Missionary Experiences – Page 56 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

“Go to meet love”

30 June, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Today, June 15, our CLM Flávio and Liliana left for their mission in Piquiá, Brazil. Our CLM family and some of their relatives were present at that moment, sharing with the couple the joy of having accepted the invitation to “Save Africa with Africa.”

You go to meet love. You follow the steps of the one who invites them (…)

You accept the invitation to go.

May God give light to your paths and in sharing life with other people.

Thanks for your presence and sharing, personally or in prayer.

Kisses

(words of our friends already in the plane)

With love, Carolina Fiúza

Sharing life and knowledge

28 June, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

What is there in common between an over 70 Russian woman with a university education and an uneducated woman of about 50 from Guinea-Bissau? Perhaps the fact that both live in Portugal, in a low class neighborhood of the great city of Lisbon and that they both want to learn Portuguese.

And so it is that in the Quinta de Mós, in a space given by City Council for the use of the parish of Camarate, based on the concrete need of these two people, a literacy program for adults came into being. Based on the method of Paulo Freire, suited to this specific reality, we start classes in the afternoon. The learning levels and the individual needs vary greatly. But with this method, that fosters learning starting from the concrete reality, and allows the person to look critically at herself, interaction is possible and, even more, it creates solidarity between the people involved.

A little bit at a time, people are joining the group and we open a new class in the morning, because some of the women work in the afternoon. The flow is constant. There are desertions due to work, health, domestic problems.

The two classes are made up of women. A group ends and three continue. The two original women are still there and another girl, much younger who only has a second grade education.

Classes involve more than alphabet and words. They consist in conversations, in sharing of difficulties, of support, help in filling out documents, finding apartments for rental, translating conversations, clearing doubts from day to day, improving pronunciation… One has to leave her home, but another has a house to rent; One wants to learn sewing, and another knows how and is willing to teach; One finds food and shares it with another who draws no salary… And so we move on, sharing life and knowledge, promoting learning and the appreciation of the person, the sharing and the solidarity! “Saving Africa with Africa!”

CLM Flávio Schmidt

The LOGBOOK of Simone Parimbelli, a CLM in Central Africa

7 June, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

May 15, 2017

88^th day, 1012 to go

The “AFRICAS” AROUND MY TABLE. I have moved to the Comboni parish of Our Lady of Fatima! Everything is new… new schedules, new food, new room, new COMMUNITY! Now I live with three African Comboni priests: Fr. Moises, Fr. Jean Michel and Fr. Romain! They are all African but from different types of Africa: Fr. Moises is Ugandan, had to learn French and Sango, has more experience than anyone else and he is charge of the parish. Fr. Jean Michel is from Togo, only recently arrived in the Republic of Central Africa, and is learning the reality, the life and the customs of the CAR. Fr. Romain is Central African, just ordained, speak fluent French and Sango, is learning to say Mass and will be sent to Guatemala on his first mission assignment. Uganda-Togo-CAR are so far off “AFRICAS” that it’s like living with a Russian, a Frenchman and a Portuguese. To say that they are Africans is a generalization, because they all have their own ways… it is not easy to be a COMMUNITY, but AROUND THE TABLE we joke, laugh, chat and speak of the problems of the various “AFRICAS”… There is a good rapport and brotherhood in this little corner of our “AFRICAS”!

May 22, 2017

95^th day, 1005 to go

MARTIAL, THE GOOD SHEPHERD. Martial is a young man of the parish, he is 28, a catechist of Confirmation, and moderator of the AITA KWE group. This week he has also been my GOOD SHEPHERD, who accompanied me to school by “paths tranquil and safe.” The parish is near the Muslim neighborhood called “Kilometer 5” where in the “troubled” days they had some “small” problems. Martial, like the GOOD SHEPHERD, ensures tranquility and safety along the short walk to school. In the afternoon the parish is full of young people studying, women praying, children having fun, people looking for the fathers, but often it is a rather silent life or without too much noise and at times I have had the feeling that everyone is waiting for something. I hope it will be a waiting filled with hope and peace.

May 28, 2017

101^st day, 999 to go

AITA KWE = “All brothers and sisters” is a parish group of adolescents and pre-adolescents. They wear a yellow shirt, green pants or skirts and a green scarf with a yellow border. Together with Fr. Moises and Martial I went to their retreat-formation day. When we arrived, they were reflecting on “my life project: my good points and my weaknesses.” After the reflection, they had some fun, a Mass celebrated by Fr. Moises and then a common meal of bread, fish, and manioc mush. All together like brothers and sisters!!! When it was time to leave, we loaded on Fr. Moises’ pick-up all the backpacks, the pots, the empty water drums, and a few tired little girls who had a hard time standing up, while the group line up by twos and, with drums beating, marched back to the parish (a two hour walk!!!). It was just like the days in my parish at the “oratorio” of Osio Sopra (or Basiano) with the catechism children and youngsters… also the pastoral life of the parish of Our Lady of Fatima is active and fervent with many people involved in the service of the community!!!

