OLPS Mission Outreach

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Sacrifice-Bob Fitts- With lyrics.

Wonder what she is saying?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Upcoming Mission Trip to Rempang 1st to 4th May 2008

We will plan for the following the work to be accomplished:

1. Drainage
2. Reinforcement of the river banks to prevent erosion
3. Set up perimeter fence around the Asrama
4. Medical treatment - Head lice, follow-up on scabies and skin problems, dental and general health screening.
5. Establishing a health supplement formula for the children at the home to battle under nutrition

Those interested in assisting, please email us at olpsmission@yahoo.com.sg

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Write up in Emirates In-house magazine

Emirates Airline Foundation brings cheer to the less fortunate in Asia

The Emirates Airline Foundation has been bringing smiles to disadvantaged children, youths, elderly and hospital patients in various parts of Asia, including Indonesia.

Indonesia
Children and youths in neighbouring Indonesia were similarly delighted with a donation of 100 blankets and 200 activity books.

The colourful and comfortable blankets were donated to the Asrama Putra Santo Tarsisius, a boarding house located in Batu Kuching, Tanjung Pinang on the Island of Bintan, Indonesia. Built by a French priest, Friar Henri Jourdain, to provide accommodation for economically disadvantaged students aged 13 to 18 years old who studied in schools in Tanjung Pinang, the boarding house relies on boarding fees, donations from benefactors and frugal expense management to run itself, as the local parish is not able to contribute financially to support the running of Asrama.

Meals are typically a modest affair, comprising rice, vegetables and fish. Chicken is served once a week in place of fish, while recreational activities are usually a trip to the nearby Trikora Beach on a Sunday afternoon.

The fun and educational activity books went to the children of Santa Ignatius Lolyola Elementary School in Rempang, south of Indonesia’s Batam Island. A school set up by the Catholic Diocese for the children of low-income families in the area, the school is managed by nuns and professional school teachers. Living conditions at the school’s dormitory and facilities are modest – their source of water is from an open well, while electricity from a diesel generator operates for a limited period at night. Cooking is done using firewood collected from the surroundings.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Rempang Update

Dear Brothers and Sisters

As your work, effort and contributions have brought about the completion of another phase in the lives of the children at Rempang, I thought you may want to see what the Asrama Rempang now looks like after the addition of the new dormitory and completion of the land fill.

There was some cost savings from the construction so they were able to add a fish pond which will rear fish to put food on the table for better nourishment of the children and partly finance the setting up of a perimeter fence around the compound.

There is now another reason for the children to look forward coming back to school after the holidays.

God bless and have a Chinese Lunar New Year filled with joy, love, and blessings.

Jesus Loves You.

Pictures of blankets donated to Tanjung Pinang from Emirates Airlines

A Different Approach To Fasting

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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