2009 Paaralang Pantao T-shirt now on sale $10

TB, scoliosis and more depressing news

Recently someone asked me how we could be so optimistic about the situation with the kids in Payatas? Let's take stock of the negative developments in the last 6 months:
1. Nicasio and sisters have lost both parents. We know the mum died of TB.
2. Nicasio and sisters are diagnosed with TB and need at least 6 months medication.
3. Nicasio has scoliosis
4. Pepito, Nicasio's Best Friend is suspected to have TB too. So he'll go for a medical examination this coming week.
5. 20 other kids are suspected to have TB. so there'll be another medical mission in November to test for it.
6. Erwin sill has no one to sponsor his education for the year which costs $300.
7. We've lost Joshua. His mum has taken him out of school and he's most likely at work somewhere.
8. We've lost Arnil who's now working in the dumpsite and according to the other chidren, he smokes.

Other negatives with Payatas:
1. Children exposed to immoral danger such as drugs/porn/abuse (physical, sexual)
2. Children taken out of school to work as scavengers/dumptruck assistants or recruited by drug lords/prostitution houses/gangs
3. Children's parents can't afford to get them a birth certificate because the legal procedure is costly and time consuming (est a 2 month cat and mouse affair)
and the list goes on....

Our greatest worry today:
We weren't able to raise enough funds/pledges this year for the food project so we have only about 2k left till last till Dec. We don't know what to expect in January.
The cost of running the feeding project for one month for an estimate of 80-100 children for 20 school days/month is $1000. If our feeding project doesn't go through after January, the kids will fall out and work in the dumpsite.

Our greatest nightmare:
That any of them gets into an accident and follows the same fate as Marvin.


Our dilemma:
Recently the Lord blessed us with some donation from a group of very generous kids. they gave $400. We wanted to add this to the feeding project which would cover about 8 days of lunches. On the other hand we received news that there's a TB problem. So in the end we chose to allocate the money for a TB Fund at least to get meds for the kids who need it.


The positive side:
If we keep working/keep the food project running... etc
1. the kids will learn to read and write (an essential element of modern society)
2. the kids will learn about Jesus and are prepared for their Baptism next Easter
3. the kids will eventually get their birth certificates, study hard in formal schools and make it some day.

The odds are stacked against us. Many times of course we feel like quitting, giving up. At times we've felt so helpless amidst the sea of poverty. Other times, we feel frustrated because the commnity does nothing about the grave immorality existing in their area even though they know it's wrong and bad. Frustration because for every obstacle overcomed there's another larger one in front.

We need a lot of hope, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. We believe in having hope and passing hope on to others. Hope is not a feeling, an emotion or something like a wish that is magical. Hope is within one's reach. Hope is real and concrete that we can all have, a light that calls out the path which we could not have seen in the dark. Hope is having peace within, from knowing the peace of Christ.

So TB, scoliosis and more depressing news are not enough to take away the peace that Christ gives from knowing Him.

Another reality game for your mission!

This is a game for Fastfood nation!
Learn how to run one of the world's largest corporations - MacDonald's....

Try not to get sacked! Make money for the company!!! so we can have more burgers!!!Enjoy

http://www.mcvideogame.com/

World Mission Day Online Game

World Mission Day was just this Sunday. For those of us who have the luxury to sit in front of our laptops/desktops ever so often to play online games, how about trying out this virtual reality game, Third World Farmer.

It's really challenging. You're in a family of 4 and you need to survive! The 1st time I played it, I was ambitious thinking i could afford to send the son to school. I mean, it's school rite! all kids need to go to school. In the meantime the dad and mum would plant corn that harvested just about $20. As the game goes on, the reality of this 3rd world family sinks in! Oh Man! No one can predict when my corn is going to be destroyed, when are the droughts or if anyone will steal my one and only chicken. in the end desperate i take a deal to store waste chemicals. Sadly, one famiy after another ends up dead! Another time I played this game, i was so desparate to keep my family alive, i made a deal with a poppy salesman and grew opium. Though my conscious pricked, we were able to afford an animal to plough the fields and grow lots of peanuts.

What advice I can give is: think as if you're really in rd world situation! Marry off your members when you can, make sure the new spouse moves to the farm, and have baby when possible... cos the life expectancy is pretty short! so you'll be playing for a few generations!

The game is really an eye-opener!!! Try it!
http://www.3rdworldfarmer.com/

World Mission Day

Hey everyone!
Today we celebrate World Mission Day. Let us remember Missionaries all over the world who continue to offer their lives to be witnesses of Christ's love today.
Maybe some of you are thinking about becoming missionaries. in the next 3 posts are 3 interviews of people who share with us what they do, the struggles they encounter and their drive to keep going.

