My name is Belinda Awino, I am a Comboni Lay Missionary from Kenya currently doing my community experience in Kitelakapel, west Pokot County as I prepare to go to for mission in Peru.
I am glad to have joined the CLM international community in Kitelakapel for my community experience the members of the community have been very supportive since the day I arrived in their community.
Living in the community has taught me the benefits of community life such as praying together, sharing ideas and learning to respect one another. I’ve also learned some of the challenges a community might face and their possible solutions example conflicts and its resolution, management of resources i.e. finances, proper budgeting
Through the community I’ve been able to interact with the local community.
On Sundays I join Linda in Sunday school where we read the Word of God, sing songs and pray together with the children.
On Wednesday, i join Linda and Pius for Life Skill in St Bakhita girls Highschool, where we teach the girls about life, love, relationships…
On Friday I join Marzena in Kitelakapel dispensary where we assist the nurse in charge.
I am grateful for the experience and look forward for more growth in community life.
On that faithful Sunday 27th day of October 2024, was a heavy slap on the face of Comboni Lay Missionaries CLM, Togo-Ghana-Benin Province, the Catholic communities of both Bakpa Avedo, and as well as Sogakorpe. A coordinating team member Mr. Benjamin Kwame Amekor was granted an exit to join and continue his services, an everlasting rest in his final home of destination with his maker.
He is a native of Bakpa Avedo in Volta Region, Ghana. He was a teacher by profession, and a community leader. The first head Christian, a founding member of the Sacred Heart Parish Church of Bakpa Avedo.
Brother Ben is a father and friend of all, including the CLM members in Ghana. It is obvious, nothing is most beautiful than to serve the Lord through to the end of one’s life especially as a Lay Missionary in this world.
Being the Secretary, he renders his services with joy and obedience to the call of the group. What a loss of dedicated in service, display of knowledge and wisdom, above all active in almost every activity in life of the group, be it pastoral experiences. A man who makes sure he is counted among the members of the group is no more.
He ended his vocation as a Comboni Lay Missionary which he cherished a lot. Jokes were flowing from him as a sign of shared wisdom with other members of the group. Such as laughing in the different languages, another is ‘if till now you do not know what Jesus Christ had done for you then that is your own problem’are still fresh in our memories. Why should such a lovely person could not have stayed longer and shared with us in order to influence our growth in faith? Only God knows.
Who knows, this could be a divine call for a better life in the Kingdom of God, a service which is everlasting. We may say this is surely a wakeup call to all members of the CLM family to work hard and get ready for such a divine home everlasting call.
Our brother Benjamin, may you be united to the Saints, especially St. Daniel Comboni our founder and with him, please, intercede for us. Amen.
As part of the activity program for the 2024-2025 pastoral year, the CLM aspirants organized a missionary outing to Saint Joseph Parish in Assahun-Fiagbé from January 4 to 5, 2025. The activities carried out during this mission included a talk-debate, a film screening, home visits, and the distribution of gifts to children. These actions were carried out in collaboration with the Avenir Positif association, created in 2012 by collaborators of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, aimed at promoting the well-being of children and youth.
Saturday, January 4, 2025: Start of Activities
An initial delegation composed of Jean-Baptiste GNIMASSOUN, Ernest BOTRI, Marie-Claire AWUNO, and Sister Elizabeth CORTE IMPERIAL (SMC) arrived in the village on the afternoon of Saturday, January 4, 2025. After a courtesy visit to the Parish Priest at the rectory, the team went to the parish to begin the first activities of the program.
The day began with a talk-debate on the theme: The Commitment of Young Christians in Their Parish, led by Ernest BOTRI. This discussion encouraged young people to become more involved in pastoral activities. In the evening, the screening of the film Jesus of Nazareth in the local language (Éwé) marked the end of this first day.
Sunday, January 5, 2025: Main Activities and Closing
On Sunday, January 5, the Feast of the Epiphany, a second delegation composed mainly of members of the Avenir Positif association joined the initial group. All participants attended the Sunday Mass dedicated to the children of the parish and its two sub-stations.
After the Mass, Jean-Baptiste GNIMASSOUN led an educational session on the theme: Healthy Nutrition for a Positive Future. This session raised awareness of the importance of nutrition in children’s development.
Afterward, various games with prizes were organized to entertain the children. Meanwhile, some members, accompanied by parishioners, conducted home visits to the sick and elderly. These visits provided an opportunity to share the Good News and distribute food kits.
It is also worth noting that a batch of clothing and shoes, donated by Maria Aliya, an LMC aspirant, was handed over to the Parish Priest for the needy.
The mission concluded with a distribution of gifts to the children, bringing joy and hope to many households.
Conclusion
This missionary outing was a true blessing for the Saint Joseph Parish community in Assahun-Fiagbé. It not only strengthened the bonds between the LMC aspirants and the parishioners but also provided spiritual and material support to those in need.
On December 25, the first Christmas celebration took place in the community center of Piquiá da Conquista, in Açailândia. Comboni priests, lay missionaries and the local community, made up of the neighborhood’s new residents, gathered. Piquiá da Conquista is the result of more than a decade of struggle by the people of Piquiá de Baixo, who faced unhealthy conditions and rights violations due to industrial pollution. This mobilization resulted in a historic victory: resettlement in a dignified space, where today the families are building a new life.
Marcelo Moutinho, a psychologist and Brazilian CLM, who took part in the celebration with his wife Adriana, says: “On a visit to Maranhão, I longed to return to Piquiá da Conquista, after the construction work had been completed, to witness and together celebrate this great victory, which will become an inspiration for the various challenges that Christians face in their day-to-day mission and struggles for human rights. The CLM in Brazil, through the different presences over the many years of the struggle of Xoáncar, Ilária, Federico, Liliana, Flávio, Gabriel, Anna and other supporters, together with the community of Comboni Fathers of this parish, have actively participated in various stages of this achievement”.
The Comboni Lay Missionaries, as part of the Comboni family, work in partnership with communities to evangelize and build social justice, being signs of hope and solidarity in the most challenging contexts of the Church, such as the indigenous cause, the challenges of the urban peripheries, Restorative Justice in the prison system (APACs) and the struggle for decent housing.
The celebration was a moment of deep spirituality and fraternity, symbolizing the rebirth of life and faith. May the example of struggle and resilience of this community inspire more people to join the Comboni mission of spreading the love, justice and peace that Christmas invites us to live. After all, the true meaning of Christmas lies in building a more just and humane world together.
Adriana and Marcelo Moutinho, Brazilian CLM couple
In the midst of much struggle, demonstrations and death, Jesus is born in Mozambique. The people struggle to emerge from oppression. The pain of seeing friends suffering, mourning the loss of their loved ones also hurts me like a sharp sword. While some cry, others laugh. It’s not good to feel this pain, it’s not good to see people dying for the ambition of others.
He is our hope, the child God who is born is the hope of a people tired of suffering, of being oppressed.
We do celebrate Christmas, we rejoice at the news of the Savior’s arrival. But let’s not forget our responsibility towards those who suffer.
This is a different Christmas, with a strange feeling that mixes the joy of the arrival with the pain of a population marked by suffering.
Mozambique. Oh, my Mozambique, a land I’ve learned to love, people who make me feel Mozambican, how I wish for all this to end and for peace to come.
The Savior is born, may he come to save the Mozambican people and so many others who suffer.
Merry Christmas!
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