My CNN Hero vote goes to...

I was reading the Stanford Social Innovation Review today, and came across the article

Making the B-List:
The B Corp seal of approval distinguishes
truly responsible businesses
from mere poseurs.

It talked about the existence of, and need to properly identify authentic mission-driven companies. Companies that are, at the very heart of their operations, trying to do some good.

"Mission-Driven Companies". I like the sound of it.

I like the fact that there are companies set up to be something other than just profit-driven. With their bylaws rewritten not just to require board members to sell to the highest bidder, but to consider sustainability and socio-environmental impact as well.

I especially like the fact that some people are taking it a step further to create a certification process, a.k.a. 'The B List', to separate the real do-gooders from the greenwashers. (Or, as this article calls it, "good companies" vs. just "good marketing".)

What I'd really love to do is to be the one making the good marketing for good companies :-) Yes, that's why I joined advertising in the first place, hoping that someday I’d get a chance to do this. Well, I'm still here, and I'm still waiting.

But should I really be waiting for the revolution to happen? Or should I be part of the ones making it happen?

I don’t really know..

Ever since I got back from my New York internship with the World Youth Alliance, I’ve always had this dream of getting a scholarship to the Stanford Graduate School of Business to get a chance to study at their Center for Social Innovation. To really just focus my time on learning more about Corporate Social Responsibility. To understand the core ideas of development and sustainability in order to fully appreciate what role private corporations can play within that bigger picture.

Well, two years down the line… I’ve gotten so busy (and yes, I admit, overly-involved) with my job that I hardly had time to spend on my advocacy work.

But was it all a waste? Not at all. I feel like my training at work has been set on hyper-speed, and I cannot for the life of me understand how all that knowledge and experience could have been gained I such a short span of two years. No doubt these professional skills would come in highly useful in my advocacy work as well.

But that is not to say I am 100% sure that I should be here. And neither am I 100% sure that I should be on the other side doing something else, too.

And so while I am still undecided, I guess I can wait a little bit longer and be happy to straddle both worlds – a little bit of advertising here, and a little bit of advocacy there. And with some luck, perhaps I’ll find myself at a place where I won’t have to choose one over the other.

So that we will never forget

It's been over a week since the Ondoy disaster, and many victims are still trying to pick up the pieces. At the same time, many are documenting what happened and recording the lessons that we have learned (or are still learning) from this experience.

While many are now debating proper waste disposal, regulation of building and city development, and disaster relief coordination, a few blogs have caught my attention because they chose to focus on a different story. I hope that after reading this post, all of you will choose to contribute to the first two blogs, and visit the third. Because with each entry you are helping to paint a more complete picture of what truly transpired, and capture the strength of the Filipino Spirit amidst these times.

Ondoy Photos

http://www.ondoyphotos.com/

"Ondoy Photos is a photoblog dedicated to showing the effects of Typhoon Ondoy, and efforts to overcome it."

You will not find paragraphs and paragraphs here. Minimal words - only locations, names of senders, and details of when it was taken. The people behind Ondoy Photos believe in letting the photos speak for themselves. And indeed, they do. Photos of everything from the rainy days and the rising water, people evacuation centers, volunteers in relief operations, to snapshots of affected places after the flood waters have subsided.

To contribute to OndoyPhotos.com, email photo / video attachments directly to post@ondoyphotos.posterous.com. Write your caption in the subject line, and include the following details: name, the date the photo was taken, and any links you would like to include.

Every Pinoy is a Hero

http://everypinoy.wordpress.com/

While OndoyPhotos focused on the pictures, the Every Pinoy is a Hero blog focuses on gathering stories of the many people who have responded to the call for help of their countrymen to heroic lengths. It is a collation of all those little stories that create the national phenomenon of Bayanihan.

It is currently full of stories form the media, but we are hoping that slowly the stories of individuals will begin to come in over the next few days. I'm sure that there are many of them just waiting to be told (our found, if you've already blogged about them).

To share your own story, or links to your blogposts, email everypinoy@gmail.com.

