For Private Circulation only It is Good to be Here
January 2018
teresting! At the request of the Bishop and his Vicar General I now go every weekend to say Mass in a Mission Chapel at a place called “Bukit Peninjau”, which is a forty-minute drive from Miri. A Mill Hill Missionary opened the Mission in the 1960’s. The mission comes under the pastoral care of a neighbouring parish due a shortage of personnel. I look forward to these weekend pastoral visits, meeting the people and familiarising myself with rural life.
by Fr Liam Durrant MHM
My name is Fr. Liam Durrant and I was born and brought up in London, England. I am delighted to have received a mission appointment to work in the Diocese of Miri. I arrived here at the beginning of May last year and have been assigned to work in St Dominic and the Rosary Church, Taman Tunku, Miri. I am living with a fellow Mill Hill Missionary, Fr Guido Gockel. I have been a Mill Hill Missionary for 32 years and have worked in Africa, the Philippines, Ireland and in my home country England. Most of my missionary life has been working with young men who wish to become Mill Hill Missionaries; some of these young men are now working here in Sarawak in the Diocese of Sibu. During my time in the Philippines, I had the privilege of working with the first Malaysian candidates for Mill Hill.
I was pleased to have met the ‘Friends of Mill Hill’ in Kuching and Miri. Thank you so much for your financial and Spiritual support in this very important apostolate of training future missionaries. I look forward to meeting many of you again. Please keep us all in your prayers and let us continue to pray for the soul of Fr. Terry Burke and all our deceased missionaries who have served the Church in Borneo. May they rest in peace. God bless you all.
‘It is good to be here’ and I am beginning to feel at home in my new assignment. Having worked in the Philippines for almost twelve years I am no stranger to South East Asia nor am I a stranger to Malaysia as I would often come from the Philippines to attend Mill Hill Society meetings in Kuching and Sibu. Fr. Terry Burke MHM, whom many of you know and who is sadly no longer with us, suggested the idea to me about coming to work in Malaysia. With the blessing of our General Superior and his Council and with the agreement of Bishop Richard Ng, Bishop of Miri I was assigned here to work with the local Church. These past few months have been spent getting to know Miri Diocese, its people and my fellow priests. I am in the process of learning Bahasa Malaysia and Iban; learning languages takes time and a lot of patience! I help with pastoral duties here and on a few occasions, have celebrated Mass with the Christians in a Kampong named Sungai Liam! I believe there is also a place somewhere in the Diocese called Long Liam, how in-
Fr Liam surrounded by some of the youth of St Dominic and the Rosary Church in Taman Tunku , Miri.
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Elden and Christiano from Sabah are both doing their philosophical studies in Iloilo, Philippines.
Elvost (Papar), Christian (Serian) and Herman (Terawi, KK) are all doing their theological studies in Nairobi, Kenya.
MAVERICK ANAK ALBERT
TIMOTHY ANAK LINGKANG
My name is Maverick Anak Albert and I am now 21 years of age. Born in 1996 in Serian, a town not far from the capital, Kuching, Sarawak, I did my secondary studies at Serian Secondary School from 2009 to 2013, after which I continued with my pre-university studies from 2014 to 2015 when I graduated. After finishing my studies I worked as a part-time clerk with the Malaysian Red Crescent Society, Serian Chapter for three months.
My name is Timothy anak Lingkang and I am now 23 years of age. Born in 1994 in Serian, a small town not far from the capital, Kuching Sarawak, I completed my secondary studies in the Secondary School at Serian from 2007 to 2011. I further continued with my pre-university classes from 2012 to 2013. Subsequently I worked in Kuching for a year and then came back to my home-town because RELA, a volunteer society offered me a job as a CMT officer. It was at that time that I told my parish priest that I wanted to become a priest.
During this time I completed a course for Prayer Leaders. Subsequently, I told my parish priest that I had the intention of becoming a priest. At the end of two months the parish priest introduced me to Fr. Terry Burke who told me about the Mill Hill Missionaries. My parish priest agreed that I should try out this missionary vocation, if that is what I wanted.
A few months passed before he introduced me to Fr. Terry Burke who asked me to give the Mill Hill Missionary Society a try. I did not know about the Mill Hill Society at the time.
As agreed, I proceeded to Sibu, Sarawak where I had to go through a six-month Basic English course at St. Joseph’s Animation Centre, Sentosa, Sibu. It was there that I met the priests from the Mill Hill Missionary Society. I learnt the history of the MHM in Borneo and discovered that St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Kuching was founded by a Mill Hill Missionary. This further increased my interest to join the MHM.
