Make Time for Missions…Seize Every Opportunity to Proclaim the Joy of the Gospel

ELVIE ZUÑIGA

Many years ago, my husband and I were asked by a friend for support for a half-way house for abused children that she and her husband were advocating. She said that the Good Shepherd sisters were struggling and badly needed funds to run the place as they were receiving only meager support from Caritas and could barely get by. I think our friend thought that our Kids for Christ ministry could give some kind of financial contribution to support the place. I explained to her that our ministry didn’t have that kind of resources but what we could do was conduct a half day camp there. Not really understanding what I was talking about, nevertheless she connected me with the directress of the institution to explain what we could offer and what we were going to do. And so, we conducted our Kids for Christ (KFC) Outreach Camp.

This was no ordinary outreach. Before meeting the children, we were given clear guidelines: we were not to mention families or parents, as many of these children had been victims of abuse at their hands. We had to revise our talks and prepare our team emotionally and spiritually. We were told that if the children began sharing traumatic experiences and we found it too difficult to respond, the sisters would step in to help.

With these in mind, our Youth for Christ (YFC) then gave their talks – Jesus is a friend, How much God loves each and everyone of us, How much He forgave our sins. Unlike the usual camp, our Couples for Christ (CFC) moderators facilitated the discussions and activities assisted by the YFCs. The stories the children shared on the abuses they went through were painful and very difficult to hear.

I remember one moment vividly. A child in one group began crying uncontrollably. I stepped in for the CFC moderator, who looked overwhelmed. The child told me she wanted her letter to God sent immediately—by express mail. I gently assured her that God would hear her if she spoke from the heart. I brought her to the small “kawali” (huge wok) we had prepared, where burning coals waited to receive the children’s letters. She placed hers into the fire, watched it rise in smoke, and slowly stopped crying.

Later, when the moderator and I talked away from the eyes and earshot of the children, we found it so hard not to cry. The moderator said that the child, who turned out to be 15 years old, asked her to write for her because she didn’t know how to write. She wanted to tell God that she forgave her father for sexually abusing her and her younger sisters and that she wanted God to let him know that so that they could be united again for Christmas.

The first ever Outreach KFC Senior Kids Camp at Bukid Kabataan (Home for Abused Children run by CARITAS & Good Shepherd sisters) conducted by NB 3B CFC-KFC-YFC  Santa Maria della Strada Chapter.

Later, our CFC dads and the children started a vegetable garden there and taught the children how to plant and care for the vegetable seedlings that we had brought. At the back of our minds, although we didn’t have the money to give the sisters, the children would have food to eat and the excess could be sold to give cash to the Good Shepherd sisters who were running the place.

We went home shortly after that, the children with tears in their eyes and some of them clinging fast to the new friends that they had made. Promises to return were made then we waved our goodbyes and left. When the gates closed behind us, we just had to stop and let go the tears that we were holding in check.

The experience was life changing for all of us who went there that day. The sisters said that the children experienced healing when they voluntarily shared their stories. They hardly talk about their experiences. The sisters and social worker said they only had their case histories as they just wait for the child to open up. I believe that happened because the  children seemingly had happier smiles instead of the doleful expressions that met us when we first arrived.

For our KFC  senior children, YFCs, and CFC coordinators serving with us, it was the realization that we are so blessed to have a family who loves us and cares for us and that even if we all are not financially well-endowed, we are better off than the children we had left behind there.

Years later, when we met up with the new directress of the home, she said that our small vegetable plot inspired them to seek help from the Dept of Agriculture which enabled them to expand it to greenhouses growing organic vegetables. The children are healthy and have vegetables to eat. Earnings have enabled them to now buy a cow.

This mission experience was not planned by us. Yet it seems like no accident either. It was a calling and it was up to us to rise up to the occasion. Thank God we did! That’s what a mission is. We are all called to serve – “Go forth proclaiming Jesus name.” At the end of each mass, we are commissioned to “go forth and proclaim the Good News.”

At that time, we did not recognize it as such. It’s only as we look back that we see that is was a mission. By sharing with these wounded children that Jesus is a friend and that He loves us very much, we were simply instruments by the Holy Spirit to unlock the pain in their hearts and bring them the joy of the Lord. 

We heard from the directress of the home that some of these children were adopted later and some were reconciled with their families and reformed parents.

It was, indeed, a mission fulfilled. And we thank God for the privilege of being part of it.

These YFC (Youth for Christ) who served as “ates” and “kuyas” (older brothers and sisters) to the kids were once KFC (Kids for Christ) themselves—children we had the joy of nurturing over our 20 years in KFC. They grew up serving alongside us, coming from humble beginnings in the underprivileged areas of the parish. Most of them were scholars supported by the parish, CFC, HOLD (Handmaids of the Lord) of Sta. Maria della Strada (before ANCOP even existed).

Today, they are professionals traveling the world—and yet, they continue to pay it forward. They support their families, help their siblings, and now sponsor and guide the next generation of KFC kids in their activities and conferences. It is a beautiful blessing to witness this circle of love—how lives are touched, transformed, and passed on.