Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Missionary Experiences

Pastoral service at Gborxoxome and Fiave-sanyi stations

by
LMC Ghana

It was a great joy when our Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Steven Avinu assigned me to start a new station at Gborxoxome. The faithful there were already well organized under the Mother Station St. Anthony of Ave-Afiadenyigba. Gborxoxome is some kilometers away from my residence, I moved in with a motor.

The service started with the Celebration of the Word this 6th December, 2020 which I presided. Just after the service, we nominated some leaders to run temporarily the business of the station. With Comboni spirit, it was necessary to engage and prepare some native as catechists with whom I can collaborate. Currently, the catechists are well equipped due to also the training organized at diocesan and parish levels. We share the services and weeks: a team in charge of the sick, projects and Seva (another station) visitation, another team in charge of evangelization and recollection. We carried out an evangelizing activity during which we proclaimed the Good News at Kpota (a nearby village) from house to house.

Other service was to visit the sick and aged brothers and sisters. With God’s grace, the Deacon Godsway Alato (currently priest) helped by taking the Holy Communion to some of the sick. Later, the Acolyte Elikem Akakpo was sent to the station for five weeks pastoral. He continued paying visit to the sick and aged, shared the Word of God with them and distributed the Holy Communion to those who were prepared. On the 28th October 2021, at the Feast of Sts. Jude and Simon, Rev. Fr. Avinu administered the Sacrament of Baptism to 22 faithfuls among which 10 received the First Communion. On the 8th October 2022, Bishop Gabriel Kumordji, SVD (Bishop of the diocese) during his annual pastoral visit to Parishes, paid a visit to our station. On the 9th October, ten (10) of our children were confirmed.

The station has its program of spirituality and liturgical celebrations: Wednesdays and Fridays at 6am, we have celebration of the Word. Second Fridays of the month at 5pm, we meditate on the Way of Cross. During Advent and Lenten seasons, we have recollection which many of the faithfuls attend. Vocational and missionary promotion is carried out sometimes during liturgical celebrations. Three of the catechists (we are five in all at the station), witnessed our promise as CLM on the 10th October last year. I was also selected at the Parish Council Meeting to be a member of Justice and Peace Commission.

Some months ago, the current Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Harry Barawusu asked me to start preparing some faithful at a new station of Fiave-Sanyi, villages located at some kilometers away from me. A catechist of Xevi, Catechist Linsford Atikpo accompanied me to the place to meet some members and plan for the start of the station. The first liturgical celebration took place on the 27th November, 2022 which was attended by about ten people, children and adults included. Catechist John Agbalekpor, collaborator of Catechist Linsford, replaced me at the station during the Assembly in Benin. Back from the Assembly, services on the two stations, St. Michael of Gborxoxome and Fiave -Sanyi, continued.

I must say, the service at Sanyi is a bit challenging. The faithful are currently either old or kids. Some are irregular at gatherings. I must take the readings and tune up the songs alone. I invited an active member of Xevi, Mad. Matilda to assist for a while. Soon, another one will help me, Sarah Gogo. But with all this challenge, the words of our Founder sound again in my ears: “Great works begin and grow at the foot of the Cross” so I will not stop. Also with the help of Catechist John, we are planning some pastoral activities to revive the station. Two faithfuls are mostly in my heart: Mary and Stephen, two blind persons who are always ready to attend gatherings. Sister Mary is even very good at singing. We must accompany them to our gatherings by carrying them on motor or walking with them. Acolyte David Tay went to the station for the Ceremony of the Imposition of ash and Rev. Fr. Harry for the sacramental celebration of Confession this year. Per the pastoral Program of the Parish, the Parish Priest should be at Sanyi on the 3rd September where he could baptize.

Slowly but surely, the two stations which I serve are growing with the help of each other. May the Lord “give us the clear vision of what we should do, the strength and the means to accomplish it“.

Justin, CLM.

Sowing on the African continent.

by
Tito Mozambique

Greetings.

Hello, I’m Tito, a Comboni Lay Missionary from Brazil, on mission in Carapira, northern Mozambique.

Here I work at the Carapira Industrial Technical Institute (ITIC), where I am responsible for agricultural production, producing vegetables so that the students can eat healthier.

I also work in the parish in the various pastoral and ministry roles.

In my spare time, when I’m at home, I grow a small vegetable garden to contribute to our diet.

As you can see, here in the mission I am sowing and reaping good fruit.

But God also calls us, through our Baptism, to be sowers of his word of the Gospel.

As missionaries, we must sow love, peace, justice, sharing, fraternity and hope, etc.

Wherever I go, I always try to sow, sow, sow. One day these seeds will germinate and bear good fruit.

Be a sower yourself, but sow with your neighbor in mind.

Tito, Comboni Lay Missionary.

Be Afrique = Heart of Africa

by
Élia Gomes

“Where I once left my heart”

Élia Gomes

After seven years in Portugal, five of which were spent supporting the family and working in elderly people’s homes (at the Missionary Sisters of Charity in Faro and at the Parish Center in Paderne) and another two years on mission in the parish of Camarate, I’m leaving to return to the CAR, where I’ve already been for five years.

