Hi,
My name is Mario. I am COSDU''s Social Justice Coordinator for 2014-2015.
What is Social Justice? Well, to put it short, it's about being kind to others. Why I decided to take on this role? It all began in the beginning of 2014. At that time, I was thinking of starting to give back to society as my new year resolution, mainly because I realized that I've been so blessed in my life, so much that I think it'll be injustice if I don't try to share my blessings to others. And so, I started to do some volunteering works with Friends of Refugees. However, I was just doing it for the sake of doing it. I don't have any attachments or anything, I just want to feel good for doing something to others. Very shallow, but that's all I could do at that time. Until one day, there came a time when I was feeling really down that I came upon this man in Detention Centre. He was so joyful, so friendly, and he gave this aura of a free man, so much that I thought he was one of the staff there before. I was really surprised when I found out that he was actually one of the refugees, and he has been there for years!!!! He didn't know anything about his future, but even in that situation, he still looked really joyful and the only thing he cares about is how to make his fellow refugees inside that detention centre not to lose hope. It was a really amazing experience for me, and I felt like I saw Jesus in that person. After that encounter, I was more interested in knowing more about Jesus in the ministry that I'm doing, and that's when things got interesting. Little by little, I could see Jesus more and more in others, in the refugees I helped, in the other volunteers, in the Friends of Refugees organizers, in strangers, and even inside me. Then, there came a point when I thought that I wanted to introduce Jesus to my friends, the cosduans, and that's how I decided to be the Social Justice Coordinator.
The role of Social Justice coordinator itself is quite simple. Other than helping the other committee members, I only need to plan two sessions for one year (which is nothing compared to session coordinator) and 1 social justice activity for the whole year (Little Sister of the Poor, where we visit nursery to serve and cheer elderly people). Other than that, it's entirely up to me how I want to bring the social justice to COSDU. Not the social justice with the definition in Wikipedia or something, but the social justice that I have come to understand after I experienced it myself, the one that I am still learning even until now in my journey with God.
As for my experience itself, it's been quite an interesting journey I guess. It started with a hype, for both me and COSDU. We were quite fired up with the Friends of Refugees, each week more and more people are coming. But then, things started to go down. Less and less people are coming, till there are less than 5 people still involved with the ministry now. But even then, I don't think of it as my failure or anything. As I said in the beginning, it's a journey, and just like any others, there's no success or failures in it, it's just about the walk, which you can either be grumpy about it, or enjoy it. I chose the latter one. True, if we see the results alone, it seems like a total failure given the number of people involved now. However, in the process, I could see some of my friends growing in faith to be who they are now, and I could see myself growing as well. We all learned something from it and became better people because of it, and it's truly something that I will never regret. I don't know how others see it, or how the Social Justice ministry in COSDU itself will go from now on, but at least for me, it's a wonderful experience and I hope that Social Justice ministry will keep being alive in COSDU, not in the way I want it, but in the way God plans it :)
Kind regards,
Mario
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