CLAD Philippines and RC Deaf Mission Malaysia 2008

Last year in October 2008, our group, the Catholic Layman’s Association of the Deaf (CLAD) of Our Lady of Peace – Edsa Shrine chapter accepted the invitation of Ms. Agnes Peters, a deaf interpreter and advocate of the RC Deaf Mission in Malaysia to visit her country. We met her during her first two visits at Edsa Shrine (attending the Sunday mass), while here in the country doing some business. She was our host during our three days stay at Malaysia. She introduced us to some of the deaf people there and the people in their organization the RC Deaf Mission. We even attended mass at the Assumption Church with Rev. Fr. Phillips Muthu, their parish priest, as the mass celebrant. He shared with us a lot of things especially the importance of concentration and not being distracted by any outside sound or noise just like what disturbs a hearing person during a religious ceremony or during mass. Luckily for us, we are not distracted by any noise with our incapacity but what he was really telling us was the inside noise that we hear. That we must listen to the sound of our heart, to concentrate and pay more attention with our lives and show and observe fully how we act and live as true Christians. We were helped by our new deaf friends to tour/see the different places and the beautiful sights there including the world’s highest towers, the Petronas towers. Our stay in Malaysia gave us a beautiful experience of seeing other cultures and of meeting and having new friends.