Blog – Page 155 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Accompanying the CLM community of Awassa

25 July, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

During these days I have had the opportunity to follow the CLM community of Awassa in the variety of their missionary service. I believe that the simplicity with which they perform it is outstanding and so is the degree of acceptance and the relationship they enjoy with the local people. Everywhere they go everyone greets everyone. They always move on foot or by bicycle and this makes it possible for them to be close to the people.

I will try to tell you something about each one. I will start with the newest arrival and move on to those who have been here longer.

Magda Fiec has been here a little over two months. Her primary mission at this time is to learn Amharic. And, even though I don’t understand anything and I find it difficult to judge, I can at least see that she already communicates with people and, even though at times she has to look for words and expressions, considering the short time she has been here, she is not doing badly at all. (For those who do not know it, Amharic is a Semitic language that has no similarity with our Latin characters and I can assure you that, the first time you see it or hear it, you do not understand anything). On the other hand, she takes some moments to begin to help out in some little things. She helps the Comboni Sisters a little in the technical school and now she is preparing a youth gathering parallel to the one due to take place in Krakow with the Pope, but just for the youth of Awassa. This week she will be with a group of young people at Gethsemane, a retreat center at the lake shore, a very simple and beautiful place affording the possibility, especially to the laity, to find time for praying and being with God.

Madzia Plekan has been in Ethiopia for more than a year and a half. When she arrived, the idea was for her to work as a physiotherapist in the hospital of Bushulo, but for various reasons it was not possible. There was no problem in redirecting this service and make it itinerant. This way, each day she goes from one place to another to take care of her many patients, she cooperates with the home of the Sisters of Charity of Mother Teresa where she has many of them and with various orphanages. She takes care of people with special needs and especially the children. To see the tenderness with which she picks them up from their cribs and works with them is admirable. In an appropriate amount of time she gives them the rehabilitation session that each one needs, almost without their realizing it, and so, a little by little, she helps those who have been abandoned and who in this place would not have access to this specialized care. It is also a fact that at times she also takes care of passing missionaries since more than one come to her with their aches and pains. Beside all this, she cooperates in many other fields, always ready to go from one place to the other. In these days she is traveling with the youth delegation attending the meeting with Pope Francis in Krakow. Who better than a Polish guide to accompany them and teach them everything in Amharic? I think it is a privilege that she can accompany them. This means that for two weeks we will not see her, but we hope to meet her in Addis Ababa when she returns.

Maggie has been in Awassa six years and will return to Canada in a week. She is the community manager, in charge of organizing meals and other necessities. Now, having three children takes a good amount of time. However, she has been able to integrate it in her service. She continues helping in several orphanages taking care of the little children. She takes her own along so they can play with the others while she is there. In a different direction she holds handicraft classes for the neighborhood children and is teaching them lots of things (and she host countless birthday parties in their home because they all want to have it there, perhaps because of the cookies and the balloons they contribute to the feast). She is also part of an ecumenical prayer group. And we cannot forget the community sports activities consisting of the two weekly games of Frisbee to keep in shape and to share with a group of foreigners and of Ethiopians this love for sports. To be noted that, no matter where you go, there is always someone she knows and with whom to converse. After six years, she is the one member of the community who is most known and appreciated.

And finally I will speak of Mark. Just like Maggie, his six years in this place have made him a point of reference. On top of that, Mark has been at the service of the diocese during these six years supporting it in its administration and organization. He has been a pillar of strength in the development and reorganization of the diocese. In particular he has been involved with Ethiopian priests and sisters in developing various projects and supporting the search for financial help. As he says, the spirit of Comboni moves us to help especially the Africans, support various initiatives, mediate with foundations (at times very demanding with their forms) so that projects supporting the schools, the hospitals, the orphanages, the leprosy centers, the churches, the wells and other initiatives will keep moving forward. Without any doubt, the work of these six years has turned him into a point of reference in the diocese, and whenever a missionary, a local priest or religious meets him o comes to say good-bye, they thank him for his work and will miss him. This is also an especially intense period of time with the arrival of a new bishop. He is holding many meetings to bring him up to date on the diocese, on the already approved six year plan and also making sure that the work already done will keep moving forward in the hands of the people who will follow from now on. During his free time, besides spending time with his three children, he also attends an ecumenical bible study group that has helped him deepen the understanding of the various expressions of Christianity in Ethiopia and his own faith, as he himself acknowledges. It is an opportunity to grow as Church in Awassa.

For Mark, Maggie, Emebet, Isayas and Teive their time in Awassa is coming to an end. At the end of the month they will move on to Washington, DC where Mark will pursue a master on family pastoral, in which he wants to specialize in order to continue his missionary service. It is a time of good-byes, of placing themselves in God’s hands in order to face this new challenge.

