Category: PEACE WITH ONE’S BEING
Psycho-social transformation
At 70, I no longer see my life primarily through the language of aging, retirement, or diminished productivity. I experience this season instead as a deepening emergence into my own humanity—a quieter, freer becoming that decades of schedules, institutional demands, leadership burdens, and economic necessity had often obscured. In a culture obsessed with speed, youthfulness, innovation, and measurable output, growing old is frequently treated as decline. Yet many ancient societies understood elderhood not as irrelevance but as ripened presence. Elders were valued because they carried memory, discernment, emotional depth, and wisdom shaped by suffering, failure, love, endurance, and long reflection. I hesitate to call myself wise, because life still dismantles my certainties with remarkable consistency. Yet I do recognize within myself a gentle simplification. The noise of performance is fading. The need to impress is loosening. Ego occupies less space. What remains feels closer to essence.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/05/12/after-a-salaried-job-discovering-new-aspects-of-my-becoming-at-70/
The Toboso encounter in Negros Occidental, where Alyssa Alano (“Ka Kikay”), two children, and others reportedly died during a military operation, grieves me not only as a citizen but as a person of faith. I do not see this merely as another security incident, nor simply as another chapter in the ideological war between the state and the revolutionary movement. I see it as a moral wound upon the nation. Whenever young lives are extinguished in the mountains, fields, or villages of our land, something sacred is violated. Human beings are not expendable instruments of state policy, nor are they disposable fuel for revolution. Every life bears inherent dignity. Every death in this long conflict should trouble the conscience of the Republic.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/04/29/toboso-alyssa-alano-and-the-unfinished-peace-a-peacebuilding-pastors-reflection-on-justice-human-dignity-and-national-reconciliation/
I write this reflection not as a military analyst nor as an advocate of any state’s strategic doctrine, but as a peacebuilder who has spent decades accompanying communities wounded by war, militarization, and political violence. From Mindanao to global conflict zones, I have learned that when great powers escalate, it is always ordinary people who pay the highest price. The recent escalation between the United States–Israel alliance and the Islamic Republic of Iran marks a dangerous turning point — not only for the Middle East, but for the fragile architecture of world peace itself. What has unfolded this early morning, 28 February 2026 at 0215 PHT (0945 IRST), represents a shift from containment to confrontation, from proxy warfare to direct interstate violence. This is not merely another episode in an enduring rivalry; it is a rupture with potentially irreversible consequences.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/02/28/when-power-escalates-and-peace-is-cornered-a-peacebuilders-reflection-on-the-u-s-israel-iran-confrontation/
This prophetic-theological critique argues that the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast, rather than serving as a space for moral accountability and humility before God, has increasingly functioned as a ritual that blesses political power—especially through white evangelical leaders’ unwavering support for Donald Trump—thereby undermining Christian credibility both in the United States and globally. Drawing on biblical prophetic traditions and contemporary data showing evangelical alignment with a leader widely perceived as unethical, the essay contends that prayer divorced from justice becomes complicity rather than witness. The participation of Filipino evangelical leaders intensifies this crisis, as their presence signals alignment with a politicized form of Christianity that risks being imported into the Philippine context. The result is a weakened Christian witness marked by moral inconsistency and public disillusionment, as faith becomes entangled with political expediency. The essay ultimately calls for repentance rather than rebranding, urging evangelical leaders—American and Filipino alike—to reclaim a prophetic faith that speaks truth to power and restores prayer as an act of justice-centered faithfulness.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/02/06/from-washington-to-manila-the-global-fallout-of-american-influenced-evangelical-complicity/
25–29 January 2026, Barangay Managa, Bansalan, Davao del Sur — The Malipayon Peace Hub came alive as Coffee for Peace, Inc. (CFP) and PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) conducted an Agri-Aqua Social Entrepreneurial Training under the Bangsamoro Agri-Enterprise Programme – Leveraging and Expanding Agri-Aqua Production in Bangsamoro (LEAP). Twelve (12) key coffee farmers have shown commitment to the agricultural segment of this program. They are from the Island Province of Basilan and journeyed across Mindanao to take part in this intensive learning experience. Hosted by the Malipayon Peace Hub staff, the training created a safe and nurturing space for skills-building, dialogue, and shared reflection—rooted in the belief that sustainable livelihoods are essential foundations of lasting peace. Over five days, participants engaged in hands-on learning, peer exchange, and practical discussions on agri-aqua production, social entrepreneurship, and market access. The training also emphasized cooperation, trust-building, and shared leadership as vital elements of enterprise development in conflict-affected communities.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/01/30/our-cfp-pbci-team-hosted-and-conducted-social-entrepreneurial-training-at-the-malipayon-peace-hub/
Human transformation—personal and collective—rarely unfolds in a linear or painless way. Across Scripture, psychology, history, and political economy, transformation follows a recognizable rhythm: orientation, disorientation, and new orientation. This triadic pattern, articulated most clearly by Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggemann, offers a powerful interpretive lens for understanding spiritual-ethical, psychological-physical, social-political, and economic-ecological transformation in a decolonizing world. Transformation, in this sense, is not merely change. It is re-formation—the dismantling of old meanings, identities, and structures, and the emergence of new ones rooted in truth, justice, and relational wholeness.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2026/01/05/orientation-disorientation-new-orientation-going-through-a-process-of-transformation/
The Philippines celebrates Christmas this year amid overlapping spiritual-ethical, psychological-physical, socio-political, and economic-ecological crises that challenge families across the nation. Many experience deep moral fatigue and despair, yet bayanihan (communal sharing or koinonia) and community compassion continue to spark ethical renewal. Rising living costs, despite easing inflation, create physical and psychological strain, but shared meals and local celebrations help restore resilience. Political distrust grows due to corruption and inequality, even as more citizens demand transparency and engage in grassroots solidarity. Economic indicators show mixed progress, with declining poverty overall but persistent vulnerabilities, especially in rural and climate-impacted communities. Still, generosity through remittances, donations, and community aid becomes a grassroots safety net for struggling households. Amid hardship, Christmas emerges as a season of quiet transformation — affirming dignity, hope, and the resilient Filipino spirit.
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Permanent link to this article: https://waves.ca/2025/12/20/were-celebrating-christmas-in-the-context-of-current-philippine-realities/
