Every Christmas, the ladies of Theodokis Maria visit the small village of Rayampampa, Peru. Rayampampa is outside the city of Otusco where the Virgen de la Puerta, this region’s most famous religious icon resides.
The group takes gifts for the children of the village. When they first started approximately 15 years or so ago, there were only 10 children on their list. This year, there were over 100. They also take clothes and needed household items for the adults.
In the beginning, the village also did not have a church. Within the last few years, the ladies have worked with the villagers to construct their beautiful one room church. I was honored this year to be invited to participate in this project!
The celebrations started with praying, singing and Bible stories. The children danced and laughed and had a wonderful time. After the gifts were distributed, everyone was treated to hot chocolate and Panetton…the Peruvian version of fruitcake. No Christmas celebration in Peru is complete without it!
When most of the village had started their trek home with their goodies, one of the families cooked lunch for our group. Roasted hen and rice and beans cooked over an open flame. It was wonderful and I will certainly always remember the friendliness and generosity of spirit of these wonderful people!!
Hello everyone
We leave you a video recorded by the Spanish TV in Trujillo (Peru) where we can see the work of the Comboni Missionaries and of the Comboni Lay Missionaries in the place (is in Spanish).
Greetings to everybody, let us see who wants to joint!
Among the various pastoral activities in the parish of Santo Domingo, led by the Comboni Missionaries in Nova Contagem, there is also the Prison Pastoral, carried forward by 15 volunteers, including Comboni Lay Missionaries, as part of the parish.
Every Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the group meets to visit the pavilions of the maximum security prison Nelson HungrÃa, located in Nova Contagem, with about 2,000 prisoners. The appointment is at 08:00 in the square next to the prison.
Prisons in Brazil, as elsewhere in the world, suffer high prison overcrowding due to a system with little attention to the recovery of the detainees.
Prisons of Minas Gerais, for example, can receive 32,000 prisoners, divided into 144 prisons, actually are 54,000 prisoners within the various units. This situation can only deteriorate the living conditions of prisoners, with a purpose of punishment more than re-education and re-socialization, with serious violations of human rights.
The action and commitment of the Prison Pastoral group, mostly made up of women, is to believe in the work of promoting human dignity, respect for human rights, and overcoming the limits of the current prison system in favor of a model that allows effective recovery and reintegration of the prisoner.
The most important of our pastoral action is the testimony of a God who does not discriminate any person in a place marked by contempt, prejudice and violence, making our own the words of the Gospel: “I was in prison and you came to visit me”. It is the teaching of Jesus, the method, the model, who heads the walk of this pastoral, recognizing the face of God in every person, even in prison.
There are many challenges and difficulties faced in our pastoral activities, such as excessive bureaucracy that often delays and complicates our work, controls, restrictions on visits, limited permissions; but this small group of volunteers face difficulties with courage. This also allowed in 2014, to create two groups of catechesis in prison and enabled some prisoners who had requested to receive the sacraments.
To this are fundamental the moments of ongoing formation we do each month, with a space dedicated for programming and training, allowing pastoral prison agent to know and learn the actions and information that will help improve visits to the prison and the relationship with prisoners. We also attend the training conducted by the diocese.
That’s the job of the prison ministry. A simple action, holding hands, meeting face to face, listening to the life stories of those who are on the other side of the bars in order to witness the justice and dignity of every human being, because as the Gospel says ” By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13, 35).
We have a lot of important events in January hence short delay in posting them 🙂
All of our Comboni Lay Missionaries who begin their mission in this year have already left to learn the language they will use during their mission. Madzia is in London to improve her English, Kasia is currently in Portugal with Barbara along with local CLM community to perfect her Portuguese (and English 🙂 ). Ania has just arrived to Democratic Republic of Congo to learn French.
On Girls and all Comboni Lay Missionaries Movement in Poland behalf, we would like to thank all communities who welcomed them so warmly: Comboni Fathers in London, Comboni Lay Missionaries community in Portugal and Comboni family in Kinshasa. It is very important to somebody who is leaving everything they know behind and go to discover unknown to feel they are in the family and have their support.
Thank you all, once again!
We are also preparing to welcome back our three Comboni Lay Missionaries – Asi, Ewy and Moniki who almost finished their mission in Africa. We will meet Asia and Ewa in March, and Monika at the beginning of April. Girls – we can’t wait to see you again!
One of my main apostolates is the work of physiotherapist in the Mother Theresa Home. There, some time ago the sisters asked me to visit one of their patients – Addisu – teenage boy dying of bone cancer. Addisu’s mother died of cancer, his sister also. He fell ill 1,5 years ago, but as he came from a poor family they had no money to send him for treatment. Finally, he came to one of the missionary clinics in the village distant approx. 100 km from Awassa. Unfortunately there they couldn’t help him too much, it was too late for any treatment, so they sent him Mother Teresa Home in Awassa. As he came here he was in a terrible psychological state, really suffering due to pain, but also the fear of death. But when I met him I couldn’t believe it was the same boy. He was so cheerful, smiling, calm. Although sometimes the face passed him grimace of pain (which must be unimaginable, his leg in which he attacked the cancer looks horribly … and also there is no such strong drugs that are used for palliative patients), in a moment the smile and desire to talk returned. When I asked the boy what is his biggest dream that I might try to fulfill his wish, he said that what he wants the most now is baptism. For me it was surprising answer. But at the same time everything became clear – that his peace of heart, this joy despite suffering … It’s all thanks to God, the God who surrounded him with so much love and peace in this difficult time.
Since I met Addisu, I’ve started to pray for him a lot and also sking for prayers of all my friends. And thus we could experience how much powerful prayer is!
There was a chance to consult with other doctors and they found that lung lesions are not cancer metastasis and that it is not too late for amputation, which could save his life! On one of our Bible fellowship meetings (where we always have a prayer for different issues) I mentioned the situation of Addisu and it turned out that the husband of one of the members of our group is a surgeon! And that’s one of the best in Awassa! Then I could see how God starts to work and connect all the puzzles! We had appointment with the doctor in very short time (because Addisu’s suffering began increasing by spreading the infection from the wound on the leg) and the next day there was surgery! Addisu is so amazing! And the prayer probably gave him a lot of peace that once they were taking him to the operating room, he showed no sign of fear or sadness that he would lose his leg but he radiated joy. Because he will live! After a few days, they discharged him from the hospital and now we work intensively with physiotherapy in order to make him walking again. And also another miracle in the whole situation – the father of Addisu, who after the death of his wife and daughter, seeing dying son completely separated from the boy… It was too much for him to see the next family member dying of cancer and unable to do anything about it. He tried to forget sadness and pain in alcohol … But now when he saw that his son would live, came to Awassa and was caring about him so nicely! It is so beautiful! That God heals not only the boy’s body but also his relationship with father … Although it is known that still a lot ahead of them, so let us pray on!
Madzia Plekan CLM in Awassa Ethiopia
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Every Christmas, the ladies of Theodokis Maria visit the small village of Rayampampa, Peru. Rayampampa is outside the city of Otusco where the Virgen de la Puerta, this region’s most famous religious icon resides.
