the city, Nazareth.  Well, the visitor is gone, so now I am packing my things up again to move to the other house.

...at the same time, people are coming to our door for rice, for money for fares, they are coming to the pharmacy and Sister Michelle's dental clinic is open for the poor, boxes from caring supporters full of great things for the mission are arriving and have to be gone through and organized, the students are in constant need of help and love, and so life goes on....

I mean, can you believe it???  Now, I'm not involved with everything listed above, but enough that, yes, my head is spinning!!  And, most likely, because I usually am the last person to find out anything, there are even more things going on.  Yikes!!!

Anyways, this is my life for now.  It's busy, and it can be crazy, and it can be overwhelming...but it is fun and these are such great people to go crazy with!!!  God is good, Sabu!!!!  Xxoo

The Path To The Baking Mamas

The path God takes us on is not always clear to us, it doesn’t always make sense.  Sometimes amid the trials and roadblocks of life, we can even ask, “What can God be thinking?”  But every once in a while we are given the grace to understand His thinking, to be enlightened to the wisdom of His Will for us.  I had such an experience, and it has led me to where I am now. 

When I was a young girl, I used to play "school" with my younger brothers and sisters, my friends, and when they grew tired of me, even my teddy bears and dolls!  As the teacher, I used to give them assignments to do and send them into the corner they were not acting like good students…I don’t know why they put up with me!!  Because of this, I naturally was drawn to the field of education.  I became an elementary teacher and taught in Catholic Schools in Buffalo, NY for 10 years.  Gradually, I lost my spirit for teaching.  I began catering for the events of my friends and little by little, cooking took over my life.  I stopped teaching and continued catering and working in restaurants.  I am sure many, many people in my life were scratching their heads thinking, what is she doing?  She has a good career that she is good at, why change?  I couldn’t answer them.  Truthfully, I didn’t know why I made such a drastic career change.  I was just following my intuition.  Little did I know it was the Holy Spirit preparing me for something more.

A new desire entered my heart.  I felt very strongly that one day I wanted to combine my skills in education with my love of cooking.  I didn’t know how it would work itself out, but I kept thinking about it for quite a few years.  Perhaps I would end up in a community center teaching young children to cook or work as a culinary school teacher, but the desire grew in me and I became restless thinking about it.  Never in my wildest imaginings did I ever, ever think God would fulfill this desire in me in the missions…but He did!  And when that happened, I could see the handprint of God on the twisty road that my life had become.  No longer was I questioning why my interests changed so much.  God was preparing me to be of use in His mission with His poor.  He gave me the grace to see that.

When I became involved with the Oikos Mission here in Borongan, I was astounded at all of the ministries they have to help and love the poor.  From medical assistance to feeding programs, educational sponsorships to building homes, their mission to be conduits of God’s love to His poor was, and is, absolutely amazing to me.  I became involved with the Livelihood Ministry, helping to teach the poor new livelihoods because they had lost everything as a result of Typhoon Yolanda and Typhoon Ruby.  The Piglet Recycling Program teaches beneficiaries how to raise and breed piglets and in FAITH, Food Always In The Home, the poor are taught organic fruit and vegetable growing.  The participants of these programs are aided by Oikos.  They may be given piglets, feeds, education and seeds, along with encouragement and support during the course of the program, but the beneficiaries have to do the lion’s share of the work.  If they are unwilling to work, they will not succeed, but when they succeed, it is with a great feeling of pride in themselves, restored dignity and, most importantly, a way to provide for their families.

