Mealtimes are Memorable at MRTC

Chef Queenie Boloron stirs a wok of clam
chowder almost ready for serving to a group of
Christian businessmen. 

Whole, poached chicken for Hainanese
Chicken Rice get a good
rubbing with sesame oil.

Chef Queenie makes vinegared rice, a main ingredient
in sushi.

Delectable food is an important part of the hospitality at the Malungon Retreat and Training Center. This starts off with balanced menus planned by Chef Harlequin ‘Queenie’ Boloron (who has been featured in such TV shows as Unang Hirit). The food is carefully prepared in a spacious, well-equipped kitchen and served buffet style in a dining room that can seat 150 at a time. Meals include Filipino classics, family all-time favorites, regional and Asian dishes, an occasional Western dish, and fresh fruit. 

Here is a sampling of Chef Queenie’s offerings for a five-day retreat:

Day 1. Breakfast: Beef tapa, fried rice, radish cake, fruit platter, scrambled egg, coffee. Lunch: Grilled tuna belly, steamed fish, guava soup, papaya pickles, macaroni salad. Dinner: Pesang manok, pork tonkatsu, banana heart salad, plain rice, fresh papaya. 

Day 2. Breakfast:  Fried fish, pako salad, salted eggs, coffee, rice. Lunch:  Pork adobo with saba, sinigang na tangigue, radish pickles, steamed rice, fresh pineapple. Dinner: Bulalo, fried galunggong, chayote achara, pandan rice, fresh watermelon.

Day 3:  Breakfast: Pork tocino, egg omelette, cucumber relish, garlic rice, coffee or tea. Lunch:  Beef caldereta, fried kangkong, miso soup, fresh banana, steamed rice. Dinner: Sinigang na hipon, fried tawilis, plain rice, fresh mango, maja blanca.

Day 4. Breakfast: Fried boneless bangus, scrambled egg, steamed rice papaya achara, fresh pineapple, coffee or tea.  Lunch:  Baked lemon chicken, mixed vegetables, mango salsa, steamed rice, fresh watermelon, iced tea.  Dinner: Chicken binakol, lumpiang shanghai, cucumber relish, plain rice, fresh papaya.

Day 5. Breakfast: Crispy bacon, potato pancake, poached egg, garlic rice, fresh watermelon, coffee or tea. Lunch: Sweet and sour lapu-lapu, clam chowder, plain rice, bread pudding, pineapple juice. Dinner: Hot and sour soup, fried galunggong, adobong sitaw, plain rice, fresh watermelon.

Breakfast at MRTC is from 7 to 8, lunch is from 12 to 1, and dinner is from 6 to 7

MRTC is also slowly gaining attention as a wedding venue. Reception menus include:

Set A: Grilled tuna, cocido, fresh lumpia, pork curry, spicy chicken soup, fresh fruits or native kakanin.

Set B: Thai spring rolls, pork tenderloin salad, chicken ala king, pinaputok na tilapia, cabbage rose soup, fresh fruits

Set C: Chicken hamonado, pork asado, tuna spring rolls, premium potato salad, seafood chowder, fresh fruits or native kakanin.

Set D: Sweet and sour pork, beef with broccoli, fish curry, Asian noodles, pumpkin soup, fresh fruits platter or native kakanin.

Set E: Asian beef, pork embotido, eggplant lasagne, Asian chicken salad, mushroom soup, fresh fruits platter or native kakanin.

Set F: Lemon chicken, fish with black beans, red cooked spareribs, hot pot, fresh fruits platter or native kakanin. 

All menus come with juice and unlimited rice. 

Meals are always a wonderful time for fellowship and relaxation. The kitchen and dining room staff of the Malungon Retreat and Training are committed to making your mealtimes here totally enjoyable and memorable.    

MRTC: Just the Right Venue for Your Next Event

The Center for Community Transformation Group of Ministries is pleased to offer the Malungon Retreat and Training Center (MRTC) as the venue for your next event. 

MRTC is a beautiful, 72-hectare Christian retreat facility in Sitio Nagpan, Malungon, Sarangani province and is the perfect setting for youth camps, marriage seminars, school retreats, Bible conferences, corporate workshops, and weddings. It is also a peaceful space for worship and reflection.  

Overnight facilities include five dormitory buildings that can each sleep 36 persons, six to a room. Bathrooms in each bedroom have double sinks and separate, glass-enclosed shower and toilet cubicles. Our hot showers are courtesy of the sun with a little help from solar heating systems. 

Each dorm building has a function room at ground level, equipped with sound system, LCD projector and screen, water dispenser, and a common restroom. The dorm building function rooms make it possible for five small groups of 36 participants or less to use MRTC simultaneously. 

The MRTC meeting hall 

Large groups may use the meeting hall which seats 150.  

