MISYON Student Essay Contest 2008
Misyon announces its fourth annual essay contest, which this year is open to all high school students. First prize is P10,000, second prize is P5,000 and third P3,000. There are ten consolation prizes of P2,000.
Theme: ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses’ (Acts 1:8).
This passage occurs after the death and resurrection of Jesus, just before his ascension to the Father. It represents the birth of the Church.
The author, who is majoring in social work at the University of Negros Occidental–Recoletos (UNO-R), Bacolod City, tells how her life has been transformed by a group of Sisters who live their Catholic faith with the belief that ‘A Child Redeemed is a Generation Saved’. Richelle has been involved in campus journalism since elementary school.
Fr Raymundo T. Sabio MSC worked for many years in South Korea where he was a chaplain in these fields: Apostleship of the Sea; the welfare of foreign workers; Incheon International Airport. His brother, Father Generoso, ‘Gene,’ is now based in the USA (San Bernardino California) after having worked for six years as Third Assistant General of the MSCs in Rome. Father Gene was unable to go to the Marshall Islands for his brother’s installation but their sister, Sr Fidelis PBVM, based in Scala Retreat House, Bacolod City, represented the family. Father Ray’s article about her vocation story, ‘Ichthys’ as a Way to the Lord, appeared in the March-April 2007 issue of Misyon. 
As a child in the Philippines, there were about 30 Muslim families, mostly traders, who lived in my hometown. Two of these families were family friends, but I never had the courage to learn more about Islam and the lives of my Muslim neighbors.
When Samuel P. Huntington published The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order in 1996, the book quickly became a bestseller. Huntington, a Harvard political scientist, theorized that since Christianity and Islam are so different from one another, they are on an almost inevitable collision course. Many see the events of 11 September 2001 as proof of Huntington’s thesis.
When Columban priests in Manila talk about Columban lay missionary Columba Chang, they’ll sometimes refer to her as ‘Saint Columba’, a bit of a tongue-in-cheek reference to the sixth century Irish saint who shares her baptismal name. Very few of them know that she’s actually named after Kim Hyo-im (Columba), one of the canonized Korean martyrs. (See ‘box’). Mostly, however, it’s a token of the genuine respect and admiration for the 49-year-old from Seoul, South Korea, and the exemplary life they have seen her live the past 16 years.