Cancer survivor opens home to IEC guests

Virginia Rojas, a retired accountant, shows the room where her guests will stay. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

Retired accountant says she’s just returning her blessings to the Lord who healed her

Her house doesn’t have hotel-like amenities.

But 60-year-old Virginia Rojas is confident she can make her guests feel at home.

The key: Filipino hospitality.

“Even if we do not have the means, we always make it a point to warmly welcome visitors and show them our genuine service,” Rojas said.

Rojas, a retired bank accountant, is opening her three-story house in Barangay T. Padilla in Cebu City to at least two delegates of the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) which will start  on Sunday.

As one of the host families, Rojas has to provide lodging and breakfast to the visitors during the week-long congress.

She also has to bring the pilgrims to the designated drop-off and pick-up points where buses rented by IEC organizers will take them to and from the venues.

“They will be part of my family’s budget,” Rojas said.

The mother of six children doesn’t mind the additional expense and the inconvenience of housing two delegates for eight days.

She said she just wants to give back to the Lord the blessings she has received, especially for healing her after the physicians had given up on her.

“My life has been extended for 16 years now and that’s too much of a blessing,” she said.

Rojas was diagnosed with cancer in the late 1990s. Her physicians refused to treat her because hers was a hopeless case.

Instead of losing hope, Rojas turned to the Eucharist which she considered the source of her healing.

“Every time I received communion, I believed the Lord would truly heal me. Who else can heal us except God,” she said.

When she had a medical checkup in 2013, her physicians declared her cancer-free.

“I am a witness of His goodness. And in all honesty, I tell you that the Eucharist made me well,” she said.

Rojas, who now serves as vice president of the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) of the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, said she wants to share God’s goodness by reaching out to others.

“I want to give back to the Lord. I won’t mind not getting something in return. Anyway, I could not bring anything when I die,” she said.

Rojas’s husband manages an electrical shop while she runs a small bakery on the ground floor of their house.

She has reserved at least two rooms for the two delegates who will stay in her house during the IEC.

Although the rooms are not air-conditioned, she said they will put portable air coolers and electric fans.

For breakfast, she plans to serve bread, fried eggs, tapa (dried cured beef), and rice as well as the well-known Cebuano humba (braised pork belly), afritada (tomato-based chicken stew) and Filipino-style escabeche.

“But I have to ask them first if they can eat all kinds of food. They may have some food allergies,” she said.

HOMESTAY ACCOMMODATIONS

Msgr. Ruben Labajo, over-all chairman of the IEC Accommodations Committee, said about 600 households in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue have volunteered to house some delegates during the international gathering.

“We can actually accommodate 1,250 delegates. But so far, (of about 10,500 registered delegates), only 413 delegates opted for homestay accommodations,” he said.

Labajo said they expected several delegates to look for free accommodations at the start of the congress.

“The coordinators of every diocese knew that there were homestay accommodations, but we did not include this particular item in the registration because if we did so, most of the delegates would prefer free accommodations,” he explained.

Labajo said they will prioritize participants who cannot afford to rent hotel rooms or those who want to immerse themselves in Filipino culture.

Only delegates, who have a written recommendation from the bishop of the diocese where they came from, can avail of homestay accommodation during the IEC, he said.

“We just want to be sure. Who knows, the person we are entertaining is a member of ISIS (a Jihadist militant group in Iraq and Syria),” Labajo said.

To ensure the safety of the delegates, he said they have inspected the houses where they will stay.

Labajo said host families don’t have to provide delegates with air-conditioned rooms.

“A host family has to provide our visitors a separate room, a bed and a comfort room. It doesn’t have to be a separate toilet. A common one will do,” he said.

Some host families, Labajo said, choose to let some delegates stay in pension houses.

“These host families will pay for the accommodations of the delegates who are supposed to stay in their houses,” he said.

Labajo admitted that it was not easy for the Archdiocese of Cebu to look for host families since most houses which have extra rooms are being rented out.

But he added they are happy that 600 families are willing to open their homes to strangers.

“The IEC is an activity of faith. Let’s believe that when we open ourselves to strangers, we are opening our houses to Jesus himself,” Labajo said.

“Jesus comes to us in the form of a stranger. For sure, if we open our doors to strangers, we will be blessed,” he added.