AAE Day 2 - Getting to know our communities in Asia & Australia

​It was a joyful and exciting afternoon knowing the various Verbum Dei communities of the Asian and Australian continents.
 
Maureen Tan, a disciple from Singapore, shared her many experiences interacting and sharing the Word of God through the people she has encountered. Through the various activities of inviting people from all sorts of background to join them in their ministry of spreading the Word of God, she has learned to be more patient and understanding of the people around her.
 
Despite initial struggles in forming and establishing the communities, her group have been able to build a retreat house, among others, because of the generosity of the people they have met.
 
 Verbum Dei-Vietnam as presented by Minh Ngo from Ho Chi Minh City had a long history of processing before it was finally approved in 2018, specifically in Saigon through the assistance Fr. Felipe and Fr. David. In January 2019, the first VD missionaries arrived in Vietnam, namely, Fr. David and Bro. Darwin. Both initially struggled with their new environment, the culture, food and language. They had to learn everything from scratch, so to speak.
 
Thanks be to God, the VD Vietnam community have been benefited by the generosity and prayers of the people around them.
 
Daniel Drum, a VD missionary introduced the VD community in Australia. It was in December 1980 that the first missionaries arrived to establish the new VD community in Sydney. Thereafter, the community grew and the initial vocations came in. A second house was founded in 2001 in Brisbane. In 2018, the first married couple was bonded and the Married Couples branch became officially present in Australia and they also became officially ecclesial.
 
Currently, VD Australia conducts and offers a number of apostolates and church services meant to serve God’s people through the help of the currently assigned missionaries in the country.
 
In May 1997, the first VD community in Taiwan was established. The missionaries’ initial effort to introduce Jesus to the Chinese people met with much resistance. This was because the Chinese were deeply influenced by folk religion and this has affected the work of evangelization.
 
Despite a lot of set backs, failures, etc. in bringing Jesus closer to the people, the missionaries were deeply resolved to continue with the mission. They organized a number of activities, apostolates and projects to entice the people to join them.
 
Finally, the missionaries’ hard work bore fruit. They now have vocations, more disciples and an active and committed VD missionary family.                       
 
The youngest of the VD missionary community is the one in Hiroshima, Japan, established only in 2019. As the community continues to grow and develop, everyone is hopeful that the community will prosper and have more vocations soon and continue to do the work of evangelization.