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Veronica Ugates

Troubled Times In Libya, A Journey Of Faith

By Veronica Ugates

The news of civil unrest in Tunisia and Egypt had but started to impinge on our consciousness. My husband and I decided to stock up on rice, supplied mainly by Egypt, as we were sure the price would go up. We bought five sacks, 125 kilos. As a further precaution we bought about 20 dressed chickens, meat and canned goods. The freezer and kitchen shelves were full and we went on with our normal life.

On 17 February the trouble in Libya started, first in Benghazi. We were apprehensive but hoped everything would be fine. Then classes were disrupted with parents taking their children out of school. Our daughter who worked in an international school reported until 27 February but no longer received her salary. Nobody was there to pay it.

Lufthansa Encounter

By Veronica Ugates

The author is one of Misyon’s regular contributors. She has recently come up with her own magazine, HEROES – a magazine dedicated to our overseas Filipino workers. It has an online version, www.heroesmag.com. She is currently working on her book Questions Women Ask About Their Men.

Lufthansa flights from the Philippines to Tripoli have two stopovers, one in Bangkok and the other 
in Dusseldorf. Returning to Tripoli on the second leg of my trip, I was seated beside a Malaysian lady.

Apparently, she had been observing what I was doing and after I had prayed the rosary she asked me, ‘You’re Catholic, right? What makes you different from others?’ I replied, ‘Hello! Oh, there would be a number of things but I’d venture to say our faith is the most difficult to follow yet it is most practical’.

WYD – Tripoli Style

By Veronica C. Ugates


The 'Kabayan Kids' presented the 'Visit of the Mag' with great gusto.

The author is Senior Nurse at Veba Oil Operations in Tripoli. She was one of twelve Bagong BayaniAwardees in 2005. These are given each year by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to outstanding Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). As she couldn’t be present at at Malacañang on 2 December, Father Arturo Cunca OFM accepted the award from President Arroyo on her behalf.

Close Encounter With The Teenage Kind

By Veronica Ugates

Libya, whose economy is dominated by oil, forms part of the vast Northern African Plateau extending from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. About 90% of the population lives in and around the coastal cities, especially Tripoli and Benghazi. Veronica Ugates has been living there for two decades now. She wrote for Misyon a few years ago and now she shares with us once again how she and her family are doing . . .


Veronica Ugates

When our daughter was about 14 we started to feel the lack of social life for a teenage girl. We observed that the youth program of the Church had not pushed through due to many hindrances, one of which was the lack of personnel. So we offered our services and reactivated the St Francis Youth Ministry in October 2002.

The Couples Reach Libya

By Veronica Ugates

Libya is on the north coast of Africa. At one time, a couple of thousand years ago, it was part of the Roman Empire. In fact that was where St. Augustine’s famous city of Hippo was. Today it is a Muslim country but Christians are allowed a little room for movement, quite unlike some other countries in North Africa. Veronica Ugates, together with a Filipino community there through a beautiful spiritual experience had got involved in the Couples for Christ. The Couples for Christ is an organization which tries to help husband and wife to pull together in the same direction, to bring their life in line with Christ and supports family values in the light of the Gospel. A great organization. Here you will see how it flourishes even in the deserts of far-of Libya.