Life After Ondoy

http://lifeafterondoy.com/

I particularly like the subtitle of the Life After Ondoy blog: "This is Me and You following through". Plain and simple. This blog is calling out to people not to turn this experience into an Ondoy fever of sorts that will die down just like any other fad. Ondoy should have taught us a lesson that is etched deep in our consciousness. It should not stop when the search and rescue or relief efforts are no longer needed. As a matter of fact, this blogger believes "they (the victims) needed rescuing way before the storm". I definitely agree.

Although this blog does not seem to be soliciting posts and pictures, it appears to me that the person/people behind it are very interested in cultivating a public forum on how to move on, and make sustainable changes. The blog offers a variety of ways to reach out or stay connected: facebook, twitter, delicious, digg, and stumbleupon.

A special shout out to people in the south

Many of you know that I've collated a list of drop off centers and volunteer opportunities available to the people based in Cebu. I have expressed so many times both in public discussions and in personal messages how proud I am to see the people in my hometown exhibit such empathy for us all the way in Manila. So now I'd like to make a special call for stories among all the people in Cebu. In fact, I'd like to reach out to all the people in Visayas and Mindanao, I know you all did your parts to help. Please, please, please do send in your stories and pictures. The more stories from the south, the better! Ipakita sa lahat ng tao na hindi lang sa Manila ang bayanihan!

Book Review: Social Marketing- Improving the Quality of Life (by Philip Kotler, Nancy Lee & Ned Roberto)

For those of us who took up Marketing Communications, Philip Kotler and Ned Roberto are no strangers. Kotler was most probably the author of your Marketing 101, Comm 101 or Advertising 101 book. And Roberto, on the other hand, was probably a demi-god to your market research professor.

So put them together and add Nancy Lee (whom I only later learned is a social marketing guru of sorts, since the 70's), and you've got one really great resource book with practical guidelines on how to market your advocacies.

The book takes you through a different kind of thinking, starting even from the point of defining your "product", and who you should see as your "competition". What I found very interesting was how they defined a social marketing product as mainly composed of three parts - a core product, actual product and an augmented product. And how your positioning then not only becomes how to leverage yourself against the competition but also how to balance between all three levels of your own product.

The strength of this book, I think, is how the authors really impress upon the reader that social marketing campaigns are all about creating change - and so they walk you through the process of how to craft your campaigns in a way that will result in behavioral changes as opposed to mere awareness or buzz-generation.

Complete with the usual textbook offerings - tons of examples of social marketing campaigns, practical templates, models and case studies to illustrate all their points - you can't go wrong with this book. I think any NGO that's trying to up their efforts in the marketing and communications side should have a copy of this in their office.

But having said that, I will have to warn you that I got my copy back in New York so I can't guarantee that you will find this in your friendly neighborhood National Bookstore or Powerbooks (although I'm pretty sure Powerbooks can import it for you by special order). But if in case you really really can't find it, drop me a message and maybe I can lend you mine (if you promise to take really REALLY good care of it!).

One last note - this book was written more for people in NGO's than for brand or advertising people. If you're looking for good commentary on the best ways to link your brand to CSR efforts or how to build brand equity using advocacies, well, this isn't the book for you. I'm still on the hunt for something like that so if you do know of any, I'm very open to recommendations :-)


- - - -
Photo from Amazon.com
Average customer review: 5 stars
Citations: This book cited in 100 books

A re-post from my multiply account.

Cebuanos, you can help Ondoy victims too!

I'm hoping to consolidate all the Cebu donation info for easier reference so if you hear anything, pls leave a comment and I'll add it. Thanks to everyone who already helped. Let's do this, Cebu!!



DONATION DROP-OFFS:

1. Cebu musicians & Outpost Restobar will help Ondoy victims! We'll need you to bring your goods, clothing food etc. Joseph Castillo, hubby of musician Lia Luisa A. Castillo will send a 20ft Container to MLA 4 esp Cainta & Marikina. Details to follow. Drop in some love while you listen to some music. Get in touch with him through 09082368999 or 09322117111.

2. Caltex Banilad is officially a drop-off point for the Joseph Castillo container van.

3. Caltex Servitec Cabancalan is officially a drop-off point for the Joseph Castillo container van.

4. Caltex Panagdait is officially a drop-off point for the Joseph Castillo container van.

5. FORMO RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE at Banilad Town Center is also a drop off center for the container van of Jospeh Castillo from Monday until Thursday, 5pm onwards. This is inline with the ONDOY LIVE AID. For more details: Facebook.com/FORMO.lounge

6. Toys@Work-BTC is also a drop off center for the container van of Jospeh Castillo from Monday until Thursday, 5pm onwards. This is inline with the ONDOY LIVE AID. For more details: Facebook.com/FORMO.lounge

7. Vudu is also a drop off center for the container van of Jospeh Castillo from Monday until Thursday, 5pm onwards. This is inline with the ONDOY LIVE AID. For more details: Facebook.com/FORMO.lounge.

8. Donations drop off at Banilad Church of Christ (bldg in front of Bright Academy near Sto. Nino Village), Mon-Fri 9am-5pm.

9. SUNBURST FRIED CHICKEN-TABUNOK BRANCH accepting donations from 10am to 9:30pm. Tabang Para sa mga Biktima ni Ondoy...Istorya.net asks you to donate to the victims of Storm Ondoy. Our brothers and sisters in Luzon need our help.

10. Aunt Genie's Breadhouse: 1279 Talamban, Cebu City (In front of the Talamban Sports Complex). call at 416-0495 if you need directions to the drop-off area. (Accepting: Canned Goods, Old Clothes, Blankets, Diapers for babies, Noodles, Rice, Medicine, Soap, Toothpaste, Water Container, Iodized Salt)

11. Bizroute Solutions (Mon - Sat 11PM to 4PM) Unit 302 Keppel Bldg. Ayala. call at 416-0495 if you need directions to the drop-off area. (Accepting: Canned Goods, Old Clothes, Blankets, Diapers for babies, Noodles, Rice, Medicine, Soap, Toothpaste, Water Container, Iodized Salt)

12. Bizroute Solutions Lahug Office (Mon - Sat 11PM to 2PM) Unit 201 MIT Bldg. Gorordo Ave., Lahug (near JY Square). call at 416-0495 if you need directions to the drop-off area. (Accepting: Canned Goods, Old Clothes, Blankets, Diapers for babies, Noodles, Rice, Medicine, Soap, Toothpaste, Water Container, Iodized Salt)

13. Cue Cafe Crossroads accepting donations in cash or kind as part of JCI Zugbuana relief ops. Accepting clothes,blankets,towels,underwear,footwear,food and water for our suffering brothers and sisters in manila.

14. Citigym accepting donations in cash or kind as part of JCI Zugbuana relief ops. Accepting clothes,blankets,towels,underwear,footwear,food and water for our suffering brothers and sisters in manila.

15. Y101 station accepting donations in cash or kind as part of JCI Zugbuana relief ops. Accepting clothes,blankets,towels,underwear,footwear,food and water for our suffering brothers and sisters in manila.

16. CEBU WORLD VISION SPONSORS and VOLUNTEERS can help. Proceed to WV CEBU OFFICE at Room 203 CKU Bldg. J Llorente St. Capitol Site, Cebu City (behind Rajah Hotel) for all cash donations or directly deposit on WV accounts BPI: 4251-0024-15 or BDO: 2700-4341-1. I will be there to help facilitate donations. Text/call me at 0917-6242584 for donation pick ups.

17. Holiday Gym & Spa Banilad Cebu set up a relief operations Drop-Off center beginning today 1:00 PM, Sunday, September 27. Please bring blankets, clothes and canned goods to the front desk/ reception area.

18. ABS-CBN CEBU is now accepting relief goods... adto lang mo sa ABS mga cebuanos...

19. Very Mary (shop of designer Mary Melody Ty) is accepting goods. 2nd Floor, Myra's Pensoionne, Escario Street. Beside Golden Peak Hotel.

20. Victory Cebu is also accepting donations for typhoon victims: 3/f dacay bldg. escario st. (across bpi escario) near capitol. #(032)254-7023

21. Julie's Bakeshops used as drop-off centers for PLAN ONDOY, mobilized by Rotary Clubs in Cebu. (For further verification. If you have more information on this, pls message me or leave a comment.)

22. Andorra Tiles Office used as drop-off centers for PLAN ONDOY, mobilized by Rotary Clubs in Cebu. (For further verification. If you have more information on this, pls message me or leave a comment.)

