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Volume 25 No. 2 | Winter 2015
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Message from the Provincial Superior
When Jesus commissioned his apostles to “Go out to the whole world and share the Good
News”, he was setting them, and all of us, a pretty big task.
He didn’t just say, “Go out to the people nearby, to your friends and neighbours, the people
you work with etc”, although, of course, that’s a good place to start sharing the Good News.
No, he made his call to mission Universal. Go out to the whole world.
As I write this now, I’m sitting in Sydney, Australia – a part of the world that was not even
known to the apostles at that time, although of course, it had already been home to
indigenous Australians for thousands of years.
What this shows us is that as the years pass, new places, new situations, new people will
present themselves to us. We will meet people who have new and different needs, and part
of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ is that we respond to their needs and become the
loving presence of Christ for them. So, the mission that expanded outwards from those first
12 apostles, has continued to expand, and will continue to expand in ways that we can’t yet
imagine.
In this edition of Society Matters, we feature an exclusive interview with the Superior General
of the Divine Word Missionaries, Fr Heinz Kuluke, who shares with us his views on the SVD’s
commitment to keep growing and expanding in mission. In particular, he talks of one of the
newest SVD missions, in the fledgling country of South Sudan. The three SVD missionaries
who are assigned there have faced hardship and even mortal danger, but remain committed
to helping restore peace to the long-suffering people of this troubled region. Their story is an
inspiration. Also in this edition, we read of the five young men who are being sent out into the
world as new missionaries after receiving their final formation in Australia; Fr John Hung Le
SVD shares the story of his missionary life, from Vietnam, to PNG, to Thailand; and we catch
up with how our Province’s first instalment of disaster relief funds is being put to great use in
restoring the lives of people so badly affected by Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu.
Christ’s mission never ends. It never can and it never will. Thank you, our friends and partners
in mission, for all that you do to support that mission, both in your own lives and by your
support of the Divine Word Missionaries. May God bless you.
Yours in the Word,
Fr Henry Adler SVD
Provincial Superior
Cover Story:
Children at a water well in South Sudan – one of the SVD’s newest
mission areas. See page 4 for more.
Appeal Office:
199 Epping Road, Marsfield NSW
Locked Bag 3, Epping NSW 1710 Australia
Telephone: +61 2 9868 2666 Fax: +61 2 9868 1010
Victoria:
100 Albion Road, Box Hill, Vic 3128 Tel: +61 3 9890 0065
Queensland:
26 Jackson Street, Hamilton QLD 4007 Tel: +61 7 3268 7237
New Zealand:
6 Stanley Street, Wainuiomata 5014 Tel: +64 4 970 8405
Published by Divine Word Missionaries Incorporated, ABN 51 885 667 646