Sr. Sylviane Rouamba, Dar es salaam community, Tanzania
St. Charles Lwanga Parish and its pastoral team offer different activities to the people; among others those of the Salome Learning Centre.
As our founder Cardinal Charles Lavigerie used to say:
Be apostles, be nothing but apostles or, at least be nothing else except with this in view’’.
This was his deepest wish for his missionaries.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is with joy that I am sharing about two points: Being an apostle, being mission, and also, my mission in Dar es Salaam.
Who is an apostle? An apostle is someone who is on pilgrimage or someone who is on a journey looking for holiness, a journey looking for God through people, a journey of imitating Christ and doing his mission.
What is the meaning of mission? A mission is a service or a call we have received.
There is a link between an apostle and a mission because each apostle has a mission and for us MSOLA we are apostles of Jesus and at the same time we are missionaries, My mission in Dar es Salam, Tanzania is situated in Charles Lwanga parish in Tandale, a popular area. In this parish, we have various activities and I am working with youth and adults who come for sewing and computer courses.
We have girls and women who come to be trained in the sewing class: they are learning how to make bead-bags, to make soap and various hand-work. I also have a mission of visiting sick and families.
My joy of doing my mission: I am happy to see that we are living synodality at the center, the word of each one is taken into consideration and we are helping one another. For example, in the sewing class some students come to the center with their children; these children are taken care of by all the people. Another joy for me is to witness the faith of the sick whom I have been visiting, I am learning from them because despite their sickness they are grateful to God. This helps me to remember our spirituality which is to see God in everything and everything in God. Also, I realize that just being with people and going to visit them is mission because I am learning through them how to grow in my life of faith. At the same time, I am bringing the love of Jesus to them.
What a good experience to be a missionary!
“We remain attentive to our life contexts and to the evolution of the world, discerning the signs of the times and identifying the emerging needs to which we are called to respond.” (Capitular Acts 2023, page 25)
