OLPS Mission Outreach

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

New Beds For The Boys at Tanjung Pinang Within Sight

The dormitory in an army camp looks better than the onesthe boys sleep in at the moment.

There are some very thougtful benefactors who are looking into sponsoring the beds for the boys. Please pray for this to go smoothly as Jesus will make sure it succeeds.

Water Filtration System for Rempang

Our Technical Team has been hard at work trying to get the Water Filtration System Project a foot.

They are diligently working with Temasek Poly to make this a reality. The approval process for Temasek Poly to get the stuff together may take awhile, in the meantime, information of Rempang has been put together for them to peruse.

Once the approval is obtained, TP will require our assistance to facilitate a group of the 20 students to make a trip to Rempang and build the system.

Let's pray that this will materalize cause Rempang is badly in need of the Water Filtration System!

A great big THANK YOU to the Technical Team and Temasek Poly for the work you guys are putting in!

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Lenten Prayer & Reflection Sessions

Dear brothers and sisters of MOT

For the season of Lent, we would like to hold a prayer and reflection session every Saturday at 8pm commencing this Saturday 3 March, following the prayer format in the Lenten reflection booklet provided by our Parish.

Please mark your calendars, 3 March, 10 March, 17 March, 24 March and 31 March 2007. We are also looking at the possibility of doing a weekend retreat at Galang (Batam) for the weekend of 31 March to 1 April 2007. Details to be advised.

As our Faith formation is personal yet interpersonal, we need each other to grow together in our faith journey. So please do try and make it.

Jesus Loves You.

Carol & Edmund Lee
on behalf of OLPS Mission Outreach

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Sisters Home Is Ready!

The sister's home is ready, blessed and handed over to the Tembesis parish over the weekend. William Chandra, represented our community, OLPS on this joyous occassion. The Bishop of Pangkalpinang sent his no 2 to officiate the occasion. You'll be pleased to know that there are 2 sisters from the Jesus Mary Joseph Order to manage the boarding home, Santa Theresia already in Rempang!

Our brothers and sisters in Rempang appreciate our support and has invited us to go back.

May God be Praised!
Carol

Friday, January 19, 2007

Naomi Gan's Testimonial

As usual, our family battled about where to go for our annual vacation. We are confronted with the usual questions – should it be the east or west, a cold or warm destination, theme parks or mountain retreats, the hustle and bustle of the city or a slow and quiet getaway to the countryside. We finally settled on New Zealand.

As the vacation days drew closer, I became more unsettled. It just did not seemed right. I have been telling Gabe that we should either go to a holy site or to a third world country so that our kids get to see the other side of life. Gabe, being the well traveled one, as usual, kept telling me that they are not ready and that the living conditions in India, Cambodia or Vietnam, destinations which I suggested, may be too harsh for us. Basic necessities like water and food would be a challenge in some of these areas.

I prayed that God would direct the way in our choice of a vacation destination. Lo and behold, within a week, I read in the Holy Family bulletin that there is a retreat in Thailand. I called up the organizer and found out that the retreat would not be appropriate for Joshua as he would be too young to participate in the spiritual reflections meant for adults. Just within weeks, there was a road show held at OLPS to recruit youth for a mission in Thailand. This time, only Justin qualifies as he is a youth and the rest of us were either too young or old to join them. I cannot deny that I was disappointed.

As if by divine intervention, Carol sent us an email informing us of the Rempang trip. When I called her, she said yes, the whole family could come along and that there were other families signing up for the mission as well. Immediately I signed up and paid in full before anyone could change their minds after I managed to convince them. I must say it was no easy task and the sense of skepticism was certainly in the air.

Having read through the testimonials of my husband and children, I am indeed thankful to God for giving us this opportunity to be part of this mission. Since our return from the trip, I don’t hear the kids complaining about food too much like they used to. I was amazed that all three of them wanted to go for more of such missions. Joshua wanted to sign up for the next mission immediately – the one at Tanjong Pinang but we were not able to take leave.

After all that is said and done, my thoughts are that every OLPS parishioner should go for a mission at least once. We took away from Rempang more than we put in. I found joy as a family doing God’s work… each in our little ways. The masonry work was back wrecking as we had to carry bricks in the hot sun and I am sure the digging of trenches for drainage was even worse for the guys. My kids and I have never cemented bricks or painted walls and ceilings. Certainly we will all remember the great time we had and of course, our strained and overworked muscles.

The people in Rempang reminded me that it does not take much to be a happy person. Both adults and children alike lived in simplicity yet there is always laughter and sharing of what little they had.

I was quite appalled to see the leaking roof in the children’s dormitories, the damped and sometimes almost hollow mattresses on which the kids slept, the broken doors which barely serve its purpose, the small portion of food each kid received at meal time and the unhygienic conditions there – all thriving on the one water pump which OLPS installed during the last mission trip.

