SPEAK 5

Official Newsletter of Teachers in Sandals Fellowship Last Quarter 2011 INSIDE: p2 God’s Plan by Bro Mel B Libre/p3 Teachers in Sandals Timeline/p4 Vatican Notes

BRO DENIS AND BRO ANDREW CERTIFIED STUDENT TEACHERS

During the culminating activity of Teachers in Sandals Fellowship, Bros Denis Tutaka and Andrew Quirke will be given formal recognition as the first Certified Student Teachers (CST) of the ministry that aims to develop the public speaking skills of Christian volunteers.

To be a CST, one has to deliver the five basic speech projects consisting of: Speech Project No 1 “I Am”; Speech Project No 2 “I Believe”; Speech Project No 3 “I am Catholic”; Speech Project No 4 “My Favourite Bible Quote” and Speech Project No 5 “My Favourite Saint”. During the Teaching Night: Recognition Affair, the two gentlemen will deliver one of their speech projects.

The activity will be held on Friday 11 November 2011 starting at 6pm in MacLaurin Chapel, University of Auckland, Auckland City.

Other speakers during the Teaching Night are: Bro Jason Sharma (SP2); and Bro Darrow Benito (SP3). Bro Jeff Lang will deliver funny anecdotes in Smilines, while Sis Melissa Kleyburg will challenge the audience in BQQ (Bible Quotient Quiz). Bro Mel B Libre, founder of Teachers in Sandals Fellowship, will evaluate the speakers.

Fr Sam Pulanco, Auckland Catholic Tertiary Chaplain, will give an overview of Teachers in Sandals Fellowship, which has become one of the regular programmes of the chaplaincy.

Family, friends and supporters of the speakers are expected to attend the formal event that not only recognises the new CSTs, but also hopes to interest non-members to join in the activities in 2012.

Teachers in Sandals Fellowship: God’s Plan

By Bro Mel B Libre

God plans out everything. All we need is to align ourselves with Him, and He will direct us to what is best of us, what is best for humanity, what is best for His glory. „Teachers in Sandals Fellowship‟ is God‟s plan. He paved the way for its formation; and led people to meet for them to hammer out the mechanism for His plan to operate. When we conducted Teaching Night among members of TawagAwit, the only religious person to be a resource person was Deacon Sam Pulanco.

I could not believe when three years after his sharing, I would meet him along Waterloo Quadrant where he held office at Newman Hall, a block away from my work place in the Auckland High Court. He was now the Auckland Catholic Tertiary Chaplain, and at that time was conceptualising programmes to make his office more relevant and interesting to students.

I told him about Teaching Night and from thereon we easily came to agreement that it could very well fall into his plans – thus was born Teachers in Sandals Fellowship.

Like any endeavour, the initial activities had difficulty in attendance, but God sends out His Holy Angels to tell people of His plans. A core group simply gelled upon the guidance and support of Fr Sam – and nine months from that fateful meeting, we are conducting our Recognition Affair.

There are still many things to be done to achieve the ministry‟s mission “to carry on the command of Jesus Christ to spread the Gospel to all peoples of the world.” There are still many people required to help in fulfilling the goal; but what is important is that we have planted the seed on good ground.

Surely, it shall bear fruits in God‟s own time.

This early we have seen the ministry‟s first fruits – Bros Denis and Andrew. Let us shower them with our love and our faith, for they have opened the door for others to enter and follow. God bless them, God bless us all.

Teachers in Sandals Fellowship Timeline

2006-2007

Teaching Nights conducted periodically by TawagAwit led by Bro Mel B Libre in St Mary‟s Northcote and St Thomas More Glenfield. One of the resource persons was Deacon Sam Pulanco assigned in St Mary‟s Northcote.

04 March 2011

Fr Sam Pulanco, newly appointed Auckland Catholic Tertiary Chaplain, meet Bro Mel B Libre in Newman Hall. Both agree on the latter‟s offer to conduct a programme to develop the public speaking skills of students under in a ministry known as Teachers in Sandals Fellowship

18 March 2011

Orientation Meeting at the Newman Hall, Waterloo Quadrant, Auckland, New Zealand.

08 April 2011

First Teaching Night attended by 5 participants, with two speakers, namely Bro Darrow Benito and Bro Andrew Quirke. Bro Shawn Yap acted as Programme Minister and Bro Denis Tutaka was quiz master.

Bro Mel B Libre was the evaluator.

30 May 2011

In the fourth Teaching Night attended by 9 participants, Sis Mel Kleyburg became the first female member to deliver a speech in the ministry.

