austraLasia - 5530(I)_Christmas preparation during Covid19 times

ALA_5530

By Sr Cecilia Park Hyunju, FMA
Korean FMA missionary in Canada

Surrey, Vancouver, Canada, 10 December 2020 -- "COVID-19 makes us create many new ways also in the Salesian mission here in Surrey-Vancouver, Canada, where Sr Cecilia, FMA arrived some 15 months ago as a new missionary. She shares on her Facebook pages:

Special Christmas Cards

Our parish children (Our Lady of Good Counsel) preparing for the Confirmation also need a different activity for their Confirmation Service instead of visiting the elderly. A Very Special Christmas Card, is a Christmas card for children to fill in the pages given with the Scripture words, their prayers, and concern for their neighbors. It is not a card that ends with writing a simple Christmas greeting in minutes, but a spiritual gift that is completed after preparing and praying with their family during Advent. I hope our children can understand and practice their Christian mission through this little sharing.

First hand made Advent Wreath

I prepared this gift with all my heart for some days to illuminate the way of the Lord, and decorated this wreath all day long. At the beginning of the Mass on the first Sunday of Advent, I shed tears of emotion in my heart as I watched the priest bless it. The Lord knows how I gladly prepared and arranged it, and how many sacrifices I made without anyone knowing. If I had not been a missionary, and if I had been in Korea, I would never have had a chance to make it with my own hands. The Lord has given me a new way and opportunity to please Him and serve His people, here in Surrey. I find new ways to love the Lord that I have never imagined in the past, here in Surrey - Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish.

[NB: And the parishioners appreciate with the reply on the FB page]

Our Lady of Good Counsel

This is the name of our parish and our religious community. Unlike other communities in our FMA province of USA-Canada of Saint Joseph, headquarters in Haledon (New Jersey, USA) located in the East, we are a unique community located on the Western Coast. This Salesian parish opened about 60 years ago, and the first three Salesian Sisters were sent to Surrey, Metro Vancouver, just 3 years ago. Our parish is a huge multicultural community made up of many ethnic groups, with a renovated infrastructure, welcoming many old and young, especially migrants who feel here at home.

A new missionary after 15 months

There are still many homeless people in this city, and they sometimes spend the night close to our Church. Without having big dreams and realizing them in my country, I experience as a new missionary many limitations and differences here, but I know that starting with small things is the best I can do. I decided to make scarves with some children for the neighbors living on the streets and humbly asked a few people to donate knitting yarns and needles. Thankfully, yarns started to gather in my basket, and I began knitting. I don't know how many yarns will be donated or how many scarves will be made, but it doesn't matter. Didn't the miracle of Jesus even begin with just five loaves and two fish?"

With the best wishes of a Joy-filled journey towards Christmas 2020!

The community of Surrey (Metro Vancouver) is located in the Western part of Canada, British Columbia. There is one multicultural SDB community since 1974 (Rector Fr George Atok and 4 other confreres from India, Poland, Philippines and USA) and one FMA multicultural community since 2017 (Directress Sr Antoni Cedrone and three sisters).

Sr Cecilia Park, FMA is a Korean missionary ad gentes serving in Canada since 2019 (FMA province of Easter USA-Canada)in the Parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel (Surrey-Vancouver)

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5530(I)_Christmas preparation during Covid19 times