My Visit to Mama’s Hope Haven of Norway By Amb. Elizabeth P. Buensuceso

My Visit to Mama’s Hope Haven of Norway
By Amb. Elizabeth P. Buensuceso

By the time we reached Barangay Pag -asa in General Trias , Cavite , the sun was beating furiously against the parched rice fields although it was supposed to be the coolest month in the Philippines. Following the directions of the tricycle driver I inquired from, we came upon a half-finished road where a few men were ‘poisoning’ the land, apparently preparing it for ground-breaking. In the middle of the road were three foreign looking women, one about seventy and two others in their fifties. I got out of the Innova my sister was driving and inquired from the slim but sturdy looking lady, “Ma’am, could you be Mrs. Rachel Trovi?” The grey-haired lady burst out into laughter and exclaimed, “And you must be the Ambassador of the Philippines!” So, right there in the middle of the street on a scorchingly hot Saturday afternoon, we hugged as if we were long-lost friends. “Come, come,” she urged and ushered us to the frugal mission house where she and the two other Norwegian ladies lived. Coffee and cookies and some rattan chairs were soon brought out into the windy porch and we talked and talked, about Norway, about the Philippines, about the Center, and about how God has blessed us with opportunities to serve Him.

Introductions were hastily made. My sister, Pastor Nel Trinidad and two friends from Norway who were vacationing with me, Svein-Erik and Liv Berit Skibrek also hugged Mrs. Trovi and her missionary friends, Astrid and Sophie.

Soon it was time to visit the Center and Mama Rachel’s “children.” I was quite unprepared for the scene that met us at the building housing the abandoned old women. These old women she picked up wandering aimlessly in the streets, famished and squalid. Some of them were just sleeping off the days, waiting for their time to meet their Maker. At least they are doing so with dignity. Soon, two or three toothless women embraced me and we started to sing and dance. I taught them to sing, “Mahal na Mahal Kita, Panginoon,” a song popularized by Filipino composer and singer, Rommel Guevara. Lola Tessa soon caught up with the catchy simple lyrics and repeated the song over and over. She coaxed two or three other old women to join the dance. She would not let me go. And as tears were streaming down my face, buried in the bosom of these otherwise unloved old women, I thanked God for Mama Rachel, for pouring out God’s love to my countrymen and women.

It was nap time for the little angels (aged 1-5 years old) when we moved on to the building where they were being cared for, so we tiptoed quietly into their rooms . Again, my heart broke. What kind of women abandoned the fruit of their wombs? Maybe, the babies had physical and mental deficiencies, but it is no matter. Mama Rachel loved them just the same.

Next stop was the building of the teen-aged girls who were busy with some craft or another or were studying their lessons. They told me they attended a public school nearby. At the chapel, the pre-teens were having a game of newspaper dance with some volunteers who were once also wards of the Center and have now “graduated” and found employment outside. They visit every now and then to give of themselves in return for Mama’s love for them.

My Norwegian friends wondered how Mama Rachel could live in her mission house all alone by herself, with no security guards and personal assistants. This tough elderly lady who manages a multi-million peso operation did not even have a car when we met her and was about to board a tricycle on her way to the newly opened SM Rosario to buy supplies for the Center. “Oh, I just pray to God for protection,” she declares matter-of-factly. While other foundation managers would heartlessly squander donations given by donors and sponsors, Mama Rachel is prudent in her personal expenses. She gazed delightedly at the simple beaded bracelet Pastor Nel gave her as though it were the most expensive gift she ever received. .

It was amazing how Mama Rachel, as she is fondly called by her wards, was able to put up such a huge Center for the homeless and disadvantaged of all ages, despite her advanced years (She is actually eighty two). What we saw was just the tip of the iceberg. Mama Rachel includes in her operations the following: 3 orphanages, 6 pre-schools, a sewing school, a center for sexually battered or abused girls and single mothers, a drop-in center, a home for old and abandoned women, a prison visitation ministry, street ministry, scholarship for 25,000 school children and a community/church center. In fact, the ground was being prepared for the building of a new hospital which would deliver free medical services to the poor residents of the area. For more information about the Center, please visit fr-trovi@online.no.

After my visit, I said to myself that if the Lord would allow me to live to the ripe old age of Mama Rachel, I would like to live my life like that, in the service of Him who loves the unloved and the lost. Thank you, Mama Rachel, for loving my people as God loves them.