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It will be exactly a year on January 18th. How can we ever forget that day, when the chilling news of Arcelie’s death all gripped our hearts.

For me it was a call that I received from Lisa early in the morning. I was scrambling to get ready for work when the phone rang. If we get a call early in the morning at home, it must be something really urgent or something really serious. Lisa told me in a tearful and fearful voice, that she got a call from Arcelie’s friend telling her that Arcelie has not gone back to her house since Thursday evening, which was highly unusual for her. Lisa requested to pray for Arcelie’s safety and that everything was alright with her.

When I arived in the office, Tess e-mailed an article she came across in the online edition of Calgary Herald about an unidentified female found dead near the Grace Baptist Church. The article was quite vague in the description of the victim. I placed a call to the reporter who wrote the article to get more information. I was also getting frantic calls from members of our Bible Study group, everyone was confused and afraid of what may have happened to Arcelie. We were all hoping against hope that it wasn’t her, but at the back of our minds we were preparing for the worst. At noon, although the police did not confirm the identity of the victim (police did not confirm her identity until after a week later when her family positively identified her), we all knew it was her and our hearts were shattered! It was the most the devastating news for us.

One year has passed since then, we still have lots of questions in our mind, and the criminal case is still pending. But we would like to remember that day, not so much with sadness but with hope. Hope because Arcelie left behind a legacy of her great and unwavering faith in her personal Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Arcelie would have liked it that way: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2a)

There was a tremendous outpouring of love and support from Arcelie’s church family (Calgary Full Gospel Church), the Filipino community, people from other nations, and even complete strangers whose heart went out for this 41 year old mother whose dream to give a better life for her children was shattered when she was brutally murdered. Her death, though very tragic, brought an overwhelming response from Calgarians and from people all across Canada and even outside Canada. The generous response to the fundraising effort for her family left behind in the Philippines is a testament of that. Her death galvanized the city and the community into action to be more vigilant in ensuring that Calgary remain to be a safe place to live.

Through this website of the Filipino Bible study group of the Calgary Full Gospel Church, of which Arcelie was a faithful member, we would like celebrate the memories of Arcelie’s life every year on January 18th. It is our way of remembering a dear friend….

If you want to pray with us or share your thoughts and memories of Arcelie , please leave a comment on this page.

We have also posted below the video which was shown during the memorial service of Arcelie. We hope that we will be reminded of God’s love to us. Life on earth is short, but He gave as a chance to have an everlasting life with Him !!!