God’s Church is not only the built parish churches we have, but also and more importantly, it is His people, and we find most His presence amongst the poor. This is why the Bahay ng Diyos Foundation, Inc. (BDF) includes in its mission of church-building the time to reach out to our brethren who are most in need.
Last Lenten season, BDF officials visited the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital (a.k.a. Tala Leprosarium) in Caloocan City to share food, medicines, and other personal hygiene items to Hansenite patients in the Out-Patient Department. They also listened to the personal sharing of life stories and struggles by the patients. In what they initially thought as a charity activity, the BDF officials who went there found themselves to have been blessed more from such an experience. The stories they heard not only speak so much of their struggle with their illness but also of their yearning to lead normal lives again.
The mission of reaching out to our needy brethren continues with the street dwellers and homeless that gathers at the Saint Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center in Tayuman, Santa Cruz Manila. The Foundation went to the Center last Aug. 24, 2017 and donated several boxes of the Unilever brand Pond’s anti-bacterial facial wash in support of the Center’s first of three outreach components: Bathing-Clothing-Feeding. Here, the poor is treated to a free bath and grooming, and a decent meal. The other components of the outreach are Education Skills through alternative learning system, and Employment-Livelihood. The Center is run by lay volunteers with the supervision of Divine Word Missionaries, specifically by Father Flavie Villanueva, SVD.
