Saturday, February 25, 2017

The Hands of Christ to Immigrant Families



By Lloyd Gestoso, Dean of Social Work at Cairn University

My Christian lineage begins with my Filipino Grandmother. She encountered Jesus as she laundered the clothes of missionaries serving in the Philippines in the 1940’s. My parents also embraced the Gospel. When they immigrated to the United States in the late 1960’s to escape the poverty, political instability, and martial law that characterized that time, they brought their love of Christ with them. They also brought a love for their extended family and as so many immigrants do, they left their home in the Philippines not simply for their own benefit, but out of a desire to help the rest of the family.

So my story is in part that of an only child of immigrant parents struggling to carve out a place in a new country. For many reasons I also struggled academically but my parents had little ability to help me. My mother did not have the skills to help me academically and my father, new to emergency medicine, was busy working 12 hour shifts to support our family.