Child of God
a fun-loving cheerful group of L9s
from the Church of Holy Spirit
a Catholic parish in Singapore
This blog journals our mission trip
to Bicol in the Philippines
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Dona Mercedes - Day 2
A Short Dona Mercedes Welcome
Mass, a New Phase and Goodbyes
MISSIONARIES' DAY OUT
STORM ADVISORY #1
Typhoons and Calming the Waters
DON'T BE ALARMED
Day 3
Spirit Filled Day
Day 2 Pictures
November 2008
December 2008
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
October 2009
Mission Formation
Mission from Glen Koh's Blog
Mission from Kelly Tseng's Blog
Catholic Church in Singapore
Mission from Mark Lee's Blog
A Short Dona Mercedes Welcome
Mass, a New Phase and Goodbyes
MISSIONARIES' DAY OUT
STORM ADVISORY #1
Typhoons and Calming the Waters
DON'T BE ALARMED
Day 3
Spirit Filled Day
Day 2 Pictures
in his time
October 2008November 2008
December 2008
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
October 2009
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Wednesday, December 17, 2008
8:06 PM
With the Chapel filled to the rafters, the session started promptly at 5 pm, and what followed next was a series of spirit-filled songs that warmed the hearts both of the performers and the audience. While the audience sang along with the group when familiar carols such as Silent Night, Holy Night, Joy to the World and O Come All Ye Faithful were being sung, they tried hard to learn the lyrics of "new" songs such as By The Star, From A King, One Small Child, and Gentle Mary. There were many tears in the eyes of the villagers as we sang By the Star. We ended the session with A Christmas Wish, which was followed by our prayer song, Receive the Power. We ended with our signature song, Go Out and Tell. And thus ended our Guinobatan mission.
Earlier in the day, we completed the refurbishing of the chapel.
It pretty much included the repainting of the entire external structure, internal walls, sanctuary and scrubbing the floor, setting up ladders, and fetching water from the stream below -- a full three-day commitment. It was this single project in the entire mission that all had a hand in. And it was not a simple task to do. The result was a chapel that was ready for the village's Christmas services -- indeed a beautiful gift to the people of Dona Mercedes.
Still, much has to be done to repair the damage done by the natural disasters to the faith of the people here. While our coming filled the chapel to the rafters, regular services do not attract as many people. In fact, after our caroling, there was supposed to be a communion service, but the chapel's 8 pews were hardly occupied. Perhaps if we were given a chance to stay longer in a village like Dona Mercedes, we would be able to help to transform that -- energise the youths and families there, as well as the lay minister who could do with a more dynamic approach to animating a community like this one.
We also completed our three-day programme for the barrio's kindergarten and elementary schools. But more need to be done to these little schools in the mountain. The library and toilet facilities for the students were hardly adequate, while the brave teachers were simply trying to do their best in such circumstances. Also needing a relook are the type of pop dance steps being taught to kids as young as 7 years old. Some of these steps were ore suitable for the bars of Manila and Bangkok -- something which amused our young missionaries no end.
The village trekking teams also completed their three day tour of duty, thus bringing Christmas cheers to some of the most far-flung hamlets of this small Philippine town. In all, we visited 100 far flung houses, negotiating mountains and rivers. During the final day, we sent everybody out turn by turn to get everyone to see how the people in the villages and hamlets lived, and how they made do with simple things in life to survive.
A sore sticking point, however, was our cow donation. It was perhaps the first ever donation in the entire world which the donor didn't see. All we saw of it was an image in someone's cellphone claiming that it was the cow that we donated. It was reported that it was still walking on the way from Jovellar town, led by its previous owners. It was due to arrive at 5pm, but by the time our caroling was over - at 5.45, there was still no cow in sight.
But we finally had a positive visual of the cow when Sr Angeline, together with Anthony and Prof Pavilando, went up to Dona Mercedes the following morning to receive the cow. we have decided to call it "Lizzie the Cow".
The important thing is that we have just made a giant leap of faith in our young life - to go out and tell beyond the comfort of our homes, not just in Judaea and Samaria, but also to the ends of the earth.
We will let the individual blogs of some of our young missionaries tell their stories, and their facebooks and friendsters give a visual element to what they have done in this Bicol trip.
