Lucia Otgongerel (Photo credit: UCANews)
Posted on 08/21/2008 7:49:14 AM PDT by NYer
.- Lucia Otgongerel was born in Mongolia 30 years ago without hands or legs. She lived in a deep depression until 2002 when she converted to Catholicism and, as she explains, discovered “true joy.” Today she works in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulan Bator, as a teacher for seven children with special needs.
Now Lucia claims, “I could not live without my faith.” She overcomes the challenges of her physical condition though an intense life of prayer: including the daily Rosary, meditations and study of the Bible in the midst of her predominately Buddhist country.
In an interview granted to UCANews, Lucia explains that her daily work with seven disabled boys whose ages range from 15-19. Lucia teachers, despite not having hands: cooking, cleaning, reading and writing at the Faith Center, a small school run by St. Mary’s parish in Ulan Bator which opened last September.
The sixth of eight children, Lucia Otgongerel was born in the Zavhan, a remote province in the Asian country of Mongolia. She had a very difficult childhood that started to improve when she began using her first prosthetic leg. Because of it, she was able to attend cooking classes at a very young age which has greatly increased her cooking skills.
“Even without hands, there is nothing I can’t do. I can open doors with keys, sew, work on the computer, use the cell phone, cut up food, cook – nothing is impossible! I like embroidery and beads. People are surprised when they see my parents’ house, decorated all over with my needlework,” she says.
She recalls that in 2001 she began going to Mass because her sister was the friend of the bishop’s secretary. While she was interested in the celebration, she did not have much faith. She explains that she enjoyed the songs sung in English and the words continued to ring in her ears, though she did not understand the lyrics.
Faith in Christ began the following year and after praying the Rosary intensely, but with great difficulty at home. She realized the importance of prayer and decided to convert to Catholicism.
“Since then, I pray a lot, every day, all the time. I pray a lot and cry. When young people in the church see me like that, they just leave me alone, and when I come out of the church laughing, they know I was praying.”
“It would be hard for me without prayer. I pray every morning before I leave home….Later in the day, I also read the daily readings and meditate. I try to implement the message of each day’s readings. It gives me much power.”
“Prayer is an important part of my life. I am alone a lot, so I pray all the time. I make time to read the Bible. I am also writing a book about the church in Nisekh and about faith.”
“My faith is very important to me. I could not live without my faith.”
Lucia also explained how she was often depressed and felt incapable of doing things. “I was a very different person before being Catholic.” After her conversion, she recalls, “I wanted to tell many people about my faith, so I started with my family. Several people followed me. My niece is now baptized. My younger brother, my older brother’s children and my two friends come to church too.”
“People seeing me somehow get interested in God and the Church. Our church in Nisekh is like a family. I have been teaching catechism there to seven adults, five women and two men.”
When discussing her work, Lucia credits a Polish volunteer, Violetta, for showing her “how to teach challenged children. She taught me very intensively for two months, and then I read many books about how to teach special children. But mostly I learned from the children themselves.”
She also noted that “most of my time is taken up by this school. This work is very beautiful. The children are not ordinary, so we can’t have many in one room. I now have seven students and feel I’ll soon need a helper. They obey me very well, but at first they did not know I was their teacher.”
“During this first year I learned how to work with each student.”
For Lucia, challenges never end because of her physical condition. She suffers from kidney problems because her legs “do not bend at the knees. The doctors say the way I move while walking is too stressful for my kidneys.”
Lucia also plans to bring her elderly parents to Ulan Bator. “I have not seen them for three years. I have to save up 115,000 tugrug (about $100) to travel there. I need to see them, and decide if I must bring them soon, or whether it can wait a little.”
She plans to save from her monthly paycheck, which totals $150 per month.
“I want to take care of my parents and my sister who first took me to church.”
“My parents are very happy about me because I’m very successful. All my life, they worried a lot about me. Parents worry about their children even if they have hands and legs, but they worried even more about me because I was born without them.”
The original interview can be found at UCANews: http://www.ucanews.com/2008/08/13/i-could-not-live-without-my-faith/
Source: http://www.ucanews.com
“I pray a lot and cry.”
The “baptism of tears”; +Symeon the New Theologian called it one of the greatest blessings.
Wonderful article. Thanks.
Really? My mistake I guess. What then did you mean by "It seems to me that converts from paganism often find more joy in Catholic Christianity than in Protestantism", if not a quantity of joy?
When a claim is made that x (joy found by pagans converting to Catholicism) is greater than y (joy found by pagans converting to Protestantism), a claim of something quantifiable has been made. At least here in the English language.
But, in all honesty, I believed your comment to be merely a statement of opinion, not at all something objective. Your response confirmed that. And I have no problem with your opinion, given that I recognize it for what it is.
You wrote:
“What then did you mean by “It seems to me that converts from paganism often find more joy in Catholic Christianity than in Protestantism”, if not a quantity of joy?”
I meant what I wrote, and it is not quantifiable.
“When a claim is made that x (joy found by pagans converting to Catholicism) is greater than y (joy found by pagans converting to Protestantism), a claim of something quantifiable has been made. At least here in the English language.”
No. I said: “It seems to me that converts from paganism often find more joy in Catholic Christianity than in Protestantism.” You have altered what I said by claiming that I said the joy was found by pagans converting to Catholicism or to Protestantism. I said “in”, not “to”. The joy is not what they experience within themselves as only related to a personal experience within themselves, but what they discover IN the Catholic faith itself. And that cannot be quantified specifically. It can only be said to be more.
“But, in all honesty, I believed your comment to be merely a statement of opinion, not at all something objective.”
I did say “seems”.
“Your response confirmed that. And I have no problem with your opinion, given that I recognize it for what it is.”
Then, if you have no problem with my opinion, why did you alter the meaning of what I said? You did so when you first wrote: “Does one’s self report of joy in their decision yield such quantifiable results?”
Vlad - you used the language of comparison of amounts, not me. I wondered how you arrived at it, and you have answered quite clearly - you simply assert it to be true.
No problem here.
That is so funny..... so very true.
Do you have a similar list for “outreach” to non-Catholic Christians?
You wrote:
“Do you have a similar list for “outreach” to non-Catholic Christians?”
There is no such list. Although there are plenty of former Protestants who do apologetics for the Catholic Church, I do not know of a single one who has an organization designed with the same sort of intent, or named in a similar fashion, to the ones I posted. Catholics just don’t seem to act that way.
LOL, You ROCK!
What a wonder convert story.
we have the Eucharist, which IS Christ!
Emphasis on “if.”
I have read the books of/about:
Scott Hahn
David Currie
Roy Scheinman
Jeff Cavins
Edith Stein
Steven Ray is next.
I'm sure you're familiar with this:
An anti-religion Minnesota biology professor expects to receive dozens of consecrated Communion wafers in response to his public solicitation that people send him the hosts in order that he may publicly desecrate them.
My question is this: Is he actually harming Jesus or is he just making an ass of himself with a cracker?
You might want to read Alex Jones’ story too.
What is your alternative? Which do you think is the Church that Christ founded?
-A8
well you ask Christ that.
Remember, Christ said that His Kingdom is not of this world, so when He was arrested His Father would not send down angels to His rescue. He was mocked because of this display of ‘weakness’.
In the ‘weakness’ of the Eucharist Christ’s glory is shown to those with a listening heart.
(btw... Paul also talks about sins against the Eucharist as sins against the Body of Christ)
Now, from my point of view, it is just bread and just wine and the significance is in the condition of the heart of the recipient.
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