“Come and see” is an invitation that God launches to anyone who wants to know his plan of Love.
In our community in Burundi, this summer 2022 we organized two missionary sessions for girls who feel attracted by our missionary vocation and who seek to know for what project God created them, and how they can engage in his life, to respond to the Will of God.
From July 12 to 15, the session was for students studying at the second level, we call them “pre-finalists”, there were 4 girls, plus Evelyne, our young postulant who came from Congo for her leave and who is preparing to leave for Burkina Faso.
From August 8 to 12, the missionary session was for girls who have finished high school and who have many questions about their future. There were 9 girls from different regions of Burundi.
The sisters of the community, Yollande, Marcelline and Maite, worked as a team in the presentation of the themes: “Jesus the 1st missionary”, “History of the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa”, “the traces of God in my life, family, school, country…”, “how to discern my vocation”, “Charism and characteristics of our congregation”.
We have counted on the collaboration of the missionaries of Africa, Father Edison and the testimony of young Emmanuel, a stagiere who is having his apostolic experience in Burundi. We had also the testimonies of our Burundian postulant Evelyne and our sister Liberate.
The missionary experience of being sent on mission in pairs, to visit our health center, the center for the promotion of women and the Muslim families of our neighborhood, touched them a lot. It was the first time for them to feel like missionaries, to meet people they don’t know.
In the program we also included the cinema forum, the missionary hymns, the accompaniment, and to close the sessions in style, the Eucharist to give thanks for all the benefits received, where the girls presented their commitments and they received the light to go and share this light and we sent them to be missionaries first where they live: in their families, friends, high schools, parishes… knowing that these first steps are a preparation for one day to be able to go beyond the borders!
We have had the transformative experience: the more we share and the more we engage, the stronger the presence of God.
We give thanks to God because he counts on us, with our strengths and our limitations, and he passes through us to reveal his infinite love and to show the urgency of the missionaries, because there are still millions of people in Africa who do not know Christ.
We give thanks to all the people from different countries of the world, who have prayed for the fruits of these missionary sessions. We felt the power of prayer that crossed borders.
Together we are the Church family, where each person is a light and around Christ, we are a great fire that can transform the world.
Sr. Maite Oiartzun, community of Gitega, Burundi
