Scheduled Interview with FDG: 31 July 2018 - 10:00 o'clock A.M.

Visiting With Music Alumni, Friends and Family - 3

There's apprehension on the part of some that certain Tabing-Ilog faculty homes may be included in the proposed transaction to sell fifteen (15) hectares of AUP land that abuts the Diezmo River.

Scheduled Interview with FDG: 31 July 2018 - 10:00 o'clock A.M.

I saw FDG in his office twice: the first time was casual, with no prior notice; on my second try, I secured a scheduled appointment through his secretary, aka administrative assistant.  My aim was to engage him in a meaningful conversation regarding items of mutual interest to AUP and me as an alumnus

Though I made no pretense of representing all alumni, I started our conversation by asking him news about AUP that I can share with everyone, i.e. nothing confidential or private.

1.  FDG promised to send me by e-mail, per my request, copies of his November 2017 as well as the upcoming November 2018 State of the University Annual Report to the AUP Board of Trustees and AUP Constituency.

2.  About the proposed sale of AUP land.  Before meeting with FDG, I happen to have spoken briefly with the North Philippine Union Conference president, Pastor Romeo Mangiliman, and I left his office with the assurance that since AUP land is owned by the NPUC, all transactions involving sale or lease of AUP land must be approved by the NPUC Board. To both NPUC and AUP presidents, I reiterated my position, a view that is shared by most if not all alumni I've talked to so far, that selling fifteen (15) hectares of a strip of land abutting the Diezmo River, will be to our school's absolute disadvantage.  Incidentally, I relayed to them the information I gathered from various sources that La Sierra University still keeps the title to all land that was used for housing development.

3.  The requirement of the AUP College of Medicine for a teaching hospital situated on the same campus in order to attain/retain (?) its accreditation status.  Besides an acute care teaching hospital, we agreed it would be well to look at a much larger picture of a holistic program of wellness and health promotion including, among other things, one or more assisted senior living facilities and a retirement village.  If so, AUP will need all the land, possibly even more than it already owns.

4.  A board-approved updated Master Development Plan.  Our conversation revealed that a blueprint copy of the first and original 1975 MDP cannot be found so I suggested contacting either Don C. Van Ornam or the Los Angeles, California-based planning and architectural firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson, and Mendenhall. Two subsequent master development plans, one in 2005 and another in 2011, were reportedly both board approved as well. Regarding updating all previous MDPs, with an eye on cost-cutting, one option we contemplated was to secure the possible assistance of graduate architecture students of either Walla Walla University or Andrews University.  Financial considerations aside but with an eye on preserving the natural beauty of our campus, one essential step with respect to planning and implementation is to put in place a system of roads, water and power, sewage and drainage connecting the academic hub to the rest of entire property.

5.  Finally, the need for an Advisory Council to function alongside the Board of Trustees.  Off the top of my head, I offered some names to constitute it.  The general idea is to make it representative internationally and non-exclusive; including non-Philippine citizens and as many of those who feel they have a connection with AUP and might have something to contribute in terms of their professional or vocational expertise.

http://www.uermafusa.com/convention-2018-chicago/cme/session1/5-Current%20Status%20of%20Philippine%20%20Medical%20Education.pdf

The Current Status of Basic Medical Education in the Philippines

Alfaretta Luisa T. Reyes, M.D.,FPSECP

Mission of Hope Farm; TastiHealth Vegetarian Buffet

Visiting With Music Alumni, Friends and Family - 2

• Mission of Hope Farm
• TastiHealth Vegetarian Buffet

Mission of Hope Farm Project

AUP Eastern North America Chapter (EASNAC) Alumni Foundation.  The 5-hectare farm that sits on leased AUP property was started two years ago under the direction and supervision of Ed and Teresa Quirante of Tennessee, U.S.A.  The project aims to benefit working students; consequently, the biggest expense of the farm consists of working students' wages.

North Gate Main Entrance to AUP on the Santa Rosa - Tagaytay Road

TastiHealth Vegetarian Buffet across the road in front of the North Gate of the Main Entrance
to the Adventist University of the Philippines

Retired AUP Elementary School and Education Dept. Faculty Cording and Bayani Agnazata at the Tasti-Health Vegetarian Buffet .  He presently serves as president of the Adventist Frontier Missions Philippines.

Mission of Hope Farm - Eastern North America Chapter (EASNAC) volunteers Prom and Norma Amoguis of Tennessee, U.S.A. entertaining visitors at the Guest House that serves as a temporary residence.  

Note: Tribute to Academy Teachers by AWESNA Archives Committee

Sept 29, 2018, Loma Linda Filipino SDA Church

A Letter to Miss Ester G. Manalaysay

By Norma Tulio Amoguis

My dearest Miss Man,

I am writing you this letter so that the world would know what an amazing and wonderful woman you are. You came into my life when I was learning to make choices that would affect me forever. You have mentored me to become the woman that I am now. I praise God for bringing you into my life.