Delicious meals, served buffet style are a significant part of the hospitality at MRTC. Meals planned by Chef Harlequin 'Queenie' Boloron are prepared in a spacious, well-equipped kitchen, and always include fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables.  Special diet needs are gladly accommodated with prior notice. Our dining hall seats 150 at one time.

The MRTC dining hall and kitchen.

Creative brides and event planners will have a grand time thinking up details for weddings which may be held at the second floor of our bamboo administration building, in the meeting hall, or outdoors on our landscaped grounds. The reception may of course be held at the dining hall, with menu options offered by Chef Queenie. 

The retreat center ministers to Malungon's B'laan community by providing much-needed jobs in housekeeping, food service, landscaping, construction and maintenance,    

For booking information, please get in touch with Lalaine Naquita at 09258846711, lalaine.naquita@cct.org.ph, or with Pastor Flor Soler at 09154617250, astelflor_awp@yahoo.com.

Choose the Best Seating Plan for Your Activity

The theater-style seating arrangement

The U-shape seating arrangement

Seating arrangements can affect the success or effectiveness of conference or training activities. When you hold your event at the Malungon Retreat and Training Center (MRTC), be sure to request our arrangement personnel to set up your function room with the seating plan most suited to your purpose.   

For instance, the theater style of seating as shown in top photo is most appropriate for slide presentations or for keynote messages where the audience is simply expected to listen to the speaker. For lectures where the audience is expected to take notes or use handouts, tables may be added, and the seating arrangement is then called the classroom style.  

The U-shape style of seating in the second photo encourages collaboration and discussions.  

Another common seating arrangement is the team table or cluster style where six, eight, or ten participants are seated around a table.  This style encourages interaction and is best suited when the facilitator has group work planned.  

Each of the dormitory buildings at the MRTC has a function room (similar to that in the photos) on the ground floor.  Amenities include a sound system, LCD projector and screen, water dispenser, and restroom.  

For booking information, please get in touch with Lalaine Naquita at 09258846711, lalaine.naquita@cct.org.ph, or with Pastora Flor Soler at 09154617259, astelflor_awp@yahoo.com.  

Hot Showers at MRTC are Courtesy of God's Sun!

Whenever you take a nice, hot shower at the Malungon Retreat and Training Center remember to say, "Thank you God for the sun!"  That's because the water is heated by the sun's rays which were collected and absorbed by panels in a solar water heating system on the roof of your dormitory building.  Don't forget that now!

MRTC has New Meeting Hall, Three New Dorms

Each of the five dormitory buildings at the Malungon Retreat and 
Training Center can sleep 36 persons. 

Enjoy natural beauty and birdsong when you come to the Malungon Retreat and Training Center. Located on 72 wooded hectares in Sitio Lao, Barangay Nagpan, Malungon, Sarangani,  the retreat center can now accommodate 180 overnight guests with the recent completion of three new dormitory buildings.

MRTC is the perfect setting for youth camps, couples' retreats, Bible conferences, planning meetings and weddings.

The dorms have six rooms on three levels, and each room can sleep six. Bedroom amenities include three bamboo beds with pullouts, and a hot and cold shower.  Each dorm building has a function room at ground level, with sound system, LCD projector and screen, water dispenser, and common restroom.

The new meeting hall can seat 150 and is also equipped with a sound system, LCD projector and screen, water dispenser and restrooms.

Other MRTC facilities include a bamboo multi-purpose building, a dining room,   dormitory buildings, a basketball court, and four parallel mini zip lines.  

For booking information, please get in touch with Lalaine Naquita at 09258846711, lalaine.naquita@cct.org.ph, or with Pastor Flor Soler at 09154617250, astelflor_awp@yahoo.com.

MRTC's  meeting hall can seat 150.

Four New Buildings at MRTC Dedicated to the Lord

Above, two of the new dormitory buildings at the
Malungon Retreat and Training Center, and below,
the new meeting hall. 

Board and corporate members of the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) Group of Ministries, local government officials, Sarangani businessmen and pastors, former Visions of Hope-sponsored children, members of the B’laan community, and construction workers who helped build the facilities gathered on December 12, 2014 for the dedication of the Malungon Retreat and Training Center (MRTC) grounds and four new buildings on the property. 

In a colorful and moving event, beneficiaries of Malungon-based CCT projects and services spoke of how their lives were changed by the Lord, and construction workers told of life transformation through song.  

CCT has been ministering to the B'laan community in Malungon since 2002 through such programs and services as microfinance, children's education, livelihood training, evangelism and discipleship, and savings mobilization after it acquired 72 heavily wooded hectares of land in Sitio Lao, Barangay Nagpan, Malungon, Sarangani. Former street dwellers being ministered to by CCT's Kaibigan Ministry in Manila were brought to Malungon in 2011 to help construct a multi-purpose bamboo building, the first major building on the property. The two-story bamboo building houses a clinic, offices, and a worship hall. In April 2013, work was begun on what was to become the Malungon Retreat and Training Center. It opened in April 2014 with two dormitory buildings and a dining hall. 

