Colombia – Comboni Lay Missionaries

A meeting to discern on the way to the mission.

2 November, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Last October 13, 14 and 15 in the Parish of Our Lady Mother of the Good Shepherd, belonging to the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus (MCCJ), in the city of Cali, Valle del Cauca, the Comboni Lay Missionaries of Colombia (CLM), lived a very special meeting with the community; in this meeting we had planned important events; The first was to meet personally the members of the community who are in the process of formation, in the stage of discernment (because all our formation meetings have been virtual), this meeting in person this year lent us to share the feelings, meet the personalities and discover the desires of each of the members who are part of this lay process. The second moment was so that through the experiences of three kinds of missionaries in the world, we could get a better idea of what it was to discern in the life of each one of these persons. And last, but the greatest moment, was the great step taken by three CLM, who have been formed for more than 3 years in the service of the mission, choosing the last and the abandoned as our first option; Father Franco Naschinbene, spiritual advisor appointed by the MCCJ to accompany the CLM of Colombia, consecrated Yaneth Rocío Escobar, Felipe Eugenio Mora Parra and Patricia Rodríguez Cerquera, consecrated us as Comboni Lay Missionaries, so that from our lay life we would commit ourselves to focus our efforts and to give reason of the eternal love, in which we believe, through the liberating service to our poorest and abandoned brothers and sisters.

Our meeting began on Saturday, after prayer, with the support of Marco Farias, a MCCJ religious brother about to take his permanent vows. He shared with us from his life story, his moment of discernment and showed us how through daily life, God makes the call and sows the seed necessary to follow Him; Brother Marco, at this time, is in his period of preparation for his final vows, that after living two years of mission in South Africa, this fact revealed to us that formation and preparation should always accompany our journey to and from the mission. At the end of Saturday morning, we complemented our reflection with a time of meditation; we were in a beautiful park in the middle of the city of Cali, there we “eclipsed” trying to guide our discernment, helped by a navigation instrument, which was a compass, which symbolized our constant effort to seek God through the mission among the last ones.

Saturday afternoon was completed with two wonderful testimonies, which in spite of being different, complemented each other perfectly; Tito and Regimar, a CLM married couple of Brazilian origin who are in Mozambique, in one of the international missions of the CLM, shared with us their daily life and their joy of serving among the people, they showed us how to survive the “hurricane” (literal and symbolic) that is the change of life in a mission, how, day by day God is showing us the way and that even though we have estimated and planned our destiny, it is He who is giving us the guidelines to follow it; This married couple shared with us their joy of the option they have taken and that after two years in mission, they plan to renew for another two years.

Finally, at the end of Saturday afternoon, we received the testimony of Xoan Carlos, a Spanish CLM who has been living for 24 years in Brazil accompanying the indigenous communities of the Amazon and the peasant people of the State of Maranhão in the northeast of Brazil; here he is doing a mission from another point of “combat”, that of justice and peace, defending the rights of marginalized peoples, especially in the mining area of Açailândia and rebuilding the rural sector from the people themselves, through peasant homes. This testimony made us see the importance of the integrality of the mission and that although he arrived in Brazil for a three-year mission, God, in his infinite wisdom, extended it a little more, extending it to his whole life.

Marco’s testimony focused on the ability to decide for a life option in the midst of so many possibilities offered by the world and the testimony of Vladimir and Regimar and Xoan Carlos focused on two of the different services that as CLM we have for the missions around the world. To close the day Father Franco, gave us a retrospective of the process of discernment of Jesus, that from the biblical context, where he clearly identified the humanity of Jesus, the son of God in the midst of the world and the option he took to do the will of the father in the service of the poor and forgotten.

On Sunday morning during the main Eucharist, we made the act of consecration as CLM in Colombia, a consecration that has generated in us a serious and responsible commitment that also “stoked the fire and the ardor” of the longing for a missionary outing. Through the act of consecration, we were officially recognized as part of the great Comboni family and became Comboni Lay Missionaries of Colombia consecrated to the service of the last and abandoned.

At the end of the Eucharist we went out in groups of two to make some visits to families of the community, in these tours we found wonderful stories of the community, that trying to summarize them here would be a challenge almost impossible to meet; in these visits the community transmitted us mainly the joy of the personal encounter, but also gave us to know their own and different realities and how, despite so many difficult situations, they live the experience of the community serving their neighbors, their family, the parish or simply whoever requires it.

On Sunday evening we lived a moment for recreation, thanks to the animation of a trio of Andean music, offered as a detail of the host laity of Cali and the community; this moment was for the encounter with ourselves, a moment of evaluation and sharing the feelings of the whole experience.

