Dear friends,

Yesterday, on the Feast of St Andrew the Apostle, our friends and contacts at San Miguel Island are distributing canned food to the 900 families on the eastern part of this island off the eastern coast of Luzon. This was happening even as we were writing this update.

After being battered by typhoons Rolly and Ulysses, help is only still trickling in as the people on the island slowly rebuild their lives.

We provided rice a week ago as an emergency Phase 1 step, and now we organised with the local leaders for Phase 2: the provision of canned foodstuff for all the 900 families. We thought it was going to be logistically difficult but thanks to the responsible leaders and good cooperation from volunteers from the community, the foodstuff was purchased in bulk in Tabaco City and shipped over to San Miguel.

There were volunteers from among the families who spent the weekend packing the food bags for distribution.

And nearer to Metro Manila, we continued to distribute food bags last week to families of Marikina City which was badly flooded by Typhoon Ulysses.

In addition, every alternate Sunday, for the past 5 months, we have been giving out cooked meals for 70 children at Ronas Garden near our Formation House. However, this December, we will make it every Sunday instead, thanks to persons of goodwill!

So on this significant feast of the Apostle who brought his brother Peter to meet Jesus, the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle would like to thank you for your part in making possible this encounter between those in need and God’s mercy and love.

Fr. Francis Teo MCSPA

Our MCSPA house in the Philippines serves several purposes: on the one hand is a study house for our priests who seek further studies, and our philosophers and theologians, as well. And on the other hand it is also a spring board from where we can reach many places in the South East Asia in order to carry out missionary animation and vocational promotion, as well as bridging between Asia and Africa. This apostolate has already borne fruits as the Diocese of Antique in the Philippines, has sent two priests to take care of the parish of St. James in Kaikor, Turkana, and a congregation of sisters to take care of outstation Kaleng.

Fr. Francis Teo and Ambrose Wanyonyi went to Panay Island, recently. They went particularly to San Jose Antique, which is the home of the Philipino priests and sisters mentioned above. At San Jose, they gave talks at two universities: St Anthony’s College and the University of Antique for vocation promotion, establishing new relations with the clergy and some families and strengthening our bonds with the people that have always been there to assist us.

They then proceeded to Iloilo City, about a 3-hour ride away, to establish contacts with colleges and also some priests there and to see Archbishop Lazo who is now the Archbishop of Jaro. He had been to Turkana in Kenya.

They also visited the Judicial Vicar of Jaro who also responded positively on our mission campaign. He has invited us, in the later part of this year, to give talks to the lay leaders there on mission, so as to create more awareness of missionary work, especially since this is the Extraordinary Year of the Missions.

They then went on to Cebu for vocation promotion activities, and Victor Otieno and John Amadi joined our team from there. On Sunday morning Fr. Francis con-celebrated the 8 am mass in Cebuano the local dialect and presided over the 10 am mass at Sibonga Parish, outside of Cebu City. There, the local parish priest had invited us to his rural parish on many occasions. After the 10 am mass, we met with some youth of the parish at the parish hall, where we held a talk and showed videos on the missions in Turkana. The youth were very excited and asked lots of questions about our missionary life in Africa. We were also invited to present another talk at the San Carlos Major Seminary in Cebu, where we met Msgr Rey, the Rector, and also the Vocations Promoter and other priests. They were very interested and welcoming. There were about 80 seminarians.

The Vocation Promoter invited us for the Archdiocesan Vocations Jamboree which will be held in Cebu from the 23rd to 24th of February. The MCSPA will be invited to do vocations campaign.

It is our hope that with these talks we have planted a missionary spirit in the youth that we met. Especially as we prepare for the coming month of October when the Church will celebrate the extraordinary month of Missions. We continue praying that, God willing, some Philipino vocations may join our community in the years to come. We entrust this endeavour to the patron saints of our house in Manila: St Joseph and St Francis Xavier.

By Victor Otieno and Ambrose Wanyonyi