Author Archives: bukallifeministries

Franciscan Reflections on CPE

In 2023 we had four CPE trainees who were in their Franciscan Integration and Intensification— John, Ronn, Jayson, and Mark. This last July (2024) the four were able to take their vows.

They were kind enough to share a copy of their publication that described their program and reflections. It is a great read, and the reflections show the impact CPE has had on their spiritual and ministerial journey. They even put our brochure on the inside back cover.

We are excited for what God has for these Franciscans, as well as all of our trainees.

The copy of this publication is at our office.

Upcoming Activities Oct 2024 and Beyond

Right now we are about as busy as we ever have been. We have four simultaneous CPE groups active right now. Two of them are Intensive and two are Extended. However, all four of them will complete before Christmas. Because of this, however, we don’t have a lot of other activities in the near future. However, 2025 should be busy.

October 14-15. Working with a Missionary Member Care group in training for stress defusing. We are looking forward to that.

November. Our Annual Board meeting

January 2025. We will start up CPE again. One group will be in Palawan, and AT LEAST ONE group will be in Baguio. We have actually had a number of requests. One has been to lead a CPE group for Philippine military chaplains. We have also had queries about holding CPE in Thailand. During the later Spring, we may be partnering with a program in South Korea.

Other things in 2025. We have been asked to hold more Intro to Pastoral Counseling trainings in Quirino Province. We have also been asked to do these trainings in Sarangani and General Santos.

We are continuing to work on our updated version of CPO (Clinical Pastoral Orientation). We are doing it bilingually, and have completed the first seven lessons. Hope to finish in early or mid-2025.

This is enough update for now. If you are interested in CPE in January (or later) please go to the Contact Us page on our website and… well… contact us.

Quirino Trip

September 5 and 6 our team (Bob and Celia Munson and Bhab Dicang) held training in BBCF, a Bugkalot church in Nagtipunan, Quirino. This was in partnership with the IMB and the local Bugkalot Baptist Association. We led two days of training in Pastoral Care and Counseling. It was a great visit and we had wonderful hosts. We were also able to visit friends and partners in Madella, Quirino and in Aurora Province. Looking forward to expanding this program next year.

Laguna Trip with the Salvation Army

We traveled to Los Banos, Laguna to work with a group of officers of The Salvation Army–Philippines. This is the fourth major activity where Bukal Life Care was invited to participated in leading some exercises and holding counseling. It was a great time working with this dedicated group of leaders.

New Edition of “Philippine Journal of Religious Studies”

The 2024 edition of the Philippine Journal of Religious Studies was just released today (August 16, 2024). Several of the articles explore the challenge of pain and suffering in those following Christ. If interested, the journal is freely available for download. It is available by going to:

Publication: Philippine Journal of Religious Studies

Our 2024 Team

Our Team from Left to Right. Clinical Chaplain (“CC”) Crista Napay— Supervisor-in-Training, CC Bhab Dicang— Supervisor-in-Training, CC Dr. Jun Vestidas— Supervisor-in-Training, Dr. Robert Munson— Administrator, CC Vo Canoy— CPE Supervisor, CC Jezza Pingo— CPE Supervisor, CC Celia Munson— Training Supervisor

Busy times ahead. Two Extended CPE groups start in a couple of weeks. Two Intensive CPE groups start in September. We also have training/counseling trips occurring in Laguna (August 21-23) and Quirino (Sept 3-6).

If you have any questions or want to set up an appointment, please email us at bukallife@gmail.com.

Congratulations to Newly Certified Chaplains!!

From Left to Right: Chaplain Jezza Pingo, Dr. Paul Tabon, Dr. Vic Navarro (on screen), Chaplain Vo Canoy, Chaplain Celia Munson, and Dr. Jun Vestidas

July 31, 2024, Bukal Life Care hosted a CPSP-Philippines certification board. We would like to congratulate Dr. Jun Vestidas and Ms. Jezza Pingo for passing their respective boards. The board is for a dual certification:

-Board Certified Pastoral Counselor (BCPC)

-Board Certified Clinical Chaplain (BCCC)

The members of the certifying board were Diplomates Paul Tabon, Celia Munson, and Vic Navarro (who joined online). Also participating was Diplomate Vo Canoy, who served as their endorser.

Both Chaplain Jun and Chaplain Jezza have been invited to join our Supervisor-in-Training (SIT) program and will soon be supervising CPE groups at Bukal. Upon completion of the SIT program, the two of them may seek a certification board for Diplomate In Pastoral Supervision.

The certification is with CPSP-Philippines and is recognized by our partner and parent CPSP in the United States.

We are excited for them as well as Bukal Life Care.

July 2024 and Beyond– Upcoming Events

Our two Summer Intensive CPE groups will be finishing soon— one near the end of this month and the other early in August.

Here are a lot of things happening. Here are a few…

July 31. Certification Board for two of our trainees.

August 3. Training seminar in family systems . Central Philippines Nazarene College, Cebu City.

August 15. Counseling Project with The Salvation Army, NCR.

August 16. Start of Fall Extended CPE.

September 5 -6. Basic Pastoral Counseling Seminar. Quirino Province.

September 10.  Start of Fall Intensive CPE.

November. Possible time of CPSP Plenary.

January 2025. Start of CPE groups in Baguio and Palawan.

We are happy to see the growth of ministry of our ministry partner– Australian-Filipino Community Services. Looking forward to expanded work with them… especially in training.

Upcoming CPE Groups (Fall 2024)

We are presently in the middle of our 2024 Summer Intensive. However, we have three new groups starting up soon.

#1. Our Fall Extended CPE Full Unit will be starting August 12 until December 23.

#2. Our Fall Intensive CPE Full Unit will be two groups starting September 10 until November 29.

Groups are face-to-face units being held in Baguio City, Philippines with a mixture of hospital and community training. The training is certified by CPSP-Philippines.

For additional information please see our BROCHURE.

For a CPE application, please download it, fill it out, and return to bukallife@gmail.com. CLICK HERE for the application.

For other information or questions, please email us at bukallife@gmail.com.