Joseph Smith

 

365 TESTIMONIES OF HOSPITALITY

Brother

Australia

Joseph Smith

 

My name is Brother Joseph Smith. I am General Delegate for the Asia Pacific Region and North America. In that capacity I recently visited a rural health centre of the Order at the remote village of Walamu in Papua New Guinea. The work that I saw our Brothers doing there deepened my sense of having a vocation to Hospitality exercised in the manner of Saint John of God. At Walamu the young Papua New Guinean Brothers live existences of utter simplicity and service with the village people. They serve the health needs of 400 students and teachers of a bush school. They also attend to the basic health requirements of thousands of people who live in surrounding villages. These villagers are cut off from ready access to the nearest health facility. It is truly inspirational to see the faithful and respectful care that the Brothers give to the children and adults who come to their rural clinic. I have been in many big well-furnished chapels and churches of the Order but I remember best the gathering of this little Hospitaller community for prayer on the evening of our arrival. We prayed the evening prayer in a tiny chapel made of bush materials, no widows, a dirt floor, a small candle and hand held torches by which to read the prayers. When we talk of John-of-God Hospitality in the world today I think of the work of the Brothers in Papua New Guinea with the poor people of Walamu. 

 

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