Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD is Brisbane-bound after spending more than six years in parish ministry in north-eastern Thailand – a time, which he says was “a blessing”, despite the many challenges it presented.

Fr Truc, who is Vietnamese, will take up the role of assistant priest at St Mark’s Parish, Inala and assistant priest to the Vietnamese community in Brisbane. It will be his second assignment as an SVD missionary after completing his formation in the AUS Province.

“It will be new learning for me,” he says. “I’m open to the needs of the people there and I look forward to getting to know them. And I look forward to learning more, as part of my ongoing formation.”

It is easy to see that Fr Truc’s first missionary assignment, to Thailand, has had a big impact on his life.

“My heart is still there,” he smiles.

His life in Thailand, a strongly Buddhist nation, was not without challenges, but Fr Truc says God helped him to meet them and to grow through them.

“It took me six and a half months to learn the language,” he says. “And then I was back and forth to Bangkok for nearly a year, still learning.”

After learning the language, Fr Truc moved to the North-East and on the very first day of his ministry, was put into one of the furthest parishes of Udon Diocese to replace some Spanish priests who had gone on leave.

He had responsibility for four churches, on his own.

“I was alone, looking after these churches in the remotest part of the diocese,” he says. “It was a very, very difficult three months.”

After handing back the parish to the Spanish priests, Fr Truc was given a new appointment within weeks, when he was asked to be the parish priest of three small parishes in the countryside, along the Mekong River, which had not had a resident priest for years.

“I struggling at first with the language,” he says. “I lived alone and at first had to do everything, including things like going out and teaching catechism.

“I also tried to grow pineapples and rubber trees to help ensure the long-term financial running of the parish. I cut hair for the kids, did handyman jobs and I can even fix electricity!”

Fr Truc says that as people got to know him and see his efforts, they began coming to church in greater numbers and helping him renovate churches and even build a new one.

“At first I was looking after three churches and then we built another one,” he says. “We renovated the other churches too and rebuilt a church to replace the existing wooden one, which was in very bad repair.”

He encouraged the parishioners to become involved in the life of the church community.

“In every church, I tried to build parish councils,” he says. “I tried to help them become involved in things.”

After six years, Fr Truc says he looks back on his time in Thailand with gratitude.

“It was a blessing for me,” he says. “I love the culture, I love the people and the work, and I am loved by the people too. God has done great things in me, through the Thai people, much more than I ever expected.

“When I first set out, I didn’t expect that I could do anything like what I did there. God works through us. It’s incredible.”

Fr Truc is pictured (above right) receiving a farewell gift from Bishop Joseph of Udon Diocese.