Comboni Lay Missionaries

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A great day for gardening

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Since 2010 we (Mark & Maggie) have continued our work with the Catholic University and College Students Group in Awassa.  They have an active student leadership committee with lots of ideas and energy, so we accompanying “adults” play a mentoring role.   This years’ group is particularly dynamic.  In 2014, a new Catholic centre will open up here in Awassa city which will have a parish church, a kindergarten school and the main jewel, the brand new diocesan youth centre.  We thought it would be great to start to get the young people involved to breathe some life into this construction site soon to be pastoral hub.

So we approached the student group to see if they would take on the design and planting of the gardens surrounding the church.  They loved the idea and in a flash, they were running with the project with spirited initiative.  In no time they had formed a small committee with engineering and agriculture students, inspected the site, took measurements, toured some nice gardens in the city for inspiration and sketched a design.  One student devoted an entire day to travel three hours away and select and purchase the plants.  Another student visited the site the day before and marked out the plan in the soil. And so last Saturday the students rallied their peers and over 40 came out and planted in one swoop!  We divided into small teams and with an air of controlled chaos, the work began: hoes swinging, spades digging, manure flying and saplings dropping.   We laughed, sang and before we knew it the day was done – 1,200 plants and flowers in place.   We then sat in the shade and shared bananas, bread and sodas.   Everyone was happy with the day’s good work.

Years from now when the hedges are full and the trees tall, the young people involved will look on and smile silently knowing how it all happened.  Most importantly they will have learned a gem of a lesson – we can achieve grand and beautiful things if we are willing to put in the effort and work together.

garden new church low res

– Maggie, Mark and Emebet Banga, Comboni Lay Missionaries, Awassa, Ethiopia

 

Happy Xmas from Aber

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Desde UgandaChristmas is a presence, a presence of love. This is the style Jesus choose for his mission, this is the style we are also supposed to have in our life as missionaries…wherever we are! Since we came here in August 2011, we have always tried to be a presence that could arouse question marks in the life of the people; It is very hard to give answers because of the differences we have, but at least we can witness our style of being family, doctor, educator, father, mother, husband, wife and Christians.

This is the reason why we always refused to make very big projects, to build structures and so on.

Jesus didn’t come with money…He came poor; Jesus didn’t build temples…a part the temple of His body. Living here now for a quite long time we had the possibilities to compare our style with the style of some NGOs…for us, we don’t  have any task to reach, we can just do our work and live our life as best as we can. If we should evaluate the life of Jesus considering the results He obtained, we could say that He failed. But we know that it is not like this.

In the same way, it is not good to see that in the hospital the nurses  go on being lazy despite Maria Grazia tries to make them understand that they should be more committed  for the good of the patients, or it is not rewarding when you fix a meeting for justice and peace commission and no one comes…but we are sure this is the right way to be present among these people.

So, wherever you are living in this moment, we wish you to be a presence of love for the people around you. Not minding about the results you will get, but trying only to give your best following the plans God prepared for you…in the same way Jesus tried (and succeeded) to do the will of the Father!

We need to feel presences of love around us, we are called to be presences of love among the people.

Happy Christmas from Aber (Uganda).

By Marco Piccione

Love in Practice is a Harsh and Dreadful Thing

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Catholic Worker

Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker movement once said: “Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.  Reality continues to confront our dreams, our hope and our ideal vision”. Day knew this well because she gave her full life to struggling in solidarity with the poor.  Loving the poor is a difficult thing. Even when we come with a sincere desire to “serve the poor” we cannot help but have a certain romantic vision of who the poor are and what we think they need. But the daily practice of this is far from romantic and I am surprised at how many times I utterly fail to love the poor when I am precisely trying to do so. This has been part of my journey as a lay missionary in Ethiopia.

But there persists a single core source of inspiration -> Matthew 25:40: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Jesus describes in Matt 25:31-46 that the inheritance of his Kingdom is based on something quite simple and attainable. Once again Dorothy Day sheds some clear light when she comments: “If Christ himself had not said it, it would seem raving lunacy to believe this. But he said that a glass of water given to a beggar is given to him. He made heaven hinge on the way we act toward him in His disguise of commonplace, frail, ordinary humanity.”

Matthew 25:40 remains both a big challenge and encouragement to me. By seeing Jesus in those around me, I begin to appreciate and care for their sufferings as well as their joy, hope and the gifts which they contribute to the world.  I begin to realize my own poverty too, accepting that as people we all share a certain brokenness and sense of loss, rejection and unfulfilled needs. I see that the real challenge is having trust in the “Jesus” in others even when I cannot see him.  Believe me, there are moments when I am rubbing my eyes to see Jesus but all I see are mistakes and disappointments.

I am also learning that contained within the act of loving the poorest is the total sphere of human virtue – patience, forgiveness, empathy, hope, perseverance and courage.   The entire demand of God’s message of Love is summed up in the obligation to love the poor because of the implicit call to authenticity and openness of heart that is demanded in practically carrying out this task in daily life (when the romantic filter is gone).

When I ponder all these things, it makes me believe that at the end of time when I am face to face with Jesus, I will only be asked one question: How did you love the poor?

– Mark

Maggie, Mark and Emebet Banga, Comboni Lay Missionaries, Awassa, Ethiopia

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