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Missioner stories from around the world

Returning from a fiesta in a distant community in the highlands of Peru, two men were riding in the pick-up cab with me. As we followed a path through the high pasture, we passed one man on horseback. Later we passed another on his bicycle. Both were returning from the same fiesta. To make conversation I asked which is best for traveling, a horse or a bicycle. "The bicycle." they answered. I asked them why. "Because the bicycle does not get tired," one responded.
James Madden, M.M.

Our prison ministry team always attends Monday morning Mass at the local parish in Taichung, Taiwan, before going on to visit inmates at the nearby women's prison. One team member, Shu Mei, was halfway through the first reading of the day when she stopped suddenly, clearly unable to continue the reading.  Her eyes filled with tears. Glancing down, she took a tissue from her pocket while calmly pacing herself, with no signs of embarrassment or high drama. Our eyes were fixed on her, encouraging her from our pews. After a while she regained her composure and continued.

The reading from Acts 16 was explaining poignant events from the early days of the Church. Speaking of the deep faith of Lydia, the trader in purple cloth, it told of her encounter with Paul the Apostle. "If you really think me a true believer in the Lord, then come and stay with us," Lydia said to Paul.

After the Mass, Shu Mei shared with us how deeply moved she was by Lydia's words. Shu Mei herself was baptized only a few years ago after a remarkable journey punctuated with many obstacles and difficulties. She likes to tell us of ways in which her life has changed since her baptism. She finds great comfort in realizing how God cares for her as she meets the challenges of daily life.

As we left the parish that day, I became aware that the exhilarating events of the Church's early days still continue today. Witnessing the ardor and enthusiasm of Shu Mei and other newly baptized friends as they live out their new faith in service to others makes me very happy to be a missioner in this part of God's world.
Mary Ellen Mertens, M.M.

I had packed carefully for my first mission assignment to the Marshall Islands and for ministry on the Outer Islands. I took one suitcase and one small box of books. On the main island of Majuro, I unpacked and left for a three-week visit to Jabor on the Jaluit atoll. When I returned to Majuro, I went to take my Jerome Biblical Commentary off the bookshelf, but the cover collapsed in my hand. Termites had completely eaten the pages of the book!
Janet Hockman, M.M.

While in Guatemala on a short-term mission trip, my wife Ruth and I were visiting families participating in a food program for the elderly to evaluate whether they were truly in need of assistance. We stopped to talk with one elderly man who had worked his whole life in a nearby sugar plant.

I noticed that he had a small well next to his house. It was the dry season and I asked whether it had any water in it. He said it had never had any water this time of year and said he drinks from the stream. I was shocked because the water in the stream was polluted by run-off from the sugar plant.

"Don't worry," he said. "I always strain the water through my sombrero before I drink it."
Robert Kleeman,
Maryknoll Affiliate

I was traveling in the United States when I happened to meet a Muslim man from Bangladesh, where I had served as a Maryknoll priest. I began to address the man in Bengali, which surprised and pleased him. He was from the town of Tangail, where our mission community first began to live in 1977, and he knew the area where we lived since it was close to his home.

As we talked, he learned that I am from New York City and grew up on the Upper West Side on 109th Street off Broadway.

"Oh, I know the area well," he said, "I am a taxi driver in New York."

I think I was as surprised and pleased by this coincidence as he had been to learn I knew his hometown.
John P. Martin, M.M.