Feel at Home
By Sun Hee Kim

As a missionary, beginning a new ministry always involves many emotions - nervousness, excitement, doubt, and expectation. Whatever decision I make, it means change, adjustment, and new direction. What else can I do but step out of the box and face this new challenge? This was my motivation when I decided to choose the Malate Parish for my new ministry.

I have worked in the Philippines for more than seven years, but Malate has presented a raft of new experiences. The most gratifying among them is the Columbans here. I have been in non-Columban parishes in the past, where I needed to spend considerable time and energy introducing St. Columban’s Mission Society and explaining my role as a Columban lay missionary. Often, people considered my presence in those parishes to be that of a part-time volunteer. It took time and effort to convince them that I was there because of a vocation I had received to be a Columban lay missionary.

As an outsider and a foreigner, I enjoyed my relationships with the people of the parish, but it was not easy to be recognized as an official member of the parish team and participate in the activities in the Church as such, especially without the support of the parish priests and volunteers.

In contrast, my experience in the Malate parish has been different right from the beginning. On my first Sunday, I was formally introduced as the new lay missionary in the parish. After the Mass, parish volunteers and parishioners greeted and welcomed me to the Malate Parish community. This small act, which was probably a routine part of parish life, felt like a profound gesture of hospitality to me.

Being invited to different liturgical celebrations in the parish, attending many and various local area activities as a member of the Malate community may not sound so special or out of the ordinary, but these things mean a lot to me and tell me that I am “at home”. I know that not every lay missionary will associate these activities with the feeling of being “at home”.

In addition, I am grateful to experience how to work in partnership between the priests and lay volunteers, and how well the organizations/ministry are organized and how active lay volunteers are. I sincerely appreciate the priests, the volunteers and staff who become my companions and friends. They allowed me to have a mature and meaningful experience in my mission journey. May we continue to be a source of good energy for each other.

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