I know the money the parishioners of OLPS donated to this cause has been put to good use. What little we have done has helped improve the lives of those at Rempang. We are certainly blessed. Let us continue to be a blessing to others.

Naomi Gan
OLPS Mission Outreach 2006 - Rempang

Monday, January 8, 2007

Habitat For Humanity Singapore

Would anybody be interested?

Please register on line with Habitat for Humanity and let them know you are from OLPS Mission Outreach Team.

Last September, Habitat for Humanity Singapore initiated Operation Homeworks to help improve the living conditions of the elderly. The event brought much joy to the elderly as their homes were now cleaner and safer. Some also had beds and cupboards replaced. As we welcome the new year, Habitat is again looking for volunteers to help clean up the homes of another group of elderly.

Project details: Date : 3 Feb 2007 Time : 9am - 6pm Venue : Blk 61 and 62 Geylang Bahru

Volunteers are required to attend a training session prior to the actual event.

For more information about the project, log on to:

http://www.habitat.org.sg/volunteer/homeworks/homeworks.htm

To participate in this project, you can register at: http://www.habitat.org.sg/volunteer/homeworks/ophw.htm

If you are joining as a group of friends and want to be work together as a team, please give yourself a 'team name' so that we can group you together.

Registration closes on the 12 Jan 2007.

If you have other expertise like photography or videography skills, kindly state it in your registration.

Blessings, Habitat for Humanity Singapore

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

A Letter from The Bishop Of Pangkal Pinang

Why it is more blessed to give than to receive

Saint Vincent de Paul once gave an instruction to his religious community that sounded something like this : "When the demands of life seem unfair to you, when you are exhausted and have to pull yourself out of bed yet another time to do some act of service, do it gladly, without counting the cost and without self-pity, for if you persevere in serving others, in giving yourself to the poor, if you persevere to the point of completely spending yourself, perhaps someday the poor will find it in their hears to forgive you. For it is more blessed to give than to receive, and it is also a lot easier!"

That might sound curious. Why do the poor need to forgive us? For what do we need to be forgiven? Shouldn't we feel good about serving others?

All of us, I suspect, have a pretty good sense of what he means. We all know that there is a certain humiliation in needing to receive, just as there is a certain pride in being able to give. The things we often complain about are really our greatest blessings: What is worse than being too busy? Having nothing to do. What is more painful than having to give away something we own? Having nothing to give away. What is harder than being dragged out of bed to minister to someone in need? Being the person who is in bed and who needs someone to help him or her. What is harder than being brought to our knees asking someone else for his or her time and energy? It is more blessed to be able to give than to receive, and it is easier. But there's more.

There is a certain divine power, literally, in being able to give. The one who gives gets to be God, or, at very least, to feel like God. That's not an overstatement. God is the source of all that is, the source of all gift. When we are in a position to give, we mediate divine power and we get to feel that power. Whenever we act like God we get to feel like God.

Yet, the irony is that our very gifts and strengths, if not given over with the proper attitude, can easily make others feel inferior. It is important to understand this so that we are more careful to not serve others in ways that demean them. It is not automatic, nor easy, to give a gift in a way that does not shame the recipient. Vincent de Paul's counsel highlights this caution.

But there's a second lesson here as well. Vincent de Paul meant this too as an antidote to self-pity. For anyone who is in a giving role (a parent, a minister, a teacher, a nurse, a social worker, an advocate for justice, a philanthropist, a politician) there is the temptation to fall into self-pity: "Look all I am doing! I do all this for others, but nobody is doing anything for me! I am so tired! Is there no end to this? Am I the only one who cares? This is asking more of me than is fair! I have my own problems that I should tend to!"

It is easy, especially when one is tired and frustrated by lack of support, to lose heart, to begin to feel sorry for oneself, and to eventually feel that we are being unfairly used by others, that we are being asked to give more than our share.

That is very common. Care-givers often feel victimized by those to whom they are giving of themselves. We've even coined some terms for this: "Compassion fatigue", "Compassion burnout". Not surprisingly, many good people resent the demand of the poor: the welfare system, the push by various groups for their rights, the pressure for more immigration, the drain that the sick put on the energy and money of our society, the cost of repairing the damage done by youthful vandals, and so on. The temptation is to give up and give in; give up on going the extra mile and give in to the temptation to resign and take care of ourselves.

And so Vincent de Paul's counsel should be told and retold: If we do not continue to serve the poor, despite our tiredness and self-pity, the poor will never find it in their hearts to forgive us. We need to remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and it is also easier.

Written by Father Ronald Rolheiser

OLPS Mission Outreach

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