A young businessman saw a hand which was holding a child and the hand turned the child over to him in a dream three years ago. That dream confused me, he said, that I prayed and personally talked my favorite picture plate, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of whom I am a devotee. His wife, a devotee of Señor Sto. Niño believed that God had a message for him in that dream and that he has to do something for his neighbor. Trying to analyze his dream, he knew its message had something to do with children. And that realization brought pictures in his mind of his younger days - the hardships he encountered as he didn't have the basic things he needed in life, prompting him to express a resolve: "If I'd be given the capacity and resources someday, I'd do my best to help others who face the same predicaments I did."

Eventually, he became a self-made person, possessing material things, including luxurious cars which he loves to buy. But I felt and realized I wasn't at ease inside those cars while seeing those children roam around with no one caring for them, loving them and providing them their basis needs, especially education, he confided to friends.

He then prayed with his wife and sought God's guidance. In their discernment, they decided to give much of what they have - out of love for others. Their gesture answered the prayers of a religious sisters' congregation in Bacolod City. The couple, who are in their mid-30s, decided to donate their lot to the Blessed Virgin Missionaries of Carmel. It came on time when the congregation faced a problem with the Holy Infant Nursery. The BVMC Sisters acknowledge that the lot has a sentimental value to the donors, saying "it was their first conjugal property, the fruit of their hard work as a young couple".

The Sisters named the place the Señor Sto. Niño Homes. For them, the name of the place is not a coincidence "but a blessing revealed". Not only was the wife a devotee of Sto. Niño. The chapel at Puentebella Subdivision, the BVMC Sisters found out when they visited the place on their Feast Day on Jan. 26, 2003 is also named in honor of Sto. Niño. The message became clearer to them, in the casual conversation between the donors and the Sisters: they realized that it was the Feast Day of the Holy Infant Nursery and, at the same time, the Feast of Señor Sto. Niño, at the Airport Parish, where the Sisters reside.

Three years ago, the couple turned over their 1,500 sq.m. property and, with the help of their friends, a P6.5 two-storey building, to provide a home for abandoned, neglected and abused children. Today, with the help of friends, benefactors and sponsors, the place is home to 28 children, aged from 2 months to 7 years old.

The children undergo their early at the Queen of Peace School, a BVMC-supervised basic education institution at Airport Subdivision in Bacolod City. "It is the dream of our young donors that someday, these children will have their own careers in life and live fully alive by god's grace. By Year 2023, or 16 years from now we hope that 28 young professionals, the first clients of Señor Sto. Niño Homes, will become the witnesses of Christ's love and generosity of our people in Bacolod City," said SisterMa. Minviluz Buntag, BVMC, superior general of the congregation..

As the BVMC Sisters are commemorating the third anniversary of the Home, a chapel will be blessed by Msgr. Eduardo Gumboc on Friday at 9 a.m. The new chapel for the children and the nuns is a donation of another Bacolod businessman and his three sisters.

Our donors and benefactors want to remain anonymous, said Sr. Lumen Gudes, QPS principal and vocation directress of the BVMC Congregation, but you can see their works of love, because they care and believe in the words of Jesus: "My brethren, feed the hungry, clothe the naked and shelter the homeless."

It all started in a dream and this dream has become a reality for the orphans, the neglected and unwanted children. This is the clear manifestation of how God touches the hearts f men and women to actualize His plan for His people, the, Sister Anne Azuro, home directress said, in behalf of the BVMC Sisters stressed, adding: "We invite you to visit and see our institution where real love started in a dream." Inquiries about the Señor Sto. Niño Homes can be coursed through Sr. Anne Azuro, BVMC, or Sr. Marilyn Tanjusay, BVMC at Tel. No. 034-446-3559.

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