English – Page 8 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Thank you Lord!

22 January, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

Yes we must thank the Lord at all times and more especially in some particular moments. It is the case in our province of Togo-Ghana-Benin.

Father Leopold, MCCJ did a great job with the CLM group in the province. With him, we started getting known to other MCCJ as CLM candidates and later as CLM. We have been invited to MCCJ zonal meetings at Accra. We also witnessed the inauguration of the Postulancy at Kaneshie, Accra. With him, we started moving in the province for pastoral and missionary experience. We started at Cape-Coast (Republic of Ghana), we moved to Esse-Ana (Republic of Togo) and participated in the continental Assembly of CLM in Cotonou (Republic of Benin). We have other experiences at Mafi-Kumase which consolidated our CLM vocation. On top of all this is the promise of three members as CLM on the 10th October 2022 and of another one on the 3rd December 2023.

We are so grateful to the Lord for all of this.

The news of his transfer shacked us a bit but even before his departure, we were introduced to a new chaplain in the person of Reverend Father Ephrem Badou. Why shouldn’t we praise the Lord for His wonders for us!

The day the new chaplain was introduced to us, we have two new candidates, Elisabeth Kpanazo and Gabriel Agbeewornu. Wao!!!

“What shall I repay to the Lord for all the things that He has repaid to me? I will take up the cup of salvation and I will call upon the name of the Lord” Ps115, 3-4.

For the Lord to continue what He has started in father Leopold in his new mission, for father Ephrem to lead us to become “holy and capable” CLM.

May St. Daniel Comboni intercede for us. AMEN!

Justin Nougnui, CLM.

Happy New Year from Kitelakapel

19 January, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

Greetings from Kitelakapel!

We hope you are doing well. We are doing great. We are starting the new school year. Linda and Pius return to schools to teach life skills. I spend more and more time in clinics. I am patiently waiting for my official work permit. Our pastoral work, the Why Blue Sky project supporting teachers, also return to the regular schedule.

Last 3 weeks, the turn of the old and new year, we spent on the road. Just after Christmas, which we spent in Kitelakapel, we went to the Turkana region inhabited by the tribe of the same name. We went there together with Guilia and Hani who visited us again 🙂 . We went to visit two Comboni missions in Lokichar and Lodwar. Built from scratch by the Comboni Missionaries. In the middle of nowhere. In Lokichar there is a church, a school and a center for children with various disabilities. In nearby villages there are further schools built by the Comboni and handed over to the people. Similarly in Lodwar. Schools, chapels, health centers. From people to people. Created with love to serve others.

On Monday we returned from Nairobi. We spent a week there, completing various formalities, but also getting to know numerous projects such as a children’s center in the middle of the largest slums in Africa, run by our friend from the CLM community, or the Kivuli Center street children’s home founded by the diocesan priest Kizito. As an international community, we also participated in the annual meeting of the Kenyan CLM group. Together we summed up 2023 and planned 2024. During the meeting, new leaders were elected and at the solemn Holy Mass, one of the candidates, Mercy, officially became a lay Comboni missionary. It’s amazing how much we feel part of this group.

We have various ideas in our heads and planned workshops. The new year promises to be intense. We will keep you updated on what’s going on with us.

Marzena Gibek

Comboni Lay Missionary –Kitelakapel, Kenya

A year that reflects the face of Christ

18 January, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

Throughout 2023 we encountered many emotions and realities, full of joy, sadness, comfort, longing and cross…

The CLM of Guatemala began a year full of hope in the nutrition program Chispuditos, which grew incredibly to the point that we managed, along with professionals, to make medical and dental days, since the supplement, training and food were not helping children to get out of anemia and their illnesses. We have made great efforts to innovate and train ourselves, but it has not been enough because when the pediatrician, the nutritionist and the dentist arrived, they observed a high degree of malnutrition, psychomotor problems, useless dentures, genetic diseases, speech and growth deficiencies, often caused by the same malnutrition of the mothers and poor nutritional education. They are 6 years of an arduous road, working the mind, the heart and the stomach, without a doubt it fills us with joy to see the 6 year old children that leave the program without anemia and with an average size and weight, it is to give glory to God!

At the same time we went into JPIC knowing that St. Daniel Comboni had a special interest in justice for the marginalized and forgotten; we immersed ourselves in the formation to learn about migration in Guatemala and this led us to human trafficking, a terrible and very latent situation in our country. We discovered that Comboni fought hard against human trafficking, preventing them from taking so many blacks as slaves. We understood through talks, personal encounters and several Cineforums about human trafficking, we knew the reality and rawness of the life of women in prostitution. Our hearts bowed before such a situation and we started an awareness campaign. Guatemala suffers from human trafficking, women, children and arises from migration, which is one of the biggest problems of the country, from there these social problems arise, culminating in poor nutrition of children, dismembered families, single women and children practically orphaned.

We believe that it has been a year marked by a deep awakening to the way of Comboni. We had enriching formations, we formed new CLM candidates, we met several times with a small group of lay people in San Luis Petén who are doing their CLM formation, we broadened our vision towards new projects and we grew in the Comboni charism.

A 2024 awaits us with new and great challenges, at the community, mission ad gentes and economic levels, but we trust in the holy intercession of St. Daniel Comboni, we embrace the hearts of Jesus and Mary and we ask St. Joseph to help this small group to be light and salt wherever we go.

Happy beginning of the year 2024, may it be filled with many blessings and new paths for each CLM.

A fraternal embrace, CLM Guatemala

Happy New Year Saints from Kenya!

17 January, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

We from CLM sure hope that your 2024 is going great so far.

We are grateful to God for his grace that saw us through to a new year and that continues to surround us. Our community is growing and we couldn’t be happier! Surely, His love endures forever.

