Missionary Experiences – Page 59 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Aguilectores in Sahuayo 2017: living the values in the family with Black Smoke

21 February, 201715 February, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

Last weekend, the Aguilectores (readers of the Comboni´s missionary magazine for children) annual meeting was held in an atmosphere of joy, sharing moments of prayer, games, dynamics, food and topics of current interest, which led them to become aware of their reality.

It was inaugurated with a moment of animation with songs and dances for children. This help to integrate them in teams with missionary colors to begin the contest of drawings, whose theme was the values in the family. This motivated them to join as a team, to get points and be the winning team, their prize is to publish them in our magazine.

In their analysis of reality, Internet, social networks, as well as mobile phones that have been addictive for most of them, could not be lacking. Therefore, they agreed to select three rules to use them properly, recognizing that they are useful today for our life. The rules are as follows: 1) make a schedule to use them, 2) obey at the first moment to our parents / guardians, 3) use internet in the company of an adult.

The main theme of our day was “LIVING THE VALUES IN THE FAMILY WITH BLACK SMOKE”, teacher Rosita and her children explained some of the values that have great importance for a healthy family coexistence, such as: Belonging, faith, forgiveness, honesty, curiosity, respect, flexibility, communication and generosity. All the children participated very kindly giving contributions of their own family experience, revealing to us how important it is for them to belong to a natural family.

At noon, we celebrated the Eucharist for the children, at the end we continued with a march through the streets near the park. The prayer of the rosary was interspersed with songs and batons. Concluding the event with a fraternal meal among the children and collaborators making alive the joy of the gospel.

Because of the affluent of participants, we have started a new project of missionary formation for children every Saturday from 09:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., with headquarters in Uganda Martyrs’ Park.

We will wait for you!

Carlos Manuel Castillo Villanueva.

Missionary Animation in El Salvador

14 February, 201713 February, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

The CLM community of Central American Province, would like to be present in Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica, because in these three countries there is a Comboni presence.
We are currently present only in Guatemala. In 2016 American meeting in Mexico, Guatemalans committed to work in order to extend our presence in El Salvador and Costa Rica, and become a Central American Province. Last December 2016, we made our first experience of missionary animation in El Salvador.
On December 10 and 11 and invited by the MCCJ, Father Máximo Huamán, Brother Humberto Rua, Mireya Soto, Miriam Herrador and Lily Portillo traveled from Guatemala to El Salvador, (almost 7 hours by bus). He had gathered a group of people interested in knowing this part of the Comboni Family. There were very positive reactions, several people were interested. And during this year 2017, they will begin their Comboni formation, with the support of Fr. Máximo and ours.
We are definitely sure that God wants the charism and missionary identity of St. Daniel Comboni reach more people. We, by His grace, are His simple instruments.

Blessed be God!

We are in Ethiopia!

24 January, 2017 by Alberto de la Portilla

A few days ago we arrived to Addis Ababa. Magda is with us – she helps us in getting to know the city in these first days. Our time has been quite intensive. After a few first days of adjustment and getting to know Addis Ababa we started our Amharic course. It is good that after a short course in Poland we know some basics of the language. Thanks to that we can go on with the course faster and we don’t need to spend time on getting to know the alphabet.

We have met many interesting people and visited many places in the capital city. Among others, we were in the center for street children run by Salesians as well as in the house of Mother Teresa of Kolkatta. We met with the cardinal, who blessed us for our missionary work. We also took part in the celebration of Timket (baptism of Jesus), which is celebrated in Ethiopia very solemnly.

Tobiasz and Adela CLM in Ethiopia

Passing through Bangui

13 December, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

We arrived in Bangui to meet Irene, a CLM coming from Kinshasa. She is from the Democratic Republic of Congo group and will stay with us for about a month. A very charming person. May God allow us to give her a good missionary experience and an unforgettable one for her.

We brought along one of the orphans to whom we feed maternal milk. Her name is Mervelle (Wonder) and she weighed around 4 pounds at birth. She is now five months old, is growing normally and weighs in at 11 pounds, but by December 2 she had lost over a pound and the grandmother said that she had diarrhea. We immediately sent her to the UNT and she was admitted. She was undernourished, and had a fever on a daily basis… Both the director of the hospital and Tenda, another medical colleague, thought that she may suffer from meningitis, so on Wednesday we decided to transfer her to Bangui.

We reached Emergency, an Italian NGO working in the pediatric division of the hospital in Bangui, on Friday around noon and left at four. She was checked from top to bottom and x-rays of her lungs were taken. In the end, Mervelle, our Wonder, was admitted to the ICU for pneumonia, and with symptoms of meningitis, anemia and malaria.

They immediately started to give her oxygen. It was difficult to get enough of her blood for analysis. May God help her to recover quickly, if it is his will! May he watch over her. Today is Sunday and, thanks be to God, a nurse told us that she is doing better.

On December 8 we celebrated the closing of the Year of Mercy with the participation of the entire parish. The Eucharist was very lengthy and lasted three hours, but everyone was happy. At 6:00 in the morning we said the rosary, accompanied by many songs, as we took the image of Mary in procession through the communities of Mongoumba. The faces of our people were glowing with joy and with devotion to our Heavenly Mother.

The Family Jubilee was a success. We held catechesis for both parents and their children. It was good to see the parents and their children take part in the Eucharist together, because they usually do it separately. After Mass, each couple went out looking for a couple that was not married in Church, taking upon themselves the responsibility to catechize them and prepare them to receive the sacrament.

We also want everyone to know that now we have a new car! We thank the Comboni Missionaries of six provinces who shared with us the donations of their benefactors. We are grateful to God who gave them the inspiration to help us, to show solidarity and love.

Do not forget to pray for us. We pray for you.

WE WISH YOU ALL A HOLY CHRISTMAS AND A GOOD 2017 FILLED PEACE, JOY AND MUCH LOVE.

Hugs and kisses from the CLM Anna and Maria Augusta

Mongoumba, CAR

Promoting “Comboni Friends”

9 December, 20167 December, 2016 by Alberto de la Portilla

In Ethiopia, we are planning to revitalize the group of Comboni Friends and maybe later through this group also find some vocations for the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM).

Last weekend it has been a good occasion for vocation promotion. We celebrated the Feast of Christ the King (two weeks later than the rest of the Catholic World).

The main celebrations took place in the cathedral of Addis Ababa. There was 2-days of special program. Saturday started with exhibitions of different congregations and lay movements; we were presented our CLM.

There was also a spiritual time – on Saturday adoration, prayers, conferences and confessions; – on Sunday: the solemn Holy Mass in the geez rite.

It was a really nice time of prayer & meetings with the people, some of them showed also interest to get to know our group better. So pray for all of us that, if it’s God’s will, the group starts and will grow well 🙂

CLM Ethiopia