for everyone |
ok, now that I have discovered the technique of cut and paste in blogging, I'll try it out on some of my recent favorite pieces. hope you find this one inspiring. Fr. Non is 86. He has been running this project since 1972. All we have to do is ride on. write him directly, preferably with a remittance!
On May 26, 2008,jey dee <jeemsdee@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello, Fr. Non - read abt your schoolfarm in cebu, somewhere and would like to learn more abt your laudable project. i belong to a motley group of ex-seminarians from Christ the King Seminary in QC (SVD) who refer to themselves as XVDs. we recently formed a committee which, for lack of a better term, we have called "RESEARCH & CONSULTANCY Committee." The purpose is to provide grants-proposal-writing services mainly for worthy projects such as yours which might be interested to avail of some foreign funding from charitable/philanthropic institutions. i was just wondering if you would be interested.
i am taking the liberty of attaching a copy of my letter to Archbishop Palma of Palo, Leyte, as my temporary calling card/template. You will realize of course that another added benefit of availing of foreign assistance is you avoid having to depend too much on local politicians for funding assistance, thereby opening yourself to the possibility of being used for some selfish political ends.
In any case, congratulations and more power to your great work.
yours in the Lord's vineyard, JAMES D. LANSANG
On May 27, emmanuel non <evn2223@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear James, Pax Christi!
Thank you for your interest. Am on a borrowed computer right now. When I get home I will brief you more on our doings. God bless and more power to your group. I am now a Jesuit but I could have been an SVD but for God's guiding hand. I grew up Espritu Santo Church in Manila and served in the San Roque chapel near Blumentritt many years ago with SVD priests and Brothers. Cheers, Fr. Non
jey dee <jeemsdee@yahoo.com> wrote:
hello, fr non. good to hear frm you instantly. will await your nxt bulletin. in my old age, i've realized there is really a good God who presides over the destinies of men and who uses us as his humble instruments in mysterious ways only he understands. am glad we have a mama mary who understands us.
On May 29, 2008, emmanuel non <evn2223@yahoo.com> wrote:
James, Pax Christi !
Here I am back in the farm. SAPAK stands for Samahan sa Pagpaunlad ng Kabataan or in Cebuano: Sandiganan sa Pagpalambo sa Kabataan; These are our regitered names in the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) and the BIR. I founded the place in May, l972. Sa hirap at ginhawa, mostly hirap, we have survived.We have just begun on May lst. our 37th. year of well nigh miraculous existence. This is an exercise on complete dependence on the Providence of God. Sideline ko lang ito. I am a Retreat Master which is my main job. But I have been given permission by my Superiors to live with the boys away from my Community which is the Sacred Heart School - Jesuit in Mandaue, Cebu.
We have averaged more than a hundred boys each year. The highest was l98 and more recently we have fallen below l00. This school year we already have 97 enrolled and classes will begin second week pa of June.
This is a unique school in all the world. We have Grades I to VI and First year to Fourth, in the free school. We shelter, feed, partially clothe, and educate the boys and a few girls, give them their bath and laundry soap, tooth brush and paste, notebooks, ball pens, medicines, the whole shebang, and they do not pay a single centavo. We also have Mass everyday (if I am not out giving retreats,etc.). So this is like a Seminary. Mass everyday, Bible sharing the night before in Cebuano of the English readings for the daily Mass, Daily Rosary in common, Angelus three times a day, prayers before and after meals, and daily homilies which is part of our values course in our curriculum.Oh yes, the core of our curriculum is FARMING. We are trying to interest our kids that there is money in farming. From the very beginning our main aim is to get them from the slums and depressed areas of the cities (Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu Lapu, Talisay, etc.) and get them interested in farming and resettle them in our Sapak Farm in Josefina, Zamboanga del Sur where we have 55 hectares. We already have boys there where we give them a hectare each, and if they have cultivated their hectare they can borrow another hectare or two to plant and develop. We have no problems here of rising tuition fees. Even if I raise our tuition fee a 1000%, no problems with parents. 0x !000 = 0 pa rin.
I just composed this on the run. If you can help us in any way, we would be most grateful. I am in my 86th year, but thanks be to God I am still running around like a headless chicken, travelling to Luzon, Mindanao and around the Visayas without any companion or nurse. Har. har. But I don't know how long this can last. My Jesuit Superiors cannot supply me with an understudy. Maybe I will ask the SVDs to take over when I am incapacitated.
Cheers. Let's keep in touch. More power to your group. I know with your background and as "civilians" you can do a lot which we cannot do. The laity is the backbone of the current CHURCH Militant. BALIK DIOS! AMEN IS OUR BATTLE CRY. Please help us spread this movement.: We greet each other<BALIK DIOS> or <BALIK GINOO> and we answer AMEN. Ito and pagasa ng atin Bayan, Sobra na ang natural calamities natin tinambakan pa natin ng MAN-MADE CALAMITIES! So Balik Dios. AMEN. AMEN.
When I get to Manila, let us get together for Mass or something. Let's meet at least. - In Our Lord and Lady, Fr. Manny Non, S.J.
Fr. Non -
Good to hear from you again so soon. You say your project SAPAK is an exercise in complete dependence on Divine Providence. I say YOU are a living miracle. All this time I have been looking around for something worthwhile to do for the rest of my life. Something or Somebody sent me to you. Somehow I am reminded of the remark the late good bishop Msgr. William Brasseur of the Vicariate of Mt. Prov. told me decades ago abt the power of prayer. He was then running high schools all over the then undivided Mountain Provinces. He considered it a living miracle how all those schools could continue to operate all those years without any clear idea where the needed money would be coming from next.
Of course I will gladly help you in every way I can. For now, the best I know how is to help search for benefactors in the manner I happen to know how - by using my little knowledge on grantwriting. Do you know that when I first proposed this type of apostolate to my fellow XVDs, nobody had any idea what I was talking abt. Since retiring from active law practice in which I was miserably engaged for more than 40 years, I have been running around also like a headless chicken trying to find something meaningful to do with the rest of my life. It is no accident that we have met this way. You are the expert in Divine Providence. You tell me.
Even as I write, CNN says "oil retreats to $130/barrel." That's a miracle. Your email today is the best gift I got on my birthday - a roadmap for the rest of my journey. By all means, let us meet whenever you are in Manila. I myself will start planning for a trip to your place in Cebu. I will need firsthand knowledge and photos.
First of all, I have to ask your permission to publish or disseminate freely to all and sundry everything you said abt your project. I realize that modesty (translate that as "humility") somehow keeps you from trumpeting abt your project. Let me be one of your trumpeters. "Let your light shine...so that people see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven..."
Gotta run now. It's my birthday, after all. I have to fight for the right to celebrate. Halleluia! I found you, a pearl of great value. Halleluia! JAMES
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