Serving the church on narrow roads, a Christian life experience

Started as a youth volunteer of Saint Anthony Parish in Marbel in the 1970s. Betty Cainap became parish youth coordinator and member of parish speaker’s bureau. She also became a parish worker in the parish to augment her family finances. She found peace at their town, but not long enough until Martial Law restricted their full participation in their Basic Christian Community.

As the Mindanao Sulu Pastoral Conference III in Ozamiz City in 1977 called for Basic Christian Community – Community Organizing, she never hesitated to respond to the campaign and participated full time in the BCC-CO in KIDMACO area to deepen her Christian life despite the threat of Martial Law.

Though many of the Church organizers were imprisoned, some were missing and presumed dead, in fact many of them were known to her, Betty survived the military aggression and continued to serve as a youth volunteer in the parish, and as BCC-CO organizer in KIDMACO.

To keep the faith burning in service to the Church, coupled with her devotion to Saint Anthony, their parish patron, after the Martial Law, Betty organized parish workers in KIDMACO which later expanded to the entire Churches in Mindanao by the end of 1970s with the Kahiusahan sa mga Layko sa Mindanao (KALAMI).

The KALAMI is inclusive of parish workers of KIDMACO, DADITAMA, ZAMBASULI, DOPIM and CABUSTAM, under the umbrella of the Lay Forum Philippines (LFP), a forum of distinguished lay workers of various archdioceses and dioceses in the Philippines.

Fast forward to the pandemic, LFP and KALAMI temporarily ceased operation. Envisioned to continue serving the Church in narrow road against many challenges in life, packed with many trainings courtesy of the LFP, Betty was able to operate her home-based income generating project during pandemic which survived many households in Barangay Conception and inspired many parishioners in the Diocese of Marbel.

Though she is quite successful in her well-off store and well-known hog raising businesses, she humbly remains to be active auxiliary at the Saint Anthony Parish, Christ the King Cathedral, Diocese of Marbel; and she is a status quo lay coordinator of the Kahiusahan sa mga Layko sa Mindanao (KALAMI).

With many challenges encountered as she passed the narrow roads in serving the Church, at the height of the Martial Law and the odds brought by the pandemic, Betty Cainap remained resilient in her faith, with Saint Anthony as her patron. (Vonz M. Hijada, MAT | OLLP SoCCom)