However, in 2016 Fr. Terry Burke sent me to St. Joseph’s Animation Centre Sibu, a centre run by Fr. Ivan Fang, for Basic English course. It was there that I learnt the history of the Mill Hill missionaries including the fact that my parish in Serian as well as St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Kuching was founded by a Mill Hill missionary. My interest in joining the society was thus further strengthened.
Maverick and Timothy are two of the eight students from Malaysia who are in various stages of formation to become Mill Hill Missionaries.
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In Memory of Fr Terry by Fr. Mathews Otieno Olili MHM, Society Representative, Malaysia
Many have been inspired by Fr. Terry. I am no exception. Maybe some of us have been touched by his sermons, maybe through his recollections, maybe through his lectures, maybe through his famous article ‘Paddy Seeds’, maybe through his smiles, maybe through his counseling sessions, maybe through his small acts of love. These are the ways in which he lived the call of Jesus to love neighbor as oneself. It was also his way of living the Motto: to Love and to serve; which is the motto of the Mill Hill Missionaries to which he belonged and which he wholeheartedly served.
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts
Fr. Terry certainly played many parts in the stage: after his ordination in 1971 he served in Mukah & Balingian areas in the present Sibu Diocese; in 1980, at the request of Bishop Peter Chung, he helped start St. Peter’s Seminary, becoming the rector of the Seminary, and through his efforts priests mainly from Ireland would then come and teach for a few months at a time. Terry also at a time did APF work in Britain, was a member of the Formation Staff in Roosendaal and then in Mill Hill College, became a chaplain in Reading University, served in India, and later ministered to prisoners and expatriates in Bali, Indonesia. In the last seven years of his life, he dedicatedly served the Mill Hill Society as the Recruitment Coordinator, Society Representative and Bursar.
After all is said and done, life is not the amount of breaths we take. It is the moments that take our breaths away. Fr. Terry lived those moments.
The greatness of a person’s life is neither measured by the number of years one lives on earth nor by one’s achievements and possessions. Rather, it is measured by the depth of one’s love of others - for we live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures. The life of Fr. Terry, which we still celebrate, can only be measured by the intensity of love that he showed to us; by the number of hearts he touched; by how much he not only loved us, but also made us feel that love…the love of the risen Christ.
Fr Terry Burke MHM 1944 - 2017
KNOW THE MILL HILL MISSIONARIES
Back row (left to right) Fr Albert Jacobse, Fr Guido Gockel, Fr Philip Odhiambo Obaso, Fr John McAuley, Blaise Forbi (student), Fr Liam Durrant, Fr Vincent Oates, Fr Ivan Fang, Fr Rex Fedelicio. Front row (left to right) Fr Christu Ravindra Babu, Fr George Omuto Odero, Fr Mathews Otieno Olili, Glenn Bibero Diaz (student), Peter Maverick Albert (student), Adam Uthansingh (student), Timothy Lingkang (student), Sylvister Juanis (student).
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The Mill Hill Family The Mill Hill Family is part of the love and service that lies at the heart of Mill Hill. They join with the Mill Hill Missionaries in the mission of preaching the Gospel message, not only in our own country, but in the many other countries where the message has not yet been heard or taken root. The Mill Hill Family helps in several ways: • • •
By praying for our missionaries and for the people among whom we work, especially in the more difficult and dangerous parts of the world By praying for our Malaysian Mill Hill seminarians now in training By helping to make it all possible through donations, either via a Red Mission box or a direct offering.
The Red Mission Boxes are a great way of supporting missionary work. You place whatever coins you wish in the box and when it is full, or after a period of six months, bring it to the local MHF treasurer.
A direct donation which can be made via the Mill Hill accounts listed below: but please remember to add “MHF” to the receipt. Please note we now have a proper Mill Hill bank account in Miri held jointly in the names of Fr Liam, Fr John and Fr Chris. Fr Albert Jacobse MHM:
+60194823496
Bank Account for Kuching: Standard Chartered Bank Acc. Name: Archbishop of Kuching (RC) Acc. No. : 420156516622 Fr John McAulay MHM: Fr. Guido Gockel MHM: Fr. Liam Durrant MHM: Fr. Chris Ravindra MHM:
+601115835021 +60138304711 +60132802199 +601119362935
Bank Account for Miri: Public Bank (Pelita) Acc. Name: Liam Joseph Durrant John Gerard McAulay Ravindra Babu Kollabaihina Acc. No.: 6-4358329-05 (Plus Savings Acc.) Website: www.millhillmissionaries.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/millhillmissionaries
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