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by Fr. Dien Truong, C.PP.S.

Passing through a seven-hour round trip from Xavier House of Formation to the Mission House in Tan Thanh, Bu Dop, Br. Daryl, and I had a short visit with our members and candidates who reside and minister to local parishes there. This mission house is about two miles from the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. It is under the monsoon and tropical weather: dry and hot in the day and cold in the night for months.

There are three old houses occupying in 1/4 of a square acre, which were sold and donated by the previous parishioners who lived there. The strongest impression I saw was a new water well and a huge container tower, built just a week ago, which overlooks tropical fruit and vegetable gardens that are used for the whole community there. In addition, Hoa, and Diep continue to fill regular orders for eggs from their chickens for parishioners and local residents. When we had a luncheon there together, most of the food we ate was organic and healthy, with the exception of a few cans of beer.

Since I had commitments with some parishes in Saigon, we needed to return to the city after praying the rosary together in the chapel in the afternoon. Though it was a short visit to our mission house in Tan Thanh, it left in my heart a joyous feeling, as well as providing me with stories to share in my annual mission appeals this summer.

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