Africa – Page 15 – Comboni Lay Missionaries

Six months of missionary presence in Kitelakapel

6 November, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

It’s been almost half a year since I came to Kitelakapel. It’s amazing how wonderful I feel here from the beginning. Full of peace and joy that what I wanted so much is now coming true. The three of us stay in Kitelakapel, together with Linda, who came here first, and Pius, who has been here for almost a year. These first months were a time of meeting people, getting to know each other in the community and observing everything that was happening around me. I know this adventure will never end. And I do not want it to end. I want to continue to explore, to learn, to taste this life in Africa which is a great gift for me.

In Kitelakapel we’re doing well, we are very busy with a lot of different activities. We still spend a lot of time learning Suahili. Linda is our teacher. We have a lot of pastoral work like: catechism, Young Missionary Group (St. Bakhita group), YCS (meetings with boys from secondary school), Sunday School and attending Jumuiyas (small christian communities). Every Saturday and Sunday we organize compound games for children.

I have started offering my services to the dispensary of the mission in Kacheliba, and the small dispensary of Kitelakapel. My big dream is to work here in Kenya as a physiotherapist. It is not only my profession but also a great passion. I have already taken some official steps to be able to practice my profession here. Pius and Linda continue teaching life skills in two schools and doing tutoring in the primary school. I had the pleasure of observing their work for almost three months when I arrived here.They do it really wonderfully, engaging children and teenagers in various activities. We’ve also started weekly workshops for teachers to improve the quality of teaching. Workshops are run online by an organisation from Poland Why Blue Sky. Now schools are on vacation so we also do other activities.

We took part in very interesting workshops in Nairobi organized by Fr Maciej Zieliński. It was about personality types. We are also planning to go to Uganda for one week to organize some workshops for teachers and nurses.

We’re now trying to set up a permanent tent to have activities with children and adults in case of bad weather, and we would like to have a little playground with swing, slide and merry-go-round for the youngest children. .

We send you our warmest greetings and please, keep us in your prayers 🙂

Marzena Gibek, CLM from Kitelakapel

Prayer Intentions of the Comboni Family November 2023

1 November, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

That the memory of our deceased sisters and brothers, ancestors, friends and relatives may make us more aware of the attractiveness of the communion of saints as an anticipation of the joy that awaits us. Let us pray.

Knowing me (Enneagram)

30 October, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

The journey to knowing one’s self started about 2 years ago when I first heard the word Enneagram. For one reason or the other it had been so elusive until the long weekend of 19th to 22nd of October 2023 paved a good opportunity for this magic of knowing oneself.

We unusually arrived early from different parts of the country to congregate at the St Joseph Retreat Centre under the Contemplative Evangelizers of the Heart of Christ a conducive place for reflection, seminars and retreat. This retreat brought together 13 CLM, 4 Comboni Secular Missionaries, 1 friend and MCCJ. The first day was a day of preparation and briefing, carefully done by the CLM assessor Fr. Maciej preparing us for the next day. We were made to understand that the workshop is two hours intense engagement with only 30 minutes interval break. Good supper came in handy with the comfort of night prayers gave us a good sleep.

Friday being a public holiday in Kenya, we started with morning mass at 6:30am, and then at 8:20am we gathered in the hall ready for the workshop. The facilitator started the program with a quote “A beautiful appearance will last a few decade, but a beautiful personality will last a life time”. She explained that Enneagram is a system of topology that classifies human personality into nine basic types. Brief history was shared how enneagram started.it became interesting when we started exploring enneagram types; at first I thought that I had two types only later to discover that one was dominant. As we delved deeper into these nine types it came clear that everyone had identified and aligned themselves with one of the types.

It was an eye opener for most of us, I understood whom am really are, why I behave the way I do it made me be aware of myself, from the testimonies real scenarios and examples shared by most of us. It made us aware from which possible Enneagram wingers we could borrow help from. It was clear for the motivations, blind spots and how we are also connected in this web of personality test.

This was a big score for us not only for personal development but also to relate well with others in a community, our surrounding during pastoral work and our spirituality without judging them but walking with them and accompanying them with utmost understanding. Now we feel more empowered and would respond rather than react as we prepare for the mission. It’s true to the quote “when awareness is brought to your emotions, power is brought to your life”.

Martin Onyango, CLM

Little by little

27 October, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Yes, little by little, our province is moving on. Some years back, a lay person, to move on the footstep of Comboni, could only choose to be a religious. If not, you could only journey in the group named Friends of Comboni. But thank God, since 2011, after the first CLM African Assembly in Uganda, things have changed. The first meeting held officially as CLM candidate’s group was in May, 2013. Bit by bit, we are moving on. On the 10th October, 2022, three (3) candidates were accepted and made their promise as CLM. The first pioneer group in the province (Togo-Ghana-Benin) is in Ghana. But as a province constituted of three countries, it won’t be representative enough to have such group in only one country.

