austraLasia #2058

Gustav Roosen's last dream

PATTANI (Thailand):  12th February 2008 --  "I am 81 years of age, 51 years a priest and missionary in Thailand", says Fr Gustav Roosens, a Belgian Salesian missionary par excellence.  He has lived in the southern regions of Thailand for the past 28 years, 20 of which have been spent 'in the provinces': Pattani, Narathivat, Yala.
    "My last dream is for the the youth of Pattani and these three provinces in southern Thailand.  I know the situation well.  Don Bosco helped the young with problems, trusting fully in God.  The situatiion here is little different from the time of Don Bosco. My dream is to help young people know that there is someone who loves them.  Mr Charoen Suvanmongkon, who died some years ago, has helped me realise this dream.  He gave me 6 hectares in Pattani".
    Fr Roosens has received additional help from benefactors and has built a huge centre for training up apprentices.  The centre includes 4 workshops, a 4 storey building which can also house boarding students.  In the course of 2008 he hopes to build a community residence for those who will follow him in this work.  Everything is now ready to open in June 2008, God-willing.
    The 'last dream' is no fatalistic wish but the desire of a man who has followed in Don Bosco's 'dreaming' footsteps.  As he looks back over 45 or more years of his labours of love he can claim to have provided an entire village (20 homes) for poor families in Ko Samui, at least two churches and a string of schools, a pipeline and dam to supply water to Ban Saeng Aroon Village - and now 'the last dream', a vocational training centre for the poor in Pattani.
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Title: australasia 2058
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces THA Fr Gustav Roosens
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2058