As missionaries, let us look at the signs of the times. Today's signs are not very good and the world forecasts gloomy days ahead. World leaders, finance experts and the man on the street all say the future is bleak. Large financial insitutions have crashed. There are retirees who have lost all their money in one night. This afternoon at 99cents Sushi, a group of 50 to 60 year old (babyboomers) ladies were having lunch and sharing their views over the financial crisis. One lady remarked as I walked past, "We've always been taught to invest, not save. Invest, invest. Don't save!" (P.S/ They did not look like ladies who would NOT have dined at 99cents sushi)

When I reached home, I opened the letterbox and recieved a nice gift from Singapore Power. The Power bill! From Oct we are now paying 21% more than before. I would gladly support this! Sure! let's save electricity right? but Singapore's energy source is 80% natural gas. An interesting fact, I recently discovered. Hmmmm.... Apparently the rates for natural gas is tied to the rates of oil prices! Sounds ridiculous? Does our country really need this 21% increase in electricity bills at such a time? And thanks Singtel... heard you guys are in the works to raise your charges too.

I wonder if water tax will increase too? There's a 30% water conservation tax. While we are often told that Singapore does not have enough water, interestingly we have a lot of rainfall. Enough to supply our country's demand for water according to experts.. you can google this out for yourself. Well, Singapore is really small right? and how many months in a year are considered wet days? In the past couple of months it's been raining and raining with some dry hot days in between. How do I know? I need to time my laundry. I get good sun at least twice a week now! According to a friend, November and December is going to bring more rain. How about a break on the water charges for those months? hehe.

It's been bad news one after another right? 1st there was the China milk scare. Then the current financial crisis. But before this... food prices were soaring! and so was the cost of oil! Thankfully food prices are coming down and oil has gotten cheaper by today's standards. Chocolate lovers can take heart to know that they can still afford to indulge in a little chocolate. It seems that chocolate prices have fallen at supermarkets. I'm not a chocolate-friendly person but this is what I noticed. And the chocolates aren't even from China. Oops! Maybe they're old stock from Australia and elsewhere which stores couldnt get rid off till the China products were taken off the shelf? hehe.. check the expiry date ya? haha Oh yes and taxi fares went up! Maybe to some Singaporeans living in Serangoon Gardens, it's the foreign workers dormitory coming up. In today's Crime Watch there's a special section on how to deal with foreign workers! Oh man!!!

I just received a text message. Someone died at a friend's block. Probably suicide! People! don't jump off buildings, don't jump off trains! Don't kill yourself! If you can hang in there for five years, things will get better! That's what Donald Trump said. be in bankruptcy or cancer.

The lesson to be learnt from all this is THIS: Nothing is certain! When I bought insurance with AIA, I never knew that they would be in hot soup some day! We spend so much making elaborate plans! what do we do with our material objects??? invest? save? the world would be a happy place if we could all live like St Francis of Assisi who said something like this: if you have something you worry you lose it. If you have nothing, you have no worry of losing it. In today's context, we stock up and we hoard. We possess, we own. We stamp our title over everything that is ours and we protect what is ours so that no one can take what is ours away from us. We don't think of collaborating, sharing or co-operating. How about sharing resources? Like having a common kitchen, sharing a community fridge with the neighbours or share electrical appliances so the community can conserve energy?
But in this world, community is impossible? Every man for himself? Can we structure our lives to be interdepdent on each other? At family level, within the community and among countries... Often greed gets in the way!

But nothing is certain. we can never be 100% certain of anything! except ONE THING!!! AND IT IS THIS ONE THING THAT WE SHOULD THEN BUILD OUR LIVES UPON! Jesus Christ, yesterday, today, forever.

How can we be missionaries today? Invest our time and effort and energy to know God. Invest in prayer time! Because prayer gives us that inward strength and grace and wisdom to trust in God. When the storms come and the heavy winds rush against us, we will stand strong because we have invested in a solid rock foundation! When we know God, we know where to go to seek him to be our refuge, our shelter, our fortress in times such as these. Invest, invest, invest in a life with Jesus!

And don't forget Save, save, save. Remember Jesus Saves! There are people all around us who are waiting for Hope to come! These people for the longest time in their lives have wished and wished. Wishing is magical. Wishing is not going to help anyone. Wishing gives no solution. But HOPE is concrete. Hope is having a way out of the tunnel. Hope is having a plan. Hope is certain. Hope is J-E-S-U-S.

