Fr Bernadinus (Bedi) Asmon SVD, a young missionary from Indonesia, who undertook his formation in Australia, is now living and ministering in Brazil where he has discovered that music is the common language with the people he serves.

Fr Bedi, who spent five years studying in Australia, before his final vows and ordination in 2014, has been in Brazil since March 2015.

In that time, he has lived in a few different communities, including some very poor regions, and he is now busy learning Portuguese and working in a parish in the city of Feira de Santana, the second biggest city in the state of Bahia.

“The death rate here due to violence is very high, around 5-8 people per week, and many of the victims are young people,” he says.

But, Fr Bedi says that from his first day in Brazil he discovered that there is much more to Brazil than its reputation for crime.

Having arrived at the airport from Indonesia, he found nobody there to greet him, because, as it turned out, they had been expecting him the previous day, so he took a taxi instead.

“I was a bit suspicious of him (the taxi driver) – I kept in mind the violence rate in Brazil etc – but I showed him the address and he took me there within an hour,” Fr Bedi says.

After a good sleep, Fr Bedi discovered he could not find his passport and other documents.

“I went to the rector and told him my story. And he told me that the taxi driver came early in the morning and gave him all my documents. That was an unforgettable welcome to Brazil, and a kind of conversion experience for me.”

Fr Bedi stayed 10 days in the Provincial House and was then transferred to the community of retired SVD confreres in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, where he undertook a language course.

“I was blessed to get involved with and get to know the youth group of our parish,” he says. “Again and again, music helps me mingle with the people, especially the youth. They were my language teachers outside the classroom.”

During the Summer break, Fr Bedi helped out in the parish of Bom Jesus, Rio do Prado, north of Minas Gerais, an area known for being the poorest region of the state, and then moved to another parish in Mairi Bahia where the parish priest was on home leave.

Since arriving in Feira de Santana in February this year, Fr Bedi says he is settling in well and enjoying working with two Brazilian confreres.

“It is always good to work with one or two other confreres and it is great to experience and to live out the SVD identity, namely, interculturality,” he says

PHOTOS: Top right - Fr Bedi using music for mission, playing at Brazil's Evangeliza Feira celebration

Bottom left: Fr Bedi plays his guitar on top of a vehicle for the Stations of the Cross.