Young Missionaries

Every Graduate of a Jesuit university remembers the initials AMDG. It stands for Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, Latin for "for the greater glory of God", the motto of the Society of Jesus. Formed to serve as missionaries, instructors and ministers to the sick, poor, and marginalized, the Jesuits today strive to spread the spirit of faith, service and generosity that their founder, St. Ignatius de Loyola, embodied.

The learning institutions they have put up–Ateneo and Xavier universities among them–today also strive to produce what are called "men-for-others": selfless individuals who lead lives of loving service to God and neighbor. Many of these men and women can be found in the Jesuit Volunteers of the Philippines (jvp).

An organization of volunteers, sponsors and associates, the JVP has been sending young men and women to work in under-resourced schools and parishes and with ngos all over the Philippines for twenty-five years. It also provides training seminars and sponsorships for the financial support of the volunteers and the institutions to which they are assigned. For 2004, 32 college graduates and young professionals have been sent to live and serve for one year in communities in Davao, South Cotabato, Samar, Masbate, and Palawan.

The nature of service ranges from teaching in public schools, to caring for the handicapped in special institutions, to living with indigenous peoples in remote areas, to working with ngos in development projects all over the country.

By providing a support structure for volunteerism, the JVP works change not only in the communities that it sends volunteers to, but also in the lives of the people that are sent. Bryan Arevalo and Kris Buntag, two volunteers of this year’s batch, can attest to that.

Both were assigned to the Welcome Home Foundation, Inc. Ministry of the Deaf in Bacolod City. Bryan and Kris, alumni of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, have been teaching and caring for deaf students since they were sent there in June.

"It’s hard work," says Bryan. "When I got here, I knew nothing about sign language, or even the local culture, which is so different from what Kris and I were used to. The first few days were especially difficult."

According to Kris, "What you really develop while working here is patience. These kids, usually they have no one to talk to who understands sign when they’re at home. When they see that you can understand them, it’s hard to get them to stop talking and pay attention to what you’re teaching."

In the first few weeks that they spent in the Ministry, Kris and Bryan learned sign language while helping out–with a staff of 15 handling almost 500 people, the Ministry needed all the help it could get. Kris teaches catechism and Bryan, who graduated with an Electronics major, handles computer classes.

"The students here, with their handicap, take a while to learn their lessons, because they understand things differently from people with hearing. To make sure they don’t forget, you have to teach them over and over again, and hold their attention while you do it. Once, I spent half an hour trying to teach ‘ten minus one equals nine’ to a student," Kris ruefully recalls.

The volunteers lead simple lives, waking up at five-thirty in the morning for breakfast and house chores and to help clean up the kids in their care. From their dormitory they ride to the Ministry, and from 9-to-5, their day is filled with teaching catechism, computers, and helping the people with income-generating projects: making greeting cards and calendars.

When they get home to their dormitory in the evening, they hold one-on-one tutorials with students who ask them for help with lessons, and then prepare for bed and the coming day. On weekends, they assist in the Mass for the deaf. While it isn’t the lifestyle that they were used to back home, neither of them are complaining.

They have different reasons for being there. For Kris, it began with a T-shirt: "I was part of the local parish back in Cagayan, doing some pastoral work, singing in the choir, going on some outreach programs. One day I saw one of the students in Xavier wearing the JVP shirt, so I asked about it. The work back in the parish was good, but I wanted to do something more, to really put into practice what I was singing about."

Bryan just went to a JVP orientation out of curiosity, having heard about the JVP back in high school. "The orientation really opened my eyes. I felt privileged, being where I was, and I wanted to give something back. I volunteered because I thought there had to be something I could offer to pay God back for his blessings."

Now, half of their mission year has passed, and they are in the middle of doing just that. It is hard work, but it has grown into something that they love and look forward to, every day. Bryan explains, "At the end of each day, there’s this great feeling of fulfillment, and you just realize this–doing this is what makes me happy." For Kris, the weariness of a long day is lifted when one of the children just comes up to her for a hug, when she sees the children smile.

Both say that the experience has definitely changed them. "We’re ruined for life," Bryan jokes. Once shy and a bit of a loner, he is now more sociable, and gets along with people more easily. Kris says that her work in Bacolod has strengthened her love of kids. They agree, laughing, that they are now a lot more patient than when they started.

Both are considering extending their stay after their mission year is up. Bryan is thinking of setting up a foundation like Welcome Home back in Cagayan. For now, he thinks of ways of using his background in electronics to help educate deaf people. Kris, if she doesn’t stay for another year, will go back to Camiguin and teach.

Whatever the future may hold for Kris and Bryan, they will always carry with them the memory of their experience, of the people and the lessons taught and learned, and how it changed them.

The JVP continues to send more young men and women who wish to extend a hand to those who need it, to build a just society, to build a community. "We are all angels with one wing," an article in the JVP publication, Trip, read, "and we need each other to fly."

At the core of the JVP endeavor is the power of one: the power to make a difference, one life and one student at a time, creating ripples that will one day result in a unified nation of social justice. Over 25 years, over 700 volunteers have been sent all over the country. Over25 years, thousands of lives have been touched, given aid, loved.

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Those interested in volunteering or sponsoring volunteers can call the Jesuit Volunteers of the Philippines at tel. 426- 6001 local 4880 or log on to www.jvpfi.org for more information.