Let's strive to be contemplative missionaries who take time to pray and listen to the Spirit at work in our lives and in the world. Let us also strive to be prophetic missionaries who speak the Truth to others and to the world. Let us not be in it for popularity rankings or for honours. Often the truth hurts and is even rejected. Our world has changed so drastically, the biggest change ever, in the last 100 years. Including the greatest amount of injustice, violence, poverty and suffering! Yup it's all in this last century. And the injustice, violence, poverty and suffering is set to increase unless we speak and echo the truth!

Meet Father Tomasz, Turkmenistan (Interview with Missionary)

I am from The Congregation Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. I am from Poland and I have been a priest since 1997. I arrived in Turkmenistan on 10th March 2000. From the moment I have entered the Oblates Congregation I always wanted to work on missions. The truth is that I have never dreamt about Turkmenistan because I didn’t know much about that country. Madagascar was my biggest dream, but after 2 years of work in Poland my Province offered to me Turkmenistan as a place for my mission and I decided to go there immediately.

Turkmenistan is very young country existing from 1991, emerged into independence from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Turkmenistan never existed on the maps before; this is totally new country not a rebirth of the old one. The country with its capital in Ashgabat is located in Central Asia bordering with Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea. The area of Turkmenistan is 488,100 km2 but much of the country (80 %) is covered by desert known as Kara Kum (“Black Sands”). Population of the country is about 4 million, there are two official languages Turkmen and Russian.

The Catholic mission has been opened in autumn 1997. Two missionaries Oblates arrived from Poland. Father Andrzej Madej OMI was appointed as the Superior of the Mission Sui Iuris by the Pope. (He is an ordinary for Turkmenistan), and father Radoslaw Zmidrowicz OMI. They were first catholic priests to arrive here after 80 years absence of a priest. Before that there was a priest in this area but only for one year, never before and never after that.

This is why we start from scratch. When after 2 years I arrived to Turkmenistan as a 3rd Oblate, there was already a group of about 20 catechumens preparing for baptism. At present whole community is about 80 people, and for past 6 years only 2 priests are working here. Until this day Catholic Church hasn’t been accepted by the country. This is why our official statute is diplomatic mission.

As I already mention our work has dual character and we share our duties into work in diplomatic corps and pastoral work. Besides everyday Mass on which there are between ten and twenty people present, we have regular meetings with people who are preparing for the sacrament of christening and regular religious educations for adults who are already christened. The whole preparation for the christening takes about 3 years. Besides that we take part in diplomatic life, we are obligate to attend all kinds of official meetings. We also try to help people in everyday life and we lead small Caritas.

The struggles of the young people in Turkmenistan are mainly the same as the struggles of the Catholic youths. First of all it is lack of prospects for the future, there is no good education, no cultural entertainment. There are a lot of young intelligent people who have no chance to study, system is constructed in such a way that unable personal development of average person.

When we began our mission in Turkmenistan one of our Fathers gave us such an advice: Low profile. In present conditions high development of our mission is impossible. We have no registration and because of that we have some restrictions, this is why to keep low profile is the best solution. What keeps me going is growing community and living faith among neophytes.

Uplifting moments in my mission were all kinds of visits of different guests and evangelizing groups. We had such groups in Ashgabat few times already. Because we are a church in separation (the closest church is about 1500 km in Uzbekistan) visits of other priests, evangelizing groups and laypeople are very helpful and give us proof of living faith.

My message to youths engaged in mission: The most important is to not lose heart when the first time things go wrong. We can not expect too much and we have to do our job and not to be discouraged when the fruits of our labor don’t come immediately. One day they are going to be visible anyway………….

Fr Tomasz in blue jacket

Meet Paul Petrus (Interview with Missionary)

Papua New Guinea is one of the four Melanesian countries (PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands). PNG received Independence from Australia in 16th September, 1975. PNG has four regions, New Guinea Islands, Momase, Papua and the Highlands. I am from the Highlands region in a province called Western Highlands.
PNG is one of the interesting countries in the world because it has over 800 languages with a variety of cultures.

My work: I am a freelance researcher. Currently I am doing research for the Catholic Archdiocese of Mt. Hagen in my province. Mainly collecting oral histories for the church. I am also a Radio announcer and programmer in our local Catholic Radio.

