Why I want to become a dominican

Life testimony of novice Matthew Shing Mang Tun

My vocation story starts from when I was conceived in my mother's womb. I was born on September 21, 1986 in Mindat Township, Chin State, Myanmar. My parents are Francis Ning Law Shing and Margaret Ling Hlee Pai. I have four brothers and two sisters. My family is very simple and we were raised a good Christian family. I have two relatives who are priests on my father's side, and three priests and six Nuns on my mother side.

When I was 6 years old, I started to study at the primary school in my hometown from 1993 to 1997; I spent my adolescent life in a minor-boarding school in our parish. Since my boyhood, I was really admiring priests and sisters, and thus, I thought of becoming a priest. The one thing I knew about priest is that they preach among the people and eat good food. But when I grew up, and I came to know gradually about the life of the priesthood, I pursued my studies in the secondary school from 1998 to 2004. Then I continued my university studies from 2005 to 2008, studying Economics at Dagon University, Yangon. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A, Economics) in 2008.

After my first year of university, my parish priest asked me to teach school and catechism in a village, which is very far from my hometown. So I taught a primary school in a village where there were not many Catholics. But later on, two beautiful families converted to Catholicism. And the time had come to continue my university studies, so I came back to Yangon and I studied my second year. During my second year, I worked a part- time job in a Hotel as a receptionist. I had two reasons for working in a Hotel, the first reason was I needed money for my study at university; the second reason was I wanted to practice my English with native English speakers. While I worked in the Hotel, I met different people from different countries. After having working experiences, I came to know how to deal with others, and how to communicate with other people. And I love staying with a community.

During my second year of university I was inspired by one of the Dominican brothers from my place. He is a deacon now in the Philippines from a Philippino province. As soon as I met him, I wanted to join the Order without knowing anything about the Order. But he asked me to finish my university studies, so I remained focused on my university studies but as soon as I had finished the final year, I joined the Order.

Last year, I went to Macau as a postulant and studied philosophy subjects and this year, I entered the Novitiate year in Hong Kong.