Aug 31, 2017
by Br. Daryl Charron, C.PP.S., Vietnam Mission
Students who will receive school supplies.
St. Maria De Mattias wrote in one of her letters, “Do not spare yourself any fatigue. I want you to do all you can to get the poor to come and to instill into their hearts the truths of Christian Doctrine and the love of holy virtue, so that their life may be a consolation.”(Letter 892) These words of the foundress of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ still ring true through the actions of Sr. Hang Pham, ASC as she goes about her ministry of teaching poor children in remote provinces of Vietnam. Sr. Hang ministers closely with her co-worker, Duong Tran, as they carry out the mission of Ai Tam Educational Organization. They are both social workers who truly believe in what they do.
Ai Tam (Vietnamese for Loving Heart) was established in March of 2008. Its education mission is promoting education and empowering persons. Ai Tam chose to serve poor families in communities in remote provinces of Vietnam. This organization has focused on providing educational opportunities to students in these rural areas of the country. From their experience of in years of educational service, they have identified various economic difficulties and serious healthcare deprivation that affect the student’s ability to learn. Parents of these students have tried diligently for their children to accomplish their hope of completing their education. The Ai Tam staff closely works with students, families and community leaders to realize and implement educational opportunities.
Ai Tam Educational Organization believes education is a proactive way to help people gain their self-knowledge while at the same time breaking the unjust cycle of poverty. In 2008, when they first began their ministry, a report was released by the Education and Training Ministry of the government stating that there were 1.7 million illiterate people nationwide. A major hurdle on the road to combating
Br. Daryl unloading school supplies.
illiteracy is that the Government’s education budget is only enough to provide schooling for 20-25 million people, a third of the population. The country’s remaining population nearly 60 million people has not been given proper resources and opportunities to obtain an adequate education. Ai Tam strives to bridge this gap in their own way through their School Supply Program which serves over 500 students each year.
I had the privilege to volunteer for Ai Tam Educational Organization this summer as it carried out its School Supply Program. Unfortunately, I saw firsthand the effects of how these students have been oppressed under communist regime for many years. Fortunately, Ai Tam has been working to encourage and empower these families to claim their right to participate in decisions for their living conditions. It was promising to see this organization work for systemic changes through educational opportunities in order to eradicate poverty, end unjust oppression, and try to return to these people basic rights which were denied them. I am truly impressed by their ministry.
I thank the Kansas City Province for providing this organization with funding from the Human Development Fund. Ai Tam has some good ideas for the future. I especially think the mobile library project which includes the purchase of a thousand books is a worthwhile endeavor. The long-term goal of Ai Tam is to build sustainable communities, strengthen families and to empower persons by fostering self-confidence and promoting individual dignity. Staying true to this goal will continue to eradicate generational poverty through education. St. Maria De Mattias would be proud to see one of her own sisters carrying out such educational ministry today.
Aug 29, 2017
2017-2018 Volunteer Alia Sisson
Alia Sisson was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Dayton in 2013. Alia graduated from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law with her Juris Doctorate in 2016. She plans to serve the poor and practice public interest law as her vocation. She was awarded for completing over 200 hours of pro bono student legal service. In her free time, she loves to sing and play guitar. Alia will be serving from September to at least June of 2018 and will serve in the domestic violence division of Legal Aid of Western Missouri.
- Why do you want to volunteer?
“The following verse sums up my philosophy on volunteering: ‘Freely you have received, freely give’ (Matt 10:8). I have been given so much in this life that I haven’t earned, through God’s grace. Not everyone is so fortunate. I have the gifts of my time and education to freely give, which I hope can lend a hand to help get people back on their feet. We all need help from time to time, and I am happy to offer what I can to others in their time of need. Serving the poor reminds me to keep a grateful heart and a humble attitude.”
- Why do you want to volunteer with Precious Blood Volunteers?
“I want my faith and my vocation to be inextricably combined, with one breathing life into the other. Missionaries of the Precious Blood represents the highest values to which I aspire, especially walking with those who suffer. I went to law school to be able to help those in need to the best of my ability, and working at Legal Aid of Western Missouri will ensure I can do just that.
Recognizing the inherent dignity in every human life, no matter the circumstances, is truly loving our neighbor. It is easy to love those like us, but loving those who are most unlike us is what Christians are called to do. As a Precious Blood volunteer I will seek to help reconcile broken bonds in the Kansas City community and build bridges where there is hopelessness. Along the way, I look forward to learning a great deal from those I will work with.”
- What are you looking forward to about your volunteer experience?
“This volunteer experience offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give service where it is truly needed. I am eager to work with clients that I will hopefully be able to help in a deeply meaningful way – to find or keep their housing and stay safely off the streets. I am also looking forward to the freedom from material distraction that living minimally in a faith community offers. By volunteering, I hope to grow my heart and my skills as a lawyer. I look forward to forging friendships with my fellow volunteers, the priests we live with, and the Kansas City community as a whole. (I also hope to improve on my cooking skills whenever I make dinner for the household!)”
Aug 24, 2017
August 8, 2017
Fr. Richard Bayuk, C.PP.S., Editor
Community Newsletter
Missionaries of the Precious Blood
Fr. Bayuk,
Please accept our most heartfelt thanks for the grant award of $10,000 from the Human Development Fund held by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. We will be utilizing the money this school year to employ an energetic and hard-working young lady by the name of Brenda Talamantes to serve as a liaison to our Hispanic community within the school.
