“Builders of Faith” in China ~ By Isabel Chua
THE pressing need of Catholics in China prompted two Verbum Dei sisters in Singapore, Sr. Maria Jose and Sr. Sandra Seow, to organise a 12-days mission trip with a group of Singaporean Catholics to Shantou and Fuzhou in southern China. The group of 16, including the two missionaries, flew to Shantou on July 18. They went with the awareness that they were sent by God to be ‘Builders of Faith’.
They spent four days conducting a youth summer camp at the St Joseph's Cathedral in Shantou. This was attended by over 150 teenagers from Shantou and the surrounding regions. The youths received inputs on topics such as ‘My life is a gift’, ‘Jesus is my Friend’, ‘Merciful Love of God’ and ‘Love one another as I love you’, including action songs in English and games as well as writing letters to Jesus and moving prayer sessions.
When the four-day camp was over, the Singapore team got a rousing send-off from teary teens, with hugs and songs to send them on their way.
Katherine Soh, who was on her first mission trip, described the experience as fulfilling, adding: “We managed to build very close relationships with the children, with many memorable moments. It was sad to leave on the last day.”
Six members left for Singapore after Shantou, while the other 10 traveled by coach to Fuzhou province on July 25. They arrived at the Mystical Rose Sanctuary in the village of Longtian, where they stayed at a retreat house run by a group of nuns.
The Singapore mission participants conducted afternoon sessions for a group of children from the village. Especially challenging for the team was that only a few members spoke fluent Mandarin, while the rest got by on their basic Mandarin, dialect and lots of smiles and love.
Meanwhile the children were having catechism lessons, Sr. Maria Jose and Sr. Sandra conducted sessions for the nuns. In these sessions, they had inputs, time for personal reflections as well as group sharing. The nuns were even treated to a computer lesson one night by a computer specialist from the Singapore team.
Raymond Cai, conducted the classes in Fuzhou, said: "It was moving to hear the story of the sanctuary from the nuns. I also learnt how little it takes to make people happy. Even though the people here have little, they are so warm and are so happy at what they have."
Sister Maria Jose was moved by the hunger of the people she saw in Fuzhou, for spiritual knowledge and formation. "The need is great in China."
