Port Moresby, PNG, 31 January 2018 -- We, first year Salesian aspirants of PGS Vice-Province, had our 6 weeks missionary volunteer service (called Namuncurá Experience) in West Kerema, in our parish at Araimiri (Papua New Guinea) during the Christmas holidays.
On weekdays, throughout the six weeks, we did volunteer service to help in the repair and maintenance work of our presence in Araimiri. When we arrived, together with the Salesian community, we planned the service we would do: painting the classrooms, maintenance of the sisters’ convent and the girls’ dormitory, etc. At the conclusion of our service we were all happy with a sense of fulfilment that we achieve the tasks we planned.
Fridays were preparation days for our weekend apostolate in the villages. On Saturdays we go and stay in the villages and organise the oratory for the children, catechism lessons, and prepare and help them in the animation of the mass the following day, Sunday. It is so fulfilling to see the continuous increase of children who come to the oratory and Sunday mass. Initially it was not so easy to communicate with them because many do not speak English nor pidgin. It was even more difficult to convince the boys to join the Oratory or the Sunday Eucharist. But our constant presence and friendship helped convinced them to come.
The Namuncurá Experience helped me to widen my horizon and also to discover my potentials. For example, I discovered my talent to animate the young and my capacity to do tough manual work even if I have an injury. It was my first time to be away from home on Christmas but I was surprised that I did not miss my family. I felt truly happy animating the oratorians on Christmas and New Years’ day.
To me it was, above all, a spiritually enriching and vocationally helpful experience. I feel truly privileged to have a direct experience of the missionary spirit of Don Bosco with the Salesian community of Araimiri. The ‘good nights’ and the timely reminders on the part of the Salesians as well as the group evaluation and reflection on our experience every evening helped me to discover God’s will for me. Above all, I realised that to be a Salesian is demanding because it is a life long commitment. It is a call to serve God that can be answered only through prayer and trust in God.
The group evaluation after our 6 weeks missionary volunteer service helped us to reflect on the challenges we met like communication, the situation of the young in the villages we were sent to. By looking back and reflecting now on what we have done, I realised that the Namuncurá Experience was not only a beautiful opportunity to have a ‘hands on’ missionary experience, above all it helped me to know and discover more about myself, my talents and God’s call to me as a Salesian aspirant!
