Asian Mission Congress, Faith Sharer: Youth

When I was first asked by Joy Candelario and Fr Saturnino Dias to share, I readily accepted the invitation without finding out more about what the sharing was to entail and who my audience would be. My first shock came when I received an email with guidelines for the sharing and script had to be submited in 2 weeks. I had a late start to work on my sharing. I did not get previous emails with the guidelines. Somehow I managed to pull through even with half my brains working on the last DRE assignment and last minute touch ups to my wood burning project. Many nights were spent toggling over the PC. I felt quite lost as the sharing guidelines seemed remarkably similar to the theological reflections that I had to do for the DRE. but I wasn't sure. What were the organizers' expectations? What did they want to hear?

I thought about the theme of the Congress and realised that if I just told the story of my life as it is.. the encounter of Christ through my mission and how it touched other youths as I had been touched then that would be telling the story of Jesus. So I typed and I typed till the script was ready. I emailed it to the organizers and convinced myself that I should not be worrying.

When we arrived at the Congress and as the speakers and faith-sharers took their turn on the large platform in front of the hundreds gathered, I slowly dissolved into a sack of rattled bones. However I put up a courageous front among the other Singaporean delegates. Everyone was so encouraging and cheering me on. I could not show them the truth of how I really felt: nervous and inadequate for the task at hand.

My turn was finally minutes away and I surrendered all I was going to say to the Lord. I remembered what Fr Terence once told me when I was not sure about going to Melbourne. "Be a fool for Christ". Esther from ICPE and Ivan from Youth Ministry Office prayed for me. Their prayers gave me the strength to accept that I was ready to be a fool for Christ.

My story was a personal encounter. Telling my story made me vunerable. Everyone would come to know of my reality and struggle. But then I realised that it was not my reality and my struggle alone. Because all these years I never walked alone. Jesus was always with me. When my voice boomed over the microphone, I knew then in my heart that this was the very thing I wanted to do. It felt so right. Because this is my story of Jesus in my life.

This Sunday's Gospel brought me back to ten years ago.. in a little schoolhouse at the dumpsite when Christ spoke to me though one scavenger boy. "Love your neighbour"

My Sharing
I live in a global, high tech society of internet, wireless network, cable TV, MSN, Bluetooth, 3G technology, podcast, blogs and so on. I am a young Singaporean. Singapore is just 683 sq km, with less than 4 million people living on the island. We have no natural resources. We buy our water. Now we evem recycle it. We import most of our food from other countries. So what do we do to survive? We work very hard. We are an urban jungle with a strong economic culture. We’re sheltered by neighbouring countries. We do not have typhoons or hurricanes. We do not have earthquakes or volcanoes. We have no mountains either, just small hills. At 19 years old, I was living a peaceful, comfortable life on the little red dot on the map. My favourite phrase then was “Life is boring!” Even today this is a common expression among young Singaporeans. They ofen say “I am bored. I am bored to death”

I had little worries in life. My life was programmed. I would graduate with a diploma in Information Technology and work as a computer programmer. Many of my friends would either be like me or became teachers, accountants, engineers or join the business sector. Singaporeans are not very creative when it comes to occupations! Also life in Singapore is always a rush. As young people who are always studying we have no time to think, reflect and discern about where we are headed in life. My life was driven by the economy. Till now among young Singaporeans life is about working hard to become an economic success.

As a Catholic I was active in the youth movement of my parish. But the days in my parish were also programmed. After youth group, I would become a Catechist preparing youths for Confirmation

How meeting Jesus changed me
One day everything changed when my priest asked me to go for a 9 day mission trip to Philippines with a group of 16 other youths. After the 9 days in Philippines, I went home a different person. We lived in a dumpsite in Manila. On our last day there we prayed with the dumpsite youths. We prayed for them and they in turn prayed for us. During this time, all the youths were crying, touched by each other’s prayers and the friendships that we been formed in the short 9 days. One dumpsite youth shared this that stirred me deeply. It was as if Jesus was speaking to me. He said, “I never thought that rich people knew we existed. I never thought a rich person would care enough to come into my life and be my friend until now.”

