We went to Pangasinan for 2 main reasons: 1) to attend Tita Elsie's birthday celebration and 2) to visit the Hundred Islands :)
Unfortunately, due to some risks involved (car had to be left somewhere overnight), we had to forego the plan of visiting said islands... we went to Covelandia Family Resort. The place was nice. (more on this in another entry)...
During Tita Elsie's birthday party however, we met lots of people, the most unforgettable being Fr. Bok. He's a parish priest of the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Salasa, Bugallon, Pangasinan. According to the signs in the church, it was founded in 1714 (could possibly be one of the oldest churches in the country) and is considered a National Shrine. However, I don't know if it's just me, but I've always tagged the phrase "National Shrine" with grandiose architecture and well-maintained interiors. This was not the case with the church we visited. The architecture is good but old age (and most possibly poor maintenance) probably took toll on the building. It still held traces of its former grandeur but it's a very far cry from the shrines here in Manila (some chapels here might even be better off than this). As per Fr. Bok, he and Tito Bob (Tita Elsie's husband... one of Papa's best friends) have been slowly restructuring the shrine. They've dug through the floorings and found antique tiles. (Former priests must have chosen to place new tiles on top of the old ones instead of removing them and then replacing with new ones.) They're prioritizing the church itself, unlike others (I choose not to name any) who opt to start off lavishing the priest's chambers, thus depleting the resources even before actual work on the church begins.
Fr. Bok told us he had lots of plans for the church and its parishioners. However, due to extreme lack of funds (they are situated in a place where people mostly rely on the church for their needs - and this is where most of their funds go to), they could not afford to actuate everything they have in mind...
I'd like to help and in my simple way, I'd try to... and I'd also like to call on people especially the Lourdesians (my sister is one and I believe she's already tried to inform her classmates) to help them in any way they can. A small thing to us may mean the world to them :)
View pics of the church here
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