11 October 2011

Bro Denis Tutaka delivered Speech Project 5 “My Favourite Saint”, becoming the first member to complete the five basic speech projects and to qualify as Certified Student Teacher.

11 November 2011

Recognition Affair is held to recognise Bro Denis Tutaka as the first CST and Bro Andrew Quirke who delivered Speech Project 5.

JOIN TEACHERS IN SANDALS FELLOWSHIP Vision: Dedicated volunteers spreading God’s Word through teachings and through example Mission: To carry on the command of Jesus Christ to spread the Gospel to all peoples of the world Scriptural Guides: “And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.”

(Exodus 4:15) “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:28)

NOW OPEN TO STUDENTS

November 2011 General Intention: That the Eastern Catholic Churches and their venerable traditions may be known and esteemed as a spiritual treasure for the whole Church. Missionary Intention: That the African continent may find strength in Christ to pursue justice and reconciliation as set forth by the second Synod of African Bishops...

Pope Benedict XVI prayed that a summit of the leaders of countries with the world's largest economies would find ways to overcome the current economic crisis and promote real development. At the end of his weekly general audience Nov. 2, the pope issued a special appeal to the leaders of the G-20 nations scheduled to meet Nov. 3-4 in Cannes, France. "I hope the meeting will help overcome the difficulties, which -- on a global level -- block the promotion of an authentically human and integral development," the pope said. The agenda for the Cannes meeting aimed at finding ways to coordinate economic policies to reduce global imbalances between rich and poor; strengthening the regulation of financial markets; and promoting development in the world's poorer countries despite the global crisis. The president of the Vatican bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, said he hoped leaders attending the G-20 would engage in an "intense spiritual" reflection and "meditate" on the pope's appeal to promote the authentic development of the human person in today's

economies. "In my opinion, the pope is afraid these big meetings like the G-20 can lead to the approval of exclusively economic exit strategies" without taking into account the spiritual and human needs of the nations they lead, he said in an interview with the Italian news agency ANSA Nov. 2‌

A holistic education of children and young people must include religious education in accordance with the wishes of the children's parents, Pope Benedict XVI told Brazil's new ambassador to the Vatican. The teaching of religion in public schools, "far from signifying that the state assumes or imposes a specific religious creed, indicates a recognition of religion as a necessary value for the holistic formation of the person," the pope said Oct. 31. Welcoming Almir Franco de Sa Barbuda as Brazil's new ambassador, the pope said that when the Holy See and Brazil signed an agreement in 2008 on allowing religious education in public schools, the motivation was not to give Catholicism a special privilege, but to respond to the rights of parents to choose how their children should be educated and to give Brazil a new generation of citizens formed with a sense of morality and ethics.... Christians need to

offer migrants special care, ranging from prayer and concrete aid to promoting policies that uphold immigrants' rights and dignity, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Modern migration represents "an unprecedented mingling of individuals and peoples, with new problems not only from the human standpoint but also from ethical, religious and spiritual ones," he said. The influx of people from all corners of the world offers new opportunities to evangelize and to provide material and spiritual care to those in need, he said. The pope made the comments in a message on the theme of "Migrations and New Evangelization" for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees 2012.... Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed three saints and said their lives demonstrated that true faith is charity in action. "These three new saints allowed themselves to be transformed by divine charity," the pope said at a canonization Mass in St. Peter's Square Oct. 23. "In different situations and with different gifts, they loved the Lord with all their heart and they loved their neighbor as themselves, in such a way as to become models for all believers," he said. All three founded religious orders in the 19th century, working in missionary areas and on behalf of society's disadvantaged in Europe. The canonizations took place on World Mission Sunday, and the pope said their witness showed that love is at the center of the missionary task. The new saints were: St. Guido Maria Conforti, an Italian who founded the Xaverian Foreign Missionary Society, dedicated to the sole purpose of evangelizing non-Christians. He sent missionaries to China in 1899 and personally traveled to China in 1928 to visit the order's communities; St. Louis Guanella, the Italian founder the Servants of Charity, the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, and the Confraternity of St. Joseph, whose members pledge to pray for the sick and dying, and St. Bonifacia Rodriguez Castro (photo at left), a Spanish cordmaker in Salamanca who gathered working women for spiritual encounters in her house-shop. The group became the Servants of St. Joseph, a congregation dedicated to providing a religious and technical education to poor women and protecting them in the workplace. (All items taken from Catholic News Service)