Taiwan Migrant Oratory in Tainan

By Fr. Pedro Porio, SDB

Tainan, Taiwan, 24 February 2017 -- Tainan is a city bustling with many factories ranging from mechanical parts manufacturers to semi-conductors and electronic gadgets. The Filipino migrants are deployed in different factories, family-owned business or households. At present, there are almost 20,000 Filipino migrants in our city of 1 million.

Since the Filipino migrants are far away from home, I welcome them in Mary Help of Christians Parish in Tainan. We organize together with them their Sunday liturgy, El Shaddai Sunday charismatic praise and worship, weekly Legion of Mary gathering, weekend Bible-sharing, out-reach services to poor people, sports and recreational activities.

Every Sunday afternoon, the Filipino Community (PPC= Pinoy Pastoral Community) in Mary Help of Christian Parish is busy with the Pinoy Basketball League. They organize and facilitate the basketball league by being the Official scorers and Referees of the basketball games. We organize Basketball Officiating Seminars, in order to upgrade our referees and table officials in their knowledge and skills in basketball officiating. This year the weekend basketball league is from September to April (8 months period).

The Basketball League started in 2003 with 6 teams only. Every year the number of teams participating increase. In 2016-17, the 13th basketball season, there are 25 teams participating, with 20 members each team, a total of 500 players.

Before the games begin, we teach catechism to them and they learn how to pray. We see a friendly and a very lively games. At the end of the day, they go home - that means to their factory dormitories happy and ready to work for the next week.

The Salesian Community of Tainan is very supportive towards the migrants. They extend their help by providing a place in the parish for the Filipino migrants to stay on weekends and allows us to use the basketball courts of Salesian Technical School. And with St. John Bosco, our community confreres encourage the migrants to: "run, jump, shout, play but not sin."

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