23. WADE SM located at the 2nd floor of the Northwing will serve as a drop off point until Wednesday 5pm. Goods will be forwarded to Outpost afterwards.

24. Orange Brutus P. Del (across USC Main) will accept donations starting Monday from 2pm-8pm. Tuesday to Thursday 10am-8pm.

25. Orange Brutus - Cebu Doctor's Hospital will accept donations starting Monday from 2pm-8pm. Tuesday to Thursday 10am-8pm.

26. Orange Brutus - Centro Mandaue (near Mandaue City Hall) will accept donations starting Monday from 2pm-8pm. Tuesday to Thursday 10am-8pm.

27. Orange Brutus - Maguikay Mandaue (near Mandaue Flyover) will accept donations starting Monday from 2pm-8pm. Tuesday to Thursday 10am-8pm.

28. Orange Brutus Mactan, Marina Mall Mepz1 will accept donations starting Monday from 2pm-8pm. Tuesday to Thursday 10am-8pm.

29. Orange Brutus Southagte Plaza Mepz 2 will accept donations starting Monday from 2pm-8pm. Tuesday to Thursday 10am-8pm.

30. Orange Brutus Ayala will accept donations starting Monday from 2pm-8pm. Tuesday to Thursday 10am-8pm.

31. Orange Brutus SM will accept donations starting Monday from 2pm-8pm. Tuesday to Thursday 10am-8pm.

32. Orange Brutus Colon (near University of Visayas) will accept donations starting Monday from 2pm-8pm. Tuesday to Thursday 10am-8pm.

33. Orange Brutus Fuente branch will be accepting donations 24 hours from Monday to Thursday.

34. All Sun Star branches now accepting donations (cash or in kind). Pls call 2546100 local 201 and look for Jed or Sheena for more info.

35. UP Cebu is accepting donations. Head to the Malacañang tambayan, beside the guard house. It's a small campus, it's not hard to find. (Can someone from UP pls confirm exact drop off point? Thank you!)

36. Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry is encouraging its member companies to donate! Donations in cash or in kind are accepted in the CCCI Center in North Reclamation Area. Yeah, it's far, but it's for a cause, right?

37. Aboitiz 2GO Cebu main office at Gov. Manuel A. Cuenco Avenue, Cebu City (beside Cebu Country Club) is accepting nonperishable goods. Preferably canned goods, clothes and powdered milk; NO noodles and cash please.

Also, all 2GO outlets in Cebu, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Dumaguete, Davao, General Santos, Iloilo, Puerto Princesa, Tagbilaran, and Zamboanga.

Your donations will be consolidated at the Durian Warehouse of 2GO in Manila and will be turned over to the Department of Social Welfare & Development(DSWD).

38. Mooon Cafe Guadalupe is now accepting donations as part of Ondoy Live Aid. Look for TJ.

39. Green Booth @ BTC is now accepting donations a for relief donations for Joseph Castillo Container Van

40. Kaona grill at A.S. Fortuna is now accepting donations as part of Ondoy Live Aid. Look for Ryan.

41. Kumon Center and RCTV at Ginza Compound is now accepting donations as part of Ondoy Live Aid. Look for Gerry.

42. Drop-off and sorting operations at Briones residence at 1310 Horseshoe Drive, Banawa. Contact 09228880387 for more information. Accepting goods only.

43. Mail & More Business Center - Ayala branch now accepting donations.

44. Ayala Center Cebu South Surface Parking Area

45. Admin Office at eOffice, Asiatown I.T. Park

46. Lobby of eBloc Tower. Part of Cebu Holdings Group drop off points.

47. Lobby of Cebu Holdings Center. Part of Cebu Holdings Group drop off points.

48. Lobby of Ayala Life-FGU Center. Part of Cebu Holdings Group drop off points.

49. Dynamic Minds pre-school is also accepting donations. They will be turning it over to the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC). From: http://cebu.lovingabundance.com




DONATION PICK-UP:

Eco Courier in Cebu announces free pick up for donations, 092286bugoy for light donations that can be carried by the bike messengers for more info visit http://www.bugoybikers.com



EVENTS

Ondoy-Live-Aid at the Outpost, 7pm on Wednesday September 30. Bring your donations. Let's fill up Joseph Castillo's container!

The Giving continues as the "Ondok Live Aid" goes to VUDU this Thursday 9pm feat: Twinkle Dudu, Rescue a Hero, the Line Divides, Eve's Garden , Cuarenta, and Pandora. PLease bring your donations for JOseph ...Castillo's Container Vans bound for Manila!... Peace Love and being a True Filipino!

NO TURNING BACK SHOW OCT 4, 2009 @FNB LABANGON. SRA AND FRIENDS DONATE TA SA VICTIMS SA ONDOY, ato lang usahon atoa. Drop ninyo sa Quad until sept 30 (wed) sa hapon para mausa ug send nato.



VOLUNTEER

Packing for the container vans, come and join us sort out the relief goods for Luzon on Thursday and Friday . Please look for Siloh International, H. Abellana St., Canduman, Mandaue. The containers will be there!! Message Meg Eteve if interest on facebook or email at meg.eteve@gmail.com.



OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP

1.ABS-CBN through Banco de Oro account number 56300-20111 account name: ABS-CBN Foundation Incorporation

2. Red Cross Load Donations: Right now the easiest way to make donations from the seat of your chair is via mobile phone load. The Red Cross Rescue and Relief Operations. Text: REDAMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4483 (Smart)

3. TXTPower now accepts donations via SmartMoney 5577514418667103, GCash 09179751092 and Paypal http://is.gd/3GvuN

4. Worldvision Foundation is also accepting donations/volunteers to pack relief goods in QC. For $-donations, BPI:USDacct #4254-0050-08



PEOPLE TRACKER

For those of you in Cebu who have loved ones in Manila, try the people tracker:

People Tracker (using your phones, get your friends and family to turn on their finderservice for you)

* FINDERSERVICE. For Smart, text “wis ” to 386.
* FINDERSERVICE. For Globe, text “find to 7000.

Typhoon Ondoy: Consolidated info on those stranded

Cainta Rizal

@Monja Delos Santos FB Repost - OS! Pregnant woman about to give birth stranded! 908 Aristotle St. Vista Verde Village,Cainta,Rizal - Regular contraction please repost or retweet

RT @ateneodemanilau #Ondoy: Repost: please send help over to 1296 Cambridge street, brookside hills subd. cainta. haven't heard from... http://bit.ly/4dCZhQ

Via FB from Definitely Filipino If anyone can get thru to please send a rubber boat to Ang Arko, 116 Camia St, Bayanihan Village, Cainta. Its a home for severely handicapped children, they and their caregivers have been trapped on the 2nd floor with no food or electricity since 1 pm.

Marikina City

@Definitely Filipino FB a repost from Nadjie I Flores:
to those residing in 25 bismarck, provident village..i hav textd sen gordon...pero mas mahirap ata if anjan lng kayo s kisame...pls will somebody esp. An adult to go on the rooftop to be noticed by rescuers..

RT @ateneodemanilau #Ondoy: Please send rescue to 22 JP Rizal St., Kalumpang, Marikina City, where Ateneo basketball players Chris de... http://bit.ly/3299Vo

RT from @gangbadoy Toyota Marikina roof has many people on it. Pls RT.
Repost from Mark Dy's FB:

From Pia:
If anyone can lend a jetski, oat or whatever to Provident please let us know. my friend (Caleen Chanyungco) along with her pregnant sister is stranded on their roof. Her address is 132 Columbia Street, Provident, marikina. A whole lot of famlies in those areas need help too.

From Paolo Dy's FB
PLEASE HELP! Arlene Lim-Farol, her two-year-old baby, her ailing father and 10 other people are still trapped on the rooftop of their two-story house, and water is still rising. Anybody please help! Their address is at 151 Harvard St., Provident Village, Marikina.

Forgot where this came from: @ateneodemanila ata:
Ondoy: Please send rescue boats to Rosas St., Twinvill Subdivision, Marikina. Families with small children aree...http://bit.ly/3oenm7

@Ateneo de Manila University FB #Ondoy: Repost: Please help my Aunt, Nephew and Family. They are also in Provident Village. Exact address is #42 Melbourne St., Provident Village. We have no communication with them. We need to know if they're ok. We feel so helpless.. Please please help them.


Pasig City

@Ateneo de Manila University FB #Ondoy: Repost: Please send rescue to a group of 20 people on rooftop at 18 Meleguas St.,De Castro Subd., Pasig City. Floodwaters still rising. They're trapped since this pm, with small children, w/o food and water. thanks.

@Ateneo de Manila University FB #Ondoy: Repost: Please send a boat to rescue Bryan Conde and his family at 217 Metrogreen Village, Sta Lucia, Pasig. Floodwaters are rising and has already reached the 2nd floor Terrace level. Please help.

RT @ateneodemanilau #Ondoy: SOS from Fides Abad - Top Floor. 167, 10th Avenue, Riverside Village, Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City. Brenda... http://bit.ly/XkN5s-

RT @ateneodemanilau #Ondoy: please send help over to 121-D Moscow Street, Green Park Village, Manggahan, Pasig City.

RT ateneodemanilau #Ondoy: Repost: Rescue needed: 141 C 6th st., countryside village, sta lucia, pasig city. My mom (09084255239) and... http://bit.ly/BjEAR

RT @ateneodemanilau #Ondoy: CORAZON NATIVIDAD and ARNEL NATIVIDAD stranded on their roof at 99 4TH STREET, COUNTRYSIDE VILLAGE, ORTIGAS EXTENSION

RT @mlq3 RT @ageofbrillig: DZMM: 400 staff of Baptist Hospital in Pasig City in need of rescue. #ondoy

Quezon City

@Definitely Filipino FB: Assistance is needed @ Westriverside, San Francisco Del Monte Q.C. please report to send rescue teams to that area, there is a river there that overflowed...houses are flooded and underwater...

@Definitely Filipino FB
Friend of Terence Ang needs help. The lola of the family already passed away today as they were stuck in the roof since early lunch. 4 people stranded including a 2-year old girl. Benito "Benny" Tan 11-F Emerald St. Cypress Village Masamb...ong..., Q.C. 0920 9045853 0922 8292577 0917 8467659 0921 2685444 0917 8508386 Help needed! Please pass...

Others

19 Kingwood, Vermont Royale, Marcos Highway, Antipolo. 1 year old Gian and yaya are trapped in the second floor of the house. 1st floor totally submerged in water. Malapit na daw sa second floor yung tubig.

RT @mlq3RT @owrange: RT @AllenYuarata: Students at PolyUPhil are STRANDED inside the campus. They are desper8ly askng for food.
- - - - - - - - - -
RT from @ateneodemanilau
Reposting: UERM: 200+ students are trapped and already at the 5th level of the building. Please contact...http://bit.ly/asTMC

From Chunnei Kaw:
My dentist friends from Visayas and Mindanao are having a convention in Manila and are now stranded inside the convention area. No food and drinks available. Can't go back to their hotels.
(Em: I think they're in SMX convention center.)

RT @gangbadoy
@Tulyahan Bridge, Valenzuela flooded also. Pls. inform Bulacan officials via RT or text if you know them.

Missionary Life 101

(Click on the image to make it bigger. Feel free to download and pass it on to your friends!)

Over dinner, a good old friend asked me, "Em, do you want to be a missionary for one week?". I looked at her. "What exactly do you mean by that??"

It turns out, she really meant it in the truest sense of the word. On she goes recounting the story of last Holy Week when she and a bunch of other young women went off to an island to preach the Word of God while really living with the locals. No aircon, no cellphone signal, no showers! (I can already hear a lot of you going yikes!)

Yes, it's a scary challenge, especially if you've been a city kid all your life. But according to my friend, it's a lif- changing experience for those who dare to take it. I was actually thinking about it, but my parents said we're having a family thing over Holy Week so I'll have to skip this year. I wouldn't be honest if I say I didn't feel a sense of relief! But part of me is itching to jump on that boat with them and see what life is like over there, and what kind of a difference my presence can make on that island even if it's just for a week.

