Fr Pedro
About 9 years ago, newly ordained Fr Pedro Gomez arrived in Battambang City to work in the parish where the Spanish Jesuit bishop Kike had already lived for some 20 years. The parish gave support to Homelands – the name of boarding school for children and youth who had been found in Thailand, and who had been sent back to Cambodia. It was here that I met Pedro, and shared an evening meal.
I asked Pedro – about 32 years of age – how he came to be appointed to live and minister here in Cambodia? He simply said it was because he was asked in which country he would to work and he said “Asia”! I was taken aback when I asked how long did he think he would work for in Cambodia? Again, he simply said “For the rest of my life”.
Pedro spoke fluent English. At the time, he was learning the national Cambodian language – Khymer. He said it was difficult. Pedro’s parish work includes supporting the educational needs of youth; running a boarding school for youth with disabilities; and providing help for food needs of the poor in the surrounding villages.
I could see the benefits of Pedro’s regular commitment to gym exercise. One day we drove to a more remote village; dropped off some supplies. We were also to provide a sick elderly woman with transport back to the city and a hospital. Unable to walk, Pedro carried the woman from her small cottage back up to the road, and to our truck. I saw Pedro some years later. He said “I think in Khymer now.” Pedro is the ‘anchor’ behind the complicated task of ensuring all documentation is in place for the 30 young Spanish young men and women who visit for a month each year. Their average age is 20. They volunteer to work for one month. They divide into 4 groups, team up with local Cambodian parishioners and run four, 5-day long camps for children around the region. The children are given two meals a day; have simple workshops in health, hygiene and nutrition, and also have lots of fun!
Miyuki
For the last 15 years, Miyuki Asano, aged about 50, has worked as a Japanese Lay missionary in a slum area in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Miyuki worked for the Japanese Lay Missionary group called JLLM.C. Miyuki would attend the weekly weekday Mass for English speaking missionaries held in Phnom Penh. Miyuki a quietly spoken but very capable person, spoke both English and Khymer fluently.
Miyuki commenced her work of serving the poor who lived around the Phnom Penh garbage dump. These people had often lost their livelihoods and land in the country and had come to the city to search for work. A daily search in the garbage dump for anything of value would earn perhaps $3-5 per day.
Miyuki commenced a day care and “infants school” for infants and young children. Until 2019, the classrooms were two covered cement slabs in a spare allotment. Teachers were hired, and a cook arrived each day to provide a rice stew – always with protein and vegetables. About 80 children attended each day (8.00am – midday). Over the last 6 years, fundraising in parishes in our diocese has helped to fund Miyuki’s work. This has helped with the construction of a 3-storey centre providing classrooms, kitchen, meeting rooms for young mother’s seminars. It has a plaque in the entrance in honour of St Mary MacKillop! The building cost about $115,000 US. It was opened in 2019. This is the result of 15 years of effort. Trust and friendships with Miyuki and the locals is well established. Friendship itself is a precious gift for those who live in circumstances of such poverty.
Do we still need missionaries? Both Fr Pedro and Miyuki would understand St Paul’s words… “the love of Christ compels us” (2 Cor 5:14). Pedro and Miyuki are two young people who have taken on the hardships of a missionary’s life to live and share something of the love of Christ. In that sense, Pedro and Miyuki’s lives help remind us of the mission we all share in – to share the love of Christ.
Fr Kevin