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January
9, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 1Oakland,
CA
Livermore man
begins duties
as a Maryknoll lay missioner
Steven Chinnavaso
has spent much of his life in training for the next three-and-a-half years.
Last week Chinnavaso left his home in Livermore to travel halfway around
the world to East Timor to begin an assignment as a Maryknoll lay missioner.
“I am very excited to go,” said the 30-year-old former science
teacher and member of St. Michael Parish.
Chinnavaso will live in the rural town of Aileu along with about a dozen
other members of Maryknoll. There he will teach music at the local high
school and work with a mobile library project. “I hope to share
my love for life and music with the East Timorese people,” he said.
Chinnavaso’s journey to mission work actually began when a family
trip Europe as a youth developed his curiosity about the world. He earned
a bachelor’s degree in biology at Stanford University in 1997 and
began teaching science. He discovered a passion for the profession, but
decided that he wanted to teach music instead.
He returned to school, this time to San Francisco State University, where
he earned a bachelor’s degree in music education with a vocal focus.
Outside of class he spent his time directing choirs at the middle and
high school levels. He supplemented his education with choral tours to
China and Cuba.
Although he enjoyed teaching music, Chinnavaso felt that he had still
another calling, one that involved some kind of community service. At
the same time he felt drawn to work outside the country. After some thought
and research he become a volunteer with a Minnesota parish that had a
sister parish in Guatemala.
In 2002, he took a leave from his two jobs and traveled to Guatemala.
After a brief stint in language school he settled in at the parish, teaching
music, helping to run the mobile library, and doing a lot of teacher training.
As he got to know many Guatemalans, the educator-turned-mission worker
experienced a life-changing revelation.
“I learned a lot about how there is so much more to life than just
the material, or the things that we have,” he said. “Spiritually
I felt that I grew so much by just being in community with the Guatemalan
people and through the simple fact that we could share a meal and have
conversation and grow with one another. I felt that was very much lacking
in my life here in the U.S.”
He returned to the U.S. in 2003 and began to think about his life and
what he wanted to do next. He realized that he wanted to do “more
substantial work” and have the support of an organization behind
him. He applied to be a Maryknoll lay missioner.
After being accepted by Maryknoll, Chinnavaso returned to Guatemala to
spend another year completing some unfinished work and continuing to nurture
relationships that had started there. His second year in Guatemala helped
to strengthen his decision to continue in mission work with Maryknoll.
“Although I’m [now]going to a completely different country
and a completely different culture and a different language, I really
have felt very strongly called to do this because of all that I have learned
and all that I continue to learn and will learn being a missioner through
Maryknoll,” he said.
To prepare for his journey to East Timor, Chinnavaso completed a 14-week
orientation program with Maryknoll before receiving his mission cross
and formal assignment during a Dec. 10 ceremony at the Maryknoll Mission
Society Center in Ossining, N.Y.
During the program he learned what is means to be a lay missioner with
Maryknoll. He and other missioners-in-training from around the country
took a variety of classes that covered such areas as theology, cultural
adaptation (learning about how to enter another culture), trauma and violence,
and conflict resolution.
Additionally, he had repeated conversations with Maryknollers on assignment
in East Timor about the country’s turbulent past and recent history.
Just three years ago, East Timor became one of the world’s newest
countries when it achieved independence after 450 years of foreign occupation.
Following the collapse of Portuguese rule, the country declared itself
independent on Nov. 28, 1975. Nine days later it was invaded by Indonesian
authorities.
During the next 22 years, civil unrest, famine and persecution by Indonesian
military killed some 200,000 people.
After Indonesia, under international pressure, relinquished control of
the territory, the United Nations stepped in to set up an interim government
and helped rebuild a devastated infrastructure.
Right now, the future of East Timor is hopeful, said Chinnavaso, with
organizations like Maryknoll trying to help in the rebuilding process.
Chinnavaso hopes his assignment in East Timor will allow him to be a source
of positive change for others. “I want to be part of the process
of trying to do what I can to bring more equality and more social justice
in the world.”
Steven
Chinnavaso
