That we may learn to promote and live a more human economy, which places at its centre the most fragile people and those in need of a welcome and assistance, and progressively eliminates the wide and growing inequalities that exist in the world. Let us pray.
Today our economy is threatened by the constant changes in the world, in fact, I can not explain what people think when they hear the phrase, THE NEW WORLD ORDER, all this makes people sometimes stop to help the disadvantaged in our present, others continue their lives as usual.
I am Beatriz Maldonado Sanchez, a Mexican who works in a school in Sahuayo, my city, where the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus arrived 70 years ago; at the moment I have a year that I am following the accounts of the international economy of the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM) movement, we have already been able to have a formation that helps us to have tools to generate the economic resources that we need in the CLM missionary project; but I still realize that nowadays the challenge is great, so I see that it is necessary to leave indifference to the situation and do simple things that make a difference in our economic reality.
As it was the case of the child Angel SUPPORTED me in the proposal to run a “CANDY STORE” for a month in the school where I work, to collect money and send it to the mission where the laity work; this is how we got 100 euros that we sent to the Central Committee so they can send to the group of Comboni Lay Missionaries who are in Mozambique and thus be able to support the activity of bringing food to the most disadvantaged.
Fortunately we also have people like Carmita Espinoza an Ecuadorian friend who knows our movement and she DONATED 20 euros for the international expenses that are generated, this is how we can join efforts when they are the work of different hands that contribute and their collaboration make that TODAY WE CAN BE COMMUNICATED, because they were placed in the international box that today is in crisis. So if you want to help in this project we invite you to get in touch from our official website or send a WhatsApp message to your servant at +52 5515 052 960, be part of this great construction for the Kingdom of God.
We can all give something that makes a difference and make history continue to be constructive in the face of challenging scenarios, all this is possible when you let yourself be conquered by the Love of God that can do anything.
Beatriz Maldonado, CLM Mexico
The hospitality and arrival in Kenya started on the 19th November’ 2022 welcomed by Fr. Maciej and Linda and CLM Kenya members. As a new international CLM from Uganda I was introduced to so many people and places in Nairobi…. Karibu Kenya.
Touring the Peace Center where many lives were lost due to terrorism…. Was a moment of reflection and meditation, finding grace and peace and God’s divine mercy. As we reflect on the world of today in war Ukraine vs Russia, war in Sudan, pandemics and our daily struggles with each other and our own selves.
Gratitude
I would like to start with gratitude to my CLM Uganda community and MCCJ Uganda for all the financial, spiritual and moral support accorded to me to be able to travel, survive the challenging environment of missionary experience… They sacrifice a little from their hard earnings to contribute to my up keep in Kitelakapel. They gather in the community house of Bugolobi Mbuya to share and assemble for meetings and prayers and recollections and formation of new members. They also meet in Luwero for seminars and workshops to refresh their faith and missionary work.
Gratitude also to Alberto and the Central and African committee and coordinating team for the trainings and formation programs and all the moral support given in the one year and encouragement in tough moments of fear and anxiety.
You have not chosen me; I have chosen you to go out and bear fruit that will last… Jn 15:16
My community in Kitelakapel…
We live three people in the community: Linda Micheletti from Italy, Marzena Gibek from Poland and Pius Oyoma from Uganda. We care and look up to each other. We are the first team to start the international community in Kitelakapel- Kenya. We often receive visitors from within and out of Kenya. We share together good moments of prayer and laughter. Our community organizes games for kids. We also do various training like Kiswahili langue, enneagram, formation programs, assemblies ad attend Mass and other festivals in the church. We travel to train and do youth retreats.
The Lord is loving and merciful, slow to anger and full of constant love…
Education….
We are teaching Life Skills in secondary schools of St. Paul’s Boys and St. Bakita Girls boarding school. Gratitude to our sponsors who have financially supported to meet the cost of reach out to the distant schools to train more than 800 students in 2022-2023 academic year as we seek to open doors to other schools in need of our services.
My work and mission… transforming lives…. touching lives…. inspiring… sowing practical talent… and skills
Let the children come to me…
Pastoral Activities with the small Christian communities… Jumuiya.
Another of our main activities consist in visiting families, praying for the sick and troubled families and connecting… being there… being with people, we do also meetings with YSC, Sunday School, Catechism, Bakhita Group, choir, TTI Group.
Kitelakapel is an outstation of Kacheliba Parish. It is still an area of first evangelization. There is a small church, built by the MCCJ, and a fathers’ house with a farming project. Not far from it, the MCCJ built a new house that has been allocated to us, in a large compound. Within the compound, on the left side of the CLM house, there’s a plan to build, in the future, a hospital, and on the right side a hall and pitches for the youth to play. The idea is to prepare for the possibility that one day this may become a parish on its own. It’s a very marginalized area, very dry, where people lack access to water and live mainly out of pastoralism. The Pokot in this area remain quite attached to their traditions, with low rates of school attendance and low school performances. As soon as we got here, we could immediately identify some basic needs, in terms of pastoral work, as there seems to be little involvement of the faithful into the running of church activities. The same catechist in charge is too busy to dedicate time to the Jumuiyas and teach catechism. Only recently have some women organized themselves into a small choir, while there are still gaps in the organization of church cleaning and provision of essential elements like candles and other accessories for the celebration of the Mass.
In terms of social aspects, there is an evident problem of alcohol addiction in the area, as well as drugs, disaggregated families, early pregnancies and early marriages (with consequent school droppings), but we are still in the process of understanding and discovering more about the social needs in this area.
