. I am grateful for the opportunity to feel able to be grateful for this joint mission. The first thing I thanked for was the meeting with the older sisters, because for me they are the generation that contributed a lot for celebrating this ‘thanksgiving’. The faces, full of sincere love, which they show into their old age radiate hope for our future generations. We are grateful,too, that the older sisters were also able to celebrate together with us. Together with them, I was encouraged to interpret the 90-year Mission of Divine Providence.
Many thanks to our predecessors, the sisters of "Pondok Harapan"! Their prayers and blessings truly strengthen us to continue this mission of Divine Providence. I also witnessed unity, mutual help, and collaboration from the entire team at the thanksgiving ceremony, who had worked hard to prepare each scheduled event. A well-prepared liturgy that involved both the community and the teachers. A teachers' choir of representatives of each school unit in Semarang enlivened this celebration. Very important was the memory of the first missionaries through a short musical opera about missionary journeys in Indonesia, performed by students from the kindergarten and primary school Kebon Dalem 2 and the middle school Kebondalem.
All the sisters, communities, foundations, institutions, students and teachers, friends of Providence, collaborators and benefactors involved in this thanksgiving ceremony showed how to transmit hope through the exchange of skills, talents, potential.
Knitting gratitude, sharing hope – the theme of the Thanksgiving for the 90 years of missionary work of the Sisters of Divine Providence in Indonesia is meaningful and invites us all to continue our process of "knitting gratitude" for the next century. Your Providence, O Father, directs everything! Many thanks to the entire preparation committee!
(Sr. Nurwaningsih SDP)