This reflection was shared during the East Asian Pastoral Institute’s (EAPI) grand homecoming celebrations from 11 to 15 September 2026, marking EAPI’s 60th anniversary.

I converted to Catholicism at the ripe old age of 33. When I was baptised, I felt I had found the pearl of great price. I wanted to study at EAPI because, in 1976, EAPI helped facilitate the Great Renewal, or Aggiornamento, in Malaysia. EAPI directors, such as Fr Alfonso Nebreda SJ and Fr Aldolfo Nicolás SJ, came to Malaysia to teach us what the New Way of Being Church was all about.

There are so many reasons to give thanks to EAPI. I may be prejudiced, but the best way to express thanks is in Bahasa Malaysia. Terima means “receive” and Kasih means “love”. Any occasion to say Terima Kasih is a moment of grace, as one has given and the other has received love. I am sure you agree with me that at EAPI, we received a LOT of love from so many people.

However, please allow me to thank the founding fathers, the directors, the staff, and the presenters. I feel truly blessed to have been taught by some of the best theologians in the world, the cream of the cream. I have also been touched by all the participants, both past and present.

In order to prepare for this thanksgiving message, I asked many participants to share with me their sentiments about EAPI. The consensus was that EAPI is God’s great GIFT to us. At EAPI, we have a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. EAPI is our home away from home. Therefore, please allow me to expand on the acronym H.O.M.E.S.

H stands for Holy Ground.

For most participants, this holy ground is a place of healing, renewal, updating, and connection—not just with the vertical dimension but with the horizontal dimension, too. We have grown here, and we continue to grow after leaving EAPI. We discovered our true selves and how we are loved for who we are, not for what we can do for others. I found that I am a child of God. I am loved, warts and all. I learnt to embrace failures, and I learnt to rejoice in success.

O stands for encounter with the Other.

When I was studying at EAPI in 2000, there were 80 participants from 20 different countries. This rich melting pot of cultures and traditions was so mind-boggling and challenging for me, a new convert, and yet it was so refreshing. I experienced the universality of the Catholic Church, and I saw her beauty and glory.

The joys and struggles, especially the “fights” we had in our national, regional, and cross-cultural groups, honed me into the person I am today—more understanding and empathetic. I lost my individualist streak and learnt not just to accept differences but also to celebrate the other.

I am most grateful to EAPI for helping me to encounter and enter into the world of the poor. During our exposure and immersion programmes, I was able to visit people living in the garbage mountains in Payatas, where a landslide took the lives of a few hundred people. I could still smell the stench of the rotting bodies. I cried when I saw their deep suffering and again when I encountered the poor people of Tondo.

The author with Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ in 2017

These experiences touched me so deeply and propelled me to return to my country, Malaysia, to help form the Parish Integral Human and Parish Migrant ministries in the archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, where the needs of the vulnerable, the poor, and the forgotten are met at the grassroots and parish levels.

At EAPI, the teachings of Vatican II came alive. We lived its spirit and the spirit of community. I learnt about the Catholic Social Teachings. I was here during the EDSA 2 Revolution in 2001. We were out in the crushing crowds along EDSA, translating our faith into action. It was such an amazing experience, as I do not get such experiences in Malaysia.

I also give thanks for the solid, deep, and lifelong friendships that I have established at EAPI with Vicky Faicol, Jo Tondo, Lettie Taberdo, Mencie, and many others.

I remember how my friendship with a batchmate in 2001, a Comboni priest called Fr Cosimo, led me to Cairo, Egypt to serve the Sudanese refugees. I met Miyuki Asano, who, upon graduation from EAPI, became a lay missionary and served 17 long years amongst the poor in Cambodia. I also learnt from Jacinta Cardoza, a Singaporean lay missionary, how she and her team set up a teaching institute in Myanmar to uplift education standards there under extremely repressive conditions.

Yes, I learnt from them how to work and live with the poor and how to be poor.

Cheryl Lee with former classmates and programme officer during EAPI’s 60th anniversary celebrations

M is for Mystery.

I encountered God, who is Mystery, in the beautiful walks at EAPI, during sunsets, sunrises, moonwalks, and the “Couples for Christ” walks. I also encountered God in the diverse and beautiful cross-cultural liturgies.

At EAPI, I could bask in the beautiful presence of God in sacred stillness and silence, which I still practise in my daily life. EAPI helped me to integrate head and heart, to move from a cognitive, urban mindset to one of feeling and doing.

E is for Enlightenment.

We have received great enlightenment from the Lord at EAPI. We are called to continually renew ourselves, our communities, our church, and the whole world.

S is for Service, for servant leadership. 

We are called to be leaven, humble servants who wash feet, to love and serve as how God loved us.

I would like to say that we all love EAPI. This is the place where our hearts belong; this is our beloved HOME, and what a beautiful home it is!

Forming the EAPI Alumni Circle is truly a step in the right direction. Through it, we could now build “homes” to spread God’s love and light in every nook and corner of the world.