Missions: my Reflection

Years back, I applied for the missions. I remember The Counselor for Missions asking me: "What is missions? Why do you want to go to the missions?"
At first, I was stupefied to have been asked what I thought to be a very elementary question for my age and experience. I felt like responding: "I've been ten years in the ministry and not a rookie... I suppose I know what I am doing... how many pages of write up would you like me to do on this?"

That was then! If you ask me today - I still would not be able to answer.
For me, Missions is a search for what God would want me to do in a particular time and place amidst a particular group of people.

For some it would mean bringing Christ to the unevangelized. But I'm kind of embarrassed by this thought after what I heard from my friends back home:

"When you enter a house, always remember that God had been there long before you entered -
And he will still be there long after you've gone away."

For some others, Missions is witnessing - But how do you witness to others who misinterpret your brand of witnessing as lack of radicality?

For me, Missions will always be my continuous search for its very meaning and essence. It is a way of travelling rather than a station I arrive at. It is this process of searching that makes me discover many things along the way. It is this that can keep my heart open.

The Khmers

I read this in an opinion column somewhere:
"Given their desire to improve their lot by any means necessary, the Vietnamese (in Cambodia) are often labeled - 'industrious.' What is seen in the Khmer's 'tolerance for physical privation' - others have tagged as simply 'laziness.'

I thought to myself... maybe it's just because they have less "created needs" than the rest of us. Thus they are more "contented" with the "little" that life gives and offers.

Actually reminded me of St. Therese: "God alone is enough!" - so why long for more?

A River Crossing

In my Khmer (Cambodian) class, I learned two new words. One was "Chlong" ឆ្លង​ which​ means "to cross" and the other was "tonle" ទន្លេ​which means "river."

Confident of myself, I tried to put them together in a phrase. So I proudly proclaimed to my English students: "I want to chlong tonle (cross the river)." And they all laughed to my astonishment. Little did I know that "chlong tonle" was a Cambodian idiom which means: "to give birth; to deliver a baby." Now I really know why they laughed.

Ahh... as they say: prudence is the hallmark of an accomplished man. I better learn to keep my mouth shut next time (or stick to English).

Plate of Rice

Today I heard a student took a big pile of rice on his plate. He ate only half and wanted to throw the rest away. It makes me ask myself questions like: " Why did he get so much in the first place and just let the rice go to waste?" or "In a country where half the population is hungry or have meager means, how could he throw away food like that? - didn't even think of his people!"

But perhaps, I do not have the right to say that.
It is stunning to realize the abundance of spiritual graces You have nourished me with. And yet many times I take them for granted. Many times I took them in half measures - and let the other half go to waste... not even thinking that I could have shared the "surplus" - the things like talents, knowledge, opportunities which I might have made inaccessible to others.

A Simple Thought in a Not so Simple World

You know very well how much I hate writing... couldn't even keep up with the community chronicles. But maybe, just maybe a simple thought in this not so simple world can help me to live simply and not just simply live.

Do you remember my first Math lessons when they tell you to reduce numbers, equations, etc. to its simplest forms? and those lectures I got and later taught in digital electronics telling the guys to simplify their circuits?

But most of all you make me remember my first B-day in the seminary when they couldn't think of anything to say about me for my Birthday poster. And so they wrote:
"Simplicity is Beauty!"