Sunday, August 17, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
For the parishioners of St. Francis of Assisi in San Jose, California, selfless love and compassion for the poorest of the poor must truly transcend borders.
And that is why the St. Francis of Assisi has built a village for poor families in Ocampo, Camarines Sur through Gawad Kalinga (GK) in keeping with their creed to serve and look after the poor wherever they may be.
St. Francis of Assisi is the first parish in the US to formally partner with GK and their very first village, consisting of 35 homes, was constructed in 2006.
“The stewardship of this church (is) taken from Matthew 25: to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick. The spirit of St. Francis of Assisi is to reach out to serve others. This church is very big in serving the less fortunate,” says Julius Bercasio, full-time worker at the parish.
Msgr. John Sandersfield, pastor of St. Francis, together with Julius and dozens of parishioners, came to the Philippines and participated in the bayanihan build.
For five days, they immersed in the community and Julius says it was an amazing experience.
Growing up in the States as a second generation Filipino-American, Julius was disconnected to the Philippines and had a vague sense of his Filipino identity.
“I was born and raised here and my parents didn’t teach me to talk in Tagalog. Before I went on this GK trip, I considered myself more American than Filipino. I got some Filipino culture but not a strong identity,” says Julius.
But all that changed when he went to Bicol for the GK build and mingled with the poor beneficiaries.
“I’ve always known about the poverty but never firsthand. I went into the slums, and I saw the stark contrast between the GK villages and the slums. We had exposure to what GK is all about. Just hearing the story and the whole vision, I really was attracted to that, and seeing my pastors who were sick but still proceeded to do the build for the poor was really inspiring to me,” Julius enthuses.
He comes back to the country for a GK build every year, and Julius was assigned to lead the youth group whom he taught and guided.
Julius says he wants to share with young Fil-Ams the transformative experience he went through while building homes for the poor and to teach them to always have a heart for the poor.
“That’s my goal, to present opportunities like that to people who have never been exposed to that type of poverty. A lot of people born in America are living in a bubble. American culture is so individualistic, the American dream is being successful by what car you drive, how big your house is. Now, I am more into the Filipino dream, into bayanihan, of sharing, of embracing our creed of ‘less for self, more for others, enough for all,’” Julius says.
“I want Filipino-Americans to experience what I’ve experienced in the GK build, because I want them to see how great Filipinos are in serving their own countrymen, in creating positive and vibrant environment. I’m very proud to be a Filipino,” he adds.
A natural fit to GK
St. Francis of Assisi Parish is a small Christian community in the Evergreen area of San Jose, California with a very active lay leadership.
The concept is a small parish that can attend to the spiritual needs of the parishioners because a big parish can have a tendency to lose relationship with the parishioners due to the difficulty in connecting with a lot of people.
Its main advocacies are serving others, social justice and charity work.
“If we want it to be a big parish, we could have turned it into a mega church, with ten thousand parishioners, but that’s not our religion. Our religion is relationship and to just help one another and feed off each other,” says Julius.
Joe Millares, partnerships chair of GK-Ancop USA and a St. Francis parishioner, says Fr. John, who adheres to the concept of small churches, was attracted to building a village in the Philippines because he believes that is the way to build a community.
“Fr. John would always tell us that the idea of going to the Philippines was to help people raise their dignity but in the process, the parishioners are the ones being transformed. They experience the joys of a simple life,” he says
The parish continues to support the welfare of the beneficiaries of the GK Ocampo village in CamSur and to raise funds.
Every December, the parish also holds the traditional Simbang Gabi.
Before, each Simbang Gabi was sponsored by a family with a token gift aside from the regular collection but now, families offer their gifts and tokens for the beneficiaries of GK village in Ocampo, an expression of love that is being true to the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi – to be a man for others.
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