Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Missionary Experiences

Voice from the mission

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We received with joy, a testimony from the mission of Palmira Pinheiro the Comboni missionary secular who is currently in the Central African Republic together with the CLM Elia Gomes. Here we leave the testimony of the joys and hardships of this mission in the heart of Africa.

VOICE FROM THE MISSION

Although today is not Samedi (Saturday), Samedi arrived! As always out of time, when I’ve closed the door of the clinic and look forward to some rest because fatigue gets you. However, while I get to grumble with his mother, because she is not in hours, his smile, his bright eyes like two stars, his arms outstretched towards me, make me put aside my mood completely. All are my “dears” but Samedi has a special place in my heart. He was one of my earliest success stories! He was a child destined to die, but Life won!

In the second week of my arrival, some day when I had to close the door of the clinic, a woman appears, for more signs pygmy. She gave me the impression of having some mental retardation, and holding in her arms a small child than as explained by someone who accompanied would be premature, newborn and the mother had no milk to feed him. I weighed the baby, he hardly reach 2 kilograms because the pygmies are small, but he already had a “time”. What really matters is that he was hungry, since the mother, who seemed depressed, but with huge breasts, was not motivated to breastfeed, so the mammary glands need to be stimulated by the baby’s sucking to produce the “juice of life”.

We leave them to remain in the Rehabilitation Center about a month and a half trying to feed the mother and encouraging her to breastfeed the child. This was difficult because we could not always be present and, when we went we found her lying on the veranda of the Center asleep with his huge chest extended, the child also lying next, but, of course, without the ability to take the breast and suck. We used as a strategy, another mother also pygmy, who was accompanying her malnourished tiny, Jean Pierre, another favorite of mine, whom we trust to teach and encourage her to breastfeed the child. And in this way it was overcoming the most critical phase, in which, to make matters worse appeared some diseases (malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, etc.) to which we responded with proper medication. Until one day the mother decided to leave without saying anything, then we lost hope, and thought he would die, he will not have a chance! But to our surprise, she appeared two weeks later with the child very sick with pneumonia, tremendously weakened and we doubt we have the chance to save him. But he stayed here a few days, and began treatment, feeding the mother so that she in turn feed the child, but when everything started to go well she stop treatment and return to the “Camp”. And so she continued to appear when the child was in his last and we just kept saying, This time he will not get it! But “LIFE” is stronger than death and Samedi won! Now he is 9 months all and remains small (like all pygmy), but he weighs 8 kilograms. It is great! When I approached him, jumps of joy, smiling and opening his arms to come into my lap. 

I pressed him against my chest as a beloved son in whom I feel I’ve helped to live. He plays, laughs and has fun. It’s a happy boy! Occasionally taking his crisis of malaria, diarrhea, bronchitis, etc., but at least the mother is aware of bringing him when it is bad, because in addition to medication, always carry a bag full of food for two.

I think for me and for God: “Although I have not done anything, it was worthy to come to Mongoumba to see this child smile after being destined to die”

A hug to everyone.

Palmira Pinheiro (MSC)

First months in Ethiopia

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Madzia-AdisIn the beginning of January I came to Ethiopia, beginning my mission! I’ll work as a physiotherapist in Bushullo Health Center, near Awassa (in the south part of Ethiopia). Joining there Maggie & Mark with their children!

amaric

But now the first months I’m spending in Addis Abeba (in the community of MCCJ) on the language training – trying to learn Amharic. It is the second-most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic.  The graphs of the Amharic writing system are called fidel. Each character represents a consonant+vowel sequence and there are more than 230 of them! Now it’s such big joy for me to be able to read something (finally!). So wherever I go I try to decipher the texts around me – on the buses, on the buildings… 😉

After school usually I spend some time for voluntary service, using my physiotherapy skills and at the same time improving Amharic through communication with the patients 🙂 . People here are so friendly for me, helping a lot with everything, always smiling and greeting. I really enjoy it! And also they teach me their culture – like for example inviting for coffee ceremonies or for enjera. I also had the possibility to be here for Timkat – one of the biggest feasts of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which celebrates Epiphany and Baptism of Jesus. For me it’s so interesting to experience the variety of churches here – catholic is only 1%, the biggest is Orthodox church, then protestants and Muslims. But the religion seems to be very important part of live, even in the language all the most common expression include God – like for example the answer for greeting is “I’m fine, thanks be to God”.

peopleSo slowly I’m getting to know this place, these people, this culture, this language. And day by day I’m more and more happy that God sent me here!

