MERCY 2023! Special
IT’S December, the last month of the year. During this merriest season of our year, we go down memory lane, reminiscing blessings from our Good God.
So, The Feast Mercy Ministries is looking back to our features to celebrate our Mercy 2023! We start with highlights during our First Quarter.
IT’S December, the last month of the year. During this merriest season of our year, we go down memory lane, reminiscing blessings from our Good God.
So, The Feast Mercy Ministries is looking back to our features to celebrate our Mercy 2023! We start with highlights during our First Quarter.
Called To Serve
In The Feast Family February 5, 2023, issue, we featured Danielle Patricia Cabarles, Center counselor, focusing on trauma management and mental health concerns, at our Jeremiah Foundation for abused minor girls.
She relates:
Before I came to know about the Jeremiah Foundation, I was wondering what would be God’s calling for me and how to respond to Him.
I just graduated from the University of Perpetual Help System Dalta, with a Bachelor of Science degree, major in Psychology. So, I had this vision that I would be a part of an organization where I could apply what I studied for…
My Mom Carina, coming from a background of abuse, feels for girls in the same situation.
Fulfilled Promise
At right, that’s my loving mom with me. Mom is someone who always helps people around her.
In July 2018, Mom Carina and a friend decided to have a joint celebration of their birthday by visiting Bahay Aruga, a free halfway house for pediatric cancer patients run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Mandaluyong,
Metro Manila…”
There, Mom got acquainted with Rose (not her real name) a beneficiary of Bahay Aruga, who eventually was transferred to our Jeremiah home.
Then, deciding to visit Rose, Mom invited me to come along and suggested bringing my resume.
I tagged along and met Sis. Gloria R. Viola, then Jeremiah’s executive director. I presented my resume to Sis. Gloria, and long story short, she hired me as Center counselor.
I have learned psycho-spiritual development co-dependency in Christ as
I journey with the girls. I really did not plan to serve in Jeremiah. But God has kindly fulfilled His promise in my chosen life verse— which has always been Jeremiah 29:11:
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Paying Forward
A most inspiring story in The Feast Family March 5, 2023, issue is the sharing of Ana Maria Naval.
Excerpts:
I have been through life’s ups and downs. I’ve survived as I’ve received from our good God blessings which, also by His grace, I’ve been able to pay forward to those in dire need— as I was before.
I’m one of five children growing up in a family I’d call dysfunctional—to say the least. That’s because my mother was a battered wife.
But God has not abandoned us, showering us instead with blessings after blessings.
My very first blessing was my mother was able to find relief for us. She consulted a priest who helped my mother meet Bro. Bo Sanchez…
Promptly, he arranged that we live in Anawim– Home for Abandoned Elderly– which also provides shelter for other indigents should the need arise.
Mom was able to send us to school.
But yes, we’ve not been spared from life’s downs.
Alas, when I was in my first year of high school, my mother got sick and she had to be confined in hospital. She could no longer afford to send us kids to school. So, again, she asked Bro. Bo for help.
Counting Blessings
Again, Bro. Bo came to our rescue. He arranged that I stay in Anawim together with my brother Albert, and Anawim also hired him as a maintenance worker.
Here we are in 2014, from left: Bro. Bo; yours truly; my brother’s daughter Angelica; and my brother, Kuya Albert.
Anawim’s executive director, Bro. Caloy Dimson, knowing
Mom could no longer afford to send me to school, introduced me to
Pag-asa ng Pamilya, established by Bro. Reylindo Ortega to provide scholarships for out-of-school youth.
So, I became a Pag-asa scholar and I was able to go on to second year high school.
I stayed in Anawim while I was studying in high school– at San Isidro National High School. I still stayed in Anawim up to my college days at the University of Rizal System, Rodriguez Campus, where I finally earned a degree as Bachelor of Science in Social Work. After I graduated, I became a social worker for our Jeremiah Foundation for abused girls. I was happy as I felt I’d begun “paying forward” the many blessings I’d received.
Yes, it’s been a roller-coaster life. But as you can see, I’m counting the blessings, more than the challenges.
What I love now is, yes, I am continuing to pay forward those blessings to the girls of Jeremiah.
And what I am deeply grateful for is this steadfast faith which I’ve received since at LOJ and its Mercy Ministries I’ve found our Lord Jesus– or by His amazing grace, He has found me!
All Glory to God!