June 2, 2017

106^th day, 994 to go

IN A FLASH: Tomorrow from 8:30 to 10:30 I will have the final evaluation of my second French course… in a FLASH…Anna will pick me up at school, we will go to the parish to load my luggage which I already packed and we will leave…IN A FLASH… for Mongoumba…a journey of five to six hours. After only 20 days, this will be another move…up to now I have kept to my “navigation route”: to arrive quietly in the CAR, to take time to adapt, to study French…now I begin a new phase of my journey: to learn Sango and to adapt to Mongoumba!

I haven’t sent you news in a while, but in the parish there is no internet connection and it will be the same in Mongoumba, at times even at Comboni House I can’t connect to e-mail and it becomes difficult to communicate with you, but this is one of the objectives of the journey!

I have yet to have my first malaria attack and haven’t yet met unsurmountable problems, perhaps I lost some weight (Fr. Alex says that I lost my extra Western pounds), but my appetite is good and the fathers continue to encourage me to eat, because food helps us to keep healthy. Time is going by fast…in A FLASH…106 days have already passed since my arrival in the CAR!!!

Greetings and hugs, a kiss and a prayer and THANKS…

Simone CLM

A Missionary Holy Week in El Salvador

31 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

…”Holy and capable, making common cause with the poorest and most abandoned” (St. Daniel Comboni)

We, the CLM of the PCA in Guatemala, want to share with joy the mission experience Mercedes Suy and Carolina Lorenzana had during Holy Week, on April 8-16 of this year.

They went to the parish of St. Anthony in Santa Tecla, El Salvador and this is their story:

On Saturday, April 8, at 6:00 a.m. we left Guatemala City for El Salvador. The bus trip lasted six and a half hours. We arrived at 12:30 p. m. and we were met at the bus station to be taken to the parish of St. Anthony where Fr. Juan José Hernández, mccj welcomed us and gave us lodging. In the afternoon we went to meet the community of San Rafael. That was our mission field.

On that same day we started the home visits that lasted through the week until Thursday. We visited many families where we told them about the CLM, and that we were from Guatemala. They listened to us with interest, but above all we listened about their needs, problems and illnesses. After a few days, another community called San José del Pino requested our presence,

We took part in the activities of the small community sharing the Word at the House of Prayer “Oratorio,” and we attended the Way of the Cross in both communities.

These are people who have been directly affected by the gangs and by juvenile delinquency. Many have relatives or friends who disappeared or were killed. These communities need a person to person mission, where they can be helped to rise beyond their many problems by giving them skills to work with, social assistance and a deep evangelization with continuing support.

Perhaps the mission was not great, but it was rich in missionary activity. We, the CLM of the PCA in Guatemala will continue to hold these missionary experiences ad gentes in order to nurture our CLM charism.

CLM Guatemala

Mission News from the Central African Republic (CAR)

28 May, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

I hope you will all be happy with the bishop’s pastoral visit and that it will bear fruit.

Here Fr. Jesús is sick, but gratefully he is getting better… The other members of the apostolic community are in good shape and we thank God for his great love for us. Fr. Samuel will leave for Ethiopia to undergo medical tests and to rest. I pray the Lord that he may return well, full of good health and strength, to face anew the challenges of mission. Today his malaria came back. I hope he will be better tomorrow, because he is due to travel home.

This time I came to Bangui to open an account for the school. There is an organization that helps us and wants us to have an account to which to send the money.

We brought along a Pygmy couple and their baby, who was born with a nose deformation, to have surgery in the same pediatric hospital where they attended little Merveille. He was already operated on and it seems it was successful. May God allow it to be so! He will be discharged on Friday and will return to Mongoumba with us so that we can follow him as long as he needs care, because in the camp there are no hygienic conditions nor anyone who can do it. I hope Honoré (that’s his name) will do well…! The parents are very happy!

Next to Honoré there is a baby who was born without an anus and the waste spreads through the abdomen. He will undergo surgery tomorrow… May the Lord allow him to get well, so that in the future he will have a normal life.

By the grace of God Marveille is now growing normally.

Maria has already recovered a bit from malaria. Keep on praying for her.

Always united in prayer.

A great missionary hug to the all world.

María Augusta, CLM from Portugal in the CAR