Philip Teingo
365 TESTIMONIES OF HOSPITALITY | ||
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Brother |
Papua New Guinea |
Philio Teingo |
My name is Brother Philip Teingo. I am a Papua New Guinean Brother. I joined the Order in Papua New Guinea in 1986. The Order attracted me when I first heard about it because its charism – Hospitality – is a value that was highly valued by my parents and family and clan members. Hospitality is an important part of the Melanesian culture. Of course, in the first instance, we show hospitality to the people of our region. We do that wherever we encounter them, even if that is in a place a long way away from our region. We say that we are all ‘one-talks’ – that means we share the same language and culture. A ‘one-talk’ can call on you for anything they need – food, shelter, money, clothing, help with school fees, travel expenses etc. When I talked to the first Saint John of God Brothers I met they told me that the members of the Order see every human being they encounter as a ‘won-talk’. This is because we are all children of the same father – God. I could see that in Papua New Guinea the Order had first been hospitable towards handicapped children in the Cheshire Home in the national capital – Port Moresby. Then the Order responded to the plight of the Kamea people who lived in a remote and mountainous part of Papua, especially at a small village called Kamina. The Order had a rural health centre at Kamina and it was there that I began my formation in Hospitality.