The time has come to share what is in my heart after one month into my mission experience in Carapira. I have some difficulty in organizing my ideas and in getting started, because I have many emotions in my heart. I will try to describe a bit how I have grown throw this experience.
First, I will tell you about the daily routine. We had moments of prayer every day. We always started and ended the day with prayer, both with the pastoral community and in our community.
At the very beginning we were made aware several activities where our cooperation was needed and we built our daily routine around these activities both at the Technical Industrial Institute and at the boarding run by the sisters. We accompanied the missionaries in their visits to people and communities. We took part in the celebrations that were taking place at the time to remember the 70 years of Comboni presence in Mozambique, the 150th anniversary of the MCCJ Institute and the 25th of Bro. Alfredo Fiorini’s killing.
We also kept faithful to special moments in our community of Faith and Mission.
Two things filled my heart: the first was the feeling of being small; the second, was a great but joyful serenity. I felt small, light, happy and at peace.
I felt small because I was seeing the best and the worst in me. I learned a lot about myself, I knew myself better. I perceived my limitations and my gifts with more clarity. I found limitations I did not know and qualities I was not aware of. As I grew, I felt small. This was because I was discovering that the work we were doing, even though it was important and done with our full dedication, did not change the world as we would have liked. Because the difference consists in small gestures of friendship and of love that grow and bear fruit. I felt small, above all, because what I received than what I gave. This includes the apostolic community that welcomed generously, the community of Carapira, the communities we visited, the people we met, the children and young people with whom we spent a lot of time, at the Institute and at the sisters’ boarding, and the persons with whom we made community, the other members of Faith and Mission.
At the same time I felt at peace, because my heart was full. It was full of love and of joy. God filled it. With each passing day, I was realizing all the more that I was there because God had wanted to talk to me there. I felt him very near, in concrete moments, in prayer, while working, in the people who were touching my heart. And I realized that He was guiding me and helping me to know myself better. This helped me to be more aware, more genuine. More myself. The one God already knew but I did not – my true self…
I look at this journey. How I was at the beginning and how I am now at the end. How I have changed: how God stayed in my smallness, and how he took hold of this smallness and went on to build something beautiful.
How I was touched by Him. I am happy in seeing and knowing that I lived intensely. For knowing that I lived that time with a passion for Christ and for people. I want to continue this way, with a full heart, thankful for all the marvels that God has done, for all that I received from the people who crossed my path, the many witnesses of faith and love that touched me and made me grow.
Filipe Oliveira (Faith and Mission)
