Facade entrance

By Br. Jess Garcia, SDB

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea - The recently established Vice Province of Papua New Guinea - Solomon Islands (PGS) is preparing for the starting day at many levels. During the month of April -May the Extraordinary Visitor Fr. Maria Arokiam Kanaga will conduct also a consultation for its first Superior and (hopefully, God willing) on July 9, the first Superior will be installed.

Also the center of the Vice-province, a Provincial house is now being completed. The PGS Delegation Economer does share the present state of progress:

"The construction is going well but never as fast as we would like. We wanted to have the official blessing on the 24th of May but it will be a little hard. I’ll keep you informed so you can come around!"

We are putting a Mosaic of Don Bosco Dream about Oceania in the façade of the building. We had this idea even before the Mission Sector have chosen this 2016 Salesian Mission Day as the Year of Oceania!

In 2014, we extracted from the Biographical Memoirs the dream Don Bosco had in 1885 and removed what didn’t pertain to Oceania to make it easier for our local artist. Then, the artist did the painting to show the dream as well as the colourful cultures of Melanesia. You can see two pictures:

• First Picture: you can see the community chapel behind the MOSAIC which is shaped like the “Haus Tambaran” (House of the Spirits in Melanesian Culture); the columns below the mosaic symbolize the two countries of the Delegation PNG & SI and future Vice-province of PGS.


• Second Picture you can see the REAL mosaic after we assembled it in the floor. It was like making a big puzzle. We hope that in one week or so it could be placed in the façade already

We believe that in that famous dream, our Father not only saw Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands but also the past, present and future Salesians working here as well.

It’s funny, we started some years ago the construction of a Delegation House and the finished product will be a Provincial House, not bad, right?

Please, pray for us during this important year of being born as a Vice-province, during the Year 2016 Salesian Mission Day focused on Oceania: 'Come and Help us!'

An Artistic Interpretation of Don Bosco’s Missionary Dream about Oceania

---

---

Original Painting of dream (Basis for Mosaic)

Real Mosaic