When three of my Jesuit brothers and I visited the remote Kohima Region in Northeast India this past summer, something about the décor at every Jesuit residence we entered, every Church-related building for that matter, surprisingly prompted memories of my college days. The common motif – wall maps.

Back in college,my roommate and I, who was also my cousin, used to sit on the couch and gaze at the wall. Living for the first time without a TV, we had to come up with a new way to amuse ourselves. Fortunately, this wall was not entirely blank. Somewhere along the way, we obtained a large map that provided many hours of enjoyment.We would reminisce about those places we had been together growing up, tell stories about those we had visited separately, and speculate about places yet unexplored.

Teachers and students at T.M. Good Shepherd School in Gunjung, Assam have some fun during recess. Like kids almost everywhere, this group, also from Gunjung, shows that if you give them a ball and some space, they know how to have fun.

The map captured our imaginations and sometimes left us wondering in amusement about things like why the Upper Peninsula was part of Michigan and whether or not Wisconsin ought to rally the troops and take it back. The map also provided a visual entrée to thinking about the future and how we might make some kind of a difference in one or more of those spots on the map.

A villager introduces Chris Collins, SJ (right) to the sights and sounds of the mountain village of Khuzama, Nagaland.

Traveling through Kohima, some of the maps we saw were world maps, some of India. But the one omnipresent map was of the remote and little known region we were visiting, an area local Jesuits constantly made the centerpiece of community discussions and referred to simply as “Northeast.”

The conversations were animated and engaging – just like the Jesuit missionaries of Kohima who are incredibly engaged as they constantly plan new apostolates – often community centers built from the grassroots up that evolve from temporary structures to include parishes, schools, and clinics that serve the poor.Much of the time nobody seems to know exactly where these new centers might be located. Kohima Jesuits accept that somehow the Spirit will draw them to where they are needed most. So rather than exhaustively plan their actions, they take action first, trusting that the right plan will evolve.

The Northeast absorbs all the attention and imagination of these men and those with whom they work. The Church is being born here. Efforts focus on providing education for the rural poor in places where no schools currently exist. Keeping that Northeast map before them seems to allow my brother Jesuits in Kohima to think big.

Regardless of where they live, students going to recess share a similar look of joy.

I was also impressed by how confident these Jesuits, and the men and women they work with, are in the importance of their mission. There seems to be no doubt as to the purpose of their lives and their work.

The missionaries know the people need education, health care, and Christ – not necessarily in that order. And they are filled with joy at the opportunity to offer it all. In this context, anything is possible…and much is needed. The priests, nuns, and lay catechists who have been called to proclaim the Gospel in this part of the world – in word and deed – exude an excitement at this prospect. This, I believe, is the source of that uncommon joy which we found everywhere we went throughout our first month traveling and visiting various Jesuit works.

This experience of joy was palpable numerous times in our visits to various Jesuit works, but one stands out particularly, in Balipara, at the site of a relatively new center that had grown to include a parish and school.

After a long, hot drive of several hours in a crowded jeep, our group approached the parish building to find about 200 hundred people milling around outside in the hot sun. As it turns out, they all were on hand for no other reason but to welcome “the American fathers.”As we pulled up to the parish building, however, we were asked to turn the jeep around and go back the way we came and wait out of sight for a while. Given the long, dusty trip we thought we had just completed, delaying our arrival was the last thing we wanted to do. Respectfully, however, and without knowing why, we did as asked.

Chris Collins, SJ (front row, far right), gathers with others outside a temporary school building in Gunjung Assam. Also pictured here with school staff and town leadership who donated the land for the school are Fr. Tom Doyle, SJ (back row, second from left), Andy Jaspers, SJ (third from left), and Daniel Hendrickson, SJ (far right). All four toured and lived in the Kohima Region last summer, learning from Kohima Jesuits and working in Jesuit ministries there. Chris (left), blesses a mother and her infant after a mass concelebrated with Kohima Jesuits.

Back down the road, out of sight of the center, we got out of the jeep and waited. After a time we wedged ourselves back into our vehicle and headed back to the center. This time, the people who had been milling around earlier were lined up in columns along the road, sun beating down on them, and wearing striking red and white traditional dress.

We got out of the jeep, and standing at the end of the line, joined a procession toward the church, making our way slowly while accompanied by a half dozen male drummers and dozens of women leading the way in a traditional rhythmic dance. About halfway to the church, the procession halted and a few women came toward us with bowls of cold water and soap for us to wash our hands and faces. When we took up the procession again and finally arrived at the church, we were seated at the front of the crowd. The sisters and some of the young women from the community came toward us with the same bowls of water, this time to wash our feet.

We were experiencing a version of radical hospitality and service that Jesus modeled and commanded at the Last Supper in John’s Gospel. Speeches and more drumming and dancing followed. A common theme emerged: the people of Balipara said over and over how honored and grateful they were for our visit! I thought to myself, “But we’re not doing anything for you.”

(Above) Fr. Ambrose de Mello, SJ (center), Fr. Provincial Ronald Prabhu, SJ (left) of the Karnataka Province, Kohima Regional Superior Fr. Gregory Coelho, SJ, and others concelebrate Mass and dedicate a new chapel at Province headquarters.

Again and again, though, the mere fact of the visit was an opportunity for this burgeoning Christian community to welcome fellow members of the Body of Christ and to do so by sharing their culture of music, dance, song and food. And at the core of it all: JOY!

I spent the second month of my journey at the novitiate in Shillong,Meghalaya. Opened just within past two years, it is home to 16 of the most generous, prayerful, and – here’s that word again – joyful men I’ve ever met. Teaching these enthusiastic novices a course on the history of the Society of Jesus from its founding in 1540 to the present was a humbling experience, one that was simultaneously sublime as I attempted to communicate the extraordinary deeds of our predecessors throughout the last four and a half centuries to a group of men who will soon be making history themselves, and, I would venture, in equally dramatic ways.

Villagers from a new Jesuit ministry in Balipara welcome their Wisconsin Province guests with a musical procession, dance, and other native rituals.

They will be, I feel, primary agents for the ongoing introduction of the Gospel to this part of the world. They will have successes as well as failures. They will rejoice, and they will suffer. But through it all, the love of Christ will be made known for the first time to countless people. For me, their energy and passion reflected the legacy of Francis Xavier, Peter Favre, Edmund Campion and so many other early Jesuits about whom they were learning.What a privilege to be associated with such a group of men!

Toward the end of my time at the novitiate, we hosted a special visitor. Fr. Ambrose de Mello came to spend a few days in quiet to prepare for his upcoming jubilee, celebrating 60 years as a Jesuit and nearly 50 as a priest. Fr. De Mello has been provincial of two different Jesuit provinces in India, administrator of a diocese, and the first “super provincial” of all of India. This man, who has had such an incredible wealth of experience over the years and who is now coming to the twilight of his life of service to Christ and His poor in India, had one particular message for the novices as he celebrated Mass early one morning.

“Dare to do great things for Christ!” he said. The glimmer in his eyes and the tone of his voice were as consoling as they were inspiring, and seemed to extend a pipeline directly to my heart. I looked around at the novices in that little chapel and tears welled up in my eyes. They will indeed do great things for Christ.

I can still see them now, though no longer in their presence, sitting together just as my cousin and I did, staring at one of those many maps, and dreaming of how they might make a difference. They will sacrifice; they will labor unceasingly in places hidden in the blank spaces on those maps on the walls. And, like our brother Jesuits past and present, the whole time they will do it with joy.