Comboni Lay Missionaries

Six months of missionary presence in Kitelakapel

LMC Kenia

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

Missionary sending in Cracow

Marzena LMC Polonia
Marzena LMC Polonia

Hello Everyone 🙂

I write to You because I wanna share with You something special. On 18th of April in my parish in Cracow I was sent to Kenya by our bishop 🙂

Surrounded by family and friends I received a missionary cross. It was a very special and touching moment for me. At the beginnig of the May I will join Linda and Pius in Kitelakapel. I can’t wait!

Two days earlier a mission animation took place, also in my parish. Fr Adam and fr Rene said a lot about our Comboni Family and their mission experience.

I got a lot of support from everyone. From my family, friends, community, parish.

I send You a greetings. Please, pray for me and my family.

Marzena LMC Polonia

God bless You All

Marzena

Getting ready to leave for Kenya

CLM Poland
CLM Poland

Hello Everyone 🙂

Greetings from Poland! Almost three weeks ago I started my community experience before going to Kenya. Now I’m in Warsaw and I live with Ewa, my friend from community. Time is running so fast! I have a lot of meetings and so a lot of oportunites to learn something more. I speak a lot with others missionaries. They share with me their experience. Tell me more about challenges on mission.

I have biblical catechesis twice a week and meetings with Alberto. I have english lessons because there is also a lot of work to do 😉

Apart from that I spent a few days in Poznań where my friends from community did for me a great repetition of first aid! They also told me a lot about their pastoral work on their mission and many many other topics we discussed.

CLM Poland

Y por supuesto, también hablamos sobre el tema principal durante este tiempo – la comunidad. Con Ewa pasamos tiempo juntas, rezamos juntas. Tenemos un día de comunidad a la semana y este tiempo es sólo para nosotras . También visitamos a los Padres Combonianos aquí en Varsovia 🙂

CLM Poland

Os mando saludos desde Varsovia 🙂 por favor, rezad por nosotras 🙂

With pray

Marzena

“Seeds” project assists cyclone Gombe victims in northern Mozambique

LMC Carapira

Since March when the powerful cyclone Gombe hit Carapira in northern Mozambique, destroying houses and farms. We, the CLM, have been working to alleviate the suffering of the population. Always in partnership with friends and people with good hearts.

With the help received from Brazil it was possible to carry out small projects. Among them the seeds project.

This Wednesday, November 23rd, we started the first phase of this project, which consists of delivering 5 kg of corn and 3 kg of beans to the most vulnerable families for planting.

The benefited families have the commitment to return the same amount received at harvest time, so that we can continue the project.

The Carapira Parish is composed of 94 communities divided into 5 regions with 22 zones. We chose to make the delivery in each zone to facilitate the access of the families.

The second phase will be on the 29th of this month. And the third will be at the beginning of December.

In this project there are more than 300 families contemplated.

On behalf of the families and the people of Carapira, I thank everyone who generously gave a little of what they have to help those who have even less.

God bless you all.

CLM Carapira

The beginning of a new formation year in Poland

LMC Polonia

On the last weekend of September, we formed ourselves to go on missions. This is quite a nice way to start the fall: with God and with the community. There were many of us, also Comboni’s friends came. Together, we shared the missionary vocation at its various stages: we, still naive and inexperienced, those who returned with our colorful stories, and brothers, fathers, sisters moderately enthusiastic, with a healthy hint of sarcastic skepticism.

The topic of the meeting was the calling. Let’s make an agreement: discerning one’s vocation is not new. Most of us pursue a calling to the state. It was good to listen to each other’s experience. God speaks a little differently to everyone, He is amazingly creative. Let us hope that this exchange of experiences and sitting with God in the chapel will help us discover the Father’s proposals for our lives.

A special event also took place during the meeting – Edyta and Staszek, a married couple with three children, officially joined the CLM movement.

CLM candidates