The SVD AUS Province’s new mission in Myanmar is full of both wonderful potential and challenge, says Mission Secretary, Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD.
Fr Truc has recently returned from Myanmar where, together with Fr John Hung Le SVD, he has been preparing the property for the first missionaries to take up residence sometime in the first half of next year.
“The first thing to mention from my experience in Myanmar is that the people are wonderful,” he says. “Everyone was very nice to us.
“The second thing is there is clearly a great potential for our mission there.
“In Myanmar, they don’t need priests to work in parish ministry, as they have lots of vocations. However, they want us to provide ministry in the Bible Apostolate and that is what the Divine Word Missionaries are well known for.
“So, if we run this apostolate well, which I’m sure we will, there is great potential for us in the longer run, both in Myanmar and the surrounding region.”
But, Fr Truc says that the immediate situation also presents plenty of challenges.
“I was asked to go to Myanmar to make the house we’ve been given liveable for the confreres,” he says.
“It’s a big house, about 50km away from Yangon, but it’s been vacant for some time and it’s not in liveable condition.”
Fr Truc set about trying to find qualified tradespeople in the local area to install a new roof, as well as electricity and to clear the block which was overgrown.
“It was like a forest. We had lots of unexpected guests, like scorpions, come to meet us,” he says.
“Also, the weather in Myanmar is very harsh. It’s extremely hot and the humidity is unbelievable. It was also raining all the time, which impacted the work we could do.
“But, before I came home, the roofing was finished and the clearing around the place has been done. It looks a lot better now.”
Fr Truc says there is still plenty of work to do to make the place fully habitable, but he hoped things were on track to have the missionaries take up residence in the first half of next year.
“In order to work effectively and to be truly with the people, our confreres will have to learn Burmese and maybe a range of other languages too,” he says.
“Burmese is the main language, but there are a lot of people from Indian background as well, and they speak Tamil.
“So, there are challenges, but also great potential.”
The Divine Word Missionaries have been invited take up the Bible Apostolate mission in Myanmar by Cardinal Charles Bo, the Archbishop of Yangon.
PHOTOS: The roofing work on the SVD house in Myanmar is now complete as preparations continue for the AUS Province's new mission there.