Thursday, January 01, 2015

Welcome to the China Bulletin - January 2015

Welcome 2015!

"The Word became flesh and 
Dwelt among us" 
                                                      - Jn 1:14

This is the Chinese letter for "HEART" 

'We pray that the Word became flesh and His heart will always remain with us'

Wish all our readers a 

HEARTY New Year 2015! 

'A Christmas Miracle' - Being evangelised by the sick!

December 25 is a working day in China, but instead of attending his Chinese classes at the University, Fr. Jijo accepted the invitation of Sr. Rosario to share Christmas with the sick. He shares his story: 
Fr. Jijo with Sr. Rosario 
There is a bold woman of 84 years in Huilai who takes care of the 20 plus leprosy patients in a leprosy village. Being an old acquaintant, I had promised her to be with them for Christmas. It took me 7 hours of bus journey from Zhuhai to reach this dusty old time pottery town. I was picked up by a young girl on a rickety scooter to the lepers village about 7 tortuous Km. away from the town. Somewhere during the conversation, the girl told me, she was also a patient. I asked her, “does it matter?” “Of course,” she chuckled, “to some.” It took me some time to digest the stigma that they silently bear for contracting an illness that they are not responsible for.


But there was a Christmas miracle awaiting me. It left a deep impact in my thoughts. There is an young girl who was affected by the sickness and was almost on the brink of death because of the allergy she had for the medications. But today she is the picture of a bubbly young woman with a handsome boyfriend. Although, now, she lives with him outside the leper’s village, she came back to the village to celebrate Christmas with them. The couple took part joyfully in a Christmas drama we played to entertain the inmates. The way both of them went around wishing all the inmates brought tears to many eyes. It is an act of Christmas adventure from the part of the young boy to make a decision to live with her, knowing all her past. I find an unconditional Christmas love story in their lives, another daring Joseph.
'Daring Joseph and his wife'

Besides learning Chinese in the University, Fr. Jijo also helps a group of students from Tibet in learning English. Here are groups of them in their traditional attires during the New Year celebrations. 

Tibetan students with Fr. Jijo 

In the traditional attires of Tibet 

A Mission without borders


Teresa Li is our coordinator of the biblical team in China. Besides the coordination works, Teresa gives youth retreats and seminars in different parts of China. She tells her last experience in Tianjin city in northern China, 2000 klms. from Macau:

Tianjin Port is a city near Beijing with 11 million inhabitants . "In Tianjin I was giving a retreat to 40 people who were excited in learning of the Word of God. The pastor is very committed and encourages Christians to participate in retreats, Bible courses and renewal", says Teresa.
Cathedral Church in Tianjin

"We talked about The First Christmas, based on the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and the book of Revelation. I explained the historical background and the biblical meaning of Christmas and its application to our own lives. It was also a very good experience for me. The appreciation in the evaluation confirms to me that the mission of the Claretian Publications team in China is to learn, read and love the Word of God. "

"I'm a missionary..."

"All the baptised by virtue of their baptism receives the vocation to be missionaries"! Tess, our beloved cook and house keeper is also a active participant of our missionary projects!

Tess [second from left] busy distributing our publications 

Religious get-together in Macau

This year the Universal Church celebrates the The Year of Consecrated Life. The religious men and women serving in the Diocese of Macau meet up regularly for sharing, prayer and for meals! This time they were together for the joint Christmas celebrations
Fr. John Ledesma SDB [in blue jacket] leads the singing 



Meals time...



Fr. Mario at his best...

Claretian Publications in Cameroon, Africa

Claretian Publications, Macau was helping out with the supply of books from the press in China to the Publishing house in Cameroon. The first shipment reached them with Daily Gospel in French, Bibles in English and books on Pope Francis.


Fr. Jude is in-charge of the Publications in Cameroon 



Claretian Seminarians help out in distribution and selling of the books 

A 'Chinese Christmas' for Divine

Ms. Divine of Claretian Publications is now busy learning Chinese in the city of Nanjing. She has varied advantages in being in this city: she learns Mandarin and also keeps herself close to her closest friends at the Amity Printing. In this Christmas, she took all her classmates for a visit to the Amity Printing facility.
Divine [second from left] with her classmates at Amity Printing

And a Christmas lunch with all her friends from Amity 

Amity Printing has printed over 125 million copies of Bibles so far, but among the staff, there are hardly any Christians! 

Return to the Roots - Huangshaan

In the past issues of the blog, we had talked about the former Claretian Mission Region deep inside the Mainland in the pre-Cultural Revolution period. Our recent visit to the region helps us to strengthen our missionary commitment to the China Mission.
Anhui Province has a population over 60 Million 

The new Church is getting completed 

This is a new chapel being raised in the site where our Missionaries worked from 1929 - 1950 in Huangshaan in the Anhui Province. 

New Year Meal!

It's celebration time! Celebrations of the New Year are still on. It's a matter of joy to share a good meal with some lovely friends! Hope, you would love this! It's hilarious!

Hope that you enjoyed the New Year meal with all these lovely friends! Now watch how did they manage to do this!