I am one of those who, after discovering the call of the Lord to missionary religious life, I looked for a religious congregation in Google.
It was online that I “met” the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa for the first time. I had developed an interest in computers and new technologies when I was in secondary school where I joined a class with languages and computer studies option and up to today any work linked to it gives me much joy.
For the past two years I have been in charge of our congregation website: writing, looking for or asking others for articles, photos, editing them, publishing, sometimes translating, making videos and posters, answering messages, sharing all on social media…An apostolate with a large variety of activities! When I look back at it, I realize how much I learned from it and how enriching it was for my living the mission.
First of all, the responsibility for our website made me grow greatly in the sense of belonging and love for our congregation. Showing the beauty of our vocation and mission helped me to participate actively in Missionary Vocation Animation. I was happy to answer messages each time when somebody asked for more information about us or wanted to know what to do in order to join us. I was in touch with many of our sisters – vocation animators in different countries to direct those who are searching for their vocation.
If the Lord entrusts us with a mission, He makes sure that we have the opportunity to develop our talents. Thanks to this responsibility in the world of media I could learn more about the functioning of the websites and social media pages. I discovered a new way of channeling my energies into creativity through creating posters and videos. To do all this, I had to learn how to use new programs for graphics and making videos.
There is no doubt that the work in the “communication world” demands of the person -in-charge to be constantly updated. The mission that was entrusted to me was a constant ongoing formation because I had to read a lot and be attentive to what was happening in our congregation, in religious life, in our Church… It included reading all our congregation newsletters, those of the Missionaries of Africa and many articles on the websites connected to the life of the Church (such as Vatican News, La Croix Afrique etc.). Thanks to that I was confronted with many different points of view. This was for me like training in how to remain free in face of all this information and how to make a right choice about what to read and what to share with others afterwards. It was for me a privilege to be always updated about what was happening in our different places of mission during the time of the 150 year-jubilee celebrations. In one way or another I could live this jubilee with all of you!
Some other advantages of this apostolate were the lessons of humility and accepting my own mistakes. For example: a photo that does not fit the content, content that does not fit the target public, wrongly used vocabulary, spelling mistakes and other “imperfections” that I was made aware of by others. All these helped me to grow and to realize once again that everything is part of the learning process!
I would like to thank all the sisters who supported me in this apostolate by sending the articles, videos, by commenting, giving feedback and advising, by revising and translating the texts. Finally, I thank God for helping me to live this enriching experience!
Sr. Magdalena Orczykowska
Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa on mission in Uganda
