What started out as a group of 70 rural farmers and P3,500 in contributions has become an amazing cooperative with almost P1 billion worth of assets and at least 54,000 members.
The success story was shared as a commentary on poverty and the power of prayer during Good Friday’s “Seven Last Words”, a series of reflections on Jesus dying on the cross, held at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral.
“Prayer is powerful. When the poor gather to pray, the Lord will really send help,” said Maria Elena Limocon, general manager of the Lamac Multipurpose Cooperative (LMC) based in Pinamungahan town, southwest Cebu.
Seventy tiller farmers in barangay Lamac pooled together P3,500, which they “offered to the Lord”, she said.
The hardship of life in the remote rural village back then was the backdrop of her reflection on Christ’s “fourth last word”: ”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Without decent roads, electricity, or potable drinking water, life in the mountain community was “unfair,” she said.
Limocon started out as a midwife assigned in Lamac in 1982.
Circumstances were so difficult, she said, that it made her doubt that God cared or even existed.
When a patient had to be brought to a hospital, neighbors would place a chair over two bamboo poles and carry the person.
“We had to cross mountains to get to the highway. Sometimes, we wouldn’t make it to the highway. We’d stop because our patient was already dead,” said Limocon in Cebuano.
Trials like these made her want to leave but somehow, “God never let me.”
“I learned in my struggles to feel the presence of God, His love. In my hardships in Lamac, I learned to pray,” said Limocon.
The coop had its roots as a farmer’s cooperative in 1973.
Limocon recalled a conversation with one of the elderly in Lamac, who has already passed away. He told her: “It doesn’t matter how poor we are for as long as our hearts are open for God to reign. We, the poor, can put together all the blessings that we have, no matter how small, and we can make miracles in the countryside.”
In the cooperative today, not only the poor put in money but even well-to -do individuals have become members.
Limocon said that joining a cooperative was a way of doing an apostolate.
“Our concern should not be the scarcity of our resources or the abundance of our treasures. What we should be concerned about is how to use these resources and treasures to help our brothers,” she said.
Limocon was one of two laypersons who shared the pulpit with priests and nuns in the Good Friday reflections.
Reaching out to the poor was the theme of this year’s reflections as 2015 was declared the Year of the Poor by Philippine bishops.
The other layman was retired judge and poet Simeon Dumdum Jr. who reflected on Jesus’ fourth word: “I thirst.”
He said professionals have been blessed with much and have a “responsibility” to share with others.
“God gave us ‘wells’ so we can give something to drink to the poor who thirst,” said Dumdum.
“Professionals can do so many things … Our help to the poor shouldn’t only be once or twice. It should be continuous. We have ‘wells’ that we can let the poor drink from every chance they get,” he said.
There are three kinds of poverty—material, moral, and spiritual, said Msgr. Renato Beltran, chancellor of the Cebu Archdiocese, who opened the series of discourses.
Jesus Christ was “materially poor.”
“Poverty should not be a hindrance to a firm relationship with the Lord,” said Beltran.
While there are Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) and cooperatives that help the Church reach out to the poor, there are still many who thirst for love, he said.
“The challenge remains to continue the works of mercy that Jesus Christ has started,” said Beltran.
Commentaries were also given by Fr. Ramon Echica, Fr. Rolyn Vics, Fr. Carmelo Diola, Sister Esterlita Lauros, and Fr. Vicente Florido Jr.
After each reflection, short videos were shown featuring examples of acts of mercy such as visiting inmates in prison, clothing the naked, and caring for the sick.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma concluded the meditations, which lasted from noon till 3 p.m., with a prayer.
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