Online Radio Cahaya Kinabalu: Two Seminarians join Fr Nick

Sem Lordkennylister and Sem Heldy joined Fr Nick in the Radio Cahaya Kinabalu session

By Sr Bibiana Densia, fsp

Jan 29 2021

RANAU – A new initiative for the New Year! Online Radio Cahaya Kinabalu greeted the New Year by initiating a new arrangement by featuring Fr Nicholas Stephen with two diocesan seminarians, Lordkennylister James and Heldy Amin.

These two newcomers to the online radio program are both having their one month pastoral work at St Peter Claver’s Church Ranau (SPCR). Both are in their second year of Philosophy.

Seminarian Lordkennylister hails from Tuaran, while seminarian Heldy is from Kiulu. They are currently stationed in Ranau until the end of January, after which they will be returning to College General Penang to continue their studies.

The pandemic restricted the two seminarians from moving around freely to do their outreach program. Nevertheless, they both shared that they were grateful for the opportunity to be with the three resident priests (Fr Francis Tsen, Fr Maximilliano Hontor and Fr Nick himself) at SPCR, and to experience with them how it feels like to continue serving the people of God even during this time of pandemic.

Fortunately, their time in Ranau during the pandemic has provided them with the opportunity to be exposed and be involved in the Cahaya Kinabalu Online Radio program hosted by Fr Nick. This indeed serves as part of their pastoral work and learning process, in utilizing a very powerful means and platform which enables them to reach out to a much larger audience, even beyond the confines of the parish.

During the pandemic, many people are looking for solace and a place to find their source of strength in their faith. This special program aired at Cahaya Kinabalu has precisely this in mind. It is intended to provide an avenue for the listeners to interact with their hosts even as they follow them online, from the comfort of their homes.

The program is a kind of faith formation through a conversational style. At the outset, Fr Nick and the seminarians discussed about the three sources of teaching authority in the Catholic Church, namely: the Magisterium, the Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. And Fr Nick stressed the importance of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as point of reference because it contains the treasures of our Catholic faith. It sounds like heavy stuff but in reality it was a light program revolving around our day to day life of faith.

What was interesting is that they were entertaining real time questions from the viewers. As such, the two seminarians were seen constantly monitoring their handsets to check for questions posted at the Cahaya Kinabalu facebook page. Some of the questions were problems experienced personally or as a family in relation to their life of faith, or even things that interest them on prayer, the Sacraments, Confession, about dreams, marriage and family life, and even questions concerning priestly vocations and life as a seminarian and many others.

Fr Nick dubbed the program “On the Spot”. Appropriately so, because Fr Nick and the two seminarians were literally “on the spot” to answer all their questions quickly, with honesty and clarity, accompanied with some sense of humour, typical of Fr Nick. At the same time, for the two seminarians, sharing their life in the seminary was another way to promote vocation to the priesthood.

Their three-way conversation in this New Year initiative of Cahaya Kinabalu Online Radio, which covers a wide variety of topics, has evoked a very encouraging response from the listeners. Based on the feedback on the Cahaya Kinabalu facebook page, many of them expressed appreciation and gratitude for such a program. Aside from being very candid and spontaneous, it was also very interesting, informative, and formative and faith enlightening. Through it they have learned many things about the Catholic faith conveyed in a very simple, relaxing and entertaining manner.

This special program with the seminarians has been streamed live for the fourth time on Jan 23, and according to Fr Nick, they will go live again for another two more times before the seminarians end their pastoral work in Ranau. Tune in to this show on this Thursday Jan 28 and Saturday Jan 30, beginning each day at 8:00pm.

Presently there are few other programs hosted by Fr Nick, streamed live through various platforms of Cahaya Kinabalu: