At 28 years old, (Joseph) Hy Nguyen SVD says his life as a missionary is still in its infancy, but already, having left his home in Japan for mission experience in Papua New Guinea and now Australia, his eyes have been opened to the joy of being with people from different cultures.

Joseph grew up in Vietnam until the age of 12, when his family moved to Japan to be near his sister, who had emigrated some years earlier.

As a baby he was diagnosed with a hole in his heart (Atrial Heart Septal Defect) and almost died. His mother took baby Joseph to some Carmelite nuns and asked them to pray for him. At age four, with surgery planned to rectify his heart condition, his mother took him back to the same Carmelite nuns for prayer, where they met the Rector, who also prayed for him and taught him to pray: “Jesus, please help me so I can give my life to you and follow you”.

“I didn’t understand the meaning of the prayer, but I kept praying that prayer every night,” he says.

“At about the age of 16, I started to think about what I was praying for. My heart sickness had disappeared completely without any surgery and the doctors couldn’t explain it. It was a miracle from God. I started thinking I would like to give something back to Jesus to say thank you and so I decided to become a priest.”

Joseph had been attending school at Nanzan Kokusai High School in Nagoya, Japan, which was run by the Divine Word Missionaries. They also had the care of the local parish.

Following an invitation from a SVD priest, he joined the Society of the Divine Word when he was 16 years old and moved to Nagasaki Nanzan High School to continue his high school studies with the SVD. After that he entered the Novitiate and undertook his philosophy studies at Nanzan University, taking his first vows as a Divine Word Missionary in 2012.

He is currently taking part in the SVD Overseas Training Program, for young missionaries, and has spent time in PNG and now Sydney.

Joseph says he loved his time in PNG, studying English and spending time with the people in the Highlands.

“The people there are very friendly and very open to missionaries,” he says. “Because missionaries really help them, not just with their spiritual life, but with practical things like medicine and education.

“I learnt that it’s about spending time with the people, staying with them, and seeking to understand the people, and then they understand you.”

In Sydney, Joseph volunteers at the Cana Communities for homeless people, and says, while it is very different from PNG, it is still all about spending time with people and being there for them.

“I love missionary life, because it has given me a chance to meet a lot of people from different cultures, who bring different thinking and ways of life and I’ve discovered that when people from different cultures meet, something happens, and from there you end up with something better, something wonderful.”

Joseph will return to Japan next year for theology studies, before taking his final vows, after which he hopes to be ordained a deacon and then a priest.

“I’m looking forward to whatever God has planned for me,” he says.