Current Ministry Location: China
Sister Anne Marie Emdin was born in Utica, New York and graduated from St. Francis de Sales High School. She worked one year at the Industrial Bank of Utica for one year before entering the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation in 1957.
After working in both the Maryknoll Sisters Purchasing Department and Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers Seminary, Anne Marie received her BA in Home Economics from Fontbonne College, St. Louis, MO. in 1967 and did her Dietetic Internship at Milwaukee County Hospital in 1968. After two years of service at Maryknoll, N.Y. she was assigned to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong she studied Cantonese for one year and began working at Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital as a Dietitian. She also worked as supervisor of the Purchasing Department. When a local Dietitian applied for the position, Sister changed positions in the hospital to Pastoral Ministry and Public Relations in the Out Patient Department for 5 years.
In 1979, along with 3 other Maryknoll Sisters she went to live in the Sau Mau Ping Resettlement area of approximately 500,000 people. There they encountered the plight of many elderly who were living alone without sufficient resources for the necessities of life. The Sisters were busy helping provide some of these needs.
In 1982 at the request of Bishop Wu in Hong Kong, Sister Anne Marie and 3 other sisters began working under CARITAS HK supervision in The Caritas Home for the Elderly in Yuen Long in the New Territories of Hong Kong. There they lived in one room under the same conditions as the elderly residents. Under Caritas, the Hostel had 4 bed spaces where Emergency elderly could be housed while waiting for a permanent place in other Homes/Hostels. They accepted among others, one drug addict, an alcoholic and an autistic street sleeper whom they named Po Chun (Precious Pearl).
In 1988, Sister returned to Maryknoll, NY to act as Center Coordinator. In 1991, after finishing her service at Maryknoll, she took a course in Nursing Aid in preparation for returning to Hong Kong. Upon her return to the now China Region, she moved to Macau and began an Elderly day care Center in Our Lady of Fatima Parish in the North section of Macau. Many of the elderly having been relocated from small resettlement areas to living in High-rise (25 story) buildings felt lonely and insecure in the new area. Most of the elderly that came were non-Christian (102 Buddhists to 10 Catholics) and with the help of the Universal Buddhist Merciful Society the first Christian-Buddhist prayer services in Macau began as a way to include the elderly in not only prayer but social activities.
Since qualified personnel were able to run the Center, in 2017 Sister Anne resigned from the Center and returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in NY, where she currently resides and volunteers providing needs of the elderly, infirm Sisters.