Ranong: Marists on the Thailand-Burma border (4)

Smiling children arriving at pre-school

Being a missionary

In the March Messenger I wrote about how I recognised my Mum was part of my early experience of being a missionary. I carried her sultana cakes when she went visiting the sick, lonely and those recently out of hospital.

I saw and experienced the joy of visiting and friendship. Mum’s love created joy. I think a missionary’s presence is a call to bring joy. Love is primary. The sultana cake or whatever other service we bring or give as missionaries is secondary.

I think it can be a tension in the Church’s missionary work to focus on the sultana cake and let go of the love and joyful presence. We can get rather busy here running health and education programmes for Burmese migrants. But the flood of people provides an opportunity for ‘encounter’.

I think this is why Pope Francis gave early and clear directions to those working with the poor – the Church is not a non-governmental organisation. We are not just ‘service delivery agents.’ We have the love of God in us to shine and share. We love. And not just deliver a sultana cake.

Since 2006 we have invited Lay Marist Missionaries and Volunteers from all around the world to join with us, often in our education programmes. It’s an experience of joy in service, community life, living simply and lifting up the lives of the poor in a Marist way.

As a missionary in Asia, our Marist community in Ranong on the Thailand Burma border is a symbol of the small 1% Christian, 4% Muslim and 95% Buddhist community. If we take out the very Catholic country of the Philippines, Asia is very religiously diverse and Christians are most certainly in the minority. It is not simply an intellectual idea but a daily psychological experience for us in the Marist community.

Aiming high, Young Burmese men and women enrolled in the Online University programme

I have appreciated listening to the Church’s invitation in Ecclesia in Asia to missionaries to be holy and live a deeply prayer-full life. To live simplicity and poverty authentically alongside the mostly poor in Asia, to protect the dignity of the poor, to work for justice -- in doing this we offer, often silently, a daily, gentle, yet powerful, proclamation of the way of God from the Christian tradition.

We are called to enter into a ‘dialogue of life and heart’ and offer what Pope Francis calls a ‘spirituality that can change hearts’ (Evangelii Gaudium). It happens in often unplanned experiences and encounters. A young Muslim mother shares she is amazed at our life and the gentle way we teach students. A Buddhist student asks why they call us ‘Father’ and are we not married just like the Buddhist Monks don’t get married. They ponder the life of a foreigner leaving home and serving them so that their lives are ‘lifted up.’

We get invited to Muslim homes with parents and students welcoming us and offering warm hospitality and sharing their religious tradition.

For many Burmese migrant families, homes are tin sheds

We pray alongside 100 Christian, Buddhist, Muslim teenagers together in silence each morning as a way of placing our lives and the day before God in prayer. We are taken to visit monasteries, learn about Thai and Burmese Buddhist religious festivals. We share our special Christian feast days and celebrations with gifts and events.

We sow the seeds of cultural and religious respect in a fragile place in the world where racial tension, religious ignorance and discrimination lie simmering beneath the surface.

We hope our students, patients and the community we create together can bear witness to the reality of peace.

Local Burmese monks often help us celebrate religious festivals