by Santosh Digal

Copies of the sacred text are given to Baseco area residents. Faith is women's only hope. "The Lord is our hope; he is the only one who knows his plans for us. Every day, I ask him: 'What do you want me to do today?'"

Manila (AsiaNews) – "Man does not live by bread alone" (Mt, 4: 6), says the Gospel of St Matthew. No one more than the women of Baseco area (Philippines) appreciate this passage from the Bible.

For local wives and mothers, the quest for hope, more than food, is their biggest challenge.

"People here need to raise their morale. They need a reason not to lose hope, a motivation to dream big and believe that their lives need not be defined by the poverty of this place," Mario Valera, a pastor at Baseco for more than two years now, told AsiaNews.

In order to nourish this hope, the Philippine Bible Society, a 106-year-old organization that gives free Bibles to Christians all over the world, has distributed 3,700 copies of Bible in local dialects in Baseco since last month.
The Bible has tips on how to deal with people in need, mothers who sadly cannot feed their children, people who lose their job, or their spouse. The solution, according to the Bible, is simple: Trust in God.

Adoracion Ubaldo is a 38-year-old mother of four with an unemployed husband. For her "the Lord is our hope; he is the only one who knows his plans for us. Every day, I ask him: 'What do you want me to do today?'"

Another woman, Julieta Maico, 31, is struggling to bring back the trust and love she lost in her marriage when her husband left her and their five children last year.

Her mother—her one and only adviser and friend—died the same time.

Feeling very lonely, Maico wanted to commit suicide, but instead, she pulled herself together for her children's sake.
Her husband returned to the family and she was counting on prayer to help her forgive him.

She reads the Bible and urges her children to believe in God.

"When hardships come, pray that you can overcome it! When you don't have gas for cooking, be thankful that your kids are not sick," Maico said.

"We need to be in communication with the One (God) up there because He is the source of peace of mind. That's what we need," Emelita Domo, 48, said.
Her seven children have abandoned her and her husband, but not before they wasted away the money the two saved after almost a decade of working in Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.
Domo turned to God after her fourth son was killed in an ambush thanks to Adoracion Ubaldo, who invited her to come to a church service a few weeks ago and lent her a copy of Tagalog version of the Bible. 

• philippines
• bible
• hope
• for
• the
• poor
• women
• and
• children