Here we are, CLM of Kenya, at the recent Friends of Comboni feast in Utawala, on Ascension day, to arouse people’s enthusiasm about missionary work, about what it means to be a CLM, whether in Nairobi, or West Pokot, or wherever we are. To build bridges between our mission in Kitelakapel and this Comboni parish within Nairobi, and all the Friends of Comboni gathered there.
As we keep reaching new parishes with our mission animations, more and more people are getting to know us, embracing our cause, getting involved, supporting us spiritually and economically, and more importantly, increasing our numbers. We are now so many that we are looking for a new place for our monthly meetings, as we don’t fit anymore in the guesthouse which we’ve been using so far.
Mission is a passion, which can drive each one of us to contribute in their own way: those who are in the field, abroad or doing service in the place where they live, those who support economically near and far, those who dedicate their time and service to fundraise, to make our work and charism known, to build relationships, to involve new members and form them, to connect with the other branches of CLM and remain united.
And as we thank the Comboni family for involving us in this exercise, we want to send a message of encouragement to all CLM: let’s not lose hope and keep reaching new places, physically and virtually (social media!) with our mission animation! The only tool for us to keep growing, in numbers and strength, so that the good work we’re doing everywhere in the world, and especially in the international communities where we so need more missionaries, will not be wasted.
Here we are, giving you some news after some time….
This period has been very rich in experience and beauty, made up of simple and unexpected encounters, but at the same time enriching our lives more and more.
In this past month, we participated in priestly ordinations, visited and shared moments with the brothers of the Comboni novitiate, participated in baptisms and communions in a community here near Carapira together with our Comboni fathers, had dinner at the home of a family here in the village, etc…I would say that we experienced the essentiality of sharing and of life itself
How much we would like to find a way to bring to you all the emotions and beauty, which the Macúa people sow every day in our hearts. Every day is always a good reason to smile, live with tenderness and find every excuse possible to meet and be together
How grateful we feel to life for this gift we have received and would like to give back to you. With each passing day, we feel as if we have been living here forever and are not in a foreign land, but feel at home.
We leave you with this image that is the Word, the essential source in our Life, to always direct our steps.
A big hug to each of you and thank you that you walk with us and are always by our side.
With joy and gratitude, we are writing to you news directly from Mozambique. Our first month passed very quickly, intensely and with great depth. Right from the start, we were welcomed with great enthusiasm, by the people of this land who are still suffering from injustice and have no hopeful outlook for the future. The Macua people, really have a big and generous heart, despite the suffering in their gaze.
In this first period, where we are still trying to figure out where we are, we had a great gift, that of sharing with them, the four most important days of the Easter season, from Holy Thursday to Easter. We left home early Thursday morning and until Easter Sunday afternoon, we lived in the village in close contact with the people. We took few things with us, the essentials to get through these days. Obviously in these communities, we were welcomed with open arms; and village living with them, meant no water, no light, sleeping on the ground with scorpions, bats etc… without all the comforts that we in the West now take for granted.
For us, it was four days of true essentiality, of pure love that allowed us to love their story even more and to question ourselves about the way we are close to each other, about the importance of the style with which to be on mission. How much richness we received, how much we learned from them once again, to live the essential in depth and richness that the Lord continues to give us every day! Right away, our lives are being shaped to a new form, the one that our brothers/sisters are teaching us every day. Our lives, are really experiencing an Easter Resurrection, thanks to them and thanks to what the Lord teaches us every day thanks to his Word which is Life and lifeblood to make a path in his Will (and not in what we instead seek to fulfill ourselves, to give answers to our sense of being here by only executing projects). For us, even before we came, it was very clear that the beauty of life and of being a mission is precisely to share our whole being with them, on the same plane with them. I think this point for us is fundamental and above all it is a way of life that each of us can feel inside, but it takes great courage to live it in simplicity and love of each other. We are strongly convinced, that the greatest witness we can give, is precisely the Christian way and attitude and not words… instead so many times we just go and get lost in this without a true witness of who we are, but especially of Who we love.
We feel that this presence of ours here is really accompanied by the presence of the Lord. We really missed re-embracing poverty, essentiality and total sharing with the most lonely and abandoned. It is a great gift to live the mission because it is Life, it is joy, it is courage, it is going out of oneself to give oneself totally to the Other.
For this richness that we are receiving in our lives, we want to thank all the people who are supporting us, who are accompanying us with prayer and with their becoming close, because this is also an outgoing Church, where the problem of a person, becomes the problem of a community. We believe very much in this dream of life, which the Lord has placed in our hearts, and we always trust in Him, who knows better than us the way and the ways to build a new different way of being in mission. And let us always remember that: “if I exist it is because the other makes me exist” and this should be a fundamental point on which to build bridges and not walls.
We embrace you with much esteem, gratitude, affection and we really hope that all our joy, may come to you to build something different together, where you also together with us are in communion in this journey of life. We continue to pray for all of you and carry you in every step we take always looking for the Face of God; we also rely on your prayers. See you for the next post…
On the evening of May 9, Regimar and Tito shared with the GEC (Comboni Spirituality Group) of Nova Contagem about their first mission period in Mozambique.
Through photos and videos, they recalled various moments from their memories.
The people present interacted, asking questions and commenting.
One of the highlights of the sharing was the help given to the families with the donations received from Brazil and Poland after the cyclone that hit the region in 2022. The couple thanked them for their collaboration and stressed how important it had been.
They talked about the seed project, which worked very well, where they gave the families a quantity of bean and corn seed to plant and after the harvest, the families returned the same quantity. Although not everyone returned the seeds, the overall balance was positive, with beautiful signs such as families returning larger quantities than they had taken, as a sign of gratitude. And this cycle is continuing for this harvest too.
They talked about the culture, the challenges, the joys and the future prospects.
At the end, we prayed together and ended with a shared snack.
The GEC is grateful for the sharing and the missionary enrichment!
The first group of MCCJ arrived in Ghana in 1974. Among this group was Rev. Fr. Joseph Rabbiosi who is still serving in Ghana and father Cuniberto of blessed memory.
To mark this fiftieth anniversary, the MCCJ in Togo-Ghana-Benin planned a conference on the 26th April at Good Shepherd Catholic Church of Mafi-Kumase and climaxed it with a thanksgiving mass on 27th at Our Lady of Assumption (OLA), Accra.
An exciting mark of the anniversary was the presence of the Father General of the MCCJ, Father Gabriel Tesfaye and one of his assistants Fr. Elias Sindjalim. The conference was facilitated by the Superior General and his Assistant together with the Superior Provincial, Fr. Timothy Hounake. The bishop of the diocese, his Lordship Gabriel Kumordji was also present for the conference. The theme of the conference was “Save Africa through Africa.” In his presentation, the Superior General laid emphasis on the Plan for the Regeneration of Africa of our Founder St. Daniel Comboni. The Father General insisted on the dream of Comboni, which he said, was a dream of faith. To show the realization of that dream in the MCCJ family, a statistic was presented by Fr. Elias on the presence of MCCJ in the world, in Africa and in Ghana. It was clear, the dream of Comboni is coming true. Another truth of the realization of the dream is the presence of the CLM who also said few words during the Superior General presentation.
On Saturday, the climax was the thanksgiving mass at Accra presided over by the Archbishop of Accra, Bishop Bonaventure Kwofie around which MCCJ priests and other priests and a chapel full of faithful among which the CLM. An award was presented to Fr. Joseph Rabbiosi a living testimony of the fifty years of presence. A cake was cut at the end of the celebration after which a meal sharing took place.
Justin Nougnui, CLM.
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