By Christine Uy
Our family migrated to Thailand in March 2009, packing with us our excitement about our new life in this Buddhist country. There were qualms and uncertainties at first as we thought of the challenges we would be facing, especially as Catholics. We had to travel more than two hours to attend Mass in English.
Uy Family 2015
By Gee-Gee Torres
The coconut and copra is a mainstay in Thailand. They often use monkeys to help out but these are untrained and sometimes beaten mercilessly. When our editorial assistant, Gee-Gee Torres, went to Thailand recently to visit the various Filipino missionary communities there, they brought her on a side-trip to the famous school for monkeys set-up by a humane man who feels monkeys deserve to be treated better. We hope you enjoy reading the story below.
By Veronica Ugates
The author is one of Misyon’s regular contributors. She has recently come up with her own magazine, HEROES – a magazine dedicated to our overseas Filipino workers. It has an online version, www.heroesmag.com. She is currently working on her book Questions Women Ask About Their Men.
Lufthansa flights from the Philippines to Tripoli have two stopovers, one in Bangkok and the other
in Dusseldorf. Returning to Tripoli on the second leg of my trip, I was seated beside a Malaysian lady.
Apparently, she had been observing what I was doing and after I had prayed the rosary she asked me, ‘You’re Catholic, right? What makes you different from others?’ I replied, ‘Hello! Oh, there would be a number of things but I’d venture to say our faith is the most difficult to follow yet it is most practical’.
By Gil L. Casio SM
Last year, I had the privilege of joining the team of the Marist Mission Center – Australia (MMC) in visiting refugee camps in Maesot in northern Thailand. Thousands of the Karen tribe from Myanmar (formerly Burma) live there in the middle of the jungle. It was my first time to see people who were obviously suffering from injustice and oppression.
By Ma. Norma L. Plata
The author is a member of Christ the King Association International – Asian Region, popularly known in the Philippines as Ligaya ng Panginoon. She has been a lay missionary in Thailand for six years now. Here she shares with us how she discovered where God was calling her.
In 1983 I experienced a great stirring in my heart to serve the Lord full-time. After three years of discernment, I left my banking career and joined the mission team in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, a few months later. After two years in Mindanao, the Lord led me to a church-based NGO, the National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA). Then in February 1991, I worked full time for Lingkod ng Panginoon. They were seven years of the most memorable moments of my life.
By Gee-Gee O. Torres
I went to visit our Filipino missionaries in Thailand in 1998. There I met Sr Angela San Jose of the Daughters of Charity. At that time she was assigned to St Clare’s Hospice in Pathumthani, a hospice for AIDS patients who are in the last stages of AIDS. It was founded by the Franciscan Friars in response to the great need to care for poor and homeless persons with AIDS. Today Sr Angela is assigned to Laos. Below I share with you my visit to her.
By Sister Mariana Reyes HGS
Sister Mariana came to the Philippines in 2000. She is a member of the Hermanas Guadalupanas de la Salle founded in Mexico in 1946 by Brother Juan Fromental Coyroche, a De La Salle Brother from France. The Sisters follow the charism of St John Baptist De La Salle and are involved in the promotion of Christian Education. Their spirituality in the service of God inspires them to look to Our Lady of Guadalupe in her role as evangelizer of the people they serve. They arrived in the Philippines in 1984. Other countries in which they work include Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Madagascar, Peru and Thailand.
By Sister Josefina Estremera DC
On April 20, 1999, a fishing boat from Mindoro was wrecked during a storm. On board were the fishermen and some family members. Pepito Mateo and his son Jimmy survived by clinging to a bamboo pole for three days and nights till rescued by a Taiwanese ship. The Singaporean skipper and Filipino crew took care of the two until they docked five days later in Pattaya, Thailand’s popular tourist resort.
Two of the Philippine Embassy staff met Pepito and Jimmy and immediately took them to the Camillian Hospital in Bangkok. They were badly sun burnt. Jimmy had small wounds caused by fish bites all over his legs and Pepito had a large wound on his right foot from being struck by a plank.
By Gee-Gee O. Torres
By Fr. Benny Enano cm
Fr. Benny Enano, a Vincentian missionary, is from Igbaras, Iloilo. He is the youngest of five children. After his ordination in June 29, 1991 he was assigned as parish priest to Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Parish, Molo. Then a few years later he was sent to Thailand for mission.
I was sent here in Thailand 5 years ago to join our two missionary priests in their mission work. Thailand is a Buddhist country where monks play a very important role in the spiritual life of the people. I studied the Thai language three hours a week in Khon Khaen University under an individual instruction for six months. But after a year I just found myself being assigned as a parish priest of Holy Saints Parish. I wasn’t prepared for the job yet. My learning of Thai was still inadequate. Thai language is very difficult. It has its own script, it is made up of many characters and one word means many things – according to the sound or tone. But then I was forced to study hard all by myself when I had to start saying the Mass in Thai. For a start, I asked one of our scholars to read the readings for the Mass in Thai while I wrote it in phonetics. This allowed me to read Thai words. Eventually I moved on to reading scriptures in Thai and at the same time learning how to write the homily in Thai. With the help of the students in the community, I was able to improve and even did the homily without anymore reading it.
