I have known the Sisters since the age fo 15. It has been a golden 38 years with the Good Shepherd Sisters.
In 1971, a young and naive girl, raised in a single-parent family, went in search of “love”. Not knowing what the real world had in store for me, I ended mixing with the wrong company. My mother was desperate as she did not know how to help me.
Fortunately, she learnt through a friend about Madonna Heights. Together with my sister, she brought me there to be sheltered for the next five years. While at Madonna Heights, I completed my studies and later, was offered a job as a clerk in Pusat Kebajikan Good Shepherd. I spent two years working there.
Not long after, the Sisters were kind enough to recommend me a job in a legal firm. Subsequently, I got married to a man whom I thought would take good care of me. I never imagined it could happen to me but it did. I had married a “love his family” conman. By the time I discovered the truth, I already had a daughter. Living with this conman husband was leading a life of fear – fear of creditors showing up and threatening the family.
Despite this situation, I still loved my husband very much and was hopeful that he would change. Carrying this hope, I continued living with him. He went in and out of jail. each time, I was hopeful he would change. He was given chance after chance to change. I was beginning to see an “empty hope”.
Many times, I turned to the Sisters for help – accommodation, work, counselling, and more – you name it, the Sisters had been through it with me. They were always there for me. In spite of their many disappointments with me, the Sisters took me in each time I was “in trouble”.
By the time my second child arrived, my husband had not changed one bit. The last straw was my discovery of his unfaithfulness to me. That was it. I really couldn’t take it anymore. I left home with my two children and sought help from the Sisters, again. This time I was very strong and decisive. I filed for divorce.
The Sisters helped me navigate through this very difficult time. I was really down in the dumps. I felt helpless and hopeless. It was the Sisters’ patience, love and care that saw me through and lifted me up. They offered me a job in the Kindergarten. I have been working there since. My two children have grown up. Without the Good Shepherd Sisters, I would not be what, and where, I am today. They taught me to be strong. “They can because they think they can,” and “Gratitude is the memory of the heart,” – these words of encouragement from the Sisters are inscribed in my heart.
I am truly grateful to the Sisters. I will never ever be able to repay their kindness, not in this lifetime.
~ Anonymous ~
Good Shepherd Mission 