By God’s grace, zealous lay men in Togo with the guidance of Rev. Sister Elisabeth, SMC, came up to start a same journey, to become CLM. More than 20 in the beginning, seven of the group at Adidogome, with determination, maintained their expectation and kept on undergoing the training required for CLM candidates according to our International Formation Guide. Monthly basis, they meet for a formation which the Rev. Sister takes so seriously by inviting resource persons. Last 15th October, they met in the Comboni Sisters’ House to receive a formation on the topic “Affectivity and Human Maturity” delivered by Rev. Sister Cecilia of the Congregation of “Les Petites Soeurs de la Sainte Famille”. The Sister let them understand that affectivity engaged the totality of human life.

MCCJ are in the three countries and so should CLM candidates. Since some months, new CLM candidates are arising in Benin. Our friends Lucien and Ulrich, (CLM candidates) have started having a training too. With the help of Brother Pascal, MCCJ, training is ongoing at St. Francis of Assisi parish of Fidzrosse. On the 8th October, they met again to receive a training from Father Francisco, MCCJ. Father shared with them the “Evangelic Counsel of Chastity in the life of a Christian”. Brother Pascal is committed to give a solid foundation to our CLM candidates. Last week, through the guidance of Sister Elisabeth, a new female candidate, Rita Kebi, from Houegbo, joined the two candidates in Benin. She will soon be inserted in the group to continue with Lucien and Ulrich the journey.

In Ghana, we had the grace to rejoice with Father Shane, MCCJ, his 25th priestly anniversary at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus’ parish of Abor. It was a great celebration attended by faithful from the three countries of the province. Bishop Gabriel, SVD (Bishop of Keta-Akatsi Diocese), Bishop Anthony (Bishop emeritus of the diocese), Father Timothy, Provincial of MCCJ in the Province, religious and lay people, all came to thank God with Father Shane for the wonders and care He took the blessed of the day through. At the end of the celebration, we took the opportunity to greet the Provincial and interacted with Brother Pascal and some other MCCJ.

Justin Nougnui, CLM coordinator.

25 years of Comboni Lay Missionaries in the mission of Mongoumba, Central Africa.

26 October, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

World Mission Day was the ideal setting for this celebration.

Mgr. Jesús Ruiz Molina, a Comboni Missionary of Spanish nationality and bishop of the diocese of Mbaïki, where our mission of Mongoumba belongs, after thanking the Comboni Lay Missionaries (CLM) for their missionary work, whom he named one by one – a total of 18 during all this time – highlighted some of their characteristics:

First: A lay mission with a feminine imprint.

It happens that more lay women than lay men have come to the mission of Mongoumba. Fifteen women for three men. This mission on the part of the laity has a feminine imprint since its beginning, since it was an Italian lay missionary, Marisa Caira, who opened this mission for the laity, having dedicated more than 20 years of her life to it. This feminine presence contrasts with a local church, such as the Central African Church, whose movements and fraternities, where the majority are women, are led by men.

Second: Internationality.

The mission is not of a single nationality, but Catholic, that is to say, universal. And the CLM have given testimony that it is possible to live fraternity, even with cultural differences, under the guidance of the same faith. That which makes us different, far from being an obstacle, becomes an opportunity for mutual enrichment and growth as missionaries, because the mission encourages us not to close ourselves in, but to open ourselves to the new and to assume the challenges that living with people of other nationalities implies.

Third: A specific mission.

While remaining open to the service of all, the CLM have found some fields of action in which to carry out their specific mission: education, health, and the Aka or Pygmy people. This requires an adequate preparation in the professional field and an attentive sensitivity in dealing with a sector of the mission such as the Aka, historically marginalized and discriminated against in the national context.

Bishop Jesús Ruíz encouraged the CLM not to lose heart in the face of the trials to which we are continually subjected as missionaries. For this reason, he reminded them of the experience of the disciples of Emmaus to allow themselves to be accompanied by the Lord who, with his word and the Eucharist, opens our eyes to recognize him alive and to feel him walking among us. Jesús Ruíz, “If we forget the Eucharist, source and summit of our Christian being, our mission will be reduced to humanitarian or philanthropic work, but not that of witnesses of the Risen Lord who spread new life”.

Cristina Souza, CLM, from Portugal, accompanied by the laywomen Elia, also from Portugal, Cristina from Brazil and Anna from Poland, on behalf of the lay people who have carried out their missionary service in Mongoumba, thanked everyone for the support and trust received, as well as for their patience in approaching and understanding the people of the mission. She mentioned the commitments made by the laity in education, health, caritas and the Aka people that would not have been possible without the accompaniment of all.

Father Victor Hugo Castillo, delegate of the Comboni Missionaries in Central Africa, recognized the work of the CLM for a mission where personal interest is not enough, but faith in the Lord Jesus who has called and sent them. He invited the people to reflect on the witness of the laity who have left their country, their people and their culture to insert themselves in a very different reality, often overcoming the difficulties that this entails, as well as living fraternity with people of other nationalities. He encouraged the young people of the mission to decide to serve as lay missionaries in other countries, since they also have riches to share in other latitudes from their own culture. Finally, he encouraged the CLM to see this Jubilee year not as a point of arrival, but as a point of departure, to continue the work of the Lord who never ceases to invite his chosen ones to give it continuity.

Fr. Fernando Cortés Barbosa, Comboni Missionary