Little by little, I began cooking and baking for the members of the Oikos mission, and an inspired idea entered into the minds of the Oikos Sisters, who are always sensitive to the whispers of the Holy Spirit.  They had been looking for a way to provide poor mothers with a livelihood endeavor to help their families, and once they saw all of the baking I could do, they quickly resolved to offer a baking livelihood to the mothers.  Here with these hard-working women, I teach them how to bake.  So far, we have made baked empanadas, pizza (American-style), a few kinds of cookies and a special bread that can be sweet or savory, cinnamon or garlic parmesan.  We have been selling our empanadas in the city of Borongan with great success!!  And we are on the verge of adding to our menu with the new things I have taught them.  After writing about this new endeavor in my blog, a friend of mine from high school contacted me to donate a new oven to the mothers.  We had been using two toaster ovens, and now we have an upright oven that can hold 6 large trays at once!  I can see the joy on the mothers faces with each new recipe learned and perfected, and I can almost feel the hope they feel in the future, in really finding a way to help their families.  With the help and support of the Oikos mission, these mothers have a wonderful opportunity to provide for their families and I have a sense of peace that I have found the desire I had all those years ago. 

One of these days, I am going to stop questioning the workings of God and just live happily in His awesomeness...  One of these days...  xxoo

This is Nanay Norma, one of the Baking Mamas!  Norma is a single parent of 9 children, 6 of whom are still in school.  She is making boku empanadas (fresh coconut)...one of Borongan's favorites!!

 

To God Be The Glory!!!

 

 

Fiesta Update, with pictures!!

We did indeed have a happy fiesta!  Here are some pictures of our great feasting!!

Roselyn, a high school scholar of Oikos walking in the parade!

All of Borongan is decorated for the fiesta!!

 

Ate Joselle is a baton-twirler in the parade!

And Aron plays the drums... its not easy to keep the beat while walking!!

First year high school student Angel is proud to walk with her school!

Bystanders having a good time!

The following pictures are taken of the schools participating in the dance competition.



Inside the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral in Borongan, Eastern Samar

Happy Birthday Mama Mary!!

Fiesta Time in Borongan!

In just a few days, we in Borongan will be celebrating the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is on September 8^th.  Every town in the Philippines, every little village even, has a feast day.  The people of that area pick a saint who is the patron of their village or city, they ask that saint to pray for them, and on the feast day of their saint they have a big, big fiesta!!  Momma Mary is the patron saint of Borongan.  I think I wrote about it on my first trip, but to recap… in the 1800’s there was a plague in Borongan among the children and many were dying.  One day, some townspeople saw a woman dressed in white bathing in the village spring.  They called out to her and she got out of the spring and crossed the street into the church.  Following her, they opened the door to the church and entered and found not the woman, but a statue of her, it was Momma Mary.  One of the people ran and brought her sick child to the spring and bathed him in it, and he was cured!  And so it was that all of the sick children were cured through the miracle of Momma Mary.  Recently, during the 2013 Super Typhoon Yolanda, the most powerful typhoon ever recorded to date, all of the eastern coastline of our island was totally wiped out, except for Borongan, which is in the center of the coastline.  People said they saw a woman in white with an umbrella walking up and down the beach just a few blocks from where I live, and Borongan was saved from the destruction of the super typhoon.  These people have a powerful love of Mary, and they celebrate the day of her birth wholeheartedly!!

People are making preparations for the fiesta.  Children are practicing for all of the parades, choirs are practicing their songs for all of the masses, schools are practicing their dance performances wherein they compete to see who can best put to dance the story I told above, and houses are being cleaned, food is being prepared, oh my…the whole city is in preparation mode.  People come here from all over the Philippines to celebrate with us.  Oikos is no different.  Our children are preparing, our mothers are cleaning and cooking with the Sisters right along with them.  It is truly a whirlwind of constant movement!  And while the “normal”, “everyday” things are going on, everyone is getting caught up in the hubbub.

At times like this, where we are cleaning and cooking and preparing, it can be easy to think that we are missionaries forgoing our mission, being caught up in the goings-on of the town and not doing missionary work.  But, here’s the thing… just because we are not going off to far flung barrios, doing dental and medical missions, bringing food and clothes to the poor, it doesn’t mean that we aren’t doing missionary work.  Even in the mundane tasks of everyday life, we are called to be missionaries, all of us.  So, even though we are on “fiesta mode,” we still stop to give a kind word to someone in need of cheering up, we still give what we have to those who come to our door, we still spend time with our children and see to their needs.  Even if your job title does not include the word “missionary,” that is what we are all called to be.  Caring for others, sharing our faith, stopping our busyness to help a person in need. 