I met you when you became the Dean of Women at North Hall, the ladies’ dormitory, at PUC in Baesa. You spent time in talking to each of the girls and I was very nervous when it was my turn. However, you put me at ease by looking at me in the eye and smiling at me. You asked me questions about my needs and gave me suggestions regarding feminine hygiene. I surely needed that because I had lived away from home 10 months of the year since 1st grade because my parents were doing evangelistic work in Central Luzon Mission. I was surprised that you were a good surrogate mother even though you never married and had no children of your own. You were very strict and made sure that we adhered to the rules and regulations of PUC. However, you explained the rules whenever I had to be punished. There’s one thing that I have neglected to ask you: “Why did I have to be punished (campus-bound for 2 days) when you and the faculty members made a surprise raid and found a love letter in my locker? I did not think that it was my fault that a young man placed a love letter in one of my books without my knowledge.” Grudgingly, I took my punishment even though I did not agree with you. And, I will have you know that I did not even like that young man and would not have accepted his love letter had I known about it.

I do not remember what your academic accomplishments were and what your major course was. You held many positions at PUC and you were the Registrar when I was a senior in high school. Not only did you teach my high school physics class for a few months but also college physics for a semester. You taught me not only the principles of physics but also their application to my Christian life. To this day, I remember the illustration that you gave regarding the elastic limit and that God does not allow us to have trials that we cannot bear. Your illustration came to my mind and I remembered you when I had to go through the trial of having breast cancer in 2004. Praise God, I trusted the Great Physician and I am healed!

One-on-one meetings with you became sporadic after you left North Hall and did other things when I was a freshman in college. However, I did seek you whenever I needed to have someone pray for me. My mother, a prayer warrior, taught me that prayer has the power to change anything in my life. You re-enforced all her teachings and I sought you whenever I needed to pray with someone who understood my struggles in life. During my freshman year in college, I got sick with Hemorrhagic Fever and was hospitalized for a couple of weeks at Manila Sanitarium and Hospital. The doctors told me that H-Fever had caused numerous fatalities in Manila area already. My fever raged on even after I was transfused with 10 units of whole blood. However, I was encouraged when I received a note from you assuring me that I would get well because you and other faculty members were praying for my healing. Sure enough, I was healed!

It was a great blessing to me that we communicated often when I went to the United States in 1960. Your letters helped me to adjust to a different lifestyle and culture but still in keeping with the Christian principles that you taught me. You never failed to send letters through friends who came from PUC to USA.  I treasure your words of wisdom when I informed you that I was getting married to Prometheus Amoguis. You reminded me that Jesus should be included in any relationship and especially in marriage. It was you who started Prom and me in helping working students at PUC/AUP. A couple of years after we were married, you wrote and asked if we could help a Theology student who needed financial assistance. You said that he was struggling and getting discouraged and if we could help him with his tuition fees, he would be able to stay at PUC. We praise God that Prom and I responded to your appeal and we helped that young man. He graduated from PUC with a BTh, went on to get his master’s degree in Theology and then got his D.Min. later. He has served in South-Central Luzon Mission as a district pastor and later as president of the mission. He is now serving as a Sr. Pastor in one of Filipino churches in California. Soon after we helped this young man, you asked us to help a nursing student and then a secretarial student. They were our first 3 scholars. You were right in guiding us to help those students because they have become dedicated workers in God’s vineyard. Since then we have been blessed to work with the PUC/AUP Alumni (AWESNA and EASNA) and have helped many working students graduate from PUC/AUP. You will be happy to know that we have been married for 51 ½ years now and we are still helping working students. We divide our time each year between AUP in Putting Kahoy, Silang, Cavite and Tennessee where our children and grandchildren reside. Prom started a Student Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at AUP in November 2014. We employ between 17-20 students who are growing vegetables and fruits in a  5-hectare farmland inside the AUP campus. We give free fruits and vegetables to working students who are on the Self-Cook Program. We distribute rice also on a weekly basis at 2 kilos for each student if they volunteer to work in the SNAP.Farm for 2 hours a week. Once again, the PUC/AUP Alumni, through EASNAC, is giving us their support. Thanks to the leaders of the AUP Alumni organizations who are my life-long friends. The relationships that I have built while at North Hall are still strong because of the Christian foundation that you have laid.

Thank you for being a surrogate mother, teacher, mentor, encourager, and most of all, a dear friend. You have been one of the greatest blessings in my life.

Love,

Norma

Philippians 1:3-7 (NIV)

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about you, since I have you in my heart”.

09/02/2018

In the background are some of the mango trees that were planted in the 1980s
as a Philippine Union College Alumni of Western North America (AWESNA) project.  
Income is shared 50/50: 50 percent goes to Student Aid while the other 50 percent stays with AUP.

Stairs leading to the Mission of Hope Farm Office Headquarters

View from the Guest House of the Abelardo Gensolin Music Hall
  with smoke rising in the background from a Triplex Apartment blaze on campus

Triplex Apartment fire, 31 July 2018.