We wish them the very best in this new venture as a family.

Greetings from Ethiopia.

Fifteen Days in Ethiopia

23 July, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

It has been 15 days since we arrived in Ethiopia: fifteen days filled with intense emotions, feelings and colors.

To travel as a family with two daughters, 14 and 15 years old, is much more complicated than when we traveled to Mozambique several years ago. In fact, for them it is their first contact with Africa (at least that they can remember), with all that it implies of differences in everything, not only in what the cities look like, the fruit stands, crazy traffic, the feeling of drawing attention wherever we go, but above all for not being able to speak their language and consequently not being able to get to know the people’s views of the world, of life and of their reality.

Here in Awassa there are several three and for story buildings, and more are being built in a place where, we are told, much has changed over the last few years, with wide paved roads, and many hotels. In fact it is the second or third city in the country and perhaps the most beautiful, situated as it is near a fairly large lake, with an incredible vegetation and wild life, which makes it one of the favorite tourist attractions for the Ethiopians themselves. Yet, all this notwithstanding, the contrast with our Spanish cities is huge. Our daughters are surprised by the dirt roads, the piles of wood used for cooking, the goats, the sheep and even some cows meandering freely in the streets and that, when it rains, life does not stop and nobody uses and umbrella… But above all, they notice the kindness of the people, the fact that everybody smiles at you and greets you, that people are not scurrying to and fro, that Mass will last one hour and 45 minutes and people are happy about it… I hope they will learn a lot from these people and that the experience will teach them values that are different from those of our first world.

Both the Comboni communities and the CLM communities take good care of us and are ready to accompany us and to try to explain to us the reality of this beautiful country. It has over 80 million people. Of these, 6% live in the capital, only 0.9% are Catholic, the remaining being 45% Orthodox Christians and 45% Muslim. It is a country where in many areas the Catholic missions are places of first evangelization, very much in need of indigenous vocations, and where even from the scarcity of their numbers they are greatly helping the people in their social and human development. We are being given the opportunity to get to know the work done by other religious congregations here in Awassa, running hospitals, primary and secondary schools, nurseries and professional schools… There is a lot to be done in the promotion of women, education, health… In providing the means for real development in this population.

The CLM community has been telling us about the various activities they are involved in, both in the apostolic and in the social field and, inasmuch as possible, we accompany them to get first-hand knowledge of what they accomplish, and above all to see the love with which they do it: the sweetness and affection they show to children in special difficulties; the work they do with the parish youth; their sense of responsibility; the witness of family life; their commitment to the poorest. And all this flows from the charism of St. Daniel Comboni, striving to save Africa by means of Africa, leaving the limelight to others, accompanying rather than commanding, in a spirit of simplicity and humility as befits strangers, sent as a community to proclaim the Love of the Father and to build His Kingdom.

We thank the Father for this vocation and for the opportunity to live this experience as a family.

Maricarmen, CLM-Spain on a visit to Ethiopia

Family Feast, a celebration of love and life sharing

15 July, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

It is exactly like the title says: An experience of the unconditional love that unites us, that allows us to get close, to share in prayer and in community.

A new weekend, a new gathering and a new meeting again. On this weekend a new year of formation came to an end, a year filled with smiles, tears, discoveries, love, joy, friendship and a deep discovery of our own selves and of our relation with God. It was a year filled by God and by his merciful love for all of us.

In those eternal beginnings there was space for meditating, space to reflect over the different moments, the different instants that built up each of the weekends we experienced. We had time to share with those who during the whole year gave of their best for us and with us, such as the coordinator, and what it means to have our own individual experience of God, lived in the bosom of the Comboni Family.

They were two days for sharing the best of ourselves, the best of what God gives us freely as a gift – life.

During this weekend, as a family, we prayed, shared, were ourselves and allowed others to be, we laughed often, wished for peace, we were loving and living witnesses of the joy of the Gospel.

Between the laughter of the children and the wrinkles of experience, we gave thanks to God for each and every one who was present, for those who were absent, even though present in our hearts, for we were more than just those present, we were the Comboni family, spread across the four corners of the globe.

It was an extraordinary experience to witness the love of Christ present in each of the members of the family as they arrived, the gaze of a father and a mother bringing us closer. A family gathered to celebrate one of God’s greatest gifts, family. And so it was as a family that we allowed space and time for God to talk to each one of us by way of all those who shared in his joy.

Through the testimony of Márcia Costa we came close to the missionaries spread across the world, who proclaim with their lives the Gospel of Jesus. With the announcement of the departure of Marisa Almeida we were all touched by the blessing that her life among us has meant for us, and by her abandonment in the arms of God and in the motherly gaze of Our Lady, mother of mission.