This type of meeting and the fact of sharing personally with all the Comboni Lay Missionaries, help us to continue on our way, to continue preparing ourselves for the moment that will lead us to live our mission experience, whether here in the country, in Africa or wherever God has prepared our missionary journey.

Photo. Consecration Eucharist.

Photos. Moment of consecration as CLM.

CLMs consecrated in 2023.

From left to right in order, Patricia Rodríguez, Felipe Mora and Yaneth Escobar.

Photo. Retreat participants

From left to right in order, Father Franco Naschinbene, Jenny Trujillo, Father Alfred Mbaidjide, Brother Marco Farias, Yaneth Escobar, Luz Elena Silva, Hector Vela, Patricia Rodriguez and Felipe Mora.

By Patricia Rodríguez Cerquera, CLM consecrated from Colombia.

Janett, an active Comboni lay missionary

17 February, 2023 by Alberto de la Portilla

Janett Rocio Escobar Angulo, born in Tumaco Colombia in 1974, like many other people, arrived displaced to the city of Bogotá, only burdened with the hope of finding better opportunities that would give her and her family the security and stability that was taken away from them in their homeland.

The arrival to the city was not the most difficult thing, what really required temperance and resilience, was to learn and unlearn new trades that would allow her to earn enough income to be able to send it to her family in Tumaco; not to mention what she had always heard on television, but had never had to live … “DISCRIMINATION“; being treated in the most offensive, grotesque, demeaning and humiliating way in every daily situation, from taking public transportation to the offensive orders in each of her jobs. But “Defeat is only defeat if you don’t learn something from it”, today she thanks God for each of those moments, because those sad situations have opened the doors to live opportunities of joy and prosperity, besides finding people who helped her to be formed, to be today leading her beloved Afro processes.

The lack of opportunities for the Afro population and the issue of discrimination and violation of rights, made Janet, Carlina, Maria Angelica and Angela Preciado, in 2016, as part of the association Renacer Afrocolombiana, give life to the training program on rights, self-recognition and empowerment for Afro children, youth and adults. On their first opening Saturday, Janett and her three musketeers decided to occupy the Villa Gladys park with their first 10 children and begin the task that no one had wanted to take on; that of teaching the Afro community the voice, the mechanisms and the strength to shout, claim and assert their rights. With the passing of time and being part of the Afro pastoral, they found an ally in the process and the cause, the International Comboni Brothers Formation Center (CIFH), they began to support training in English and French since they had foreign brothers who were in the country, teaching their native language to children and young people who were part of the program.

In this way Janett and the Comboni Missionaries began to know each other and it was not long before they decided to strengthen this bond and become Comboni Lay Missionaries. Her knowledge, her personality and her dedication to the mission made her a valuable member of the lay team.

Currently the program is made up of more than 100 children, youth and adults in the Engativá district; the Comboni Lay Missionaries support the activities that are carried out with a monthly contribution to sustain the program; every Saturday they meet at the Antonio Villavicencio school from 10 am to 3 pm, where they receive training from different professionals; as part of the strategies taken to achieve its objectives, the trainings have been opened to mestizo children; this so that they can socialize the Afro traditions, their culture and their stories, generating empathy to reduce prejudice and discrimination from these early stages of life. This program also includes a snack and lunch.

After working in restaurants and family homes, Janett is now a member of the Afro pastoral, leader of the district and national programs on empowerment and promotion of the rights of Afro-descendant communities.

Janett and the Comboni Lay Comboni Missionaries of Colombia have an active mission process, thanks to the presence and the need to support a project that every day becomes more visible and benefits a more significant population of a sector of Bogota.

Prepared By Alexandra García

CLM American Meeting

4 October, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

On September 25, 2021, the American CLM Committee: MCCJ Fr. Ottorino Poletto, Beatriz Maldonado and Mireya Soto, with the accompaniment of Alberto de la Portilla, were pleased to meet with the CLM of America and some of Europe, to have a formative conference, given by Father Dario Bossi, with the theme “the vocation of the laity in the socio-political and ecclesial context of America“.

Father Dario Bossi is a Comboni Missionary, currently provincial coordinator of the Comboni Missionaries in Brazil. The theme was developed in three important points: Colorful spots (to understand the situation where we are), Christian lights (lights that from the faith and the Church help us to understand the reality and provide ideas) and CLM Mission (some ideas that as missionaries, in our case Comboni Missionaries, we can develop).

He explained that America is a continent with cultural richness, natural resources, and in the face of the storm that humanity is going through, we CLM have the commitment to dialogue and act in favor of the poor and the needy, hence the hope and the lights that we have such as the Encyclicals of Pope Francis in which he speaks of the commitment to nature and the need for a Church to go out; The mission ad gentes and our relationship as Comboni family.

The conference has been recorded and you can listen to it and analyze it (here below in Spanish) for further enrichment of our groups.

