It was still dark when the village began to stir. A mother wrapped her shawl tighter around her child. An elderly couple sat quietly outside their wooden hut, waiting for the day to warm their bones. In the distance, the mountains of northern Thailand stood silent—beautiful, remote, and unforgiving.  No clinic.  No paved road.  No one coming—at least not usually.  And yet, this is precisely where the Church belongs.  There is something deeply Gospel-shaped about going to plac

Advent is never meant to be comfortable. It is a season that gently — and sometimes uncomfortably — invites us to look inward, to examine our hearts, and to ask difficult questions about how we live, what we value, and whom we love. In this sense, A Christmas Carol is far more than a festive tale. It is, as many have observed, a profoundly Catholic Advent story — one of conscience, conversion, and concrete acts of charity.  Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey mirrors what Advent asks

Advent is often described as a time of waiting—a quiet, expectant season in the Church’s life. But the deeper truth is this: Advent is not passive.  It is an active preparation, a spiritual awakening, a call to make room for Christ by making room for those who need help. In the Gospels, the coming of Jesus always prompts movement: Mary sets out in haste to help Elizabeth, Joseph rises from sleep to protect his family, the shepherds leave their fields, the Magi journey across

After returning from a 3-week mission in Hong Kong working with refugees and the marginalised, I had a ton of emails to clear from my inbox. Scanning through the headers for urgent ones, something caught my eye. It was a notification that carried significance for a small Catholic humanitarian organisation like ours.  Gebirah had been invited from a global search to join the 2025 QBE AcceliCITY Humanitarian Challenge — and selected as a semi-finalist .  There was no sense of