Challenges I Face: Working as a layman in the Church is very challenging. Seeing my school mates working in big offices with higher pay makes me tempted to leave the church and apply for a job in those big offices. Therefore, I struggle to earn a living with the little money that I earn. Having in mind the roles and responsibilities in the societies and the high expectations from the people. Working with limited resources, overloaded with roles and responsibilities in the church is quite challenging.

What keeps me going: When I realize the value of my work towards the people now and in the future it motivates me. And also when I receive positive comments from my boss or other people it encourages me to continue.
I have a aim and desire that I would like to see my people and country develop and my input seem to have a vital contribution.


My hope for the young people in PNG is that, more than 50% of them should be educated in the year 2010. But most importantly more than 70% of the young people should receive a tertiary qualification in the year 2020. If that is possible then the development of our society and the country is possible in all aspects.

Mission means working in any field that you are qualified in with your heart and mind for the good of the majority of the population in your community. The outcome of your mission can be achieved at present or in the future.

Paul with Sherlyn

Meet Marie Mondu (Interview with Missionary)

Hi my name is Marie, I am 26 years old and working with Caritas Australia on the STI Managment Program as a research officer. My mother is from the highlands of New Guinea (Enga Province) and my dad is from the coasts (Madang Province).

Papua New Guinea is a very diverse country, rich in culture, and natural vegetation. We have more than 700 different indigeneous languages! 19 provinces and almost 5 billion people. People's physical upmake are very different just like our cultures. Some of our people from the islands and southern part of PNG look more like micronesians. My people are more aggressive, short and stocky. There is an island full of very dark people who look like African's - The Bukas. Each province have their own staple food. PNG is indeed diversed.

95% of these populations are Christians, the churches that dominate are Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran and United Church. We have so many other postelates churches springing up every year as well. 97% of land is customarily owned. 85% of people live in rural communities, villages and are subsistent farmers.

HIV is a growing socio-economic issue in the country right now. We have an infection prevalence rate of 1.6%, which the data is not fully accurate or representative. Our country is rough, rugged and there is no effective data system in place for accuracy in this kind of work. I do HIV research and try to minimise stigma and discrimination by educating people. I have a strong voice for women rights and issues as we are still suffering from male dominated prejudice.

I travel alot and as a female, I worry all the time of being raped, robbed or end up dead in an accident. Air travel is quite expensive and we travel by road mainly. I think that's the greatest challenge. I think personally, I'm suffering from starting up a relationship, as I'm constantly moving around and no boyfriend would like that. So that's the sacrifice I had to make for this job.

I don't know the spirit of volunteerism I suppose. I've learnt that it makes me trully happy when I give something to the little people, people who have not had a chance to go to school like I did. Besides I love traveling and meeting new people. I guess people and places generally amaze me. If you look close enough you can see how great God is when you look at the myriads of people and places you've experienced in your life...

I hope through the church we could administer programs that would involve many out- of-job youths, to make sense of their lives. It's really a desperate situation now as we have a high number of young people dropping out of school every single year. It's hard to instil hope and give a mission to hopeless youths. We need your prayers in that.

I see mission as a job, task or obligation I must commit to, to make the world a better place to live in. In laymen's term, it is mostly a compassionate action. It can be a paid thing or volunteer job but the most important aspect of reaching out to others encompasses 'SELFLESSNESS -and something to DO WITH THE HEART'.

From left: Mayb, Sherlyn, Marie, Dominica, Daryl

Our angel, Jesper Uaje

Dear Friends,
our 4 year old friend Jesper Uaje who was staying in Erap City passed away yesterday morning. Jesper was diagnosed with Ependaymomma brain tumor a couple of years ago. Jesper was an active baby but lost his sight around the age of 2 years and eventually his hearing. He also could not walk eventually. His grandma Norma who was seeing to all his needs was able to get help from a charity organization and Jesper eventually went for treatment at the Children's Hospital this year.

He underwent an operation recently and was able to hear again. However, he slipped into a coma some time after. As he has returned home to God our Father, we know that this baby is free from the terrible pain attacks he used to suffer. May he look down on us and watch over us like a little angel. Let's also lift up Norma in our prayers. She had such a devoted and unwavering love and cared for him every moment in his time of need. May the Lord strengthen her and be her comfort as she griefs the loss of her beloved grandson.

I feel sad that he has passed away. Just a couple of days ago someone gave us money to buy presents for the kids during our mission in December. The first child I thought of was Jesper. I had hoped to see him this December. But I know that God has his reasons and knows what is best for his beloved. Goodbye Jesper. Thank you for your beautiful smile. Even though you never saw us or heard our voices, we'll always remember you :)