Skip to main content

The adventure of a “Prophet”

2339/500

The adventure of a “Prophet”

Since my arrival in Indonesia about 4 years ago, St. Francis Assisi parish in Aek Nabara (Northern Sumatra) is my second assignment. Our community is made of 3 Xaverian priests (2 Indonesians and myself). The parish is a large one and it has 51 chapels. The suffocating heat, the muddy or dusty roads-according to the seasons-and the long distances we travel to visit those outposts hidden among rubber or oil palm plantations really make our apostolate very exhausting and challenging.

Except on Mondays, we are always on the move the other days of the week. We go by motorcycle or by vehicle when the road conditions allow it; we cross rivers by canoe or small boats and then continue by motorcycle in order to reach remote villages where often only a few faithful (mostly women and children) are waiting for us. The men work in rubber or oil palm plantations whose expansion every year unfortunately accelerates the deforestation of Sumatra. We leave in the morning and return in community in the evening, very tired but happy to have met the people of God and to have preached the Word.

I am on my first month of immersion in a village in order to study one of the dialects spoken here, namely the Batak language. There is no language school, no teachers…I stay in a family of poor farmers and it will be for 3-4 months. I learn by myself, asking questions to anyone who wants to help me; children are my best teachers. This is a “crazy” adventure, but it is indispensable for a more efficient ministry in the Archdiocese of Medan in Northern Sumatra.

Since I received my new assignment and began my mission in this part of Indonesia, I always feel both humbled and honored every time that I hear the faithful thank God for being able to meet and shake hands with a black missionary. They have even given me a new nickname, i.e. “Nabi”, which means Prophet in Indonesian, but it is short for “Nabirong” which in Batak language means the ‘one who is black’. Interesting!

People are thirsty of encountering others and above all the Other. And when you come to them not in your own name, but in His name, then you really can't stop them from praising God-sometimes through your mere presence-and sing aloud with joy: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest!"

Fr. Valentin Shukuru Bihaira, SX

Vai alla Galleria Fotografica

Shukuru Valentin sx
07 Aprile 2016
2339 visualizzazioni
Disponibile in
Tag

Link &
Download

Area riservata alla Famiglia Saveriana.
Accedi qui con il tuo nome utente e password per visualizzare e scaricare i file riservati.