austraLasia

Sumba Community, Indonesia, 11 October 2019 -- The following dialogue took place on Facebook:

What congregation are you?

I’m an SDB member. (in Indonesia everybody knows SVD with 4 provinces, but very few know SDB)

What is SDB?

We are a Don Bosco-founded Congregation. Our mission is for the young. If you want to be a Salesian, you will have less time to pray as other congregations offer liturgical celebrations. Just come and stay with the young people, go and play with them, pray with them.

And what about your mission?

In our congregation there is more time for work, education and sports, always with the young people. What do you think about this?

Then the FB dialogue stopped for 3 weeks. Petrus took time for reflection, even after one week he didn’t send me any more messages, and I had already forgotten about it.

But after 3 weeks Petrus came back to Messenger:

How can I reach Sumba Don Bosco? By air? By ferry?

Then I handed the communication to our Rector who indicated the necessary items for him – health certificate and other documents.

So far the FB story. After 3 days Petrus arrived at our Salesian community in Sumba with its community of 3 Salesian Brothers, 3 Salesian priests and two practical trainees, two prenovices and 4 aspirants who reached us this year.

Yes, some youth like to make a discernment about the Salesians, but they don’t know about our life and spirituality. It is still not so easy to get to know who are the SDBs in Indonesia. A simple FB photo in white cassock (=sign of religious or priestly life in Indonesia) and 'working at Don Bosco Salesians' brought our new aspirant to our community.

And yes, in our community we pray every morning for new vocations for the Church and for all groups of the Salesian Family!