CARMELITE MISSIONARIES CENTER OF LIFE, ILOILO

CMCL is in the heart of every Carmelite Missionaries sisters since it was born last October 11, 1995 when we acquired a 14.8736 hectare lot located at Tinocuan, Dueñas, Iloilo from Mrs. Concepcion Solinap Delez. At first it was just a dream of the sisters assigned in the CM Bamboo Craft Center to have a bamboo plantation in order to augment the production of CMBC and meet the demands of the market. There was a scarcity of bamboo raw materials which caused the delay and less production of bamboo religious articles which was made by the out of school youth in La Paz Iloilo. What CMBC needed was only a 2 hectare lot enough for bamboo plantation, however the owner would not sell the lot unless we bought all of her property. Since we didn’t have enough resources the owner was so kind enough that she allowed us to pay on installment basis within a year, and praise the Lord, we finally paid it in full on September 23, 1996.

Indeed it was a blessing because the long desire of the Carmelite Missionaries Philippine Province to have a retreat center would be materialized with the land that we acquired.

“How could that be? We had the land but how about the building? Would it really happen?”

DREAMS COME TRUE!

Immediately after the acquisition of the land the CMBC workers, the sisters and the residence of Brgy. Tinocuan planted the bamboos and a year after the construction of St. Joseph Cottage started and was finished sometime in September 1996 through the help of generous benefactors. It was made of cogon, coco lumber and bamboo. St. Joseph Cottage served as the Training Center of the mothers and the youth of Brgy Tinocuan and the neighboring baranggays. They would gather for training skills for a livelihood project. Likewise it served as a venue for recollection. Likewise the small piggery, water tank and bio-gas digester was constructed. In the same year the construction of the retreat center pavilion and 13th cottages started. However, due to some difficulties the construction was discontinued and only the pavilion and the 3 cottage was almost finished. Thanks be to God! Year 2001 the Provincial Council decided to continue the construction after having obtained the land conversion issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform and the transfer of title to Carmelite Missionaries was finished. Yes, we had  to continue the construction but we lacked the financial resources yet God always heard the desires of our hearts that even though we lacked the financial resources, God sent to us generous people to help us finish the pavilion and the 3 cottages. Year 2002 Poultry and another Piggery were constructed to increase the number of heads of pigs. Year 2003 all the cottages were finished to make a total of 13 cottages with a capacity of 144 persons. By the year 2004 we finished the chapel and in the year 2005 we built the 2 storey campsite pavilion, the basketball and the volleyball court.

CMCL is in full operation yet we don’t have retreatants whole time of the year because our place was not fully advertised and besides, it is quite far from the city (an hour’s travel to the city). Our farm then wasn’t gaining at the moment since many times that year our was flooded but in spite of it like other farmers we hoped that God would give us time to enjoy the harvest. Likewise we are hoping that many people will come to our place and enjoy solitude in communion with nature.