One of the gifts of being a missionary is the privilege of being invited to share "from the inside" the important life moments in very diverse cultures. Even when just visiting other countries, if accompanied by missionaries working and living there, we get to see and meet the people at a level rarely accessible to the outsider.
A couple of years ago I visited Peru to meet with Columban Korean Missionaries working there. Accompanied by Columban Sister Josephine Cho Young-Mi, I visited a study centre for young children in the outskirts of Lima which provides a service to students after school.
The children were celebrating in September the beginning of Spring. The highlight was the puppet show where the characters were talking about trees. As a project the study centre had been given a plot of land by the Local Council where each child planted a tree and took care of it. The children planted the trees and placed signs with their own names beside them. They watered the plant each day and the Local Council sent nutrients to mix with the soil.
To put this into context, Lima is basically a city in a desert. Rain comes perhaps once every few years, and then, just a light-fog like drizzle. So the hills in the outskirts are rocks and sand with next to no green growth visible unless planted and watered by residents. Water is piped down from the glaciers in the Andes Mountains.
The children were absorbed in the puppet show. Afterwards there was a quiz on the topic of trees, their contribution to life and our role in taking care of them. And of course there were prizes for nearly everyone. This was followed by a simple meal. After the meal I went out to look at the little plot of land and the trees. The plot is called 'St Columban's Garden.'
In December of that year in Seoul, Korea, I went to a study room in a poorer area of Seoul for Mass. The study room, called ' bright spring water', was situated in the basement of a three-storey house and consisted of three small rooms and a wider kitchen-cum-living-room space. After the Mass, as a surprise, I showed a short power presentation of the study room in Lima, Peru, featuring the activities of the children there.
There the children presented a play for students and parents. I could not believe it! The theme of the play was the contribution of trees to our life. In one corner of the room the children had put together a 'tree' glued together from cardboard and paper. Branches with 'fruit' were also attached. The story line had the children resting under the shade of the branches and eating its fruit. When it was cut down they used a boat made from the timber and other items made of wood. Other scenes had them chatting while sitting on the stump of the old tree. And all the time making references to how much trees contributed to their lives.
During the whole performance I kept thinking of the children in Lima. Here, independent of each other, students in two study rooms - one in Lima, Peru, and the other in Seoul, Korea both sharing about trees and learning of their contribution to life.
In a world where so often the seemingly endless cycle of violence, war, disasters, hunger and exploitation of children challenges human faith and hope, I was suddenly filled with new hope for the future. In the dreams and concerns of children I saw and experienced the Spirit moving, undeterred by continental divides and different cultures.
Columban Fr Donal O’Keeffe has been a missionary in Korea for many decades. As a former Regional Director, he visited Columban missionaries from Korea working in other parts of the world.
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LISTEN TO: Sharing from the inside (Duration: 4:20mins. MP3, 1.98MB) |