Banca ride leads family to Sto. Niño
A BANCA ride in the 2001 fluvial procession of the Sto. Niño set the Seville family on a one-year journey to embracing the Catholic faith.
Rasty Seville, 62, and his wife Lilibeth, 52 , said they were Protestants when they attended their first Sto. Niño fluvial procession in 2001.
A friend invited them to join them in a banca ride with 20 people on board in barangay Pasil, Cebu City.
Out of curiousity, they went along. The overloaded banca wasn’t even registered for the fluvial procession.
Still, Rasty said it encouraged him to hire a bigger boat the following year.
Cebu Daily News found the Seville family, all dressed in red, set to join last Saturday’s fluvial procession at the Ouano wharf in Mandaue City, their 11th trip.
Rasty’s wife, Lilibeth , recalls how she ended up owning her first Sto. Niño figurine.
In a visit to a Catholic store in a mall, the store keeper called her attention to a Sto. Niño image similar to the one at the Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino.
The tenant whispered to her that the Sto. Niño wanted her to buy the icon.
Lilibeth said she hesitated because as Protestants, they didn’t approve of what they viewed as the worship of images.
The storekeeper said she would regret not getting it. Lillibeth left the store, bothered by the statement.
She met her husband Rasty who went to a bank and withdrew P3,000 to buy a table fountain.
Lilibeth told him about the encounter in the store and described the Sto Niño icon displayed near the glass window.
They instead returned to the store and bought the icon for P2,800.
Lilibeth admitted that she felt awkward holding the image of the Hold Child for the first time.
She said the Sto. Niño appeared to her in dreams calling her “Mommy Beth.”
“I asked him, why of all people did you choose me? I was surprised when he answered. He told me in my dreams that he chose me because I have a pure heart,” she told CDN..
A year later the couple decided to convert to the Catholic faith.
Lilibeth said their new faith has bonded their family closer together.
The Sto. Niño has become a part of their family and is considered their “baby.”
A sanctuary in their home is dedicated for the Sto. Niño where they offer flowers and fruits every Thursday and Sunday.
The icon, dressed in red velvet pants and upper clothes, has become the family’s ‘guide’, whom they credit for many blessings.
Lilibeth said their daughter Sunshine passed the nursing board exam as well as her interview for a job in the United States.
Their Gisangag Express and construction business are doing well while their son Kris Jordan won the Sinulog Idol tilt.
Now residing in a two-storey house in barangay Cansojong in Talisay City, southern Cebu, the Seville couple and their children joined the 2013 Sto. Niño fluvial procession. The showed up in red shirts and dresses.
They rented a bigger boat this time and brought their “Baby Niño” for the fluvial procession, their 11th time in a row. /Carmel Loise Matus, Correspondent