Economy….
Supporting the communities with ideas and programs to survive the tough economic times after the COVID pandemic and ongoing world wars is also part of my duties… SACCO it is a system to encourage savings and product development to create jobs and increase revenues and earnings of the group… I was appointed project coordinator for CLM Kenya.
I will bless the fruits of your hard work and multiply you… I will uphold you with my victorious right hand… nothing will ever separate you from my love.
My stakeholders…
Meeting our Bishop HENRY JUMA was the most exciting moment of my life and this feeling of faith and passion made enjoy every moment of his presence… Our parish priest, father Charles, a friendly and fatherly man and fathers from Kacheliba Parish and Amakuriat Parish… Comboni sisters and brothers and our lay missionaries of Kenya. Our provincial superior Fr. Andrew so welcoming and warm hearted and fatherly to everyone.
Fr. Philippe and Fr. Thomas our legends of west Pokot share with us good moments of the 50 years of Comboni in Kacheliba. Golden jubilee…
The moment I met you, my value increased and that’s how much valuable you are to me…
The youth… young …the energy and the magic.
Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God so that he will lift you up in his own time. Leave all your worries with him for he cares for you…
God is my creator and my redeemer and he loves me dearly… Shukurani…
Pius Oyoma, CLM in Kenya
Last Saturday we were able to enjoy a formation on Comboni Missionary Spirituality given by the Comboni Missionary, Fr. Vittorio Moretto.
A formation that goes through the central aspects of this missionary spirituality and gives us clues on how to live our missionary vocation as Comboni Lay Missionaries.
We encourage you to watch it in community.
The session is recorded in Spanish.
On October 27, we flew to Ethiopia. This is our third trip. The journey was smooth and we arrived in Addis Ababa on time. We were picked up from the airport by Sister Janina – a Franciscan nun who has been in Ethiopia for over a dozen years.
The next day we continued our journey to our place of stay, to Awassa, to Magda Soboka, who founded and runs the Ethiopian Children’s Foundation “Barkot”, to help her in her work in the Foundation.
Magda’s Ethiopian husband received us at the bus station and welcomed us very warmly.
A surprise was waiting for us, prepared by Sister Franciscan Missionary of Mary, a Pole, Kamila from Łódź, who works at the hospital in Bushulo as a midwife and nurse. Her parents came from Poland to visit her for the first time (and she has been here for 8 years). The surprise was a five-day trip deep into Ethiopia to various tribes and missions led by the Spiritan Fathers.
The trip lasted 5 days. It started on October 30 and ended on November 3.
On the first day we stopped in Arba Minch at the Spiritan fathers’ house. On the way we visited the Park of 40 Springs.
On the first day we went on a boat trip on Lake Chamo, where we saw crocodiles. Then we went to the Dorze tribe, where we were dressed up in their tribal, festive costumes, and they treated us with a cake made of banana leaf flour, alcohol and home-made honey. It was a great experience. Their houses are shaped like a crocodile’s snout. Returning to the mission for the night, we stopped at a factory for hand-made silk and silkworm breeding. We learned about the process of manual production of fabrics, which were also used to sew finished products (scarves, bags, blouses, etc.). It was a very fruitful day.
At dawn after Holy Mass on November 1, we said goodbye to the fathers and continued our journey. We visit the land of the Mursi tribe in Konso. This tribe has been in Ethiopia since the 15th century. They began to build their houses on the mountain, and the entrance to the village and houses leads through small stone corridors, so that no unauthorized person can get in, and forms three circles around the mountain. This tribe cultivates its traditions and customs, creates a community,
We reach Jimma in the evening for an overnight stay at a guesthouse and dinner.
Very early in the morning we leave the guesthouse and set off in the rain to the village of the Turmi tribe. The rain stopped, and we, with a guide and security, visited the village of the tribe which according to the old tradition, places plates on the lower lip of the mouth, and the warriors paint themselves. This tribe changes its place of residence every 3-4 months, looking for food for its flock – it is a pastoral tribe. The inhabitants of this tribe go naked, sometimes covering themselves with a blanket. An interesting fact for tourists is that in the evening there is the “ewangadi” ceremony, there are various shows, bull jumping, dances, etc. When a man from this tribe wants to get married, he must show courage and strength, jump over 6 bulls, and a woman whips herself. The Ethiopian government wants this tribe to dress and send their children to school, but they do not want to and destroy the clothes because it is not their culture. During the day, the men are out hunting. In the village we only saw women and children.
We go to Yabello to spend the night with the Spiritan missionaries. The Missionary Fathers run a boarding house for older boys and girls studying. They encounter great difficulties in employing teachers because teachers want very high salaries that fathers cannot afford. Right now, they would love to see a volunteer who would teach English and computer science. Of course, there are problems with work permits, so such a volunteer could only work for three months.
Unfortunately, the trip ends quickly and we return to Awassa, visit a bamboo hotel along the way, eat at the Inka restaurant and go home in the evening. It was a wonderful trip, full of new information about the life of some Ethiopian tribes and the activities of the mission. It introduced us to the culture and customs of the Ethiopian tribes.
However, we did not come here to rest, we need to start doing something for others. We visit the Center of the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa and Andrzej was offered few tasks: in the emergency room and in carpentry work. The sister superior, a Belgian, welcomes him very warmly. I will try to help Magda, and there is plenty of work.
Bogusia and Andrzej.