Madzia Plekan. CLM in Ethiopia

Easter in Ethiopia

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Walking through Holy Week here in Ethiopia requires you to take off your shoes and feel the rocky soil between your toes.  Ethiopians don’t celebrate Easter in a mere cerebral way; instead they need to feel it more physically.  They manifest their spiritual journey of the week with tangible expressions which are at the same time profound yet plain: joyous palm waving as the King enters on a real donkey, 10km long stations of the cross processions in the blazing sun which literally scale up the hill of Calvary, vivid dramatic reenactments to supplement the liturgies, four straight hours of prostrations and prayers on Good Friday to enter into the Passion with one’s body. Yet the faith expression is marked with a humble simplicity – processing through the mud alongside herds of cattle, unadorned crosses made with two pieces of wood joined by a nail, Easter Sunday baptisms from a plastic bowl in a mud-walled chapel.  All is beautiful and meaningful, in the same way for Jesus’ Passion to be fully redemptive, it also needed to be physical.

Palm Sunday Processions:

Ethiopia palm sunday

 Good Friday Way of the Cross:

Ethiopia - Good Friday1 good friday1

Easter Vigil and Sunday: 

Vigil and easter sunday

 

Mark & Maggie Banga

Comboni Lay Missionaries serving in Awassa, Ethiopia

 

 

 

 

“I was in prison and you came to visit me”

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Emma

Among the various pastoral activities of the parish of Santo Domingo, led by the Comboni Missionaries in Nova Contagem, it is also the prison ministry, in charge of 15 volunteers, including the Comboni Lay Missionaries, which are part of the parish.

Every Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the group meets to visit the pavilions of the maximum-security prison of Nelson Hungria, located in Nova Contagem, with about 2,000 inmates. The meeting is at 08:00 in the square next to the prison.

The prison situation in Brazil, as in other parts of the world, suffers from high overcrowding due to prison system with little attention to the recovery of prisoners.

Prisons in Minas Gerais, for example, can receive 32,000 prisoners, divided into 144 prisons; actually, there are 54,000 inmates in the different units. This situation only gets worse the living conditions of prisoners, with a further object of punishing instead of re-educate and re-socialize, with serious violations of human rights.

EmmaThe action and commitment of the group of Prison Ministry, composed mainly of women, is to believe in a work of promoting human dignity, respect for human rights, and the overcoming of the limits of the current prison system in favor of a model that allows effective recovery and reintegration of the individual.

The most important of our pastoral activity is the testimony of a God who does not discriminate anyone, in a place marked by contempt, prejudice and violence, making ours the words of the Gospel: “I was in prison, and you came to visit me “. It is the pedagogy of Jesus, method, model, who heads the way of this pastoral, recognizing the face of God in every person, including the prisoners.

There are many challenges and difficulties in our pastoral activities, such as excessive bureaucracy that often delays and complicates our work, controls, restrictions on visits, limited permissions; but with courage, this small group of volunteers are facing difficulties. This has allowed in 2014, to create two groups of catechesis in prison. And it was possible that some inmates, who had requested, receive the sacraments.

EmmaFor this are fundamental the moments of ongoing formation that we make at the end of the month, to have a dedicated space of programming and training, allowing prison pastoral agents learn the actions that will help to improve prison visits and the relationship with the inmates. In this also helps the training conducted by the diocese.

In short, this would be the work of the prison ministry. A simple action, giving hand, encountering real faces, listening to the life stories of those who are on the other side of the bars, to bear witness to the dignity of every human being, because as the Gospel says “by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13, 35.).

Emma Chiolini, Comboni Lay Missionary