Earthquake, malaria, but what a faith experience!

Sydney
28 April 2002

Archbishop Pell and the Philosopher’s Stone

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Tribute to dad wins award for Rita

Bondi schoolchildren go to Galilee

New shrine was born in stormy seas

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Fun-filled radio CD guide for young drivers

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Church unity is Christ’s will: Cardinal Cassidy

Sri Lankan fare at Amnesty night

Editorial: Mission of love, charity

Letters: Reform of the Mass, or not?

‘My life, my love’ - a vocation story

Reflections: A lone voice for our ‘enemy aliens’

Trinh’s journey from refugee to religious

Earthquake, malaria, but what a faith experience!

Obituary: Fr Lex was a friend indeed to those in need

Obituary: Lawyer, nun, college principal

Inspirations: Honour for Viet cardinal’s mother

Earthquake, malaria, but what a faith experience!

Some of the students of the Nuku Camp school wait to perform in their Open day singsing

For most of us, Papua New Guinea is an unknown and often lawless frontier. For Mary Burt and James Brown and their four children, it has been home for 18 months. Chris Hook reports

With four children aged one to six, Canberra mother Mary Burt, a lawyer, wondered whether she and accountant husband, James Brown, had made the right decision in volunteering for a two-year missionary app ointment.

Mary and James are Paulian Association of Lay Missionaries (PALMS) volunteers working in the diocese of Aitape, based in a small town on Papua New Guinea’s north coast.

The region was the centre of media attention when thousands were killed and lives devastated after a tsunami (tidal wave) hit in 1998. It didn’t take long before the family faced a frightening earthquake registering 6.7 on the Richter scale. Besides acts of nature, other problems loomed.

“Choosing to live where you don’t know the language, the ways of behaving, in a country with a reputation for violence and corruption, this is hard for a single person,” Mary says. “Is it stupidity for a middle-aged couple?”

Mary says she was worried about her elderly parents, her children’s schooling, and even her own career.

They’ve endured an attempt at an armed robbery and an early morning explosion of a cement water tank.

Perhaps worst of all, the family’s four children have suffered 20 bouts of malaria in just 10 months and Mary accidentally scalded her four-year-old daughter with boiling bathwater leading to other worries about taking care of the wound in a tropical climate.

In spite of this, the experience has strengthened her faith, Mary says.

“Life here has been joyous and challenging and varies greatly from the seeming certainty of life back home, so the difficult decision to come has been worthwhile.

“Living away from the counsel of family and friends in a culture where the behaviour and events are frequently, startlingly unpredictable, you tend to call on different reserves within yourself, and ultimately to realise more frequently your dependence on God.”

And there’s plenty to do. Husband James - in his role as group diocesan manager - helps run the diocese’s many commercial ventures. There’s an eco-forestry program, brick and fibreglass works, service departments covering education, health and family life, and a commercial rabbit farm.

The aim is to increase commercial viability, but also to train locals so that the businesses become self-sustaining.

Meanwhile, Mary takes care of the children, and engages with the local community. She’s heavily involved with the local church and school.

PALMS executive director Roger O’Halloran said this was a vital part of the mission process.

“Hopefully, this is a benefit to the whole Australian community so that we get a world perspective of our Church,” he said. “There are different ways of perceiving and living out your Christian faith.”

Mary talks of watching her children play with local kids, exploring the lush bush, learning how to scoop coconut flesh and crack tarlis nuts and trooping off to school with new friends.

And Mary says she was happily welcomed into the local women’s lives.

“It is the joy of being asked to name a new born child, the gentle happening of shaking hands with local women and having my hand held while a simple conversation in pidgin is shared,” she says.

She remembers the joy of cathedral Masses and the sheer postcard beauty of her surroundings - “to be on the beach at dusk and watch as a wooden canoe slowly glides past heading off to Tumleo Island laden with supplies, while the children and their friends drip wet sand through their fingers to make magical castle towers, and women stand fishing silently in the shallows in single file, against the backdrop of a sunset sky and mountains beyond”.

“Our time here has given me opportunities and exper iences that have deepened my sense of what it means to pay attention to the presence of God in the ordinary or the every day,” Mary says.

Mary and James’ story is not unusual, according to Roger O’Halloran. He says many PALMS volunteers are families, but there are also single people of all ages.

Motivations vary. Some have idealistic desires to give back to a world from which they’ve benefited, while for others it’s a sense of adventure that drives them.

It is important that volunteers be realistic about what they will be facing, Roger O’Halloran says.

They are put through a formation process of at least six months, which can sometimes last up to two years.

PALMS is keen for volunteers with a range of skills, especially medical staff, teachers and tradespeople.

For more information, contact Roger O’Halloran on (02) 9642 0558.