Catholic Parveen Bibi’s life is an example of how poor Christian mothers contribute to the Church’s growth in Pakistan
For Mary Song Thi May, a 32-year-old mother of two, her deprived childhood and difficult youth are a distant memory since she embraced Catholicism. “I no longer feel wretched about life as Catholicism is the breath of life to me. Since I met God, I am quite determined to bring divine love to other poor people,” she says while adjusting her colorful ethnic attire.
Mary hails from Ho Sen, a village in the impoverished Hua Nhan commune, in north western Vietnam’s remote and mountainous Son La province, some 300 kilometers from Hanoi.
The Hmong woman makes it a point to visit local families in the evenings to tell them about a mighty God, who is better than nature gods, and the priests and lay Catholics from the local Mai Yen Parish, who extend material support to the needy.
“At first they have no clue what I am talking about, but after several visits they fully understand and ask me to take them to the priests,” she said. “I think it is God who opens their minds and shows them how to come to him.”
On weekends, she gathers local Catholic villagers to her home to say prayers in their native language as they speak little Vietnamese. They console one another, make donations to help people in need, send sick people to hospitals, and pray for good weather and crops.
May in traditional costume serves as a godmother at a baptism in Mai Yen Church in March.
Ho Sen village is a mission station with 24 Hmong families, half of whom converted to Catholicism in the past three years.
The Hmong people in Hua Nhan commune are among the poorest people in Vietnam who eke out a living by growing rice, plums, peach, tea, and other crops on the hills. They also raise cattle and poultry but lack food some parts of the year.
The families, with many children, live in wooden houses that often get damaged by hailstorms and floods. The living conditions are bad and they have little access to education and health care.
Whenever someone falls ill, the family borrows money to buy poultry or cattle and approaches a shaman to make offerings to gods in the hope of an often elusive cure.
May recalls her father died from illness when she was only four months old. When her mother remarried, she was forced to drop out of school as a fifth-grader to look after her younger siblings. She also did the housework, herded cattle, and worked on the farm to support the family.
She was barely 15 years old when she was “kidnapped for marriage” by a teenager who was in grade ten. “I was too young to know what love was,” she said.