By Ryan Dagur
DORIS Teh vividly remembers the unexpected turn her faith journey took during the Chinese New Year in January 2023.
The 42-year-old felt stressed at her workplace, a property management company in Jakarta. She was unsure whether to quit or stay in her managerial job.
That particular day, a national holiday, she was visiting her friend, a Buddhist like her, who was wheelchair-bound due to health complications.
“He suggested I try praying the Three Hail Mary Novena, assuring me he had experienced the special grace,” she recalled.
The friend claimed he was getting better since he started praying for Mary’s grace and was no longer relying on a wheelchair to move around. He was also reducing his medicine intake.
It surprised Teh, the only child of Buddhist parents, for whom visiting the temple had been a routine until she lost her father in 2013 and her mother in 2018.
“We were Buddhists since childhood, but I took my friend’s advice.”
She looked up the novena on the Internet and downloaded it on her phone.
“I don’t know why, but every time I prayed it, I couldn’t stop crying,” she told UCA News on Apr 6. “But slowly, I also began to experience the peace.”
After nine consecutive days of reciting the novena, Teh became curious about the Virgin Mary.
A random search on the Internet led her to a suggestion that she try seeing Mother Mary up close at a pilgrimage site.
She continued browsing and found the Kanada Mary Shrine at Rangkas Bitung in Banten Province, about two hours by train to the west of Jakarta.
She visited the place in March 2023. It was on a small hillside densely covered with trees and had a beautiful chapel, a replica of Jesus’ tomb, and a prayer garden.
She instantly felt at peace with herself and the world around her.
“That first visit made me addicted. Since then, I have been going there once every month and spending hours praying,” Teh said.
In June 2023, she decided to resign as a manager at the workplace after a six-year stint and began to focus on the small-scale laundry business she had set up at her home in 2015.
Doris continued to pray the novena, and every time she visited the Kanada Maria Shrine, one of her intentions was to land another job.
She had been applying to companies, and in January 2024, she got a new job.
“This new company offered me a lower position than I previously held, but I took it,” she said.
Teh was a different person since she started praying the novena.
“I used to be stubborn, but now I am calmer. I would rather allow a problem to resolve,” she added.
She was now convinced to become a Catholic.
She started attending Mass at the Saint Paschal Parish Church in Cempaka Putih, near her house in Central Jakarta.
In July-August, she attended the Novena of Saint Anthony of Padua at the parish run by the Franciscans and started catechumen class next month.
“The class taught me many things. I learned about other people undergoing worse problems than me. I felt grateful, especially because I was being healed through prayer,” she said.
Charle Manullang, her catechist at the parish, felt Teh’s determination to become a Catholic.
“It was evident from her enthusiasm. Even though she was still a catechumen, she participated in church activities, such as recollections and personal evangelization courses,” he said.
In addition to his interactions in class, Manullang established informal relationships with the catechumens, having the occasional lunch with them or simply a chat.
“I wanted to know their experiences,” he said.
Teh appeared increasingly convinced of her choice.
“Because I believe that in Catholicism, we have an extraordinary God who grants our needs through miracles,” she said.
For her, the miracles were “simple things that make our lives better,” and she learned to find “a way out every time there is a problem.”
Teh recalled how she was confronted with the problem of paying holiday allowance to her Muslim employees at the laundry business for the approaching Eid celebrations.
“I prayed and began to witness an increase in customers, giving me additional income to pay the allowance,” she said.
Teh will be baptized on Easter Sunday, Apr 20, along with 20 other catechumens.
“I am very excited,” she said.
Teh has chosen Gabrielle as her baptismal name because “like the Archangel Gabriel, I want to be a source of joy to others.”
Manullang, who has been a catechist since 1999, said that they receive an average of 50 catechumens annually, who are baptized on Christmas and Easter.
“A majority are Protestants, followed by Muslims and Buddhists,” he said.
Indonesia is a Muslim-majority nation, with nearly 87 percent of its 277 million people following Islam. Protestants are 7.47 percent, Catholics 3.08 percent, Hindus 1.71 percent, Buddhists 0.74 percent, Confucians 0.05 percent, and other faiths 0.03 percent.
Two months ago, Teh took along her Buddhist friend, who introduced her to the Three Hail Mary Novena, to the Kanada Mary Shrine.
“He hasn’t expressed his desire to become a Catholic yet, but I’m trying to get him to. It won’t be long now,” she said.
Speaking of her plans, Teh said: “I want to travel to as many pilgrimage sites as possible around the world and help more people improve their lives.” – UCA News
