Report, Thursday, August 4, 2016 .

The atmosphere of this morning was cloudy. The sun  was covered by the cloud.  The weather seemed to describes the news of passing way our fellow brothers, Bro Nicolaus Prasadja. The news was delivered by Bro. Martin Handoko five minutes before the starting of our morning prayer.    This news certainly surprising the congress participants, especially for participants from Indonesia province. But we keep to continue with our agenda of today, because the plan for funeral was the following day, Friday 5, 2016. We included him in our morning prayer. We prayed for the peace of everlasting life for our fellow brother, Bro Nico Prasadja. The morning prayer led by Bro. Wim Luiten. The Theme of the prayer  was " Jesus the living image of God ". On this morning prayer, participants were invited to reflect on some articles of the Constitutions. 

After breakfast, The participants  (14 brothers) of formators’ meeting visited our formation house in Muntilan (postulate and noviciate).  Formators left for Muntilan at 08.30. Bro. Abertus Suwarto drove the formators to Muntilan by a car belongs to Dominico Savio Junior High School in Semarang.  The trip from Syalom Retret Haouse  to Muntilan took about 2 hours.

Participants arrived in Muntilan at 10.30. Fraters (the candidates) welcomed the brothers with full of enthusiasm. The encounter began with a drink and a snack together in pastulate’s dining room. Then, Brothers walked around the postulate are. There were several daily activities of the fraters which attracted brothers, such as gardening and poeltry (chicken, goat, fish). Fraters also entertained the brothers with the Javanese traditional music, called gamelan. Brothers were very happy and grateful for this entertainment.

The visiting then continued to the Novitiate environment. Brothers were invited to go around directly. The surroundings were clean, neat, beautiful and green. The Novices daily activities were like maintaining the house and poultry like lamb and fish. After going around, the brothers encounter with the fraterss. The encounter began with showing a short video to the visitors created by novices. The video told us about the novices daily activities. Then brothers from abroad introduced themselves one by one. This session was followed by  sharing experiences of the candidates (postulant and novices). Fraters shared their experiences on their family and during the formation process.

The encounter was ended with lunch together at the Brother’s house. Visiting the formation house gave the memorial impression, especially for the brothers from Ghana, Malawi, Netherland and Chile. Brothers also had the opportunity to visit Van Lith Boarding House Senior High School before leaving Muntilan for Syalom Retret House.

reported by Bro. Wensislaus (Indonesia Province)