Our meeting ended with the prayer that Christ taught us, giving thanks for having gathered and shared.

“Divine works are born and grow at the foot of the cross“. St. Daniel Comboni.

Mireya Soto, CLM American Committee

My year of mission as a laywoman in Colombia (III)

26 February, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

(Third part of the testimony that we send you in three different moments)

The realization of a home a little more dignified

Among the children who started the school support were two little brothers Dibisay and Javier, they lived with their mother in a house that was on the other side of a sewage pipe and was in precarious conditions; a house made of reused zinc, a leaking roof, a dirt floor, a toilet and a zinc tile that served as a bathroom, a baby bathtub that served as a sink and dishwasher, a kitchen in a ravine and a wooden bridge that was about to fall down.

The first time I went to this house I was very sentimental for the conditions in which the children lived, their mother, a housewife, and their father, a master builder who works in Ibagué. One day I talked to Vane and told her about the situation, then we decided to make a video of the house and upload it on social networks so that our family, friends or friends of friends would join the cause of giving these children a more dignified home.

At first we did not imagine the impact the video was going to have and we thought we were going to collect money to make the bathroom, or maybe to change the roof, or to buy a laundry room… But I have always said that my God manifests his love when you do things that do not hurt anyone. In this way we gathered almost 7 million and together with some people who knew about construction in the neighborhood during the whole month of July we were working on the project that we called “Dibi’s house”, we were able to raise foundations, build the entire front facade of the house, change a roof, make a kitchen, make a bathroom, make two rooms (one in material and the other in Zinc), change the bridge to enter the house and the installation of pipes.

This house allowed us to learn the names of the construction materials, to learn how to make cement mixes, to cut wood, to lay the boards of the bridge, to check the quality of the material, to deal with the construction masters. Another work was finished with all the love, with a lot of learning and with a house in better conditions for the children.

Our Neighborhood Enterprise

In the month of September, Father Franco was informed that the Comboni Missionaries were going to send financial aid to families in the neighborhood that were affected by the COVID-19. In a meeting with the mission team, we wanted to convert this money into something sustainable and not something for charity. So we made a call for some people we knew who had no work and we started meeting groups where we shared cooking skills, initially there were 15 people, in each Saturday meeting there were less and less people left. When there was a group of 6 people left (Darilys, Lucero, Mrs. María, Don Cicerón, Don José María and Mrs. Claudia), after analyzing the products made and the demand in the neighborhood, it was decided that from the first Saturday of October we would start selling chicken empanadas, that day 45 empanadas were made and every Saturday we increased the production reaching on November 14 to sell 90 empanadas, in addition to the opening of a point of sale that was entrusted to God. This microenterprise has allowed us to intertwine friendships, trust, laughter and teamwork, in the pursuit of an enterprise with people who want to get ahead.

Gratitude for the Mission

I end this report of my year’s mission by thanking God for all the little people who have supported me in the distance; from Luz Dary for her economic contribution for the Christmas sharing of the children of Bajito de Vaqueria, for the chocolate with bread from the neighbors of the prayer of the block and the Dibi Project, to Diego Montilla and my cousin Edwin Vargas in the first edition of the video that was of great help in the collection of funds for the children’s house and in the edition of the second video of the finished house of the children, to my family for their support, love, understanding and for giving me money for my expenses, to my spiritual family and to my team of Comboni Lay Missionaries of Colombia for giving me money for my rent, food or my cell phone plan. Thank you from the bottom of my heart because without you it would not have been possible to support me emotionally and economically during this year. Thanks to my Marisol and my Vane for being partners in every idea, every walk, every school reinforcement, God rewarded me with their presence. A mission loaded with 90% of laughter, projects, dreams, love and blessings, 5% of tears before those people who are not so good and treated me badly and 5% of fear before the gunshots that were heard blocks away from the house.

Alexandra Garcia, CLM Group Colombia

My year of mission as a laywoman in Colombia (II)

23 February, 2021 by Alberto de la Portilla

(Second part of the testimony that we send you in three different moments)

Choir and first communion catechesis:

We started together with Bro. Pontien a choir, and in turn I also committed myself to be a catechist for a group of 17 children who wanted to receive their first communion sacrament, but the momentum lasted two weekends because our country was quarantined by the COVID-19, a little insecure and assuming a reality that we thought was going to be temporary became 7 months where group meetings were allowed with a limited number of people and where holding something virtual was not a possibility because of the conditions in which a significant group of families live in the sector.

Prayer in the Cuadra

In the first weeks of the quarantine, the mission team came up with the idea of organizing some activity that would allow us to be united with the neighbors and strengthen the spiritual area, and we called this new idea the “Prayer on the block”, we called the neighbors and Mr. Robinson, who belonged to a different religion along with his family.

