POTA – New WAYS of living and loving!

POTA – New WAYS of living and loving!

The moment we hear someone pronouncing a word POTA we immediately remember in our Indian context a place called Potta in Kerala where persons from various walks of life throng for a spiritual renewal at the Divine Retreat Centre managed by the Religious Priests of Vincentian Congregation under Irinjalakuda diocese. A few years back as the Parish Priest of Unteshwari when I went to Kerala to visit the houses of our migrant Catholics of our Parish, I too visited the centre and witnessed how people devoutly attending such a renewal programme according to the choice of their languages. This year, in the month of June 2015, five of our youth too participated in such a soul searching spiritual programme in order to get gripped with Jesus our Master! Well, I was well pleased to listen to them on their arrival at our Unteshwari. I normally appreciate and promote our faithful to participate in any such spiritual inward journey programme anywhere, especially to go and attend at least once in their life time at this centre and to encounter the persons and places of such “God’s own country” and to move forward gradually to know, love and follow Jesus MORE fervently in their life journey. Such orientations are at work in our Parish to the local and migrant Catholics and Catechumens for I am ordained and sent as a missionary to bloom where I am planted and to become a Pastor for All.

Let me state now here the Faith story of my Rejoicing Mission at Unteshwari while we the Religious persons celebrate this year as the Year of Consecrated Life.

A Call and Gift to Serve

It was last July 2014 when I was chosen from India to participate at Celje, Slovenia for 8 days in the 6^th Frater Intercontinental meeting by Fraternidad Cristiana Intercontinental de Personas con Discapacidad (Frater), as one of the intercontinental committee members from Asia (other two from China and Taiwan). By this, I was to serve as an advisor and companion in this intercontinental forum and accepted humbly as God’s grace received on this lowly servant.

It is worth mentioning at this moment about this Frater organization. It is an international, private, faith-based association under the approval of Pontifical Council of Laity since 1995. As a Christian movement, it is made up of, and managed by people with disabilities who have taken control of their lives, struggle to live in dignity, and accept to live together as brothers and sisters, in recognition of each other’s differences.  It welcomes everyone, without distinction, in a spirit of ecumenical and missionary openness. People without disabilities too join Frater once they accept and embrace the message of it. As a requirement to participate in this meeting, I had taken along with me Mr. Senma Jesangbhai Mulabhai, a physically challenged person who serves with us on contract basis as students counsellor in our Inclusive Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) scheme.

Having experienced the presence and participation of myself in such an intercontinental meeting, Mrs. Polona, one of the organizing committee members from Slovenia and the Coordinator of the POTA Programme approached me and appreciated me with the title - “the charming Indian” and made an appeal to build an International Cooperation with us Jesuits here in India through their POTA Programme of Slovenia.  Thus, the actualization of such a programme through the Gujarat Jesuits run disabled-friendly centre Unteshwari Sammilitalayam is to be seen as the fruit of my Slovenia visit! In this context let me present the meaning, methodology and implementation of such an exchange programme in order to appreciate the spirit of such Slovenian youth’s inclusion and insertion in our Indian context.

Meaning and Methodology of POTA Programme

The Slovenian word POTA means WAYS in English. The POTA Programme was started in the year 2006 by the Slovenian Jesuits as one of their Youth Movement programme under MIC - Mladinsko Informacijski Center (Youth Information Centre) at Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia, to show their youth the new WAYS of living and loving in various developing countries of the world. Every year about 80 young volunteers leave their European homes by their own expenses to about nine nations and reach out to serve all kinds of humans at their door steps in different difficult situations and conditions.

The overall aims of this programme are three fold –

      I.   To encourage international development cooperation and aid contribution to the developing countries.

    II.        To increase and encourage intercultural exchange among the youth.

   III.        To raise awareness among the youth on global co-responsibility, solidarity and human rights.

POTA at Unteshwari - Kadi

From 10^th – 24^th July  (1 male and 6 females) and 7^th – 21^st August (8 females) Unteshwari was filled with such fifteen generous and committed youngsters (age between 19 – 25) who indeed made a difference in their pre-arranged working spots like hospital, schools, aged home and rehabilitation centres in Kadi Block. Mornings were spent in the Religious (Madhurya Bhuvan, Sandhya Vishram and Unteshwari)  and Private (Springdale school and Bhagyoday hospital)  institutions with service-based activities, whereas evenings were spent in encountering the ground reality of the inclusive involvement  of the Unteshwari Mission in the villages and towns of this region. Besides, the planned guided tours to the various Christian neighbourhood missions and other faith centres have opened their minds and hearts to experience how God is operative in His mission through various missionaries and persons of good will. Their presence and participation in our celebration of life and liturgy have enthused in fact mutually the new ways of Christian living and loving here and there. Yes. In this way, the POTA mission has brought in a different way meaningfully the international cooperation and interprovincial collaboration true to the spirit of the 35^th General Congregation of the Jesuits! All for His greater glory! 

God’s Colourful Images

In the below placed two pictures we see the beautiful and colourful Slovenian images, who are basically the University students of various faculties, they, without making any fuss, inserted themselves joyfully within our WAY of life by respecting and accepting the cultural nuances of the North Gujarat Mission. Indeed, the seven persons during the seventh month (July) and the eight persons during the eighth month (August) have been our precious gifts who transmitted the great human values like simplicity and solidarity with all in the diverse communities of our Kadi block in Mehsana district. Wherever they lived and moved, and whenever they served and encountered persons in the villages and towns, spontaneously both the groups exchanged smiles and it was very obvious to have the PHOTO programme within the POTA programme! Each wanted to capture images of each other! Memorable moments of positive energy building exercises which cannot be easily forgotten!

Group I: Seven from Heaven!

From Left to Right: Girish (Host); Uršula Vratuša Globočnik (Journalism) ; Veronika Krafogel (Nursing); Jerneja Pirc (Social Pedagogy; captain); Valentina Pevec (Medicine); Rok Pogačnik (Seminarian – 1st year of theology ); Klara Malovrh (KG Teaching); Eva Podbregar (Medicine).

Group II: Eight of God’s precious Sight!

From Left to Right: Girish (Host); Lija Gantar (Literature & Japanology); Kristina Pezdirc (Economics); Teja Sulejmanovič (Secondary Teaching); Petra Hribar (Nursing; Captain); Katja Ravnikar (Psychology); Neja Hrovat (Photography & Designing); Anja Stanič (Social Pedagogy); Maša Razdevšek (Pharmacy).

Conclusion

When most of the students of Europe wait for their summer holidays to enjoy themselves in parks, bars and beaches, these 15 pearls decided with their own conscience to spend meaningfully their summer vacation as volunteers for a month in India. Blessed be their melting hearts and their motivating parents! 

Each group was with us for 15 days and then left for Kolkatta to serve in the Blessed Mother Teresa Homes and in a School managed by a Slovenian lady Mrs. Mojca. While being with us here in Gujarat both the groups were specially taken to Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati, Ahmedabad. On their return they were moved by the visit of the Ashram and they fondly remembered the writing on the wall in the Ashram: “My life is my message – Gandhi”. While they remember the words of our Gandhi Bapu, the Father of our Nation, do we see something unique in these young minds the inner freedom to choose the new WAYS of living and loving in our Indian context? Yes. Truly their life too, as we encountered, has become a message to all of us in our region. At this moment, though they are not physically with us here at Unteshwari, our humble prayer for them is: May God continue to bless them wherever they are and go, and may they continue to walk ALWAYS in His WAYS! Amen.   

Girish Santiago, SJ