Fr. Wawan, SMM
Greetings Internos… May God always bless our ministry wherever we are assigned. In this internos, I would like to share our pastoral activities in the SMM Menyurai Sintang community, especially in January and February 2020.
small community
Since January 15, 2020, Pastor Stef left for the new parish in Pontianak diocese while the three TOMM brothers returned to Bandung to continue their formation stage. While Father Sumadi, although he has received a decree as the leader of the Menurai community, due to his busy schedule as a councilor and also working on the church in Mendalam parish, he has not been able to be in the Menyurai community. In this house, I only live with Father Gatot. Even though he was alone with Father Gatot, the demand for services from outside did not decrease. The high demand-forward masses, services at stations in other parishes, and; even requests for services for retreats and recollections overwhelmed us both; The small number of teams had become an objection for us to accept each service request. However, we are both committed to continuing to provide services as far as the people need it. Because of this commitment, from January to March we are still focusing on services to schools to provide retreats and recollections; In fact, we often call ourselves a community of two houses. The first house was the Montfort Menyurai Abbey where we lived. While the second house is the Tumenggung Tukung Kelam retreat house. Referred to as a second home; because most of the time we spent with the retreat participants in this place. In Internos this time I want to share the experience of some of the activities we have done so far.
Retreats for School Students
From January to February, several schools held retreats. Among them are Panca Setya 2 Elementary School (January 7-8), Panca Setya 2 Middle School (January 27-31), Kayan Hilir Vocational School (24-25 February 2020), Panca Setya 1 Middle School (February 27-29), and Kelam Permai Senior Hight School. (10-11 March). All of these retreat activities were held at the Tumenggung Tukung retreat house, Kelam. This is a diocesan retreat house run by nuns from the Passionist congregation.
I and Father Gatot facilitated this retreat. The activities carried out are presented in many forms. For example, thematic conferences, mass, confession, reflection, sharing experiences, creative worship, and outbound. The themes given are only about self-introduction, personality development, pride as Catholics, and directing students to prepare for their future.
The challenge experienced in providing retreats, especially from January to February, was the limited number of facilitators. However, Father Gatot and I tried to overcome everything. Another challenge is dealing with students who do not wholeheartedly attend the retreat. Despite the challenges, each retreat activity can still run smoothly with the cooperation of the school and the sisters at the retreat house as well.
Young People's Mission with KKMK (Catholic Youth Employee Community)
Currently, my job is also as a companion to KKMK (Catholic Youth Employee Community). This community is a collection of young Catholics who are already working. I see that each of them has a life experience or spiritual wealth that they can share with others at least with young people.
Some of the activities we did together from January to March were the mission to SMK Binakusuma Nanga Pinoh (15 February), the mission for Youth Catholic organization of Kelam and Dedai (16 February), the mission for Catholic students at Junior High School Sintang (starting on March 7, every Saturday during March), the mission for the children of the St. Caecilia (March 8). All of these activities are KKMK initiatives. I'm just facilitating the place and objectives of the mission. The material provided involves many things. I provide material related to the formation of faith and religious life. Meanwhile, other KKMK friends provided material according to their respective fields of work, for example on public speaking, sexuality education for teenagers and young people, financial management, talent and talent development, and others. For future plans, we are thinking about involving other categorical groups as well, such as PMKRI (guided by Father Gatot), and students from the Youth Mission School (TSOM) belonging to the Diocese of Sintang, especially for youth development missions. While on duty in Sintang, I observed that youth development is one of the most pressing issues in Sintang; The number of young people who easily convert to other religions just for reasons of marriage shows how low the quality of their faith is. In addition, the phenomenon of free sex and inappropriate lifestyles is caused by the large number of school children living in boarding houses without parental control or social control. The lack of dormitories and the proliferation of free boarding houses in the city of Sintang increasingly provide opportunities for the low quality of life of young people. Because of this, KKMK and I were moved to provide guidance to school children in Sintang.
Closing
Every work of course only becomes more fruitful because of God's grace and support from all of us. So we really hope for prayer support from the confreres for our joint work so that it will bring blessings to others and to us. Let's pray for each other.