One Thursday in March we began to call neighbors to come out of their homes and we, with Vane, animated the songs with the cununo and the Bombo (a learning process). Each week two neighbors were in charge of the Bible reading and its reflection. In addition, a basket was placed in the center of the block where each neighbor contributed with something from the market to help one of the families that participated in the prayer. This activity generated excitement and gave us peace because we trusted that God was going to protect us from COVID-19.

We spent three months meeting from the doors of our homes so that once a week in the afternoon we would share the gospel and some of the food that arrived in our neighborhood. In this way we got to know our neighbors Karen, Luna, Laura, Yolanda, Don Jose and his family, Don Esau (who lent the extensions and the microphone), Alexandra and her little Juan (who lent the sound), Mrs. Sandra (who allowed us to connect the sound in her house), Mrs. Maria, etc.

Markets Full of Solidarity

In mid-April we received a financial donation to give markets to 35 families affected by COVID-19, AFRO families were selected from the neighborhood, who were nominated by the Afro group led by Father Franco for more than 4 years. This market contained a prayer inside for the families to thank God for the people who had contributed money inside and outside the country for the purchase of these markets. This activity allowed us to meet more families living inside and outside our neighborhood.

Termination of my Contract

My contract was for three months, and when the contract ended there was no possibility that it would be renewed, the situation scares me but thank God those months were paid and with that money I could support myself for two more months. Then came my birthday and I received money from my blood family and my spiritual family (community Señor de los Milagros de Tauramena/ Casanare). In this way I was able to sustain myself until July.

Donation of a printer and school accompaniment.

At the end of April, a relative of Vanesa donated us the money to buy a printer and in this way help some families in the neighborhood with the online education of their children, we contacted teachers of second and third grade of the Buenos Aires Educational Institution, and with a group of five children (Dibisay, Juan Sebastian, Jhovanni, Laura and Javier) started in the apartment a school accompaniment, these children were two of second grade and three of third grade. They came to the apartment in the mornings and afternoons we proposed to work in order to be leveled, by the end of June the goal was achieved and we had a picnic as a prize.

The requirements that these five children met were as follows:

That their family did not have access to internet data.
Not to have the help of a person to explain the topics.
They should always come bathed, with clean clothes and eaten breakfast and/or lunch.
Comply with the schedule 10 am to 12 pm and 1:30 to 5:00 pm.
To leave their suitcase with all the supplies at my house so they did not carry their suitcase every day (I made sure we always had all the materials to work with).
Leaving the space in the apartment where we did our homework clean.
Not disrespecting each other.
Behave like smart kids to learn and get good grades.

In addition to this, thanks to the printer, 10 families would pick up printed guides after five in the afternoon, so that the children could work from home. One child came once a week for me to take the evidence of the solved activities and send it to the grade director.

In July, two new girls (Jondarlys and Sharick) joined the school reinforcement program, they were also behind and were in third grade, so I set up a schedule in the morning from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm and in the afternoon I received only three children, because when Laura and Juan Sebastian were leveled, they began to work from home on the two daily guides sent by the teachers. In that month of July, we started a construction of a house and Marisol (Laywoman) supported the school reinforcement from her house. In August I resumed the school support with three new children in the morning schedule (Paula, Shari and Adrian) two of second grade and one of third grade, and in the afternoon we attended all the children of third grade who were up to date with homework, by then there were 5 children, from this month some parents according to their needs made me a contribution of 15 or 20 thousand pesos per week and thus helped me with my expenses.

At the beginning of September, the group expanded, now I had 6 children in the morning (Shari, Jordanys, Gabriela, Nicol, Paula), who belonged to different grades; first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth. Then I had to look for someone to support me and God sent Natalia, a girl from the neighborhood who was 20 years old and had already worked with children. The afternoon group expanded and now there were 6 children (Jhovanni, Adrian, Jondarlys, Luis Ferney, Javier and Victoria). The processes here became more challenging because Jordanys and Shari did not know how to read and we proposed to start the process of teaching reading and writing.

By the end of October, Elvin, a third grader from another institution, joined the program and the challenge was to help him save the year, so by the second week of November this process was completed with two children in the morning and four in the afternoon. Only Jhovanni, 9 years old, was there from the beginning to the end of this experience.

The school support became a process where some children learned to read, write, do reading comprehension, color and work judiciously to meet the daily goals. They were months of laughter, tension, frustration tolerance, field trips (every month we did an integration excursion with the children who were there), a process where you help children not to lose a school year, to do good quality work, they were months of love and details. These children gave meaning to my mission because their witticisms, their personalities, gave meaning to my weeks. God bless each one of them and their families, and keep them safe from harm.

Alexandra Garcia, CLM Group of Colombia