By Fr. Bart Pastor

Fr. Bart Pastor runs the Family of God Little Children – a charismatic community in Tacloban Leyte (1977). He shares with us the importance of the Holy Spirit in all our, work, especially if we are involved in the Social Gospel. His commitment to social transformation goes way back to the early seventies. But he tells us that along the way back he had much to learn. He went down some dead ends, but in the end the Holy Spirit led him to a more wholistic approach to his priestly vocation.

By Ed Locsin

Ed Locsin is a well –known evangelizer in Bacolod, Negros. He is much love for his gentle and modest approach. Here he shares with us, at the invitation of the Editor, his life’s journey.

Our father had always encouraged us four boys to be independent and self-sufficient. He did not have an hacienda for us to inherit so he pushed us to work hard for a college education. My three brothers all earned their college degrees and Dad expected me to have one, too. However, unlike my brothers and sisters, I did not have the inclination or drive for study. I was impatient to get on with life. Besides, I knew that I was not cut out to be an employee. I wanted to be an entrepreneur and the sooner I got started, the sooner I could realize my goal. After high school, my father allowed me to go to Honolulu and enroll at the University of Hawaii and take up Agricultural engineering, this because of my love for machines. The plan was for me to get my bachelor’ degree in Hawaii and proceed to the Mainland for my master’s. But I had other plans.

By Baby Hofileña

I am Baby, 67 years of age and my husband, Chris, is 72. Our children, seven boys and two girls, are obviously all grown-ups now. Seven are married. I wish I had then the wisdom and experience that come with age and spiritual growth. Fortunate are the couples who start their married life with God participating.

By Michael L. Tan

Around my parents’ home in San Juan, I have watched through the years street child vendors grow up. I remember one of them very distinctly because he has a congenital condition in his eyes that always made him look like he was half asleep. He survived selling cigarettes, year after year. I watched him as he grew into adolescence. Then he disappeared from the streets, only to pop up again, now a young man driving a pedicab. He’d made it in his own way. We need to hear from him and others like him. We know what goes wrong. What we need to know is what went right -- the difference that allows the children not just to survive but to thrive in a society that’s only now beginning to accept childhood.