Today is September 5^th…from here on out, it’s going to get pretty crazy, and I plan on joining in the fray of all of the movement and noise and joyfulness, with my eyes and my heart open to the needs of those around me.  Ikaw gihap? (the same with you?) xoxo

Its Back to Work for Me!

Well...I'm baaaaaccckk!!  In July I returned home to Buffalo to do fundraising through the Catholic Church's mission appeals for the Oikos Mission.  I spoke at three different churches for three consecutive weekends.  Everywhere I went people were so giving and receptive.  It was great!  Then I was able to spend a few weeks with my family before returning to the Philippines to finish my missionary year.  It was an unexpected trip home, and I had a wonderful time!!

Sometimes I feel like a yo-yo.  Going back and forth, to and fro, from the U.S. to the Philippines.  Every time I get to Buffalo, settle in, get used to the life and movement there, it's time to go back to the Philippines.  And it seems the same is true in the reverse.  It's dizzying.  And yet, I cannot imagine life without my family in America or without my family in Borongan.  But then I flip the coin and see how incredibly lucky I am to have such beautiful people in my life, that I am, amazingly enough, given the means to travel and have people who love me in both places.   The negative image of the yo-yo falls away in the face of all of those blessings.  ...just some musings...

Anyways, I'm back in the Philippines and have noticed something.  It's not really anything that's new to me.  Sometimes I can see the same thing many times and  at the 10th time I've seen it, I am moved in a particular way.  Looking out of my hotel room this morning...(yes, the Oikos Sisters get a hotel room for me the day I arrive so I can rest from my travels and build up my strength from the weariness of moving half way around the world...more blessings)...anyways, looking out of my hotel room this morning, the first thing I saw was color.  The amazing, vibrant, almost shocking color of the dock here in Tacloban, Western Samar in the Philippines.  The boats are painted in a vast array of bright and eye-catching colors.  Sitting in the port, as the early morning sunshine beams down and casts a reflection on the gently rippling crystal blue water, the colors of these boats are magnified, almost too pretty to look at.  Then you notice the people, dressed in summery clothes in consideration of the humid Filipino heat, carrying baskets of fruits and vegetables to sell, pulling carts full of the same, hoping to sell enough to survive the day.  And the birds, chittering and flying about, waiting for the perfect opportunity to grab a tidbit for themselves.  It is a dazzling sight.  Then, your eyes are almost blinded by the reflection of the morning sun on metal, tin to be exact.  See, all along the beautifully colored dock with the beautiful people and birds, are tiny shacks with tin roofs.  People, families, live in these tiny shacks along the road next to the sea.  And once again I see the dichotomy of the world.  How can beauty and destitution live so close to each other?  How can something seen at 4 floors up look so peaceful and idyllic, and yet in reality, is bordering on death.  And where do I fit in in all of this??  

It seems, even on my second day here, I am face to face with a stark reality.  What am I doing here?  What is my purpose here? 

You know, a few weeks ago, my mother had a dinner in which she invited me and my nieces and nephew who have been doing some missionary work  (Passing on the torch!!!) to share about our missionary experiences.  Anyways, after the stories about the work that we had all done, stories of hope and stories of sadness, a question was staring us all in the face.  What's it all for?  What difference did I make?  If any???

I remembered a quote from St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would  be less without that one drop."

Love.  I came here to love.  To live love.  That's all.  It's what we are all supposed to do wherever we are.  To love one another.  Whether it is in our hometowns or half way around the world, in the workplace or on vacation, we are called to love/. And when we do that, when love is the motivation for what we do, anything we do is enough.  We may never know in this life what difference we made in the lives of others, in the world...but you can rest assured that when you act out of love, you do make a difference in someone's life, in the world, even in yourself!  That's what it's all for!!! Xxoo