How CEFAM has affected my life

Below is Marifel Castriciones' testimony for CEFAM (Center for Family Ministries) and her involvement with BASA.


by Marifel Castriciones

CEFAM helps build relationships by giving hope to problematic families and encouraging responsible living starting from the core, i.e., in individuals, among other things.  I remember how Fr. Ted's Resiliency Class, which I attended for one semester, presented street smart people, single parents, and dysfunctional families who unabashedly spoke of their real life experiences before the class and how the programs of CEFAM tremendously changed their lives while gradually changing my own. Above and beyond instruction, CEFAM immerses in the lives of families.  No wonder its volunteers multiply in its outreach programs. Among the growing number it offers (Daluyan, Marriage Encounters, Discovery Week-End, Life's Direction, Agimat, On Fire, etc.), it is with Bayan Akayin Sa Abot Tanaw (BASA) that I took a special interest in and volunteered my services.  For 6 years, BASA  gave me very fruitful experiences - going around the provinces of Masbate, Vigan, Sorsogon, Nueva Ecija, Ilocos, etc. meeting people, talking with them, hearing their difficulties, joining in their activities, teaching them reading, helping them start their small libraries or reading centers –that made it easy for me to encounter God.  That was when I started to yearn for more. 

Adjacent to the CEFAM building stands the Loyola School of Theology.   From CEFAM's BASA which conducts storytelling and reading workshops, I ended up enrolling and studying the word of God.  This time, my storytelling is anchored in scriptures with seminarians, religious sisters and volunteer catechists as my students from my teaching stints at San Carlos Seminary, the Scalabrini Formation Center and the Institute of Catechetics of the Archdiocese of Manila (ICAM).  

My background with CEFAM & the Loyola School of Theology helped me know myself more, clarify for me what matters most, and to prudently act on these convictions, so much so that even in my other civic involvements like anchoring in a radio program with my husband in “Bro. John & Sis. Fel”  [Radio Veritas, 6 p.m on Saturdays], it is God we seek and the good of man.  

Thank you CEFAM especially to Fr. Ted’s BASA for bringing out the best leader in everyone.   This year, 2010, BASA has already given 5 reading workshops around the metropolis.  BASA team leaves for another reading workshop invitation in Laoag this July while we welcome our latest invitation to work in collaboration with Tony Maloto's GK scholars throughout the country with Vic Lorenzo, a pioneer graduate of CEFAM, as our link.

How CEFAM has affected my life