Brisbane prep teacher Ora Duffley has seen firsthand how holiness is found in daily acts of love and service. Source: The Catholic Leader.
She spent two weeks in a community in Vanimo, Papua New Guinea, during the Easter break.
“What I saw in the children, their villages, the homes, the Mercy House, the school, is that in Papua New Guinea, amid the challenges and the beauty, the Gospel is being lived,” she said.
She believed that mission “in the Catholic tradition, we are all called to live with a missionary heart”.
The idea to go on this mission in PNG began in prayer during Lent.
And after a conversation with a friend who is a missionary for the Institute of the Incarnate Word, she packed her bags.
Although PNG was close to Australia geographically, both countries were vastly different, she said.
“Australia enjoys widespread access to education, healthcare, and infrastructure, but communities in places like Vanimo often face isolation, limited resources, and significant barriers to even basic services.
“I cannot look away,” she said.
“Mission is about presence, stepping beyond comfort and loving in a real, concrete way.”
The primary school is crowded with classrooms of more than 40 children in the stifling humidity of the tropics without electricity.
“Yet, children arrive in uniform (with) gratitude and pride. The children will have already walked, many barefoot, for many kilometres to school,” Ms Duffley said.
“You get a sense that the children know they are loved, are in good hands and that their lives are important.”
The children were eager to learn, and it showed when they turned up to school on their day off because an Australian teacher was visiting.
Ms Duffley said education for children in PNG was challenging due to travel constraints and limited resources.
Few children had access to books, many reached later primary years without strong literacy skills and in some grade 6 rooms, there were 18-year-olds, she said.
The school runs on donations, prayer and goodwill – Ms Duffley carried nearly 30kg of school supplies with her.
Any help was welcome, and Ms Duffley said everything donated was appreciated and used.
The current mission is led by Argentinian missionary Fr Martin Prado, assisted by Fr Christopher Etheridge (US), Deacon Pradeem (Sri Lanka) and 11 missionary sisters, the Servidoras.
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Brisbane teacher on mission witnesses Gospel being lived in PNG (By Kymberlee Gomes, The Catholic Leader)