What better way to plan for our new year than to reflect on the year that was? We had our annual CLM meeting this past weekend from Friday 12th January to Sunday 14th January. It is always so joyous being together. Over these three days, we reflected on our activities and brainstormed new ideas for 2024, plus improvements on what we are already doing. We also went through our finances and discussed our income versus expenditure. We are grateful to God for his providence. We are especially grateful for people like you and me whom God has called to support ‘the littlest’ in his Kingdom. In 2024, we pray for more Grace. Grace to give up more of ourselves for the Kingdom, Grace to serve in the most difficult situations and grace to live like Christ did – loving each other without measure.

We also had the commissioning of one of our own. After two (2) years of formation, Mercy Chepoghisho is now a full member of Comboni Lay Missionaries. She has been trained, she is baptised and she is now ready to be sent to do the Lord’s work. We are all so very proud of her. May her faith always light her path.

On Sunday we had the sending of two Comboni Secular for missionary work in Uganda. Lucy and Ruth. We wish them well.

This new year also happened to be CLM election year. As part of CLM constitution, elected leaders are to serve for a renewable two-year term. We are grateful for our leaders who took on their roles very well the past two years. Our new CLM leaders are Fr. Maciej Zielenski – Assessor/ Chaplain, Martin Juma – Coordinator, Maria Ajiambo – Secretary and Mukami Muthee – Treasurer. Martin, Maria and Mukami will be our representatives through January 2026, when we will have the next election. Congratulations to the three.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the MCCJ, who generously hosted us all through the weekend. Thank you for the hospitality and the resources that you availed to us. Our words are not enough, but may our good Lord remember you for your hospitality.

We’ve had a great start to the year, and we are all very hopeful for 2024.

May the Eucharistic Jesus be our strength always. (St. Daniel Comboni – Writing 6044).

Warmly, Cecilia Nyamu

Comboni Lay Missionary – Kenya.

The formation of leaders, an important aspect of the Comboni charism

15 January, 2024 by Alberto de la Portilla

After being confronted with certain problems that were handicapping the survival and continuity of the mission in Sudan, Daniel Comboni developed The Plan for the Regeneration of Africa. The plan develops strategies to take on the training of African leaders who in turn will continue the training of their brothers and sisters: “Save Africa through Africa“.

This was also the fundamental purpose of our presence at St. Francis of Assisi Station in Dadome from December 24, 2023 to January 7, 2024.

Gifty Aziedu, Benjamin Amekor and Christian Wotormenyo arrived in Dadome on Sunday evening, December 24th. They were later joined by Justin Nougnui and Valentin Sewovi. According to the instruction of the Father Chaplain and Parish Priest, we should extend our service to two other stations in the vicinity St. Michael of Adudornu and the station of Husikorpe.

Indeed, Adudornu lacks managers who can coordinate the station’s activities. “Since the time of Covid-19, we no longer gather for church activities,” some members of the station told us. Our duty for the few days in Dadome was to make house visits to the three stations and to guide some members to continue the catechist service to bring the stations back to life. In Dadome, house visitations bore fruit as the chapel was filled on the night of December 31 and on January 7, the feast of the Epiphany. The faithful followed at Dadome by the name of Charity was always eager to serve the Lord. With our help, on January 7th, she presided over the celebration of the Word in Husikorpe, located a few kilometers from Dadome. Before doing so this Sunday, she has already started in the evenings at Dadome during the celebrations of the word to be well able to expose herself. She should do so in Husikorpe because Husikorpe, with the abandonment of the service of the former catechist, has temporarily come under the coordination of Dadome. Charity should help John the catechist of Dadome to coordinate the activities of Dadome and Husikorpe. Both will have to alternate their service at both stations. Adudornu, a little farther away from Dadome, is expected to find catechists living there or not far away.

Thank God, Father Leopold had given us two names of faithful who wanted to help in the administration of the station: Stephen and Amewuga. The service of the Word on the morning of Sunday the 31st was attended by several children and adults. This showed hunger for God and gathering at the chapel. Since 2020, they have not met, they told us due to a lack of catechists. Thus, from this new meeting on the eve of the New Year, the desire of God and of the community was once again satisfied. We went to Adudornu by motorbike. In view of the distance separating Adudornu from Dadome where we resided, the formation of the two catechists took place in Adudornu and Dadome. Right after the service of the Word on the morning of the 31st, we began to guide them to preside over the celebrations. On January 3rd, they were invited to Dadome for training and on Thursday, it was again at Adudornu. On January 7, Stephen was able to preside over the celebration of the Word. Their responsibility is not only to preside over the celebrations in the absence of the priest but also to revitalize the station through their sacrifice and zeal following the directives of the parish.

One challenge we were not able to meet before leaving was to find the necessary documents for their service, but we mentioned this in the report we made to the parish priest. Also, we will do our best to provide them with certain documents. Another challenge that Charity will also have to face is the lack of means to go to Husikorpe when it is her turn. John has a motorcycle but Charity doesn’t. We had exchanged some ideas about this reality with the Husikorpe station. We hope that our suggestion can have the necessary support for the continuity of Charity’s service.

The strength to have this experience comes from our love for Christ in the footsteps of St. Daniel Comboni. Our internal organization, community life, group prayer, and the exchange of ideas among us encouraged and motivated us to make this “common cause” with the three stations. But, in order to always assume continuity, it will be good that from time to time, we pass by the three stations to see the evolution, which will require resources.

May our Founder, St. Daniel Comboni always inspire us to be moved all the time by this cry and strength to “Save Africa through Africa” and may the Lord give us the clear vision of what we must do, the strength and the means to accomplish it.

Justin Nougnui, CLM coordinator.