We hope you are doing well. We are doing great. We are starting the new school year. Linda and Pius return to schools to teach life skills. I spend more and more time in clinics. I am patiently waiting for my official work permit. Our pastoral work, the Why Blue Sky project supporting teachers, also return to the regular schedule.
Last 3 weeks, the turn of the old and new year, we spent on the road. Just after Christmas, which we spent in Kitelakapel, we went to the Turkana region inhabited by the tribe of the same name. We went there together with Guilia and Hani who visited us again 🙂 . We went to visit two Comboni missions in Lokichar and Lodwar. Built from scratch by the Comboni Missionaries. In the middle of nowhere. In Lokichar there is a church, a school and a center for children with various disabilities. In nearby villages there are further schools built by the Comboni and handed over to the people. Similarly in Lodwar. Schools, chapels, health centers. From people to people. Created with love to serve others.
On Monday we returned from Nairobi. We spent a week there, completing various formalities, but also getting to know numerous projects such as a children’s center in the middle of the largest slums in Africa, run by our friend from the CLM community, or the Kivuli Center street children’s home founded by the diocesan priest Kizito. As an international community, we also participated in the annual meeting of the Kenyan CLM group. Together we summed up 2023 and planned 2024. During the meeting, new leaders were elected and at the solemn Holy Mass, one of the candidates, Mercy, officially became a lay Comboni missionary. It’s amazing how much we feel part of this group.
We have various ideas in our heads and planned workshops. The new year promises to be intense. We will keep you updated on what’s going on with us.
We from CLM sure hope that your 2024 is going great so far.
We are grateful to God for his grace that saw us through to a new year and that continues to surround us. Our community is growing and we couldn’t be happier! Surely, His love endures forever.
What better way to plan for our new year than to reflect on the year that was? We had our annual CLM meeting this past weekend from Friday 12th January to Sunday 14th January. It is always so joyous being together. Over these three days, we reflected on our activities and brainstormed new ideas for 2024, plus improvements on what we are already doing. We also went through our finances and discussed our income versus expenditure. We are grateful to God for his providence. We are especially grateful for people like you and me whom God has called to support ‘the littlest’ in his Kingdom. In 2024, we pray for more Grace. Grace to give up more of ourselves for the Kingdom, Grace to serve in the most difficult situations and grace to live like Christ did – loving each other without measure.
We also had the commissioning of one of our own. After two (2) years of formation, Mercy Chepoghisho is now a full member of Comboni Lay Missionaries. She has been trained, she is baptised and she is now ready to be sent to do the Lord’s work. We are all so very proud of her. May her faith always light her path.
On Sunday we had the sending of two Comboni Secular for missionary work in Uganda. Lucy and Ruth. We wish them well.
This new year also happened to be CLM election year. As part of CLM constitution, elected leaders are to serve for a renewable two-year term. We are grateful for our leaders who took on their roles very well the past two years. Our new CLM leaders are Fr. Maciej Zielenski – Assessor/ Chaplain, Martin Juma – Coordinator, Maria Ajiambo – Secretary and Mukami Muthee – Treasurer. Martin, Maria and Mukami will be our representatives through January 2026, when we will have the next election. Congratulations to the three.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the MCCJ, who generously hosted us all through the weekend. Thank you for the hospitality and the resources that you availed to us. Our words are not enough, but may our good Lord remember you for your hospitality.
We’ve had a great start to the year, and we are all very hopeful for 2024.
May the Eucharistic Jesus be our strength always. (St. Daniel Comboni – Writing 6044).
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…
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 🙂
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
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