2018-12-06 EAST TIMOR

A Missionary land

In 2000, two Brothers of the former Marist Province of Melbourne (Br. Marcos, Australia, and Brother Manoel from Portugal), arrived in East Timor(Baucau), at the request of the Bishop of Baucau, Basilio do Nascimento Sol, to open a community and to found a centre for teacher training. And from this association emerged the Catholic Institute of Teacher Training (ICFP).  In 2002, Brother Raimundo Barbosa, of the former Marist Province of Rio de Janeiro, and  5 other teachers arrived in Baucau, to help in the Institute and to qualify the teachers in Portuguese. But, due to the serious problems of the post-war period in East Timor with Indonesia to expel the invading soldiers, as well as the problems with the Tetum language, after six months they all returned to Brazil. 

 

Marist Vocations

In 2012 the Brothers followed the call to begin the work of formation for the young people interested in knowing more about the Marist life. A house was rented and Australian Brothers Tony Clark and John, set up a basic programme of formation in Baucau. In 2013 Brother Lécio José Heckler arrived from the Marist Province of Sul-Amazônia, to work with Brother Tony, in initiating a systematic programme for Pastoral Vocations. In 2016 they officially launched the postulantship in Baucau. 

With the constant increase in the number of young people interested in getting to know more about the Marist Life and later to join the Marist Congregation, a new house of Formation was built, with accommodation for 4 Brothers and 15 to 20 young people. The house was taken overin 2018 and will be officially inaugurated in 2019. 

To welcome the young people interested in learning about the Marist Congregation, vocational meetings are held annually. These last for two weeks. The last vocational meeting was carried out in Baucau, from the 5th to the 18th of November, with theaim of helping in the process of discernment of the young people's own vocation.  

At the last meeting 23 young people from all parts of East Timor took part. In 2019, a new group will begin the formation process from February to August. Then, the young people will move to the Philippines, where they will continue their formation.  

 

The Building of a school in Lautém 

The Province of Australia has another missionary project in the country. This is the foundation of a Marist school in the municipality of Lautém. To contribute to this project an agreement was made with the Marist provinces of Brazil. Two Brazilian Brothers have already been in East Timor (Baucau),since the 29th of July  2018. They are Brothers JoãoBatistaPereira, of the Province of Brazil Center-Sul, and Manoel Soares, from the Province of Brazil Centro-Norte. Their mission will consist in looking after the construction of the school, organising  recruitment and future teacher training, running the school and organising the whole pedagogic and pastoral process. This entire work will be assessedand supervised by the Province of Australia.  

The project is progressing little by little. We already have the land and it is hoped that, starting from 2019, work can begin on construction while solving other matters relating to documents, authorizations and plans to assist in the supply of water. 

So, that is the mission of the Marist Brothers in East Timor. We ask the Lord of the Mission to send workers to our Mission. The challenge is great and the Brothers are few. May God bless our work. 

________________ 

Br. João Batista  

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