The Catholic News

The Singapore group having an input session with the youths of Shantou.

THE PRESSING NEED of Catholics in China prompted two Verbum Dei sisters in Singapore, Sister Maria Jose and Sister Sandra Seow, to organise a 12-day mission trip with a group of 14 Singaporean Catholics to Shantou and Fuzhou in southern China. The 16 participants flew to Shantou on Jul 18 “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-eyed 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. “We managed to build very close relationships with the children, with many memorable moments,” she said. “It was sad to leave on the last day.”

Six members left for Singapore after Shantou, while the other 10 travelled by coach to Fuzhou province. They went to 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.

While the children were having catechism lessons, Sister Maria Jose and Sister Sandra conducted sessions for the nuns. In these sessions, they had input, 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, who 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 with 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.”

By Isabel Chua