The Lilongwe community with Sr. Monique Vien
By Sr. Anafrida Biro, Lilongwe community in Malawi
While reading our last Sharing Trentaprile, 2026 – 1, page 30 (human suffering experienced by people in the refugee camp), I felt pushed to stop and ponder over the words “They teach us not to ask “why?”, but rather, “what is my response?” I was immediately enabled to connect to what I was experiencing with my Sisters in the community, thanks to our Sister Monique Vien from Canada, who after our congregation meeting in Dar es Salaam, came for some weeks to our community in Lilongwe Malawi, to visit her cherished Country and friends encountered through many years of her missionary life there.
I had sufficient time to listen to Sr. Monique and realised that, she was blessed to work in different countries and in different places in Malawi itself such as Mua, Salima, Likuni, and Lilongwe… In these places all were not roses, she faced different challenges and sometimes she wondered about “how to face the reality, how to respond?” Staying indifferent was not her cup of tea! This is exactly what happened one day, when a young albino, Chikhondi (fictive name), came to see her repeatedly in Likuni asking her to give him a job. At the beginning, Sr. Monique couldn’t figure out any kind of job that could be proposed to that young man, who was not even able to see well. With a painful heart, she had to tell him that, there was no job available.
But, Sr. Monique’s heart remained restless since that moment. She pondered, reflected and searched “in the google of her mind” and remembered someone talking of a man, who could cut bottles in town. Providentially, plenty of glass bottles could be found in the surrounding! She set off and happily found that man. She had gone to him with two glass bottles to ask him how he was cutting them. But, he was unwilling to show his secret to her! Without inviting her to follow him to his house, he took those bottles, and came back a few minutes later with two glasses nicely cut. Sr. Monique never heard nor saw anything as she had desired! “But, how did you do that”? She asked him. Hesitantly the man answered “You take a string, you put one end in your mouth, you do that (he made the motion of a circle with an imaginative string). She therefore left with her two glasses and the rest of the mystery was to be explored on her own.
Reaching home, Sr. Monique sat in her room and started to imagine the few words that the man had mentioned in theory, “ let me try this, if I can tie the bottle with a string, put one end in my mouth, then my two hand will be holding that bottle and then, what about the remaining end of the string? Only the feet were available for that! She then remembered her father doing something of the kind, sliding an object circled with a string, up and down, would create heat. The puzzle was solved! The only remaining thing was the experimentation.
Sr. Monique then proposed to Chikhondi to come with a string made of sisal. The very next day Chikhondi was there with three of his friends and the string. With faith and Trust in God with whom everything is possible, Sr. Monique was confident enough to explain the concept of cutting bottles to the four young men, who were to put that into practice. Spectaclously, the first bottle was cut and their joy filled up the courtyard! That particular day was the beginning of life transformation particularly for Chikhondi, because that became his future job until today! Since then, he could help and still help many other people in and outside his own family. What to do with those heaps of bottle tops? Sr. Monique asked herself. “Why not make bells out of it? She knew a young man, Chisomo (fictive name) very handicapped with polio, who could paint with his mouth. Having received a proposition from Sr. Monique, Chisomo made wonders with those little bells which attracted the tourists. Consequently, he became financially independent, he got married and was able to buy a car to facilitate his own movements!
Among the friends Sr. Monique desired to meet was Mr. Chikhondi, now father of four children. I was blessed to see that encounter, the two met not just as a person with a friend, but something more, something that I could relate to a blood relationship between a Mother and her beloved Child. Their conversation had no barriers or calculations but rather straight and transparent in the language that the two understood very well than myself, the Chichewa. Enthusiastically, Chikhondi shared his visible joy and gratitude, and how his work of cutting the glass made him known even to the president who had to witness his work, and he could shake his hand with him for the first time! While accompanying him outside, Chikhondi told me
Ehhh, God is not above there, but just right here on earth with us… I never thought that I will meet Sr. Monique again, and now, here she is, ehhh…!”
Yes, in the middle of suffering, challenges, human needs, misery and confusion, it is our response that can help us to move forward, leading us and others to liberation, inner joy and peace. Yes, this is what happened and is happening with Jesus and all who followed/follow Him radically. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full (John 10:10). This is what happened with Cardinal Lavigerie, Mother Marie Salome and many others of our Brothers and Sisters, who became and are trying to become all to all. This is indeed what happened to Peter and John in relation to a lame man from birth, who was laid daily at the gate of the temple. Peter, (with John), said to the man “Look at us, I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk.”
These words alone were not enough, Peter did something, he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them praising God! (Acts 3:1 – 10).
Yes, any one in need is teaching us, if we are ready, not so much to preoccupy ourselves with the “why”, but rather, with God’s grace, “how” and “what” is my response? May God help us not to remain indifferent but to respond. No matter how small our response would be, hills and mountains will certainly move.
