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The Catholic Church celebrated World Mission Sunday Oct. 24. In 2009, I headed off for East Timor as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner, volunteering as part of a Catholic organization that works with poor communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as North America.

Maryknollers make improvements in civil and human rights and educational, economic, environmental, and healthcare development. In East Timor, I worked with the people in a variety of agricultural and pastoral activities.

The Timorese people were so friendly and welcoming, always saying hello and inviting me into their homes. They were so eager to help me learn their languages, and it was very enlightening for all of us when I shared in their daily lives: planting, weeding or harvesting in the rice paddies...cooking corn cakes steamed in banana leaves or roasting coffee beans over the fire and grinding them with a big mortar and pestle...building traditional thatch-roofed houses...making fuel-efficient clay cooking stoves...or praying and planning liturgies with the church lay leaders in the villages.

The Timorese learned that people like me are interested in their way of life, that all work has dignity and that we can all work together for improvements - and I learned that efficiency is not always the highest goal when cooperation and community effort are valued in accomplishing a task for which everyone can then take ownership.

For the past year, the Aileu parish in this predominantly Catholic country hosted a national symbol of unity: the Youth Cross. This is a five-foot-high wooden cross the people decorate with locally-woven tapestries called "tais," as well as beads, medallions and a traditional headdress.

It was amazing to see how the people in each of the 50 villages that received the cross for a few days worked together for a true community celebration: processions, all-night vigils, singing, traditional drumming and dancing, a Mass - often with many baptisms - First Communions, weddings and feasting, all centered around a traditional house they had built together.

A big celebration for sending the Youth Cross off to the next parish coincided with my departure. A reorganization of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners has meant I will complete my three-year assignment in Cambodia.

In September, I moved to the capital, Phnom Penh. It's back to language school, now to try to learn the Khmer language! I am enjoying learning about another fascinating culture and I'm sure that Cambodia will be just as rewarding and fruitful a mission experience as East Timor.

Similarly ravaged by wars, this country also struggles to bring its people out of poverty. While the flat land of the Mekong Delta is much hotter than Timor's mountains, I am already seeing the similarities in rice production and learning about threshing and winnowing.

It won't be long before I'm planting in the paddies, cooking in the kitchens and just walking along the daily journey of life with the Cambodian people.

(To learn more about Maryknoll Lay Missioners or to support Ms. Vámosy's work, visit www.MKLM.org, call 1-800-867-2980 or write Maryknoll Lay Missioners, PO Box 307, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0307. For more on the missions, see the Propagation of the Faith ad in The Evangelist's print edition.)

(10/28/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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