Messages from Sr. Jessica Salvaña
to all the sisters in CMY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpKLOLYXvlA
to the Educative Communities and Benefactors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMvHn--1i6Q
The Mary Our Help Province (Cambodia-Myanmar) celebrates
a unique event in the history of the Institute on Cambodian soil, amidst the
raging Covid 19 in the world. On August 5th the Sisters and their
Educating Community in Cambodia rejoice for the 1st Profession of Sr.
Charlene Jiawen Chua, who is of Chinese origin from Singapore.
Sr. Charlene is the only girl in the
middle of her two brothers. Even though her parents were not yet Catholics,
they prayed for one year in the grotto of our Lady of Perpetual Help for a
second child and Charlene’s life was the gift of their prayers. The whole
family received Baptism on December 8, when Charlene was two years old. Ever
since, they gradually grew stronger in their Catholic faith.
What is remarkable in the vocation story of Sr. Charlene
is that, though the Salesian Sisters have no presence in Singapore, she was led
by the Spirit to meet the FMA through her involvement with A Call to Share
(ACTS) –Singapore, a group of lay volunteers who come to Cambodia and Myanmar
annually to do mission work for one week. She first met the Salesian Sisters of
Don Bosco in her first ACTS mission trip in 2012 in Cambodia. It was in 2016,
during her 7-month volunteer stint in Teuk Thla, Phnom Penh that she felt God
calling her to the religious life. Certain of God’s call, she followed her
heart and said her goodbyes. A very painful moment, a heart breaking detachment
for her family, but God comes first as her parents surrendered whole heartedly
to God’s plan and the noble choice of their only daughter.
Sr. Charlene did her formation in the Philippines in
Canlubang, where as a group she learned to live, work and grow together as a
family. After five intense years of assimilation of the Salesian spirit and impelled
by the love of Christ (2 Cor 5:14), Sr. Charlene is ready to commit herself as
a Salesian professed Sister.
In this year as her country celebrates 200 years of
Catholicism, she is a gift to the Mary Our Help Cambodia-Myanmar Province and
to the Institute. We accompany her with our prayers, that she, like Mary our
Mother, may correspond to the boundless graces that God continuously lavishes
upon her to be a sign of God’s love to all, especially the young.
On August 4th, 2021 Mary Our Help Province (Cambodia-Myanmar) celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Fidelity of Sr. Extremo Aranda Gema, the 70th of Sr. Chiandotto Lina and Renewal of vows of Sr. Pheng Sreymom Bernadette.
Anisakan, Myanmar - July 24, 2021
On the monthly commemoration of Mary Help of Christians, four Aspirants from Myanmar namely, Maria Kai Mun Pan and Teresa Seng Htoi Bu who are both in the Aspirantate in Canlubang, Philippines, Elizabeth and Lucy Lam Lun Kim in Anisakan, Myanmar were accepted to the Postulancy. The reception was inserted during the vespers and all the communities from Myanmar and Cambodia participated via online for the reception of Elizabeth and Lucy Lam Lun Kim Which was held in the chapel of St. Mary Mazzarello Community(Anisakan).
Congratulations to our dear Postulants, for their courageous and generous response to the loving call of God as they move on in their Salesian vocational journey. Like the seeds, may they be open and docile to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to the Formators so as to become beautiful, rich and fruitful plants bearing fruits for the salvation of young people.
We
share our joy and gratitude for our new provincial superior: Sr. Gertrudes
Ditching(Ched) FMA.
We
are deeply grateful for Sr. Jessica's guidance of the province for the past six
years and the YES of Sr. Ched
June 18, 2021 – Cambodia. The Salesian
Sisters of Don Bosco had our first online Seminar. Sharing/echoing of the theme
and experiences of the CIAO SCUOLA Congress which was held on March 26 and 27,
2021. Today was a memorable day as all Salesian Educators of our four
communities (Tuol Kork, Teuk Thla,, Battambang and Phum Chreh) and 91 teachers
and FMA participated. The program was well timed and so all are motivated to
this intense learning on Salesian Educators: Advocates of the Global
Compact on Education. The method of presentation was done based on the
model of CIAO Scuola Congress in Khmer. The Keynote Address of Sr. Runita was presented
by Sr. Tang Sovathanak Mary, Human Dignity and Rights of Sr. Sarah Garcia by
Tr. Doen Sena (Teacher of Accounting at Tuol Kork – Secretarial Course),
Integral Ecology of Sr. Elena Rastello by Tr. Em Chakrya (Coordinator of Teuk
Thla – High School), Peace and Citizenship of Cardinal Zen by Tr. Vorn Champa
(Teacher of English at Teuk Thla – Food Technology and Hotel Services) and
Development and Solidarity of Bishop Pabilo by Tr. Nak Bunleak (Secretary and
Accountant of Battambang community).
The day began with the invocation of blessing from God prepared by Sr. Sreymom. Sr. Ophriini (Coordinator of youth Ministry in Cambodia) gave a short welcome talk to the participants and initiated the reason and importance of the Seminar. Sr. Jessica Salvana – Provincial of CMY gave a kick off address to the teachers. She encouraged the teachers to be open to the realities of the world in the education and formation of the young for the future.
After each talk, our Educators took an active part in sharing their insights, the new ideas received and above of dreaming of something new and feasible to put into practice. Some thought provoking ideas such as “yes, we learn and study a lot on these topics – what concrete/action steps should we commit ourselves to live it and make it happen? Again, in our education, we have the topics of Peace, Human Rights, Solidarity – why and how is still unrest, destruction, war in the world even in our own Asian countries?”. Sr. Tang Sovathanak gave a fitting answer to this. We need to study and reflect more on it.
Our sharing was concluded with thank you note from Sr. Maria Thao, where she thanked the day’s Emcee in Sr. Eng Sarin for her abled coordination, the speakers and all participants. Though the schedule was a bit heavy, the teachers enjoyed the learning and everyone express their sincere thanks to the well chosen topics which are very relevant and are eager to assimilate more for the coming years to work for a peaceful world. As for evaluation done through google form questionnaires, the responses of the participants are very positive and encouraging especially in this historical time of Covid-19 pandemic. Our learning day ended with a note of fun by picking up the name of a Lucky Teacher of the year 2020 - 2021.
*CIAO SCUOLA: Salesian sisters‘ Inter-provincial conference of Asia and Oceania for Educational establishments
On 12 June 2021, Sisters of our CMY, had our formative encounter with Sr. Runita Borja (General councillor for Youth Pastoral - Rome) with the theme: “Animating a Synodal Youth Ministry and Some Guidelines of Animation until our 24th General Chapter”.
The
encounter was arranged by the Youth Ministry team of “Mary, our Help Province” (CMY).
The Sisters from both countries actively participated in this unique encounter.
Sr. Runita emphasized that our Institute’s mission is Educational and we, the
FMAs are always “Educators wherever we are and whatever task we
do, in whatever season of life we find ourselves”. She also stressed in the indispensable
requirement for fruitful apostolic action is the formation of and responsible
participation in the Educating Community for the Integral growth of the person.
She
expounded the youth ministry educational mission in our Constitutions, plan of
formation and Guidelines for the Educational Mission (GEM). Coordination for
communion in the provincial youth ministry in synodal style helped us to
revisit our roles in our daily encounter with the young. This encounter
empowered us our passion for education for the young generation.
We
thank Sr. Runita for encouraging us and inspiring us in our educational
activities. Yes, to live “THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE AND HAVE IT TO THE
FULL” is our dream and action plan.
