very time I hear about snow storms hitting the NE, I think of you cooped in your houses but at the same time I DO thank the good Lord that he has created all things squarely fair: imagine if all the rain we are getting this month of February here in Jakarta were snow....the skyscrapers would have been buried under the snow. Yes my friends we are getting rain and rain and rain and potholes as wide as 15 feet (almost the whole road ) and the northern Jawan main road flooded and the cars
traveling at 30 m per hour (m stands for meters not miles, mind you!!).
With all those problems life goes on, and I have no time to get bored, plenty of variety, from morning to sunset and further.
Three of the four groups I am in charge of are very active, the most active the ladies of the parish. One Sunday every month they
organize the vaccination of babies: last Sunday they had over three hundred babies on hand and all of them poor people. For the 25th anniversary of our parish they are
organizing a bazaar, again to help poor families; they will also be visiting a number of institutions for handicapped people.
The youth group is very busy with the live stations of the cross they enact every
Friday morning of Lent and they do a good job of it; similar to The passion of the Christ. The scene of the crucifixion is always very moving. The group for family apostolate is very active in marriage counseling. Every Sunday a few couples, well
prepared for this purpose, are available and a good number of people take advantage of this service. Now they are also busy in the preparatory course for marriage: last night I gave the talk on marriage according to Scriptures; 24 couples are following the (obligatory) course. A number are mixed: Catholic-Muslim, Catholic-Protestant. I'm very happy because from the youth activities we have very good Catholic marriages coming out.
They manage the help to about 550 children who get tuition money, otherwise they couldn't get a decent education
One of our most active groups is what we call the Social group, social in the sense of help. They manage the help to about 550 children who get tuition money, otherwise they couldn't get a decent education; they help also with money for food and house rent; we have also a program to help children with remedial teaching: more and more we are getting Muslim children in this program and this is a good sign: it means they are not afraid anymore of being
Christianized, a very common accusation here in Indonesia.
With the new parish being formed we have now two ambulatories with very modern small labs and facilities for two dentists in each ambulatory. We serve only poor people and the number of patients (three times a week) is growing: about 380 patients per week. The doctors give their service free. But for sure I have written about this before.
I enjoy hearing confessions every day: at 05:30 every morning before mass I sit in the confessional box and almost every day there are
people who take advantage of this opportunity. As I wait, I have time to pray.
The monthly visit to the jail for women goes on regularly and next month I'll start saying mass also for the male inmates. Some of the women have been sentenced to death (one Catholic and a few Protestants). Pray for them especially for Mega, a Catholic young mother, who is in a coma but cannot be released from jail.
Speaking of praying: be assured of my remembrance in prayer of all of you. Some of you who are in special need are in a special list and a special prayer. I'm sure you are praying also for me. My love to all.
(From Xaverian News)