Give love to Mangyan students on X'mas day

GIVE LOVE TO MANGYANS ON X’MAS DAY: Past President Wilma Redler of the Rotary Club of Intramuros under District 3810 of Rotary International is in a bind these days, with just a few days to go before Christmas 2009.

Because it is Christmas, she wants to continue giving love to poor Mangyan students from Occidental Mindoro, in a way that will finally enable them to complete their secondary education, which is certainly a a gargantuan task requiring great money, great patience and great willingness.

The spirit maybe willing, of course, but Wilma surely cannot do this alone, for the task of providing secondary education to interested and talented Mangyan youth cannot be achieved by just one man---or woman---alone.

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MANGYAN STUDENTS NEED HELP TO COMPLETE THEIR HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION: While Wilma can accommodate so much of the students and train them to become dental technicians under her Skytech International Dental Laboratories, Incorporated, there is much to be done, and still much more disbursements to be made, if a better future through formal education is to be enjoyed by the natives from the area.

Wilma says the students’ only fault (if it maybe called that), or deficiency (which is surely the case here) in pursuing at least their secondary or high school education, would be poverty and financial want, talented and patient and willing as they are to go to school.

Perhaps, we can help Wilma in one way or the other. Call her or email her. Her phone number is 09175321936, while her email address is skytechmanila@yahoo.com.

The need is immediate, because the school where the students are enrolled at the moment, the Bethany Learning Academy of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, wrote her a letter, frantically seeking assistance.

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PAGING PEOPLE WHO COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR MANGYANS: The unedited letter of the school follows: “This project was born out of the reality life situations where parents or child come to our homes and offices asking for financial assistance for the education of their children.

“It is painful to bid them goodbye without meeting their needs even with the knowledge that the child is very interested to pursue his or her education.

“However it is doubly painful to hear that the same child opted for a prostitution business because she was not helped or you see the child carrying heavy baskets of fruits and vegetables selling them at the market during school days, or someone ended up marrying another teenager just to get out of the boredom of poverty...

“With these thoughts, in our hearts, we want to connect with people who could make a difference...”

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FORTUNATO ABAT’S “TO BIRTH A NATION”, PART V: Here is another part of the “concept paper” of former Defense Secretary Fortunato Abat on the establishment of the proposed “transition government” for the Philippines:

“consolidating all pork with the income from such agencies as PAGCOR and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes for national budgeting priority to accelerating the development of depressed areas of the country and reducing the disparity between the rich and the poor but without hindering the progress of the progressive communities...

“allowing business to continue but with discipline and order, especially in the operation of public utilities;

“allowing the exercise of the freedoms of speech, press, and peaceable assembly without infringing on and adversely affecting the stability and security of the nation;

“instituting price control especially of rice and other staples, milk and other basic commodities, including medicines until the economic situation is stabilized...”
More of this next issue.

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PRAYING OF THE ROSARY IS BIBLE BASED: Roman Catholic Christians practice the praying of the Holy Rosary, which is something that is balked at by others who believe in Christianity on the argument that praying the Rosary is paganistic in origin.

I did some reading on the matter, and indeed, there is nothing in the Holy Bible that says Christians should pray the Rosary, as there is even no mention of the Rosary in any pages of that Book.

But when one looks at the mysteries of the Rosary, one begins to understand that whoever conceived and thought of this prayer, dedicated to Mary, the Virgin Mother of Christ, actually was following the examples of many leaders of the Christian faith, enshrined in many pages of the Bible, where they resort to repeating the history of the Israelites, from their exodus to their arrival at the Promised Land, as a means to strengthen their faith.

Just look at the story of Gideon, in Judges 6 and 7 of the Bible, and you will see what I mean. Before Gideon finally relented to be used as God’s chosen one to deliver his people from the Midianites who were causing them sufferings, he had to recount Israel’s story all over again.

This is what is happening when a Roman Catholic prays the Rosary: he is actually repeating a tried and tested tradition of Christian leaders, for he is reminded of the full and entire story of Christ, from the announcement of his birth by the Angel Gabriel to his Ascention to Heaven, taken directly from the Bible itself.

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