Nag CAM ka na ba?

I was eating in a fast-food restaurant once when a young man approached me to offer dried mangoes and macapuno. He told me that the proceeds will go to their scholarship fund. He then continued to say that he was once an out-of-school youth until a religious group took him and sent him to school. In return, he must sell the products of the manufacturer sponsoring their schooling.

I have also heard of other religious groups doing the same – engaging in commerce and trade to advance their cause. One of the more famous groups is the Good Shepherd convent in Baguio City. I suppose anyone who has gone to Baguio and has bought some pasalubong would not miss including Good Shepherd’s ube jam, strawberry jam, peanut brittle, etc. According to this group, their nuns are the ones who make these products, without a pay to advance their cause of spreading the Roman Catholic faith, including sending some children and youth to school. It is by doing these social activities that they are able to win the hearts of men.

Brethren, we might think that what they are doing are all in vain for they do it to gain merit from the Lord and be assured of their place in heaven. But most of us will be embarrassed by their zealousness and their enthusiasm to promote their products and their work. I’m afraid that unless we capture that same zeal and spirit of voluntarism and cooperativism to advance the cause of Christ, it would take much longer time for us to realize our vision of sending missionaries to every province and we would see the cults and communists overtaking us and capturing the hearts of men for their own cause.

Last week, we harvested a portion of our tilapia. I was quite discouraged by the output because the tilapia did not grow and the volume was not as I expected. To recoup some of the losses, we decided to process the tilapia as “tilanggit” to command a better price. Again our Samuels (Jacob, Erwin and Lester) were there to help out to debone the tilapia and marinate them and again some of the brethren were willing to buy and patronize them. Needless to say, they were quite satisfied with the taste!

I remember a sister in Christ who would buy our camote and use it in almost every dish that she would cook. A brother in Christ also called me to tell me that he will entrust his goats to CAM’s care. He and CAM will then divide equally the kids that will be borne. Recently also, a Christian couple in the US (the wife being a former member of CBC) sent money for CAM. And we will never forget the giving of a Christian widow, who despite being recently operated on, continuously gives her weekly support for the CAM. Due thanks also are given to men and women of God who help us with the minute details of the operation and who do not fail to include CAM in their prayers.

For the remaining months of the year, the CAM will embark in the goat-raising project. We now have six goats in our care and we plan to buy more, including one high breed buck to upgrade the size and quality of the herd. The purchase will be done after we have constructed additional housing for them.

The bananas will be due for harvest November-December. We have recently harvested eggplants and sweet corn. These vegetables we just tried to see if they will thrive and yield a good harvest. This being the case, we intend to plant corn and peanuts when in season.

The fishponds are currently being restructured (deepened and widened) and nets will be placed to prevent predators from eating the fingerlings. We also plan to buy sex-reversed tilapia fingerlings instead in our next round. The pigs are also due for selling and I have instructed Nonoy to catch some young roosters for the consumption of our church workers.

Last August 25, the Samuels plus some of our ladies and men planted rice. Lord willing this will be harvested by the end of the year. It was such a blessing to see the brethren allowing their hands to be dirtied and their feet buried in mud as they subject themselves to a task that they are not used to doing. If only all of us can capture that spirit of cooperation, the ministry of CAM will go a long way! I know not all of us will be able to physically go to Laiban but everyone can help express support by some other way. As an example, one couple who can not join sent food for the brethren that day.

Little by little, we are capturing the spirit of voluntarism and cooperativism. Our earlier vision of our bahay kubo and of bringing only salt and kerosene whenever we go down to Laiban are slowly materializing. I pray that this will gain momentum.

Cornerstone, nag-CAM (cooperate, assist, minister) ka na ba? Mag-CAM na!