Meanwhile, please pray for us as we begin to make preparations to our long journey home. There are still some outstanding business Thursday, like a little party in Guinobatan East School, a little outing to Legaspi in the afternoon for some late shopping, and hosting the volunteers in a closing dinner in the evening.
Glory be to the father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
7 comments
It was a carolling session that we will not easily forget for the rest of our lives. The venue: Dona Mercedes' Nuestra Senora del Carmen Chapel, which was repainted and refurbished by our teen missionaries for 3 days. The audience: villagers who came from all over the barrio, many trekking across rivers and hills just to meet the youths of Holy Spirit Church. Children from the elementary school and the day-care centre dragged their parents too. The performers: our very own teens.
With the Chapel filled to the rafters, the session started promptly at 5 pm, and what followed next was a series of spirit-filled songs that warmed the hearts both of the performers and the audience. While the audience sang along with the group when familiar carols such as Silent Night, Holy Night, Joy to the World and O Come All Ye Faithful were being sung, they tried hard to learn the lyrics of "new" songs such as By The Star, From A King, One Small Child, and Gentle Mary. There were many tears in the eyes of the villagers as we sang By the Star. We ended the session with A Christmas Wish, which was followed by our prayer song, Receive the Power. We ended with our signature song, Go Out and Tell. And thus ended our Guinobatan mission.
Earlier in the day, we completed the refurbishing of the chapel.
It pretty much included the repainting of the entire external structure, internal walls, sanctuary and scrubbing the floor, setting up ladders, and fetching water from the stream below -- a full three-day commitment. It was this single project in the entire mission that all had a hand in. And it was not a simple task to do. The result was a chapel that was ready for the village's Christmas services -- indeed a beautiful gift to the people of Dona Mercedes.
Still, much has to be done to repair the damage done by the natural disasters to the faith of the people here. While our coming filled the chapel to the rafters, regular services do not attract as many people. In fact, after our caroling, there was supposed to be a communion service, but the chapel's 8 pews were hardly occupied. Perhaps if we were given a chance to stay longer in a village like Dona Mercedes, we would be able to help to transform that -- energise the youths and families there, as well as the lay minister who could do with a more dynamic approach to animating a community like this one.
We also completed our three-day programme for the barrio's kindergarten and elementary schools. But more need to be done to these little schools in the mountain. The library and toilet facilities for the students were hardly adequate, while the brave teachers were simply trying to do their best in such circumstances. Also needing a relook are the type of pop dance steps being taught to kids as young as 7 years old. Some of these steps were ore suitable for the bars of Manila and Bangkok -- something which amused our young missionaries no end.
The village trekking teams also completed their three day tour of duty, thus bringing Christmas cheers to some of the most far-flung hamlets of this small Philippine town. In all, we visited 100 far flung houses, negotiating mountains and rivers. During the final day, we sent everybody out turn by turn to get everyone to see how the people in the villages and hamlets lived, and how they made do with simple things in life to survive.
A sore sticking point, however, was our cow donation. It was perhaps the first ever donation in the entire world which the donor didn't see. All we saw of it was an image in someone's cellphone claiming that it was the cow that we donated. It was reported that it was still walking on the way from Jovellar town, led by its previous owners. It was due to arrive at 5pm, but by the time our caroling was over - at 5.45, there was still no cow in sight.
But we finally had a positive visual of the cow when Sr Angeline, together with Anthony and Prof Pavilando, went up to Dona Mercedes the following morning to receive the cow. we have decided to call it "Lizzie the Cow".
The important thing is that we have just made a giant leap of faith in our young life - to go out and tell beyond the comfort of our homes, not just in Judaea and Samaria, but also to the ends of the earth.
We will let the individual blogs of some of our young missionaries tell their stories, and their facebooks and friendsters give a visual element to what they have done in this Bicol trip.
Meanwhile, please pray for us as we begin to make preparations to our long journey home. There are still some outstanding business Thursday, like a little party in Guinobatan East School, a little outing to Legaspi in the afternoon for some late shopping, and hosting the volunteers in a closing dinner in the evening.
Glory be to the father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
7 comments