As I reflect on those months, I am grateful - not just for the chance to teach, but for the grace of walking with these young “chamos,” who taught me how love, faith and joy persist even in the most challenging of times.

The Far East podcast is narrated by Fr Reg Howard.

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And what a joyous Christmas season Fr Peter must now be experiencing, not just between the Feast of All Saints and the Feast of the Epiphany, but all year round!

The Far East podcast is narrated by Fr Reg Howard.

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Let us see the whole picture, where each person plays a necessary part. Let us reconcile the wolves fighting within our hearts - and within our world - and become true instruments of peace.

Yes, digital missionaries resemble real missionaries, but they still have to rely on the “foreign” missionaries, those who physically go to the “ends of the earth” for the stories that can give substance and authenticity to the online messages by which they carry out the call of Jesus to “proclaim the Good News” (Mark 16:15).

The Far East podcast is narrated by Fr Reg Howard.

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The Columbans have taken on the daily running of Fatima House, while our partner organisations manage other aspects of the project. Over the past nine years, we have welcomed nearly 60 women.

The Far East podcast is narrated by Fr Reg Howard.

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It was truly a delight to witness the Chute family’s determination to find and honour the country of their ancestors, and to see their love for both the Columbans and their Catholic faith.

The Far East podcast is narrated by Fr Reg Howard.

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As Pope Leo himself said recently, it was the people who formed him as a bishop, through their affection, affirmation, and kindness

The Far East podcast is narrated by Fr Reg Howard.

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The children grew in awareness of God’s Creation from a physical viewpoint. They also grew in spiritual awareness of it and the importance of a spirituality of creation.

The Far East podcast is narrated by Fr Reg Howard.

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I hope I can say at the end, “I have done what I could; there is no other way I could live.”

The Far East podcast is narrated by Fr Reg Howard.

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As missionaries, we are reminded daily that the Kingdom of God often begins in the smallest of places - in a rural school, in the soft voice of a child learning to read, or in the joyful cry of a child who can finally walk again.

The Far East podcast is narrated by Fr Reg Howard.

Subscribe to the Far East magazine at https://goo.gl/5ukmQX