Three CLC members stand in front of the community’s chapel, which was destroyed last year during a major typhoon. It was the third chapel to be destroyed on the site. A new one will be made with cement blocks.

By Carrie McClish
Staff writer

Deacon Stan Lee has a new vocation – farm developer.

The deacon, who left the Oakland Diocese in 2001 to minister to poor communities in his native Philippines, is helping people in these rural areas become more self-sufficient.

“We are teaching them how to be better farmers, teaching them new farm technologies,” said Deacon Lee, who works with the lay organization Christian Life Community (CLC), in the Bicol region of the Philippines. CLC bought 29 acres of farmland with funds raised by donors, including many in the Oakland Diocese. On that land CLC has planted food crops and fruit trees that will feed participants at CLC retreats and volunteers working the farm.

The organization wants to buy cows that would provide milk, a product that is virtually nonexistent now. Last year Deacon Lee arranged for some youngsters to receive powdered milk for a brief period. Before the milk was distributed the children were weighed so that the organization could determine what impact the milk would have on their health.

Leaders of Christian Life Communities in Bicol in the Philippines gather at a retreat coordinated by Deacon Stan Lee of the Oakland Diocese.

After they began receiving the milk, the children were weighed again and to everyone’s surprise, there was an “insignificant increase” in their weight. “Not even a pound,” the deacon said. The organizers soon discovered that the milk was the only food given to the children. “So they were using it not as a supplement but as their main food.”

Improving food production is critical, he said. Because of the area’s high unemployment, most families have no money and little food, with the elderly and children suffering the most from malnutrition and ill health. “They cannot afford to go to the doctor,” said Deacon Lee, adding that those that do see a doctor are unable to afford medications that are prescribed. “And if you are unable to buy it, you won’t be treated.”

During a recent typhoon, homes were destroyed or left in grave condition.

Those who are admitted to the hospital soon find themselves with bills they cannot pay. Many people don’t seek medical care; “they just die,” Deacon Lee said.

Because of their poverty, no one can survive on their own without forming themselves into a support group, said Deacon Lee, who remains part of the deacon community of the Oakland Diocese. He spends his days going to different villages organizing small Christian communities and helping them learn a variety of skills they need to thrive. Over the past six years, the CLC has grown from eight to 30 communities, with 20 more newly emerging.

The communities are organized and nurtured through the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. Members gather for prayer, retreats, educational sessions and community building. While developing life skills and deepening their spirituality, they are also learning to be leaders.

“Many of them are now becoming leaders of the Church,” the deacon said. “They are becoming catechists and lay ministers.”

Deacon Lee’s ministry is dependent on donations. Checks payable to Deacon Stanley A. Lee can be sent to him at 24424 Broadmore Ave., Hayward, CA 94544 or checks payable to ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc., memo Stan’s ministry, can be mailed to Leandro Abadia, 1215 Tea Rose Circle, San Jose, CA 95131.

These men carry bamboo poles they have harvested to rebuild huts destroyed by a typhoon.

A man plants hardwood trees that will be used to build homes.

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