MRTC is a lovely and serene setting for such activities as mission conferences, youth camps, couples' retreats and other ministry events, as well as weddings. The new buildings are three dormitories and a meeting hall.

For booking information please get in touch with Lalaine Naquita at 09258846711 or lalaine.naquita@cct.org.ph, or with Pastor Flor Soler at 09154617250 or astelflor_awp@yahoo.com.

Left to right: CCT  Corporate Member Dick Ang, 
Sarangani Governor Steve Solon, CCT Malungon
Peer Servant Lalaine Naquita,  GenSan businessman
Jan Ced, and  Architect Daniel Lim. 

CCT staff Sarah Sobrino reads the
history of the Malungon Retreat and Training
Center and tells of  changed lives among the B'laans
ministered to. Changes include  "lots 
purchased, houses built, children
 educated, and food on the table everyday."

Members of the Brigada Bata, a program of the
Visions of Hope Christian School, bring in the
colors. 

Here and in next photo:
Guests are led in praise and worship by CCT's
GenSan worship team and B'laan dancers.

Businessman Jan Ced  who
is also chairman of the CCT 
GenSan and Sarangani Regional Board  
 welcomes  guests.

The CCT GenSan Choir, led by Jun Gregorio, sings
"He Was There All the Time."

Guest speaker John Gaisano, chairman of the board of
the Davao Chamber of Commerce and chairman
of the CCT Davao Regional Board, says
MRTC is a place where God will be honored and
worshiped. 

Pastor Nerie Jomento, receives a plaque
of appreciation.  As the first worker
assigned to the Malungon property back 
in 2002, he
courageously spread God's Word
amid hostile actions of residents opposing
CCT's presence. 

Workers of the Kaibigang Maasahan Multi-purpose
Cooperative Construction Services unit sing
"Ako'y Isang Dakot ng Kanyang Himala."

Speaking on behalf of other
 Visions of Hope-sponsored children,
Gemma Almarai tearfully expresses gratitude to
parents, VOH staff, and sponsors. She said
 VOH-sponsored children now include licensed
teachers, an engineer, licensed policemen,
computer programmers, electricians,
 an agriculturist and a pharmacy graduate scheduled 
to take the board exam soon. Gemma
is a teacher at the VOH Residential School in 
Malungon which has students from 
the B'laan and Tagakaolo tribes. 

VOH scholars and parents sing the hymn
 "Standing on the Promises of God" in both
the B'laan language and English.

Ruth Callanta, CCT founder and
president, says the MRTC is to
be a blessing to indigenous people. 

An elderly member of the B'laan
community tunes his faglong, a
two-stringed traditional instrument. 

Photos courtesy of Carol Ruth Tigdo 

Four Couples Wed in Traditional B'laan Rites

"You may now hug the bride," says officiating minister Datu Edmund Pangilan.
He explains that there is no such thing as "You may now kiss the bride" in traditional
B'laan weddings. 

Clad in colorful beaded B'laan wear, four couples pledged each other lifelong love in a ceremony that featured B'laan music and traditions interspersed with teachings from the Bible.  The wedding was officiated by Datu Edmund Pangilan, provincial tribal chieftain, and held at the Malungon Retreat and Training Center in Malungon, Sarangani.  

One of the grooms and the four brides are B'laan, one of the grooms is a former street dweller ministered to by the Kaibigan Ministry of the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) Group of Ministries, and the two other grooms are graduates of the vocational-technical course of the CCT Training and Development Institute in Magdalena, Laguna. The grooms are members of the Kaibigang Maaasahan Multi-purpose Cooperative Construction Services.  

The equivalent of a bridesmaid and a groomsman in
a Christian wedding
bring bamboo cups and rice bowls fashioned from banana
leaves to the altar.

Young bride Angelica  is escorted down the aisle by her
mother and father who beats out a 
rhythmic pattern on an agung, a traditional
B'laan percussion instrument. 

Datu Pangilan says, "This is not a joke or game or 
presentation  but a sacred event." 

Datu Pangilan feeds the couples a little rice and
ulam...

...and assistant officiating minister Danilo Tolentino
gives each couple a drink. "The officiating ministers 
symbolize God 
in the  food and drink ceremony which 
tells us that God is our provider.  But just as the
bride and groom have to open their mouths to 
receive the food and water, so also  should  they work 
in order to eat," Datu Pangilan explained. 

The groom briefly rests his knee on his
bride's shoulder to symbolize that
she is to submit to him.

Senior members of the tribe provide
music played on the agung and faglong,
a two-stringed instrument. 

The newlyweds.

Newlyweds Carlo and Hazel Mae
Arevalo.