“Sunshine will always be here after the storm”, and, we have already seen the rainbow.

"Written by Monica, a Sister who has worked in one of our Children homes"

“Happiness and sadness that are in our life, I will share with you ……no matter here are rain and wind….”, every time when I hear this song, my heart will go to where that group of strong and lovely children – a group of little children who are standing in the edge of the society, they are being rejected and abandoned, they are being discriminated and abused by their family and the society.

By the will of God, I knew these extraordinary children through “Casa Ricci”, and then my life has been changed ever since.

These children cannot go back home, some even don’t have home. They don’t have families to look after them. Every time when I see the sadness in their eyes of waiting in vain for a visit from families, every time when I hear their crying from their broken heart for have been rejected and abandoned, every time when I see their innocent look for waiting to be accepted…….I have been touched deeply.      

I have asked myself “why”? But I understood then that the importance is not to answer “why”. What’s important is what I can do.  So I did my best to take care and help them, but I realized soon that what I had been doing was just an expression of my selfishness.

So I joined their activities...we studied, played, worked and shared altogether. I went into their world to read and feel their inner hearts so I understood what they really needed. After some times, they became part of my life.

Life itself is a sharing and bearing process, I do know it deeply now. These children share my efforts and bear my insufficiencies. I share their strong will and bear their hopeless. Certainly, I cannot bear their past, but what I can do is to accept their invitation to walk together with them through every doubt and every difficulty in their life. When they know they are not alone, when they know there are someones still love them besides their family members who no longer remember them, they will show their happiness and affection for life through their daily livings. The children’s happiness is my happiness.               

From all the creatures of God, only human being can perceive, possess will power, is emotional and spiritual. No matter the age, only love can cure, renew, and release, no matter if you are “sick” or not. What is true love? I don’t know exactly, I only know, in the moment when I am feeling down, that a child come to me and says “Auntie, are you unhappy? Please listen to the music as this is what I will do when I am not happy.” This touches me deeply.

Also, when they tell me that they are unhappy with their innocent language that cannot express themselves fully, I will hug them strongly. When they sometimes cry with a seemingly “naughtiness”, a challenge to me that I will still accept and love them, I always look up for kindness from God.

“Sunshine will always be here after the storm”, and we have already seen the rainbow. Be sure that there are always solutions for problems in this world. “True love” is the key to open the lock of discrimination that human has on HIV+ people. No matter what ways we use to help them, a “true love” intention will always puts us and others in a happy and free life forever.  

                                                                                                                          23/6/2012

Reflections of Christmas visit to Bailu Leprosarium

This past Christmas, I chose to go with Ricci Social Services staff (Fr. Howard Lui S.J., staff Teresa Chou, and the driver “Siu Kwan”) to Huizhou, Guangdong to visit the rehab people in the Bailu Leprosarium there.

This is one of Fr. Luis Ruiz’s most concerned communities in his lifetime. At the same time, this was the first time I personally involved after I got to know the services of Fr. Ruiz in his later years. Leprosy-affected people are a community that I never touch before and I can take this opportunity to understand them.

The date of visit was December 24 and 25. Activities included Mass celebration, sharing dinner, and group games.

In the preparation meeting, we come to agreement quickly to implement the planned activities. When talking about the activity expenses, we do not worry too much, as we can adjust according to the funding available, and will not affect our decision of our visit. Of course, we really are thankful to all those who have donated, as we can quickly raised enough money in a very short period of time so that a wealth of activities were possible for these rehab people. These included a delicious Chinese style Christmas meal, a Christmas present and a red pocket for everyone as well as to participate in the game and feel the joy of the lucky draw.

From the start of the driving journey, our staff continued to receive SMS inquiries from the sisters in the leprosarium about the traffic condition and looked forwards to our visit. I learned later on that our visit to the leprosarium is the first time since its establishment that there are people outside to come on Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas with the rehab people. They feel such a major religious event and are excited at the priest’s special arrival to celebrate Mass for them. In addition to those from Bailu Leprosarium, there was another group of rehab people living 60 kilometers away, as well as more than a dozen Catholic villagers, came specially to participate in the Christmas Eve mass.

The atmosphere of dining with the rehab people at the Christmas dinner was good. They seemed to really enjoy the food and were well fed, with the leftovers packed back to their room so there was no wastage. It was found that they are usually doing their own cooking, with few opportunities to sit in a table to eat together.

Although behind every rehab person has a different story, but they are not unhappy with a straight face in their life. From simple chatting to playing games with them, they are very active and responsive. We introduced Macao's traditional group games ─ “Bingo”, and played with them. Because of incompleteness of their limbs, they cannot play this game with the usual speed, but the level of excitement created through their active participation was the same or even greater. We were glad that they liked this game!

Among the rehab people, the ones that most caught my attention are two young sisters ─ the younger one was less than 20-year-old while her sister was 20-year plus age. The challenges that the One above gave them in fact are true and many: has experienced poverty as well as mom and dad passed away at a young age; was found to be infected with leprosy within a short period of orphanage life, cannot continue their studies and were being sent to Bailu Leprosarium for treatment. Although their conditions were under control after a period of time, but their appearance has been slightly affected. Will they have the confidence to return to community and live independently, or have to stay for rest of their life in the leprosarium? This is my greatest concern. I hope that the staff of Ricci Social Services to help these two sisters to overcome these tests, and hope they can have a great life in the future after experiencing these challenges.

Participating in this event, I can feel Fr. Ruiz’s dictum: "Nothing happier than to make people happy!"

Thank you rehab people! I wish you a happy life! Good health!

Francisa Vong,

Friends of CRSS, January, Macau