The Moment I Felt God Embraced Me in the Community Life
By Columban Hkun Myat Aung
The author is a Columban seminarian from Myitkina, Myanmar who joined the Columban formation program here in the Philippines in 2015. At present he is studying Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas.
I am Columban Hkun Myat Aung. I am from Myanmar. I came to the Philippines on 1st of November 2015 to join the formation program of the Missionary Society of St. Columban. When I arrived in the Philippines, I was not able to speak English very well. Most of the time, I was silent during our community meals because I could not understand what my companions were talking about. I could not catch even a word they said. Learning a new language is not easy for me. I went to language school in the morning after breakfast then came back to the formation house in the afternoon at around 4 p.m. Studying English the whole day drained my energy the moment I arrived at the house.
From 1936 until 1979 Columban missionaries ministered in the Diocese of Myitkyina, Myanmar. During those years they worked hard to develop and strengthen the local Myanmar church but they were forced to leave in 1979.
Have faith! With God nothing is impossible . . . These are the words that I
hang on to when I start to dream and hope for something that is way beyond me.
8 May 2009 was a day of joy, a day of wonder, a day of celebration of a dream
come true. On that day many youth from the different parishes came to celebrate
the official opening of our new Diocesan Youth Centre in Myitkyina Diocese,
Kachin State, Myanmar. Priests, Sisters and neighbors also joined us. Bishop
Francis Daw Tang of Myitkyina blessed the Centre and we celebrated the Eucharist.
Afterwards we were entertained by the youth who sang their own musical compositions
before partaking in the traditional meal that followed.
‘Arlenne’, with a prolonged hold on the second syllable, was the way people at home called me when I was a child in order for me to do something. And then it was followed by ‘Marika’ (Come here) if it was my mother who called or ‘Dali diri’ (Come here) if somebody else. I would answer immediately saying, ‘O,’ which meant ‘Yes’, and then went to the person who called me. 
