Immigrant Spouses Journeying Towards Employment
By Necita A. Fetalvero
Necita or Cita, originally from Tubod, Lanao del Norte, Philippines, has a degree in Psychology. She joined the Columban Lay Mission orientation program in 2001. During her first and second mission terms in Korea she worked with the urban poor, based in a mission parish in Seoul. She facilitated liturgies and visited the elderly. She taught English to poor children and was also involved in Catholic scouting, which assists youth programs in the parish and in schools. After her sixth year as a Columban lay missionary she began to minister to multi-cultural families in Ganghwa Island. She writes about that here.
Cita is now home for good after nine years of mission work in Korea. She left the Columban Lay Missionaries to look after her aging and ailing parents. Her father was paralyzed by a stroke 20 years ago and his condition deteriorated last year. Her mother is suffering from diabetes and is scheduled for an eye operation soon.
Cita (far right) and Fr Laurence Kettle OFMCap with some Filipino women married to Koreans.
receive the body which arrived at 9.30pm. Beginning that night and during the following three days over 400,000 people filed past the coffin to pay their respects. It was an unprecedented display of affection and respect for the man they called the ‘kun orun’(literally the ‘great elder’). People of all religious persuasions, young and old alike, came to see him for the last time. The cathedral was full and the church yard was overflowing for the funeral on the Friday the 21st which was broadcast live on all the networks. 
The Columban Superior General says understanding other religions helps us better understand God. This is an extract from an interview by Father Barry Maguire, now the editor of the Columban magazine in Korea.
When Columban priests in Manila talk about Columban lay missionary Columba Chang, they’ll sometimes refer to her as ‘Saint Columba’, a bit of a tongue-in-cheek reference to the sixth century Irish saint who shares her baptismal name. Very few of them know that she’s actually named after Kim Hyo-im (Columba), one of the canonized Korean martyrs. (See ‘box’). Mostly, however, it’s a token of the genuine respect and admiration for the 49-year-old from Seoul, South Korea, and the exemplary life they have seen her live the past 16 years.
Sister Ignatius wrote in May-June about her experiences in Africa and South America. She’s now back in her native Asia, but in a country very different from the Philippines, Korea. You can learn more about the Church in Korea and the persecutions there on 
Part of my Mission Orientation Program as a trainee Columban lay missionary was the ‘Mindanao Exposure’ when our team, ‘RP 16’, experienced different programs and activities of the Church there. These included Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) and the involvement of Columbans in different areas. This is my reflection on our Interfaith Dialogue of Life in Marawi with our Maranao Muslim brothers and sisters.