By Beth Sabado

Beth Sabado is a Columban Lay Missionary from Pagadian City. A registered nurse, she is based in Taiwan where she works at the Hope Workers’ Center.

One of the highlights of my stay in Pagadian during my home vacation in the Philippines was the regular gatherings I had with my high school batch-mates. I definitely consider this group to be my second family because of the friendship that we’ve established through the years. With them, I feel comfortable enough to share both the easy and tough times, and just be myself. One day, we agreed to visit a classmate. I was so excited to meet him after 26 years. But just before the visit, some of our batch mates who regularly visit Jovito said, ‘His situation is really unfortunate. You might cry in front of him. Heaven forbid, don’t’.

Most of us have significant dates we remember. For priests and those in religious life religious it would be the dates of their ordination and final vows, for most people their birthdates, for married couple their anniversaries, and so on. These dates are well remembered and observed mostly with a special meal or a celebration. But there are also those who remember significant dates because of a misfortune, a disaster, a loss. Either way, one event in one’s life can mark a new beginning, a new unfolding, a change.

Beth (at the center) with her high school batchmates

By Gertrudes Samson

‘Ger’ Samson, from Balintawak, Quezon City, is an architect by profession and went to England as a Columban Lay Missionary in 2010. Here she writes about her experience with asylum seekers in Birmingham.

By Mary Joy Rile

There can be no peace without equitable development; and there can be no development without sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space. This shift is an idea whose time has come. ~ Wangari Maathai ~

Mindanao, Ang Yutang Gisaad, ‘The Land of Promise’ to its people. The many stories I grew up with – of the diverse natural beauty, the multi-cultural nature, the many stories of struggles, frustrations, hopes and successes – in that part of the country fed my curious mind and a longtime dream of landing on Mindanao soil. That dream was granted when Anne Gubuan, our assistant editor, and I reached Ozamiz City on 24 June, our first stop. We were to visit different areas where Columbans are present. And on 27 June I went to Midsalip, Zamboanga del Sur.

Fr Gil Rochar Pancho-Dulay, SVD

The author, an SVD priest ordained in December 2008, is from Baybay, Bulan Sorsogon. He is currently parish priest of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Salegseg, Balbalan, Kalinga, and director of St Theresita’s School there. Here he tells of his experience when he was assigned to the Mountain Province.

The thought of the Cordilleras haunted me through my childhood and seminary days, even though one of my motives for joining the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) was to be assigned to a foreign mission. Before ordination we were asked to write our preferred countries of assignment. I wrote Mexico as my first choice, China as my second and lastly, the Philippines. I hadn’t specified any of the three SVD provinces in the Philippines but our prefect insisted I do so, in case my other first two choices would not materialize. Mesmerized and enchanted by the beauty and culture of the Cordilleras, I immediately wrote ‘Northern Province’. It’s the place that captivated my adventurous spirit one summer when I was assigned to Calanasan, Apayao.