Mu Gamma Chi: AUP Music Alumni in Thailand

Visiting With Music Alumni, Friends and Family - 1

• Soli Deo Gloria Musical Offering at the Philippine International Church
• Lunch after church with Music Students, Alumni, Current and Former Faculty Colleagues at the Music Center 
• Voice Master Class by Catherine Elaine Alcorin Ellacer at the Pilar Recital Hall
• Angklung Ensemble, Mu Gamma Chi Ladies' Ensemble/Mixed Choir, Bangkok Adventist Hospital Church
• Mu Gamma Chi Reunion, Adventist University of the Philippines Music Alumni, at Sir James Resort and Country Club, Thailand
• Alwyn and Kathleen Yonathan, Music Department, Asia-Pacific International University 
• De La Paz Seventh-day Adventist Church - Biñan, Laguna

13 July 2018, Friday P.M., Boarding Gate at Narita International Airport bound for Manila
 "Ohayō gozaimasu!"

13 July 2018, Arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, Philippines, Terminal 2

14 July 2018, Philippine International Church Sabbath Morning Service musical offering by Soli Deo Gloria Ensemble with retired music faculty Maestro Ramon Lijauco, Sr.

Sabbath, 14 July 2018, after Church Service at the Philippine International Church

Sabbath, July 14, 2018, with Music Department Alumni, Current and Former Music Faculty Colleagues

After Church Lunch with Music Majors

After Church Lunch with Family of  Music Faculty Neri Roque Beratio

Voice Master Class by Catherine Elaine Alcorin Ellacer
16 July 2018, Pilar Recital Hall

Suvarnabhumi International Airport
Bangkok, Thailand

21 July 2018 Sabbath School, Bangkok Adventist Hospital Church Angklung Ensemble

Ramon M. Lijauco, Jr.

Musical Selection by Children of Music Alumni

Mu Gamma Chi Ladies' Ensemble
AUP Music Alumni 

Mu Gamma Chi Mixed Chorus
AUP Music Alumni

Bangkok Adventist Hospital Church

 With Dr Siriporn Tantipoonwinai, center, Philippine Union College School of Nursing alumna, Supplemental; former Dean and President of Mission College (now Asia Pacific International University) in front of the Ralph Waddell Wing, Mission (Bangkok Adventist) Hospital, Dr Elvie Theresa Villanueva

Sir James Resort and Country Club
195 หมู่ที่ 3 Tambon Mittaphap, Amphoe Muak Lek, Chang Wat Saraburi 18180, Thailand

With all three musical children of Hussien and Joy Domocmat

Aylwin Yonathan, Lecturer
Music Department, Asia Pacific International University
Doctor of Music piano performance student, Mahidol University

Faculty home at Asia Pacific International University
 Aylwin and Kathleen Yonathan
with Hussien and Joy Domocmat

Mission Health Promotion Center
195/5 Thanon Mittraphap, Tambon Muak Lek, Amphoe Muak Lek, Chang Wat Saraburi 18180, Thailand

25 July 2018 Post Birthday Dinner Party Shopping Tour of CentralWorld (Thai: เซ็นทรัลเวิลด์) 

25 July 2018 
Birthday Dinner Party for Cora hosted by Staff General Surgeon, Mission (Bangkok Adventist) Hospital, and longtime Thailand permanent resident Dr Elvie Theresa Villanueva

Friday morning of 27 July 2018 after having spent the previous evening in a hotel in Cambodia when Thai border authorities prevented our return by land to Thailand on the same day. Photo taken with a friendly Thai border police officer and niece Fa-Ye Alvarez who arranged for our return trip with the same rented Toyota Coaster that took us to the border. 

No same day return restriction for first time visitors?

27 July 2018, luncheon date at a Polo Club hosted by longtime Bangkok resident Lucia Menchavez T., a University of the Philippines-Diliman, Conservatory of Music 1955 alumna and post-graduate music performance graduate of the University of Texas.

28 July 2018, Church Service, Bangkok Adventist Hospital Church

28 July 2018, Saturday evening dinner at a restaurant close to the Bangkok Chinese Adventist Church hosted by Dr Kittiporn Tantrarungroj, general surgeon/music aficionado and his sister Mary, a retired professor of pharmacy at Mahidol University
On the left is Dr Heidi Cerna of Central Philippine Adventist College who was in Bangkok for an upcoming Adventist Laymen's Services and Industries (ASI) Convention

Return to Manila from Bangkok, 29 July 2018

4 August 2018, Sabbath Morning Service
De La Paz Seventh-day Adventist Church in Biñan, Laguna

Manila Central University College of Medicine, Class '52: (L-R) Jaime Arcilla, Prospero Miranda, Celedonio Fernando, Julita Abordo, Ulysses Carbajal, Epifanio Catalon, David Roda.

Surprise visit  by Dr Prospero Miranda, age 92,
from the San Vicente mother church situated on the other side of town.

Reunion of Alora first and second cousins, descendants of brothers Pablo and Gabriel of Biñan, Laguna.  The two brothers' only sister, Celedonia Alora Vda. de Pascual, had two children, deceased, a son (Isagani) and a daughter (Ladie). both of whom converted to Adventism as mature adults.