Article: Discernment Course Missionary Married Couples Branch in the Philippines 2015-2016

It started just like any ordinary weekend trip though with a hint of anticipation of what’s in store for us. We landed in Cebu on a Friday November 06. We woke up on a Saturday 07, gearing up for the course orientation at 1pm.

We went to Betania Retreat House in Laugh and handed us over to the warmest formators/facilitators ever. And our weekend was never the same again.

We were there for the first leg of our 12-month Discernment Course. We packed ourselves with excitement and fervour but never imagined to have received something much greater than that. We were among the 12 couples who have said yes. We were three couples from Cagayan de Oro, eight couples from Cebu City and one from Sydney.

Gaby’s smile and warmth as she opened the course was settling. She made us see that the initiative to be there did not come from us, but from God. Alfonso came in and defined our purpose – that this spiritual discernment is a quest to discover God’s will for us so that we can follow Him – not individually, but as a couple. Then, Regner encouraged us to change the face of the world by setting the earth on fire. Now I know, Alicia Keys cannot be alone as the girl on fire. Adriana assured us that God has great plans for us, especially for our marriage and our family. And these are communion and fidelity, trust in His word, mission together against separate lives, universal family, missionary urgency, order in our family, and eternal values for our children.

Whew! We would be fools to say no to that.
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And as we fly with the clouds on our way back to CDO, I realized something; what truly happened was - an extraordinary God invited ordinary people like us. And when we said yes, He just turned our ordinary weekend to a weekend that will change our lives forever. 

​Ike and Ram Olandesca
Couple in Discernment
Cagayan de Oro City

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Some photos of the event: