By Sister Angela Battung RSG
Sister Angela, from Tuguegarao City, is a regular contributor to Misyon. You can learn more about the Religious of the Good Shepherd at www.goodshepherdsisters.org.ph
‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me’ (Luke 22: 19).
By Sister Angela Battung RGS
Sister Angela, a regular contributor, introduces us to some of her friends in the nursing home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she works. They include one whose ‘name’ is that of a popular Canadian beer!
My dear special friends,
I want to thank you all for making me a part of your lives.You, each of you, have been and are a blessing to me. Some of you have praised me for some kindness I have done and continue to do for you by ‘bringing Christ’ to you.You have done much more for me than I have done for you.Each time I went to see you, I found Christ waiting for me with you!
By Sr. Mary Angela Battung RGS
Sr Angela Battung has been a missionary in Canada for many years now. She’s had the chance to work in different ministries and here below she shares with us special thoughts as she looks forward to another Christmas in Canada.
I took a long walk one afternoon to enjoy the glorious Fall day, soaking in the warmth of the sun, conscious that pretty soon the cold would be forcing me to stay indoors more often. I met my Korean friend, Rita, and a Polish lady who goes with her regularly to feed the geese and ducks in the park. I joined them as they fed their feathered friends. After a while I retreated to a beach nearby to wait while they made their rounds around the huge lake.
Sr Angela Battung RGS
Sr Angela Battung, RGS has been a missionary most of her life. Now in Canada with older people, she looks back on her difficult years in Korea and the frustrating ministries she was involved in. Strangely enough it was at work with the prostitutes that grace almost became tangible and it was this work which she remembers with joy.
One of my first ministries in Korea was probably the most frustrating in my life. It was at a large American Base. I worked at the Chaplain’s office as a marriage counselor to American airmen marrying Korean women. Actually my work was to prepare the couples for the Sacrament of Matrimony. The women mostly were bar girls or prostitutes who wanted to go to the land of “unimagined wealth and luxury” or they just wanted free access to PX (imported) goods. The men were no better. Mostly they were those who never went to Mass or Services and cursed freely, hanging out at the Air Base Main Gate or the periphery. Some wanted to marry anyone they could use for black market. “We need an Asian, preferably Korean for the family whore house. Korean women are exotic spice for the flesh trade,” they would say. They had a variety of reasons for marrying. Some disgusting, others unbelievable, most were ‘business deals’. They were going to use each other. They both knew it, but who cared anyway? As long as they made money out of the union!
By Sr. Angela Battung, rgs
Sr. Mary Angela Battung, a Filipino missionary in Canada, challenges us, the “neither beautiful nor unbeautiful ones” to get out there and do something for the poor of the world, crying out for help.
By Sr. Mary Angela Battung RGS
In the late 19th century, many Filipinos went and settled in Europe to continue their studies, to flee from persecution by their Spanish colonizers, or to seek reforms. They were called “Filipinos in exile”.
By Sr. Angela Battung RGS
Sr. Mary Angela Battung was born in Tuguegarao, Cagayan where he parents are form. She has two brothers and a sister, who is also an RGS Missionary. She has spent twenty years in Korea. The Korean culture and sub-cultures brought her face to face with herself.
People were kind and friendly. There were invitations to picnics, to village festivities, and to famous historical places. In Seoul there were museums, art galleries, art exhibits, and operas to enjoy. There were parks and palaces of royalty; even the local markets and the department stores were part of the tour, as I did the “tourist thing”.