In Singapore, I come from an average-income household. I never saw myself as being rich until that experience. I never knew the poor existed, not even in my own country until I went for that mission trip. I have always seen beggars, starving people, homeless people on television. But I had never seen them in real life.


Challenges ahead
Back home, I struggled with all that I had experienced. The scene at the dumpsite… the child scavenger… the parents who were too sick to work… the homeless family… and so on. For the first time I a young Singaporean Catholic was faced with a challenge to my faith, my way of life. Jesus was saying to me, “Love one another as I have loved you… Love your neighbour as you love yourself.”

For the next two years I struggled on and the dumpsite was always on my mind. Finally when I was 21, I decided to return to the dumpsite once more with a few friends. The experience of living with the people and being with them also had a great impact on my friends. They too went home just like me. Challenged and troubled. Jesus was also saying to them, “Love one another as I have loved you. Love your neighbour as you love yourself.”

All this time, we had been living our lives thinking only for ourselves. We were only looking out for ourselves and our family. We thought only of what was best for us. We hardly considered the needs of others, our neighbours and the marginalized.

During this time I began to question where I was headed. Was I going to follow the crowd blindly and live for myself? Or would I bravely discern the plans God had for me trust in Him fully and live for him? I decided that I wanted to live for God more than for my own selfish reasons. In the meantime, I decided to study for a diploma in teaching.

I returned regularly to the dumpsite regularly, each time with more youths. I went on my 1st mission trip wanting to be of help. But in the process I experienced the unconditional love of God through the Payatas people. The other youths also wanted to be of help. But they too experienced the selfless love of God. The people in the dumpsite have so little to give us materially. Yet they welcomed us strangers into their lives and adopted us as their child, their brother, their sister.

When I encountered them, their lives, their suffering and also their dreams and aspirations, I encountered Christ. I am inspired by their courage and their strength and determination to keep on going despite the setbacks, the landslides, the typhoons. One of them has become a brother to me. He is Julian Donarie and he’s 23 this year. Julian’s grandparents passed away when he was 10. They were his only relatives. He lived by himself in the dumpsite, working every day just to earn some money for food. When his grandparents died, he made a promise to himself that he would go to school like the other kids and he would finish his education. This is not a difficult challenge to a 10 year old in Singapore. But for Julian it was making the impossible possible. And he knew that only God could make the impossible possible. Julian ended up going to a non-formal school which eventually supported him through to high school. He graduated in maritime studies. Julian and all my brothers and sisters in the dumpsite have inspired me to trust in God. In their lives I hear this song, “God will make a way where there seems to be no way.”

Through these brothers and sisters, I found the courage to say “God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory”. I left a stable and secured job in teaching. Not long after, God did make a way for me. I am now working in 4 Infant Jesus schools where I conduct faith formation and mission orientation sessions for secondary students. These students serve the marginalized through local and overseas projects.

After much reflection, a few of the youths and I who had been touched by the experience of the dumpsite decided to commit to mission. We decided that the poor will always be a reference point in our lives and in our decision making. We started a group called acts29. Acts means A Call to Serve and 29 refers to the continuation of the works of the apostles (the book of Acts ends at chapter 28). We invite youths to live a life of simplicity in solidarity and mission while making Jesus known to others.

I realize that the goal of life across the multi-religious and multi-culture milieu is not to become perfect but to love. My experience with the youths whom I have come to know from various countries in Asia has taught me that to be a human person is to be essentially directed towards others. I realize that there is no point in being global but my faith and my way of life must be global too. I am no longer just a Singaporean Catholic youth but I am also an Asian Catholic youth. I want to continue to invite youths to build bridges from Asia and to share in the responsibility of being an Asian Catholic youth for their country, for their family and for the Lord their God.