I saw a world famous nun, mother Teresa, on TV the other day. I am sure everybody knows her. However, how many people know what she had done in her life as a nun? Tell the truth, I was one of the people who did not know what she had done exactly. Luckily, I could find a book about her at my uni's library and now I know about her a little more. Here is the summary of the book below.
Her original name was not Teresa but Agnes Gonxha. She was born on 26 August 1910. She had a sister and a brother. Her parents were originally from Albania but they lived in Skopje, Serbia. Her father did well at his work so they were quite rich. However, When Agnes (Teresa) was eight years old, her father suddenly passed away. After her father's death, her mother worked hard. She earned quite a lot of money and was good to poor neighbors. That was because she was a Christian, a Catholic, and she was very religious. So Agnes prayed to God every evening with her mother and siblings. They also want to church every week. Agnes heard about missionaries in India and poor African countries. She wanted to live for God but she did not know how.
For five years, she looked for answer and finally she found out. She decided to live only for God and became a nun in India. At that time, she was 18 years old. She changed her name to "Teresa" before arriving to India. She learned English only within 2 years and she started to teach children at a nuns' school. Teresa did not have holidays and she had to work form early in the morning till late at night. However she was happy because she could work for God. She was the first nun who went out into the street of Calcutta and worked for poor people lived in slums. She dressed in the blue and white sari which poor people usually wear and started to teach children on the street. She stayed by poor dying people's side on the street so that they do not feel lonely at their death.
People in Calcutta started to help her and after 20 years, her charity spreaded in 23 places in India. In 1969, BBC, a British TV station, broadcasted a programme about Mother Teresa. After that, a lot of people sent her letters and donated money. She suddenly became famous all over the world. In 1979, she got the Nobel Peace Prize. She died in September 1997.
What a great person she is! I think nobody can do as she had done. I can't imagine myself going out into slum alone and go near to poor people who are dying. I can't dedicate my life to God. I live for myself. I feel a little ashamed. There is a couple who help homeless people in kumamoto in my acquaintance. They go serve food to homeless people once a month. I think they are wonderful. It is never too late to start helping people in need. I want to think what I can and start something.
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