It won’t be easy, but I know that this is the path God has for me.

The Central African Republic (CAR) is the place where I feel I have been called to serve God and people with joy, in the hope of bringing the message of the Gospel and helping to build a better and fairer world, together with the poorest and most abandoned according to Comboni’s missionary style.

I will face new challenges and difficulties, but I am confident that, with God’s help and the protection of Our Lady of Hope, I will be able to overcome them.

I thank my family and friends for supporting me in this decision.

I thank my parish of Paderne and the Parish Center for always welcoming me with affection despite my long absences.

I thank my community in Fetais and all those who helped me during my time in Camarate.

Finally, I thank the CLM Movement and the Comboni Family for transmitting to me the essence that inspires me to go.

“If I had a thousand lives, I would give a thousand lives for Africa”

Elia LMC

Élia Gomes CLM – Portugal

6 years of Chispuditos

by
Lmc Guatemala

With God’s blessing, lots of joy, good cheer, smiles and anticipation, the CLM were contributing ideas, activities and snack suggestions to celebrate the children of Aldea La Salvadora I and II the anniversary…

VI ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHISPUDITOS PROGRAM.

On JUNE 3rd, the anniversary date, with a pleasantly sunny morning and with the attendance of the 50 children that month after month are given preventive monitoring for child malnutrition, we prepared a delicious and fresh fruit salad, which children and parents enjoyed together with a bread with chicken filling and a very cold and refreshing horchata.

There were fun games of rounds, songs and races around chairs; mimes and even races of moms with their babies, presenting each one with an attractive pastel-colored plastic cup. It was such a fun and entertaining atmosphere that children and adults alike had a morning of celebration and fun.

Of course, the grand finale of this celebration was the presentation of a fairy tale play, in which the CLM put all their soul and energy in their performance, leaving all the spectators surprised and amazed, it was the fable of Leo and the mouse. Curiously, several children did not know the fable and we were very impressed by the way in which adults and children were completely introduced in the story.

It was a very enjoyable moment, a moment in which we celebrated life and that, in the midst of suffering, there is light and hope for these villages.

Our deep desire as a community is to grow with this program, so that the word of God can reach more families and comfort them in their sorrows, so that more children can have the opportunity to improve their health and so that mothers can have the necessary tools for their children to grow with greater opportunity.

Sara Ramírez

Missionary sending of Cristina Paulek – from the mission of Ipê Amarelo to the mission in Central Africa

by
LMC Brasil

On July 23, 2023 we celebrated the sending of the Comboni Lay Missionary Cristina Paulek, in the community of Nossa Senhora Aparecida, in the Ipê Amarelo neighborhood, a Comboni parish in Contagem / Minas Gerais, where she was currently on mission.

It was an emotional moment of great joy and several reunions of the CLM family of Brazil.

Cristina is leaving for the Central African Republic after several years of missionary dedication in Brazilian lands. She began her work in 1998 in formation and then dedicated herself to the indigenous cause in Rondônia; since then she has developed various missionary works in the Association of Comboni Lay Missionaries, including as general coordinator and accompaniment of people in preparation to be CLM and to leave. Most of that time was spent in the Community of Ipê Amarelo, which now sends her on mission to other frontiers.

Present at this sending-off celebration were: Alejo Ramirez and his wife Terezinha Ramirez, Vanessa and Feliciano with their daughter Valentina, Adriana and Marcelo with their children Bernardo and Esther, Liliana and Flávio with their daughter Maria and also the founder of the Comboni Lay Missionaries in Brazil, Valdeci Ferreira, who on the occasion declared that he was surprised by Cristina’s decision, a joyful surprise. He also said that the dream of Africa has always been the missionary dream of the CLM project and that he thanks God for the gift of Cristina’s life and asks the whole community to be united with her in prayers.

After the Mass, we had a very special moment of farewell to Cristina, together with the community and all the lay people present at a lunch at the mission house, a moment of great joy and satisfaction. The lay couple Adriana and Marcelo declare that: “this was a very exciting moment that strengthens the bonds of the mission and gives a missionary sense to the life we live day by day, in our work in our base community, together with the education of our children Bernardo and Esther”.

The current coordinator of the laity in Brazil, Flávio Schmidt, who traveled 4 days from Maranhão to Ipê Amarelo with his family, highlights: “it is a moment of great joy for our group and for the movement as a whole. Cristina has already done a lot for the mission and now continues her missionary service in the lands of the heart of St. Daniel Comboni, together with the Comboni family present there. It is also inspiring that this sending out takes place on the day when the martyrdom of Fr. Ezequiel Ramín in Brazilian lands is remembered. Let us pray for her and for all the people who dedicate their lives to the construction of the Kingdom”.

We thank God for the gift of Cristina Paulek’s life and ask Him for His blessings so that this new missionary time in the heart of Africa may be a fruitful time of peace, joy and, above all, enthusiastic dissemination of the Gospel of the Kingdom.

We count on the prayers of all!

Adriana Moutinho, CLM Brazil