After all, only a couple of years ago an invitation was extended to me to do an immersion with Gawad Kalinga. It was with mixed emotions that I decided to sign up for the one week live-in program. Yes, we slept on straw mats on the floor, climbed scaffoldings, painted walls and wooden fixtures, handled tools we couldn't even name... But when we came home, it wasn't those things that left deep imprints on our minds. It was the friendly faces of the neighbors, the warm welcome from the community, the genuine delight that the kids showed in the fact that they had new "ates" and "kuyas" to play with, the heart-to-heart talks with the mothers in the community about how their lives and their pride were radically uplifted by their experience with GK.. those were the things that we still remember so vividly.

So yeah, I'll keep thinking about it. I've got til next Holy Week to make up my mind (or rather, I think my mind's been made up, it's just a matter of mustering up the courage to say yes and sign up!)

But for those of you who think this is something exciting you're ready to do right now, I'm extending the invitation to you!

What: Holy Week Missions When: April 6 - 12, 2009
Where: For Boys - Tingloy Island, Batangas. For Girls - Pilillia, Rizal.
Who: For young people who are interested in trying out what it's like to be a missionary.

How do I sign up / get more information?
Email: missionyouthphilippines@gmail.com
Call: Andres at 0915-6273892 for the boys' mission. Isabel at 0929-3246416 for the girls' mission.
Visit missionyouthphil.com for more information.

Let me end this post with a testimonial from one of the girls who joined it last year..

It all started with a Plan.

My Plan was simple. It involved me, a tired and relieved college freshman, spending the three weeks of my Semestral Break as (for lack of a better term) a human vegetable: sleeping at midnight, waking up at noon, and lounging around the house for the rest of the day.

My Plan was also very tempting. After a whole semester of chasing after deadlines and losing hours of sleep, I wanted nothing more than to lie down on the nearest bed and stay there for a few weeks. If there was something that I badly needed back then, it was a long and restful vacation to recharge myself physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Everything was all set: the break, the bed, and the soon-to-be-human-vegetable (yours truly). All it needed was a Go Signal from God.

But as it turned out, He had a different Plan for me.

At first glance, His Plan was not very appealing. Plucking me from my wonderful comfort zone of a home, He plopped me (and thirteen other young women) down into the middle of nowhere... namely, a remote and sleepy town called Agoncillo in the Batangas Province. There, my fellow missionaries and I were to spread His Word to the residents, and in the process, immerse ourselves in an environment that was a far cry from the securities of Manila. Tap water was unheard of in that town, so we had to bathe ourselves using a small bucket and several large tubs of water. In the afternoons, when we were done with the day's quota of missionary work (catechizing the kids, visiting the households, and helping with the community Mass), we would drag our sweaty and grimy selves back to our lodgings at the Mayor's house. And at night, we were always on guard for the sudden appearance of a strange bug or two in our bedrooms.

His Plan was not simple either. During our door-to-door visits, not all of the residents were open to what we had to share. One man even drove us out of his house, saying "I don't need to hear any of that!" Handling the kids was easier, but it was still quite a task because of our limited supplies and the sheer number of children in the community (we were effectively outnumbered, 14 missionaries to 50 kids). We had to disinfect scraped knees, carry around lost toddlers, and coax the more bashful children to join the games.

His Plan took away from me five days of my much-awaited vacation. His Plan took me away from my home. His Plan took me away from everything that I considered restful and comforting.

... But then again. It was His Plan that led me to Agoncillo, the place where I discovered the joy of genuinely sharing yourself with other people. It was His Plan that showed me the beauty of children's smiles. It was His Plan that made me realize that "rest" does not necessarily equate to "idleness," but to "service." With every child that I carried, I felt my weary heart grow lighter and lighter. With each house that we visited, I found myself feeling more and more revitalized. It was as though my joy was being magnified through them in a most awesome way.

In the end, my Plan to become a human vegetable was effectively ground to dust by His Plan. Going along with His Plan did not only give me my much-wanted rest, it also gave the opportunity to lighten the burdens of other people and share with their joys. Joining the Semestral Break Missions was a life-changing experience, one that continues to affect me even after two months since we departed from Agoncillo.

... And, as a sidenote, I'm pretty sure that I would have made a horrible zucchini. More the reason to be grateful for His Plan.

Glory be to God.

Mari Kaira Ong Leal
Manila, Philippines

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