To be a Comboni Lay Missionary is in itself to be family, a family that welcomes, helps, protects, that sows God-given seeds, that sees them grow and see the light, and bears fruit. It is a family that prays and shares, that grows and helps to grow, that nurtures and gives life. It is like a gaze that does not forget, a flower losing its petals, it is simply us.

To be a Comboni Lay Missionary means being nearer to God’s love and give living witness with our own lives.

It is good to be family with all of you.

Neuza Francisco (Portugal)

Witnesses of Hope

14 July, 201614 July, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

Witnesses of Hope is a group that meets, since five years ago, in the Comboni House Justice and Peace.

This is a self-help group composed of people with problems of addiction to alcohol, drugs, depression or any addiction that imprisons and not allowed to live well. It is frequented mostly by women, mothers, wives, with children or husbands to deal with the terrible addiction to alcohol and drugs. The tool of this group is simply the word and sharing. Narrating, talking about themselves, as a therapeutic way to share their pain, to find strength and support. Learn to accept it and learn to listen. Because by sharing a person does not feel alone, the common stories described how mothers, women and many families are struggling with the physical and emotional dependency that enslaves. The beauty of this group is that it is a “small family”, where people are bound together by trust and friendly relations. Everything living is shared in the group; trust and credibility are the fundamentals that build it. It is been more than two years that I participate as a volunteer and become part of “the family”, every Tuesday night at 19:30 we meet and listen to each other. There are times when many people are involved others are few, but whatever is the number, every Tuesday night the Comboni House remains open to create a space to host and share, not only the pain but also moments of smiles and moments of laugh. There are weights that is difficult to carry alone. We must overcome shame to share. For this was born Witnesses of Hope, to help people to walk together and find help with simple and concrete gestures. Regina and I (psychologist and voluntary) started from the provocation topic, from which we can start thinking about the problems that people live and their own experience, a job that leads to self-knowledge, to recognize the own history and particularly that helps to value the people, to take life in their own hands, with courage and determination.

I come out always, every encounter, touch, both to share moments of joy as intense and profound moments, facts made from still open wounds. Each story is a reading from the Gospel of the day, a fact that struggles, battles, victories, defeats, disappointments, in search of the love who cares, because only Love saves: loving yourself, loving others, loving life.

On the outskirts of the world where there are no services, it is wonderful to see how people are organized, without losing heart and simply looking for solutions, such as giving birth to a group of self-help to find the strength and desire to change. Together, we can!

Emma, CLM

First week in Ethiopia

14 July, 201613 July, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

We have been in Ethiopia a week already but it feels like we flew in yesterday. For the time being, it has been a week of welcomes and of beginning to learn.

We spent the first day in Addis Ababa to visit the provincial house where we met Fr. Julio Ocaña with whom we had shared our time of training as a community when we were leaving for Mozambique. We remembered those very special times when we were preparing to leave for Africa for the first time and he himself was getting ready for his mission. Now, almost 18 years later, we meet again in Ethiopia, each one of us with a larger baggage of history.

We also had a special moment as we met Fr. Juan Nuñez after so many years. We first met when he was provincial in Spain and we were just beginning as CLM. After these old acquaintances, we also met several other Comboni missionaries of the province who selcomed us with great kindness.

Our trip to Awassa was very nice, with a stop in a gorgeous place near one of the large lakes of this area. It is good to travel by car, because it gives you an overview of the situation of the country, its roads, people, crops. It was inevitable to compare it with our experience in Mozambique or in other countries. We observed so many fields ploughed with oxen and an infinite number of donkeys pulling carts loaded with water, potatoes and such.

Finally, we reached Awassa, the capital of the southern region. We met Fr. Mansueto, the superior of the house, who gave us a good reception very attentive to our individual needs, and also met the rest of the community. This is a house of transit for the various communities of the South, where missionaries stay when they come to shop, have the car fixed or pick up the mail.

And, of course, finally we met with our beloved CLM community. Mark was the first to get to the Comboni house when he heard that we had arrived and, without even unpacking we went to greet the rest of the community (it’s a little over a five minute walk from the house) There we met Maggie and the children, Emebet, Isayas and Teibe, together with Magda and Madzia. [We were welcomed] with a colorful poster made by the little ones and a good supper enlivened by conversation.

This is the beauty of internationality where Canadians, Poles and Spaniards meet as members of one family.

Each day we engage in different activities. Members of the community accompany us as show us the places and activities where they are engaged and also take time to show us the city and its various areas (we will keep this for our next post). They take good care of us and have a plan for each day, something new at every moment.

It is an experience that as family we greatly appreciate and from which we hope to profit to the fullest.

Greetings to all.