Father Fritz Budmiger: A True Dedication

Last week, to be exact on Saturday, I went to a ‘retreat’ place called ‘Tabor’ in Bodok, West Borneo, to supervise our students. They were 80 students along with six teachers as their supervisors, including me. I had never been to Tabor before though it is not far. So it was my first visit. Tabor is a catholic retreat place. It was built and is run by a Swiss father. In Tabor, I met such an inspiring person, that is, Father Fritz Budmiger. He is a Swiss catholic priest in the parish called Pusat Damai (Centre of Peace). Seeing what he has done to the community, I could say that he is a great catholic father with wisdom. There are several reasons of why I can call him so. First, Father Fritz has spent half of his life serving the community as the parish pastor for more than thirty years. What a time. How on earth do I know that! I surf the net and found that father Fritz came to Borneo in 1975 with some other Swiss missionaries. It is not easy job for a totally new Swiss guy to work among new people since he is a Swiss. I admire his spirit of ministry. Second, Father Fritz has done tremendous development to the community. He has built a big church, schools from Kindergarten to Senior High School, a retreat place and, boarding houses, and one more thing which I truly admire is that he founded a ‘people own bank’ or Credit Union. In my opinion, His credit union has done such a great help for the local people. It teaches local people how to spend money wisely and it empowers the surrounding. If I am not mistaken, the Lantang Tipo credit union is now run by local people, Father Fritz now is only a board adviser in the credit union. Return to the retreat house, it is a beautifully designed place. The former location of the house was actually the land for cemetery. But Father decided to buy the land and built the land. The retreat house is nice. It has good facilities and hydrant system. Its hydrant system really made me speechless. It seems that Father Fritz really understands how to use technologies in meeting the standard in his native country. He also provides in every corner of his retreat house with trash bins. When I arrived there, and Father Fritz himself showed us our rooms, he looked very busy and in fact, he is never not busy said his master chef. He is so hard-working though freckles in his forehead clearly told us that he is no longer young. He is a sixty year old capuchin. Nowadays, it is like finding needles in the pile of trash in looking for person who has true dedication like Father Fritz. For me, Father Fritz is an example of true dedication and he teaches us to be sincere in our ministry without losing integrity. He is strict and disciplined. Based on some stories from people who have known and lived with him, Father Fritz is also a computer expert, he knows how to make program for the credit union and fix the computer. Father Fritz is also a bookworm; he has provided a lot of books in every retreat room ranging from English books to Indonesian, Dutch, German and Latin books. I read some of the books in the room, one of which is the book written by Leonardo boff which talks about The Prayer of St. Francis. I hope someday I can be like father Fritz Budmiger who dedicates his life to serve the needy community and empower others.

Love



Kristian