From India to Montana

The state of Odisha in India is over 60 thousand square miles, boasts a population of nearly 44 million and is the birthplace to Father Felix Nayak who has called Malta "home" since October.

Father Nayak makes his way to Malta's St. Mary's Parish following a stay in Chinook where he worked with three Blaine County parishes before being reassigned to Phillips County in September.

"My four years there were very beautiful and enjoyable and my sudden transfer was very sad for the people," Father Nayak said of leaving Blaine County. "But Malta is a beautiful place and I love Montana very much, though I don't like snow. This is a peaceful state. I don't see crime here. In India you see crime everyday . . . killing, beating, murder, corruption, all on the news everyday. Here you see very little crime."

Odisha – formerly Orrisa – has nearly 733 people per square mile as compared to Montana, with a population a tick over a million, which boasts seven people per square mile (Phillips County has just under one person per square mile.) Father Nayak's home state is one of 29 in India and his home town – also called a municipality – of Rayagada and has a population of nearly 70 thousand.

Father Nayak, who was raised Catholic by his family in Odisha, said that while growing up, he never realized the priesthood was something he could be a part of, but it was something he always wished was true. India, made largely of followers of the Hindu and Muslim religions, boasts nearly 20 million Catholic followers (nearly 1.5-percent of the country's population.) Father Nayak said he had always admired the priests who came to Rayagade from European countries and traveled from village to village on foot (and the attire they wore.)

"They used to walk miles and miles and they were teaching about salvation of souls," he said. "These are the things which inspired me . . . and the way they dressed."

Father Nayak also said that as a child, he would fashion his own Catholic Priest garb and reenact Mass. He said it wasn't until much later, in 1985, that a close friend told him he, indeed, could study to become a priest.

"He said 'shall we go join in the seminary and become priests?'" Father Nayak said. "I asked him, 'can we become?' and he said 'yes.' I did not know I could, but I always wanted to."

So, on July 7, 1985, Father Nayak headed to minor seminary where he studied spirituality, proper English and intermediate study. From there he left to Aquinas College in Gopalpur-on-Sea where he studied philosophy and received his BA in three years. It was then on to Regency for one year at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Bhanjanagar. For Theology School, Father Nayak attended St. John's School in Hyderabad where he studied for three and a half years before becoming ordained as a deacon in 1995.

"On April 11, 1996, I was ordained as priest," Father Nayak said.

Father Nayak's transition from India to Montana with his move to Blaine County in 2012 was not without it's bumps and bruises – mostly dealing with driving in snow and the nuances of how Americans speak English – but by in large, the people of Montana accepted him, both at the Catholic churches and beyond.

"And culturally, it was entirely different for me," Father Nayak said. "And the culture from where I came from in India to here was very different and strange. I asked them to please bare with me, especially with my English. However, Jesus has taught one language understood by everyone. Even the plants and animals can understand that language and that language is love."

One thing Father Nayak had to bear with , at least that first year in Chinook, was the weather. In India, the average temperature in the winter is around 55 or 60 degrees (and in the summer months, the temperature shoots well into the hundreds.) But Father Nayak's first time seeing snow was in Montana and he admits he wasn't ready for it.

"Really, I was shivering," Father Nayak laughed, "and I hear there is no snow in San Antonio."

Father Nayak said another thing foreign to him when arriving in Montana was driving during the winter. He said his driver's test was slated for November 14 that year and the first snow fell on the 12th.

"Driving I knew, but driving on snow was something else," he said. "That first Sunday I needed to drive, Saturday there was so much snow. I was looking at driving to three churches, Harlem, Chinook and Big Flat."

Between the snow and lack of light in the early morning, Father Nayak wondered "what will I do" and told himself "I must have courage."

"I stopped and saw one car driving ahead," he said. "Then I saw some more cars going ahead and decided I could follow them. I drove as slow as possible and reached Harlem at dawn and the rest was easy, but that was my first experience with snow. Luckily I never went off the road ... my predecessor went off the road many times and into the ditches."

Though he had only been to Phillips County a few times before moving here, and though he has only lived in Malta for the past few months, Father Nayak said that he enjoys it here because it is a peaceful area made of hard working, sincere people.

"I am very much impressed," he said.