SVD - Celebrating 100 Years

21 Top : Fr Devasagayam and parishioners. Bottom l-r: Fr Truc Phan and John Hung Le preparing a place for the SVDs to live in Hmawbi, Yangon. Fr Elmer Ibarra, AUS Bible Coordinator with Frs Tuyen Nguyen and Mariusz Kubista attended a Bible course in the Philippines. A rchbishop of Myanmar, Cardinal Charles Bo, felt that the local Church in Myanmar was in need of Biblical formation, and in 2015, approached the SVDs, saying: “I want you SVDs to come and develop what you are good at as Divine Word Missionaries: Bible Ministry.” Preparations for the first SVDs to arrive began in 2017 when Frs Truc Phan and John Hung Le went to Yangon to renovate an existing building to serve as priest’s residence and for Bible study classes and workshops. Frs Tuyen Nguyen and Mariusz Kubista arrived in Yangon in 2018 and Fr Devasagayam Savariyappan arrived in 2019 to begin their ministry. Fr Tuyen took ‘branching out’ to a whole new level when he began building houses for the poor who were without a roof over their heads after returning from the city to their villages because of the pandemic. Fr Tuyen was living and learning the language in the village at the time. Myanmar