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Three Lighthouse clients receive Sacrament of Baptism |
| Jun 03 2009 |
May 08 , 2009
By Lucia Lai
PENANG: The Lighthouse Drop-in Centre (managed by the Penang Office for Human Development POHD) opened its door six years ago. It has grown tremendously from feeding to providing recreation, medical, counselling, job replacement and so on.
The number of people who dropped in (known as ‘clients’) had also increased gradually, as more and more of the homeless and street people found out about The Lighthouse. Presently, there are now 120 Lighthouse clients.
The Lighthouse also organized a Catholic formation session twice a week (conducted by Maria Ng) for clients who were interested since its inception six years ago. It was through this sharing, that some of the clients were moved and sensed Jesus speaking to them. Eventually, three of them felt that the Catholic faith is for them and they decided to enter into baptism to fully accept Christ.
O
n Apr 15, three of them were baptized in an Eucharistic Celebration celebrated by Fr Dominic Santhiyagu at the Church of St Francis Xavier.
They were Amos Looi Shee Weng, 52, James Teoh Book Chhu, 62 and John Yeap Ean Cheng, It was very heartening to see about 50 Lighthouse clients at the church for the Mass. Though many of them were not Catholics they were there to give support to their three friends who were to be baptized. About 30 members from the Chinese Apostolate were present too to lend their support. All together there were a little over 100 attendees.
The Mass was in English, Mandarin and Bahasa so that the Lighthouse clients could follow. All hymns were sung in Mandarin and Hokkien.
The gospel reading was based on the road to Emmaus. Fr Dominic in his homily in Bahasa, said that although the disciples did not recognize Jesus o the road, they welcomed him to their house.
“Amos, James and John recognized Jesus and welcomed him openly,” said Fr Dominic, “thus they are willing to accept him to be baptized.” “Just as the disciples felt that their hearts were burning within them when they were talking to Jesus, though not recognizing him,” Fr Dominic continued, “I’m sure the hearts of our baptism candidates here are burning with Jesus too.” He told Amos, James and John that they only have to say “Come” to Jesus and let Jesus walk along with them wherever they are.
At the end of the Mass, Belevendiran Joseph, the Lighthouse manager, thanked everyone for their support to the Lighthouse, especially the clients themselves. Fr Dominic then reminded everyone that now Amos, James and John are our family in the Church and welcomed them whole-heartedly.
James was asked how he felt and what made him want to be baptized “I came to the Lighthouse one year ago. I was then always very worried and sad. Every week, I came to listen to Maria’s preaching. I realized that Jesus can take care of my worries, so I started to pray to Jesus.”
Amos, who has been with the Lighthouse for six years and has been a great help around, said that he is now very glad to be known as a Catholic!
After Mass, there was fellowship and dinner hosted by Eustace Nonis, the chairman of POHD’s Board of Management. —
Last changed: Nov 17 2009 at 11:16 AM
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