Pat McCaffrey SSC
These amazing true stories show the life and struggles of a missionary
working with people who exist on the margins of society in Sindh,
Pakistan.
Fr Pat has worked with small Christian communities attempting to build bridges of mutual understanding and tolerance among Muslims, Hindus and Christians.
This work of bridgebuilding has entailed learning four different languages, Urdu, Punjabi, Parkari Koli, and Sindhi.
These stories show how his life has been enriched as he has journeyed with people of different ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds
Born in Tempo, Co Fermanagh,
in I944, Father Pat McCaffrey was ordained priest in I967 He worked for ten years in the
Fiji Islands in a multicultural and multilingual society In I978 he was one of the first Columbans to pioneer a new mission in Pakistan He was recently appointed to Britain to help in promoting MuslimChristian dialogue

In the final story in this book Rono sums up Fr Pat's missionary endeavours when he says: "You have journeyed with us in our poverty. I feel now that I am not a nobody. I am somebody. That is enough."

I spent ten Years in Matli, in Sindh, Pakistan. I joined with the small Christian community there in building bridges of tolerance and goodwill among Christians, Hindus and Muslims. This Christian community is made up of two ethnic groups, Parkari Kolis from the province of Sindh, who have become Christian over the past fifty years, and Punjabis from the Province of Punjab, who became Christian at the dawn of the 20th. Century and migrated to the Province of Sindh.

Prior to arriving in Sindh I had worked in the province of Punjab where I had learned the language Urdu, the national language of Pakistan and Punjabi, the provincial language of Punjab. During my ten years in Sindh I learned to speak the Parkari Koli language, and attempted to learn Sindhi the provincial language. As I look back over the years deep feelings of gratitude well up in my heart for the many ways in which my life has been enriched by meeting people of different cultures, languages and faiths. I recall with reverence the people whose lives have touched my life and enriched me.

The memories of those whose lives were filled with pain and suffering rekindle feelings of sadness and sorrow. How often I looked on faces etched with fatigue from malnutrition and tuberculosis, and on bodies bent and broken from working long hours as farm labourers in the burning sun. Feelings of regret stir in my soul as I recall the many times when I was not sufficiently sensitive to the culture and feelings of the people I had come to serve. There are flashbacks to the times when I felt utterly confused and frustrated as the seeming failure of what