Myanmar’s Zang Yaw villagers built a clergy house, hoping that more than one Mass will be celebrated for the people in a year.
Father Peter Ah Phung, RVA Kachin Lisu program coordinator, led the opening ceremony of the new clergy house in Zang Yaw village during a Christmas trip on December 31, 2021.
“We need a priest here. Due to the long distance to Putao Parish, we get only one Mass in the whole year if we are lucky enough. For this reason, we tried to build this simple clergy house first,” said a villager, Elizabeth A. Char.
Putao Parish caters to over 90 families, with Zang Yaw village as a centre for other villages of the parish.
Father Peter, four nuns and 20 volunteer youths travelled to Zang Yaw village in the Myitkyina Diocese. It takes one week to arrive in the village by motorbike and foot.
Elizabeth appreciated the efforts of Father Peter Ah Phung to come twice this year. “We are very happy about this. It shows his pastoral care for us. We know he is busy, but he finds time to visit us. He is a superhero. It might be hard for him due to his age and health problem, but we see that he is trying his best,” she confessed.
“We are very happy that we got a new house. Of course, this tiny house may mean nothing for those living in towns, but it means a lot for us. It is the fruits we built with our own hands,” said No Li Dar, a villager.
Father Peter said, “They have been building a wood clergy house since a few years ago. Due to the Covid pandemic and political situation, it had been halted for almost two years. By God’s grace this year, they have finished it.”
Father Peter and his companions arrived back in Myitkyina on January 13.
Father Peter says, “Here, most people don’t understand both Burmese and Kachin. They speak Lisu and Rawang language only. Almost all the residents here are Lisu and Rawang ethnic minorities. Thus, I am determined to care for them once a year at least. This is my birthplace too.”
Yaw Li Ye, a local catechist in charge of the project said, “everything is expensive here. We have hardly finished this house. If possible, we want to build it with bricks, but transportation is not accessible yet.”
Zang Yaw is a very beautiful village with a scenic ice-capped mountain.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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