Missionary Experiences – Page 58 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Second Meeting of Mission Promotion Guatemala-El Salvador

7 July, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

On Friday, June 30 we, members of the CLM-PCA of Guatemala were sent to El Salvador by our community.

The first meeting took place in December 2016. On that occasion in our mission promotion we shared about St. Daniel Comboni, the members of the Comboni family, the CLM, how we are organized and, at least a little bit, how in Guatemala the community followed a journey based on the indications of the directory.

On this second occasion, the mission promotion part took place on Saturday, July 1 and lasted from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

These were the points of our program of activities:

To go back to recognize St. Daniel Comboni, the Comboni family and the charism that identifies us;

The missionary vocation and how to be community in the Comboni style;

The directory and an explanation of the stages of human, spiritual and Comboni formation. At the same time, as an example, how we took care of our formation over two and a half years;

A small workshop on human development to end the day and to explain a little bit the role of the CLM in the field of the integral development of the person.

Results of the meeting:

Identification of and connection among the people who will be the contacts between Guatemala and El Salvador;

Several people were motivated to know better the Comboni charism in order to discern their vocation;

To start having meetings the last Saturday of each month, beginning now in July;

From our part, a commitment to nurture properly and periodically the seed that has been planted;

To pray for fruits and for our brothers of El Salvador.

We, the CLM of Guatemala, believe in the name of Jesus and with the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni, that this work is from God and will have success. The people of El Salvador are intelligent, fighters, lovable, accessible, open and, above all and most importantly, full of faith and of love of God and ready to serve the most needy.

This past weekend, we, from Guatemala, without any merit on our part, have enjoyed and shared in the mercy of God.

“THE MISSIONARY MUST AT TIMES BE HAPPY WITH SOWING A SEED THAT WILL GIVE FRUIT WITH THE MISSIONARIES WHO WILL FOLLOW.”

St. Daniel Comboni

COMBONI LAY MISSIONARIES OF THE PROVINCE OF CENTRAL AMERICA

“HOLY AND CAPABLE MAKING COMMON CAUSE WITH THE POOREST AND MOST ABANDONED.

St. Daniel Comboni

Holiday Return of our CLM María Augusta

5 July, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Our dear CLM María Augusta has returned for vacations from the mission in which she was called to serve over these last few years, the Republic of Central Africa (CAR).

Her return to Lisbon, yesterday afternoon July 4, was marked by a warm reception at the airport where her family and some CLM were waiting for her.

Currently, María Augusta is at Janeiro de Baixo, Pampilhosa da Serra, with her family, for a time of vacation.

Welcome María Augusta! Thanks for your generosity, dedication and commitment in the service and responsibility of mission. We wish you a good and well deserved vacation!

CLM of Portugal

“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