The Seven Fountains Spirituality Centre
97 Huay Kaew Rd., Chiang Mai, 50300, Thailand
Tel: +66-53-211-076, 892-545, 357-125 Fax: +66-53-892-546 Mobile: +66-86-191-4796
Web Page: http://7fountains.wordpress.com & www.jesuitmissions.org.uk & www.jesuit.org.uk

Personal E-mail: dktownsend@gmail.com

David’s News for Christmas 2006 and New Year 2007

Dear Friends,

I have been wanting for some time to give you some idea of what has been going on in the life and times of David Townsend. Perhaps like some of you, I have frequently wished I could slow down the pace just a little, that I might savour it more – maybe even to be more aware and in touch with the Lord, the source of all life. Simply, it has been a very full year, with a number of changes.

Fr. Iker, the Basque member of the Jesuit Community here, who was diagnosed with inoperable cancer a year ago, died gently and peacefully in August at the age of 79, after 44 years in Thailand. Following Thai tradition, in November, we celebrated the 100th day of his death with a Eucharist followed by a simple Thai dinner around the fountain in front of the large chapel. May Iker enjoy eternal life. Amen.

The year started for me travelling to the far north of Burma, joining a team of sisters and other priests giving an individually-given retreat to the clergy of that enormous mountainous diocese (at the very tip, squeezed between India and China, is a 20,000 ft. mountain, part of the Himalayas). On my way back I also visited the Jesuit candidates and novices in other places in Burma.

David with the Jesuit Candidates in Burma

Four times in the course of this year I was in Malaysia training a group of lay-people as prayer-guides and spiritual directors. Whilst there I give retreats and meet with a parish-based counselling team. The visits also allowed me to meet old friends from the 3 yrs I spent there, when I first moved to Asia, working with Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS).

Back in Thailand I continue my JRS contact, being on the Council of the JSR Regional Director in Asia Pacific. Chiang Mai also allows me opportunities to meet refugees & migrants from Burma, of which there are many in Thailand.

But my main work at the Seven Fountains Centre is retreats, spiritual direction, courses, workshops, talks, seminars, etc. and in being the Pastor for the local English-speaking community of about 70 regular residents, including children, who attend our Sunday Eucharist.

Seven Fountains also has a very active outreach to local people in need. Outstanding is our Education Sponsorship. At present this enables nearly 350 ethnic minority hill-tribe kids to have an education. Without the funding that the Friends of Seven Fountains provides, these kids would not get an education. The reasons can be: parents not being able to afford the cost of the uniform, the cost of transport to the school. In some cases the secondary school is so distant that the student needs to board near the school during the week, something the parent are totally unable to afford. Seven Fountains supports a very basic hostel, some 45 minutes away, for such students. The parents supply part of the food, we pay the salary of the warden (a former Jesuit candidate, now married with a child of his own), the cost of electricity & other expenses. Because of the generosity of readers of Jesuits & Friends, the magazine of Jesuit Missions-UK www.jesuitmissions.org.uk we have been able to enlarge the hostel & provide a better study space.

Some of the 30+ hostel students with Fr. Vinai who set it up. The Warden is in the doorway (red shirt) with his son	My friend, Denis Blackledge, S.J. came to visit me during the year. He is a British Jesuit, now the Parish Priest of the Jesuit Parish in Boscombe in the south of England. 44 yrs ago when Fr. Iker was first coming to Thailand, Denis and myself were together in the Jesuit Novitiate in the UK. We have been good friends ever since.
Later we, together with Malcolm Rodrigues who is in Guyana, were ordained priests together. His visit gave me an excuse for a couple of weeks’ holiday, visiting with him the sights of Bangkok, a trip to Laos, and time by the sea.	David in Laos with Buddhist Novices

You will have heard, I am sure, of the ousting a few months ago of the Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra by a military coup. There had been a growing protest movement against Taksin and his Thai Rak Thai (Thai Love Thai) government. The protest was against the alleged human rights abuses, cronyism and blatant corruption at the highest levels in a government with such a huge parliamentary majority that there were no effective challenges possible inside parliament, and no effective ‘checks and balances’. Taksin was perceived by the protesters as governing by fiat, in an arrogant dictatorial manner, with a few popularist policies, but largely favouring his family and friends, and their businesses. The final straw was the amendment of Thai law allowing the sale of the Shinawatra family business to a front company of the Singapore Government, whereby the PM’s family benefited US$ 1.9 billion, deemed to be tax-free. The counter-protests were getting violent. The military, with the King’s blessing, made a peaceful and timely intervention to prevent worsening social unrest and the real possibility of bloodshed and deaths.

Recently through your generosity I have been able to forward £3,000 (GB Pounds Sterling) for the work of the Jesuits in Burma, and 40,000 Thai Baht (approx. £600 Sterling) for the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Thailand. If you will pardon the pun, thank your for your sterling gifts (even though some has been in the form of other currencies).

At the present moment the mission of the Jesuits in Burma is better funded than that in Thailand. Actually the funding for our missions in Thailand is in very poor shape. Therefore, from now, on any monies that you send to Jesuit

Missions in my name, unless you state otherwise, I will dedicate to the support of our works and outreach here in Seven Fountains.

Should you be able to do so, kindly send your donations to the Director of Jesuit Missions UK (director@jesuitmissions.org.uk)

Postal Address: 11 Edge Hill, Wimbledon, London SW19 4LR, England

And so that the funds reach me, please don’t forget to inform him that the funds are for the work of Fr. David Keith Townsend, S.J. in Thailand. JM-UK may be able to benefit from any tax paid by you – kindly ask the Director for details.

The Bank Account details are as follows:

Barclays Bank plc
Wimbledon Common Branch
Sort Code: 20.96.89
Account Name: Jesuit Missions
Account Number: 30523380

Next February I become an OAP (Old Age Pensioner) in the UK. So before I become more senile & decrepit than I currently am, let me wish you and your loved ones every blessing this Christmas and far into the New Year.

With much gratitude & love,
God bless,
David

D.K. Townsend, S.J.