Mission for the Poor: Serving the people of Flores and Timor Leste

It has been some time since we gave an update on the MOP Apostolate at the monastery. There are currently 14 residents, all male, of various ages, from five years old to teenagers with a couple in their 20s.  All the residents have some degree of mental or physical disability, and because of a variety of reasons cannot be cared for at home. Thus, the brothers at the mission lovingly provide full time care and housing for them for life. A tireless job for the brothers but with eternal rewards.

On a sad note, this year in late January, we received the news of the sudden and sad passing of Jo (Yohanes Suputra Malut), a bright cheery boy from the apostolate, always happy, with a smile that was so beautiful. He was born in July 2005. We will miss him so much and we were fortunate to last see him only a month before his passing.

In this post we will show you the residents and the self-sacrificing work that the brothers consistently do, day in day out. Of special note are the young adults from Labuan Bajo, of the Community of Sant’Egidio, Indonesia who visit the apostolate every Saturday and do remedial and teaching activities with the residents of the apostolate. The Community of Sant’Egidio is a Catholic community officially recognized by the Holy See as a ‘Church Public Lay Association’.

In addition, this post includes some images taken at the special needs school in Labuan Bajo that several of our boys attend. Finally, we devote part of the post to the loving memory of Jo.

With sadness we leave you, but next post will be an invitation to all to join Fr Neville Yun of the Holy Family Parish, Indooroopilly, Brisbane on an upcoming pilgrimage to the Labuan Bajo MOP mission.

Until then, blessings to all

See you next time

Trevor and Tina

At the special school

The girls from Sant’Egidio Community

Jo always had a smile

With Br Serwin