By Sister Ines A. Tan, FMM

OFF TO CHINA

             I was born and grow up in Luzon, in the Tagalog region of the Philippines. Soon after I became a Franciscan Missionary of Mary, I was sent to Macau, a Portuguese Colony, a peninsula attached to the mainland China. Ninety eight percent of the populations are Chinese. It only takes ten minutes walk from the border to go to the nearest market of China. Many people here go there almost everyday to buy fresh fish and vegetables.

AFRAID TO LEAVE THE HOUSE

            When I first here, I felt stripped of so many thing such as my family and friends, culture, my country, and I felt deaf and mute and so illiterate. I was even afraid to go out of the house because I did not know how to ask people in case I lost my way.

BACK TO KINDERGARDEN

            I was sent to Chinese University in Hong Kong to study Chinese for two years. I felt I was a child again, learning to pronounce words. It really demands great humility and loving perseverance to learn the Chinese language. Cantonese is one of the most difficult languages in the world; the teacher had to correct us several times just to pronounce a single syllable. We had to sit for written and oral examinations every week and every semester before we could proceed to a higher level. Every day, I was memorizing the old and new vocabularies to be able to cope with my languages studies. I gave up writing letters to my valued friends and playing the guitar, and id not even have time to repair my clothes. Even while waiting for the bus, I was holding cards, memorizing. Out of the thirty two students, we were only three who persevered. One day, we asked ourselves what is in that give us the urge to go on? We came up with the same answers: I t is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of tongues in the form of our enthusiasm to learn.

LOST

            After two years study, I came back to Macau. At that time, my Chinese was still very poor and I could not even read even a simple Chinese sentences. The famous Fr. Mateas Ricci, SJ took twenty years learning Chinese before he went to Peking, China. For the Chinese people, it takes years before they can read the newspapers properly. I was rejected in the first pastoral work that was planned for me because of my language difficulty, after two years of my hard study, I felt prostrated and useless. I remember how every day after mass, I spent sometime in front of the crucifix, praying, “Lord show me the way”.

WALKING THE STREET

            One day, I inspired to do what St. Francis did when one of this brother asked him, ‘what is a missionary work and how? St. Francis called his brother and said to go with him and they walk around the town, then walked at home. I took my map and walked in the street. Every day I went farther and farther. One day, I reach the prison and I met a Filipina sister; then and there, I started my acquaintance with the prisoners.

HAPPY PRISONERS

            The prisoners were happy with my visits and had patience to listen to my poor and broken Chinese. After a month, I was dynamics and drama to the young prisoner. After a few months, I started working in the diocese’s family life apostolate. I was given the little ‘field worker’ but their was no plan of what to do. Since I was already acquainted with the prisoners I thought, of conducting Marriage Enrichment. The husbands are prisoner and the wives go there to attend the session. Because of my language difficulty, I used slides, pictures and group sharing. For the deepening of the message of the message, I assigned participating couples to study and prepare. They are not Catholics. But for the past three and a half years, I always receive applications to start a new group, as one group finishes. Almost every afternoon, I do home visitation. I visit the families of the prisoners attending the Marriage Enrichment and the families of the new immigrants from China oftentimes, the wives, the wives of the prisoners cry to me their heartaches and hardships while the families of the new immigrants seek more information about Macau’s law and social benefits.

            As I start my seven year here, I feel like a member of their families with whom they can talk and share their joy and sorrow.
(To be continued)