I am writing these few lines to talk a little bit about the mission here in Mozambique.
We are in Anchilo, at the Catechetical Center, participating in the course of insertion and inculturation for missionaries who come for the Mission Ad Gentes.
The course started on the 1st and will last until the 26th of this month.
This course will help us a lot to understand the real situation of this country in all aspects.
Participating in this course are missionaries from: Brazil, Poland, Italy, Honduras and Indonesia.
In spite of being a small group, it is a group very animated for the mission.
It is with great joy that I am writing this little text to tell you how these first 15 days in the mission in Mozambique are going.
We are in Anchilo and here we will stay until the end of February.
But we had the joy and the privilege to go to Carapira to visit the parish and the technical school where our mission will be located.
We also met the Comboni Lay Missionary couple from Mozambique, dad Martinho and mom Margarida, two wonderful people who, for sure, are going to help us a lot.
We walk a lot among the people, we talk to some people in the neighborhood, in the community.
And we see the joy and the smiles of the people when they know that we will be on mission together with them.
But what really caught my attention was seeing the number of children here, who, at the first good morning, are suspicious and stare at us, but then, when we start to play and talk, they open up a beautiful smile.
We know that the mission here will be a great challenge.
But with everyone’s prayers and the intercession of St. Daniel Comboni, the God of life will strengthen us, enlighten us, and we will have a beautiful and blessed mission here.
Hearing this call of Jesus, I followed him. And it is with great joy that I tell you. I am in Africa. The Africa so loved by Comboni and so dreamed of by us Comboni Missionaries.
The trip was very good. I had some challenges with communication due to the language in the airports and in the aircraft, but nothing that took my breath away.
On the first flight English and Arabic were spoken. And I didn’t understand either language, lolrsrsrs. But God always puts angels in our way. There were many Brazilians on the flight and I had help from a woman and a young man named Bruno, Bruno was an angel from Brazil to Maputo. He helped me a lot, especially in Qatar, he guided me at the airport, to get to the boarding gate which was far away and difficult to find.
On the second flight I was able to communicate with the little Spanish I had learned.
When I arrived to Maputo I felt Comboni’s presence very strong, it was as if he was there, guiding me.
Time for lunch, looking for food. Oops, five meticais were missing… the attendant added, another angel.
At the boarding gate, surprise, the suitcase overweight, as it varies according to the country, weighed 3 kg more. Result: a fine of four thousand meticais that the attendant miraculously gives up charging. Another angel? No doubt about it. And Comboni for sure.
In the aircraft to Nampula, a child starts playing with us, for me the welcome was there.
Finally we land in Nampula. Fr. Massimo was waiting for us at the airport. Two more missionaries, priests, were with us.
We go home, have dinner and rest.
We are at the catechetical missionary center, in Anchilo, dealing with the documents while we wait for the Inculturation course to begin.
We met many priests here, as they are in assembly. We have been very well received by all.
On the first Sunday here, while the priests had mass in the center, I preferred to go to the celebration in the church together with the people. It was very good to see the smile, the joy of the people. The Macua people are very joyful and welcoming.
Little by little I began to get to know, to live with the people, a good morning, a quick conversation, a smile, this is how we build day by day, slowly so as not to scare anyone.
Aware of the mission that I have, of the challenges already known and those that will arise, I arrive in the land of the mission. I bring with me the initial situation. It is already possible to feel that the challenges will be great, but confident in the Lord I will follow, His word is greater, and if the mission is from God, it is holy, it is certain.
My journey is just beginning, and I feel happy to be accomplishing what I always wanted.
Every day I realize that the work of Comboni is becoming more and more concrete. “I die, but my work will not die.
I wanted to share with you a little of what is happening and once again thank you all for your help, affection and prayers. Without you it would not be possible.
Keep praying for the mission and for all the missionaries. From here I follow in prayer for each one of you.
I am very happy and I ask Jesus to bless this new mission.
May Comboni, Our Lady and missionary Jesus bless you all.
“Do I thus follow certain of the mission I have to fulfill?” Time is strange, situations, the unexpected, the pandemic and new waves, the non-fulfillment of projections, change, waiting, expectation, joys and sorrows, beginnings and new beginnings populate our human history.
In the dialogue between Jesus, Peter and Andrew, the latter already knew the Lord and had even announced him to his brother, he is delighted and surprised by the Lord’s invitation “I will make you fishers of men”. Thus the mission is being accomplished.
Africa? (Everyone asks) when? The date has arrived, today begins our journey to Mozambique. But the certainty we have is that everything will come the way the Lord wants, or not. It is the true adventure of living according to God’s will. It is not easy, but He is my refuge and strength!
May the Lord give us and renew us each day the hope and the certainty that “when we do what God wants, we are sure to be rewarded at the end of everything”. Here is the logic of being Christian, of believing, of living in God and for God! So let’s live for Him, every day, and be grateful for the life that pulsates in us, for the little miracles of everyday life, and above all for the opportunities that are presented to us to mature humanly and spiritually. It is impossible to listen to the Lord and not give Him an answer. “Leaving the nets immediately, they followed him.”
Mission is to leave, but it doesn’t mean to devour kilometers. As our beloved Dom Elder Câmara used to say. Mission is to let God conduct our life and our history, just as He conducted the life of St. Daniel Comboni and the life of our mother Mary of Nazareth. We ask for their intersection so that our mission is guided by the divine force, we count on your prayers to accomplish this mission together.
And you, which net or nets do you need to leave? Or what do you need to abandon yourself to the Lord?
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