Bishop Sebastian celebrates birthday with refugee kids

Dec 21, 2016

By Shanon Lourdes Segaran
On November 17, the Bishop of Penang Diocese, His Lordship Rt Rev Sebastian Francis and his team, made a special Pastoral visit to the NTA School for Refugee Children.

The school, in Alor Setar, Kedah, was started in 2012 and its students are exclusively made up of refugee children from Alor Setar and its surrounding areas. It is run by the New Thessalonian Apostolate (NTA), a lay Catholic Missionary Organisation under the Diocese of Penang, dedicated to stewardship, spiritual formation, integral human development, and bringing the Gospel message to the world by reaching out and serving those most in need, in new and innovative ways.

Besides the school, NTA also runs formation programmes for a number of parishes in the Penang Diocese, as well as running various missions and centres for those involved with drugs and gangsterism, sex workers, troubled youths, single mothers, battered women, refugees, migrant workers, etc. Currently, their biggest projects, including free schools for refugee children, free medical clinics, maternity care, life skills training, vaccinations for infants, advisory centres, emergency aid and various other programmes are concentrated on refugee and itinerant communities’ welfare and human development, throughout the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia.

Bishop Sebastian was warmly received by the young students who greeted him with handshakes and warm hugs. The children even put together a little surprise for him in the form of a birthday cake that they decorated themselves. Bishop Sebastian turned 65 on November 11. The children also prepared another birthday cake for Fr Charles Chin who accompanied Bishop Sebastian. Fr Charles turned 73 on Nov 18.

After cutting and sharing the cake with the children, the Bishop mingled with them, getting to know each of them and listening to their stories. He also took the time to understand the unique approach to education undertaken by the team of teachers and reviewed all the other programmes provided by the school for the refugee community and the urban poor in Alor Setar.

Bishop Sebastian was joined by Sr Margarete Sta Maria, FdCC, the Executive Pastoral Assistant to the Bishop, Fr Marshall Fernandez, NTA’s Spiritual Advisor, Fr Joachim Robert, the Director of Penang Office of Human Development (POHD), Fr Charles Chin, the Assistant Parish Priest of St Michael’s Church, Alor Setar, Ms Bernadette Teh, the Bishop’s Delegate for Education, Mr Peter Barnabas, Migrant Ministry Officer (POHD) and parish leaders from the Church of St Michael, Alor Setar.

Bishop Sebastian, having heard that some of the children had never tasted ice cream before, treated them to ice cream. For many of the children, November 17th will be remembered as the day that they met with the Bishop of Penang, and also tasted icecream for the first time!