I have just returned from my teaching regency in East Timor.  Regency is a two-year period of exposing the Jesuit in formation to the various apostolic works of the Society.  In the Philippines, regents are usually sent to our schools.  I was sent to a foreign mission assignment – a possibility never even occurred to me when I joined the Jesuits. 

I come from the island of Olutanga in Zamboanga Sibugay province.  The Spanish Jesuits who were expelled from China came to our island and founded two parochial schools there. 

I am a product of the Jesuit mission in Olutanga.  I have always been very grateful to the Jesuit missionaries, and I think this made me more patient and loving when my turn came to be a missionary in East Timor.

Coming from a family of farmers, I had very limited possibilities for a good education.  I was a working student in high school, and I had to work doubly hard to keep my Ateneo de Zamboanga (ADZU) scholarship and finish a degree in Education.  I was  convinced that a good education was the key to success.  This shaped my desire to dedicate my life to education — formal or informal.  And the opportunity to work for the education apostolate was one of the reasons why I volunteered to be sent to East Timor.

I wanted to enter the novitiate right after high school, but there were many complications.  After I finished my college degree,  I worked for three years to help my family.  I helped send my three younger sisters to school (I  am the eldest and the only boy in the family).

The idea of joining the Jesuits came to me at the time when I was dreaming big dreams.  I felt that the island was not enough for me.  To become rich is the usual dream of the young, but my religion teacher would always tell us in class how St. Ignatius of Loyola convinced St. Francis Xavier to follow him. Ignatius persistently asked Francis, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but in the process loses his soul?” This left a mark in my heart that later influenced my choices and decisions.

To make a long story short, I entered the novitiate and after two years, moved on to the juniorate, a period of sharpening our communication skills.  At the end of my one-year juniorate, my Rector asked me whether I was open to the idea of moving to Arrupe International Residence.  I said yes without imagining the consequences.  I thought that it was just a joke.  The reality hit me when it was finally announced that I would be in Arrupe for the next two years of philosophical studies.

It was in Arrupe that I met more Jesuits from Asia.  It was there that my understanding of being a Jesuit got widened beyond the Philippine province.  Some Arrupeans would tease me to volunteer to countries like Myanmar and East Timor.  Those were just jokes, but they stirred something deep in me. The diversity of Jesuits I met in Arrupe International Residence also gave me an opportunity to appreciate the international character of the Society.  It was then that I thought more about the life of St. Francis Xavier.  After my foreign exposure in East Timor and at the start of my second year in Philosophy, I wrote a letter to my Provincial and volunteered for East Timor.

There were many worries and concerns in going for a foreign mission such as language, food, peace and order, culture, and being homesick.  There was also the fear of losing my connection with friends.  However, the example of St. Francis Xavier seized my imagination and awakened a sense of adventure to new frontiers. 

I arrived in East Timor during a major political crisis. I had not really settled in when violence escalated to a point that made the Philippine embassy urge me to return to our country.  I shared this with the Jesuits in my community, but they just smiled and joked about it.  I did not know what to expect, so I just silently did whatever little a neophyte missionary could do.  I was afraid, but I told myself to remain calm and not to complain because I volunteered for this.  Nobody forced me to go to Timor.  It was a concrete situation of placing my trust and confidence in the God Who called me.

Even when the political situation calmed down, life in the mission was still far from easy. The context there was just so different from what I had grown accustomed to in the Philippines. Fr. Jojo Magadia, SJ told me in one of his e-mails to strive to develop a learner’s attitude and to pray for the humility to accept that I knew very little.  I had to learn from my everyday experiences — to open my heart and mind, to accept where the people were, and to dream dreams with them.

My regency in East Timor was an experience of growing in freedom and service, of living my Jesuit vocation without my superiors always there to tell me what I should do.  My director of work gave me liberty to execute my mission according to my style and creativity.  There were many things to do, and I had many ideas about how to do them. But the situation there was just saddled with so many limiting factors.  What kept me going amidst the many frustrations and difficulties was the realization that my ministry was not about my success.  It was about working for God’s greater glory.  It was about giving my self towards the fulfillment of God’s plan and promise.

My friends tease me about being sent “from a small island to the wide, wide world.” Taken out of context, that can sound like the selfish fulfillment of a personal ambition, but for me, it is an affirmation of how God has truly blessed me.

- Bert Boholst, SJ