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.
