By Leonides ‘Junby’ Saguisag Jr

Christmas with Filipino friends

Prior to migrating ‘for good,’ I spent my summer vacation, April and May 1997, in the United States, trying to get a feel for life there. It would be a little over a year before I’d finally migrate in June 1998. My reason for emigrating was really more of a ‘going along for the ride’ rather than an outright search for a ‘better life,’ as many other migrants have done. My maternal grandmother was already living in the USA then and had petitioned for my parents to join her. When my parents' petition came through I was a nineteen-year-old college student, finishing third year at Ateneo de Manila University, majoring in Computer Science. The opportunity to be based in Silicon Valley, the heart of the computer industry, was too good to pass up. So when I was granted a Resident Alien visa, the ‘green card,’ I took the chance that God had given me and emigrated a few months after I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in March 1998.

Dear Father Sean,

After all the periodicals we had in school, I managed to read the Misyon Magazines that the school is providing. Reading them was not a mere obligation or a responsibility for me but a mission personally. An article from the youth’s page entitled “Searching for a Best Friend”, completely brought me to a halt and pause for a while. The writer found her best friends and it was none other than Jesus. “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.”

It often occurred to me the feeling of being left out and neglected. Maybe it’s because of me being too possessive of my friends. I have a lot of friends in school or simply I know a lot of people. I allow myself to make friends with other people and learn how to deal with them. But I never had the usual relationship with a best friend. It’s not in my social life to have one. But if time tells me I won’t miss the chance.

by Sister Alicia Alambra FMM

It was a call that scared me.  I did not know what awaited me and it meant giving up all my plans in thePhilippines. I was at that time working as Assistant to the Provincial Treasurer and doing chaplaincy to university students. But I was finally persuaded and hooked. It was April 1989 and my provincial was greatly worried that a missionary bound for Bolivia-Chile could not make it for health reasons. I volunteered to replace her and the great journey began in my life.

Another reader from St Scholastica's College, Manila, sent a letter to your editor expressing her gratitude for the lessons she learned from our stories in Misyon.

I thought Misyon was just another magazine to be kept in the school bag for the rest of the school year. But after scanning its pages, I found the articles, the layout and the letters from the readers very inviting. I knew I should read the magazine to find out what is in it that could be more fulfilling than the cool pictures and colorful backgrounds.