A week ago was been a busy week for all of us, we didn’t have a proper sleep for nine days because of my aunt’s funeral wake. We stayed until early in the morning playing bingo with some relatives, we only attend the vigil service for a night or two since it started early and we are still at home preparing for dinner and feeding the pets, so we usually go at the wake after the prayer service. I didn’t view my aunt’s coffin until the last night of wake because it feels like she was still alive.

The other day was her burial before heading to the cemetery there was a short service at the church, we prepared short photo video, photos of our aunt when she was still alive and then there was a committal service in the cemetery before her coffin was put in the ground.

The Aratilis or Saresa is part of my childhood, I climbed this tree many times like how many times I climbed a guava or mango tree growing up. The aratiles or Muntingia Calabura is a flowering plant that grows in a few parts of the world including Mexico and Philippines, it was commonly called Jamaica cherry,  Panama Berry, Bajelly tree and other alternative names.

The Aratilis is the most favorite wild fruit by kids in the Philippines since they just grow anywhere without someone planting them. When I was still a kid I always go to the house across my grandmother’s house because they have an aratilis tree in their yard then I think my late grandfather observes my liking to the fruit that he replanted aratilis tree in our backyard but sad to say I wasn’t able to climb it since we went home and live to my father’s hometown where I found an aratilis tree to climb.

Today, my cousin’s kids and their playmates were also like me who loves to climb the aratilis tree that surprisingly grow along the path in the field. The other day while letting our dog wander in the field I asked my sister to pick aratilis but she left ahead of me since she has work to do, I was amazed that there was a lot of ripe aratilis in the tree which is not normal because most of the time the tree has no red fruit since the kids love to pick them as well. While jumping and trying to reach the ripe aratilis my older cousin’s toddler daughter came and extend her right arm and says “be” she was asking for the fruit I’ve picked. I was shocked the way she asked for the fruit, she didn’t even asked if she can have some she just want to took it from me like she asked me to picked them for her so I told her to climb and get her own fruit but I have changed my mind thinking she’ll going to cry so I handed the aratilis I have in my hand and by looking up in the tree I found more up top so I decided to climb the tree and while at top I have asked her to pin point the red ones for me and informed her that I will not give the fruits right away because I have to take photos of them first and she willingly agreed.

Browsing online I have found that aratilis aren’t not just merely a wild fruit that grew anywhere because it has medicinal usage, in traditional medicine, its leaves can be used as an antiseptic or antipruritic and to treat abdominal cramps while another study claimed that aratilis leaves possess antinociceptive (reducing sensitivity to pain), anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and antipruritic properties, justifying the folkloric medicinal use.

Today, the service was different, Pastor E did the Sunday school service for youth and adult since the women were the one in-charge this Sunday to celebrate World Day of Prayer.

World Day of Prayer is takes place internationally on the first Friday of March every year but it was fine to celebrate on different Sunday if it isn’t possible on first Sunday and the host country for WDP 2016 is Cuba with the theme, prepared by the women, is “Receive children, receive me” with a focus on children. The scripture readings for the service are Isaiah 11:1-10 and Mark 10:13-16. The Bible study texts are Mark 10:13-16 and Luke 19:1-10.

The program started by the leader reading about a short background about Cuba,  the leader was my older cousin and it was a heartbreaking start since she was crying and sobbing because my aunt’s eternal reposed was brought home a moment before the proper service started, the church was just in the neighborhood so they saw it when the funeral parlor came. After a short introduction about cuba,  Cuba’s national flower “butterfly jasmine” was introduced and then the service runs according to a program written by World Day of Prayer Committee of Cuba.

The church was decorated in Cuban theme, there were different colors of paper butterflies adorned the pulpit. It was said that they should be look like butterfly jasmine but they end up looking like butterflies.

World Day of Prayer is a global ecumenical movement led by Christian women who welcome you to join in prayer and action for peace and justice.