Putatan Church To Hold Ground Breaking Ceremony In May

Putatan Church To Hold Ground Breaking Ceremony In May

PUTATAN(CS).- The construction of the new St Catherine of Siena Church in Kg Dimbaan Putatan is expected to commence as soon as the groundbreaking is done by Archbishop John Lee May 18.

Site preparations have been completed and the steering committee headed by Stephen Sondoh is now making preparations for the important occasion.

Among the items included to coincide with the groundbreaking are:

- Handing-over by church members or participants of contributions for the building of the church to the archbishop. It is hoped that as many donors as possible will come forward to give the committee their support and participate in the programme.

At the moment, the committee has in its list more than 50 registered donors. The target for the day is 100,000 pieces of bricks, 300 cubic metres of stone and 300 cubic metres of sand.

- Tree planting in the vacant spaces to prevent soil erosion and to beautify the surroundings of the church.

Trees used are local species such as takobakob, tabaus, fruit trees, ornamental trees and shrubs.

Sondoh said anyone can participate in this programme by contributing a minimum of five bricks at RM0.40 per brick or a minimum of one bag of cement at RM17.50 per bag depending on the ability to contribute.

He also said that contribution can be in the form of a pledge payable by installment.

Contributions can be channelled through appointed members or through their bank account (Maybank) payable to "RTDKK St Catherine of Siena Church, Putatan, Sabah Malaysia," the account number is 510189007514.

Alternatively, Sondoh said contributions can be channelled through Stella Maris Tg Aru, St Thomas Kepayan, Sacred Heart Cathedral KK, Church of Mary Immaculate Bukit Padang and St Simon Duvanson.

He gave the following statement regarding the contributions:

If you want to be part of the church's growth please forward your contribution to the Chairman, St Catherine of Siena Building Fund c/o Stella Maris Parish Church, P.O. Box 10533, Kota Kinabalu or call the chairman at 013-8658333 or 088-764330. When making the contribution please let us know your name, address, tel/cell phone number and the amount sponsored and most of all, 'be with us on May 18 at 8:00 am.'

Sondoh said the targetted amount to be raised to complete the church is RM4 million.

He said that although the target has not been met yet, "we will go ahead with the project and with God's blessing and your support and commitment I believe we can do it."

He added that experienced and professional volunteers (architect, civil and electrical engineers and consultant) have "pledged to work with the committee to make the church a reality."

At this stage, Sondoh continued, earthworks, survey and other site preparations have been completed.

He said that in order to save costs, the building committee is doing the following on a gotong-royong basis:

- access and exit roads  - surrounding drainage system  - parking bays outside the church compound  - painting the church building  - beautification and landscaping

The chairman said that while they have members who are willing to join them for the gotong-royong for the above, the committee wants to have more church members living around KK and Penampang to be involved and be part of the growth of the new church.

Source: CS