We have a growing number of Hispanic families choosing Catholic education for their children. Mrs. Talamantes is a key component in helping us meet their needs at the highest level possible. It would be much more difficult for Sacred Heart School to offer this invaluable service without the blessing of this grant from the Missionaries of the Precious Blood.
It is a matter of great pride to Sacred Heart School and Parish that our Pastor has always been a Missionary of the Precious Blood, dating back to our inception in 1882. It is without question that this undeniable service and support on behalf of your order has been essential in bringing about the Reign of God in the Sedalia and Pettis County Catholic community. We are most grateful!
Respectfully Submitted,
Dr. Mark Register
Principal / Administrator
Sacred Heart School
Sedalia, MO
Aug 22, 2017
“The boards are primed and are ready to be painted,” were the only words of instruction given to us to paint one of the Peace Poles at PBMR. During the Mission/Discernment week that Fr. Steve Dos Santos and I hosted we had the opportunity to experience many different activities of the Center. Over the past couple of years, different Peace Poles have been hand-painted and placed on the property and around the neighborhood. Each Peace Pole is made with four panels. We could either design each one individually or wrap our design around. As ideas were thrown out, the image of the cup and cross, a tree, a person, and hearts were incorporated into the design. Isaac, one of the young men, began to pencil in the outline of the tree. Before he could begin to paint he had to leave for another commitment. When he returned about an hour later he was very impressed with the tree and branches we had painted from his pencil lines. It was awesome to see the smile and look of pride and accomplishment on his face. Although we were unable to completely finish the Peace Pole, we were assured others would do it for us and it would be placed in front of the Art Studio in the place where a tree once grew.
Interacting with the youth and young men, it is great to hear each of their stories but more importantly it was great to hear the stories of their accomplishments and being empowered as leaders. Something they can take ownership of and have some sense of responsibility. It was also interesting seeing and hearing the stories of our two inquirers, Travis Bruns from Chickasaw, OH, and Marcus Palacios from Tampa, FL and their reactions to life in Chicago. Both had great insights in pulling things together and understanding the workings of PBMR and recognized how much a culture experience it is.
Both Travis and Marcus helped with the design and drawing of the Peace Pole. It was amazing watching them take the idea and make it come alive. Like many of the other young men giving them a chance to express themselves and just see what can happen.
Aug 19, 2017
The Vision Statement of the Vietnam Mission includes the line,”we live with mutual respect and care, creating a safe place for personal growth and healing, and the nurturing of community relationships.” These words describe well the activities of this past week in the Vietnam Mission. We focused on the words of our founder, St. Gaspar, who said, “For what purpose are we in the Community? To cooperate with the great designs of divine Providence in the sanctification of ourselves and others; to be united in the bond of charity, and to imitate more closely the life of Jesus Christ. We should examine ourselves in the love that we are to show to our Community and toward one another.” St. Gaspar’s Eleventh Circular Letter in all it’s wisdom served us well in reflection as we spent time together.
Our spending time with each other in Community began with a gathering at our new site for rural ministry, Tan Thanh Mission. We gathered there for the purpose of celebrating all the hard work of our candidates in formation in literally building up the mission. Their summer ministry was totally devoted to renovating the buildings and the surrounding property of our mission there as well as helping out at the local parish. We had the pastor of the local parish, Fr. Dominic Minh, come to our new mission and do a blessing through a special prayer service. Many of our local neighbors were invited for an open house celebration which included a wonderful meal. We truly enjoyed one another’s hospitality and appreciated in a formal way our new presence in this remote area of Vietnam near the Cambodia border.
On the Birthday of our Community, August 15th, we gathered at St. Gaspar House of Discernment in Saigon. The gathering had many purposes. Primarily it was for getting together to discuss the newly written document of the “Community Life Symposium” that was written in Rome last month. It was also an opportunity to share annual reports in a similar fashion as the Provincial Annual Assembly. These reports talked about information such as vocations, formation and finances as well as a review of the past year and hopes for the future. I believe these presentations were informative for both our members and our candidates in formation. Finally, it was an opportune time to invite our inquirers, Tinh, Khuong, Blir, Dat, Ba and Hoang to get a fuller look at our Community by hearing about some of our official business.It was good to celebrate Eucharist together in chapel as well as engage in other prayers throughout the day. We enjoyed going out to lunch together at a seafood restaurant and having some Birthday cake afterwards.
Overall, it proved to be very worthwhile to make our way through the new document from Rome on Community life. The translation of it into Vietnamese was difficult but possible. Nhan and Tam were helpful in this regard especially as we broke into small groups and further reflected on the words. We will give the document over to our professional translator we use here in Saigon to have it translated more thoroughly. Fortunately, we were able to see common threads in both the Community Life Document and the Vietnam Mission Vision Statement. It seemed to us to be very practical as we now strive to develop a praxis of good community life in our unit.
There were a few struggles as we moved through our discussion of the document. The part about valuing equality proved to be challenging. The hierarchical structure of the Vietnam Catholic Church currently does not reflect an equality among brothers and priests. This is a new concept that our Precious Blood Community will try to live internally knowing that the greater Catholic community would struggle accepting it. Another statement that appears to be foreign given the current status of the Vietnam Mission is the one about lay associates. We currently do not have lay associates in our lived reality in Vietnam. This is something we may consider in the future upon building a stronger membership. Our conversation finished strong as we talked about committing ourselves to a simple lifestyle by living in solidarity with others and putting their needs before our own. Vietnam Mission truly values an option for the poor and living simply among them. It is something we strive to practice. Another strong conviction seen in the document that is reflected in the Vietnam Mission is living together and sharing daily in prayer, meals, and activities as essential elements of a good community life.
