My journey to being a missionary was one of many curves and turnings. At a very early age I knew that I wanted to be a Priest. At Nakuru where I lived with my family for ten years during my adolescent years is when I discovered my vocation to the Priesthood. Through a very encouraging and concerned Parish Priest I became an altar server and later on joined St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary in Molo.

While at the seminary my vocation became stronger. The rector then was a very gentle and demanding man at the same time. He inspired most of us towards the Priesthood. The said rector is currently my Bishop in the Diocese of Lodwar. All along my idea of the Priesthood was of the diocesan kind since all the Priests that I came across were Diocesan.

This however changed when I went to Turkana through the invitation of a friend of mine to visit Turkana. Turkana was a new discovery to me. It may have been in the same country but it might as well been another country all together. The people, the place, the smells, everything seemed so different and difficult and yet surprisingly exciting.

I met European missionaries so fascinated by the place and doing a lot for the people, my country men. This was a great challenge to me. I felt like, if they can be happy staying in a place that most of us Kenyans shun, a place that we consider difficult and forgotten, I could also be part of the change process, be an agent of hope. I was happy and committed for some time.

However after four years I left the Community, I left Turkana to try a new life. By God’s grace I found my way back to the Community. As they say, the rest is history. I became a missionary through the guidance and support of Albert and many other MCSPA members.

I’m currently working at Nariokotome Mission as the Parish Priest and as the Director of St. Joseph Primary school.

Denis Odongo, MCSPA

I want to briefly share the testimony of my vocation in this Extraordinary Missionary Month, especially with so many young people in the world who have had the good fortune of growing up in countries and families that have given us so much. I am Colombian, and I grew up with wonderful parents and brothers with whom I joyfully lived my Catholic faith since I was a child. In addition, I grew up in one of the many parishes of the Archdiocese of Bogota, where the example of good priests attracts many to follow Christ unconditionally.
However, in spite of having so much love from people close to me, a strange dissatisfaction filled my life during the years I lived at the university. The pain of so many people in my country in permanent war and the suffering of so many people in the world, made me feel grateful for everything I had, but at the same time left my heart thirsty, hungry. Nothing satisfied me. My psychology studies did not quench my thirst for justice, my thirst to wanting to be part of God’s plan of goodness for all. Many books, much theory, but little practice, little love. Those were difficult moments: intense longings to want to change the world and not knowing how. Amidst so much confusion and dissatisfaction of a young woman from Bogota who had had everything, God put my happiness on my path, and in the most unexpected way.
A woman, a nurse and missionary in Africa for many years, invited me to be part of an exceptional family: the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle. With Cecilia’s enthusiasm, and that of many other missionaries in the group, my life found a living Jesus: transformer of a world that cries out for justice and love. I cannot forget Father Francisco Andreo – Paco-, who revolutionized all my schemes since I met him. With him, the Gospel began to be for me something alive, active, concrete, thanks to his exceptional love for those in most need and especially for Africa. The way he committed himself, from beginning to end, to those who suffer marked my vocation forever. His trust in God was amazing, and his faith in the transformation of people and places oppressed by despair continues, even today, to impel my life.
There are no words to say thanks for those moments (17 years ago) when God filled me with strength to say, “Yes, I follow you, unconditionally and for life to go where you need me”. And here I am, in a corner of Africa called Turkana, full of amazing people in the midst of extreme poverty, hunger, lack of water and scarcity of opportunities, who are slowly building a more dignified present and future, despite the countless challenges.
What a blessing to have received the mission of turning this remote place of the Turkana desert into a garden! What a joy to be part of a missionary family that wants to commit itself completely to the most underprivileged, accompanying them in a permanent way to announce to them a Christ who loves them here and now. And what a joy to find on this journey, so many generous people who help us to build the Kingdom of God.
I recognize that the faith in God of the people from Turkana and maturing together our faith in Christ, has been my great joy and an enormous responsibility that I share with my companions on the road in the mission of Kokuselei. Lay missionaries like me, with whom we are building a living and young Church in the midst of numerous people full of enthusiasm for making God present in their lives. People who need to be accompanied, shepherded, towards paths of hope, faith and love.
Here in Africa, hundreds of people are in need of good shepherds who will take them where there is life, where Jesus is. But we lack hands, missionary priests and missionary women who want to leave their own land to reach so many who are waiting for the concrete message of God’s love. Young people who want to leave everything to follow Christ and who are willing to be sent where they are needed. Young people who want to overcome ties and who are ready to walk against the direction of a world that often closes the doors to true love.
I am happy and I know that whoever follows Christ one hundred percent is happy. As a missionary, I hope that this Extraordinary Missionary Month will sow in the hearts of so many young Catholics around the world the seed of a fearless love and a love committed to the proclamation of Jesus among those in most need. I pray for vocations that will cross borders and join the universal mission of the Church.

Diana Trompetero, MCSPA

From what I know, we tend to search for homes. Home as a place or as a human being. It was a sudden feeling right after my arrival that Malawi will be somehow really special to me and when leaving I knew, that this place on the other side of the world feels more like home than any other before.

I spent five weeks in the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle in Benga Parish in Malawi.

As I can get anxious very easily, it sometimes makes me feel that I have already met enough people and I become scared of meeting new ones. In Malawi, I have met so many. Some of them were just passing by. To me, more than an ordinary people they represented an impression of joy, love, openness. The strength – of the voice, body and mind. The devoutness – to God, to their jobs, to what fulfils them. But some of them became really important to me and they had an impact on me in the most positive way and I am forever grateful for meeting them. 

The moments in Malawi, when we were finding ourselves on the same place in the same time on the same path, were too short and regardless of this we were still able to surrender parts of ourselves and take something from one another. It’s not about languages, nations, amount of money or race. It’s not even the mentality, or habits, however different they are. It’s the laughter, joy and openness what connect us. The willingness to help each other but never look down on somebody who has less than you do, as the wealth can’t always be seen. The ability to accept ourselves the way we are. Get over our walls and differences, our own hypocrisy and habits and search deeper. Not to compare and always start changing ourselves before others. And most importantly – not to be afraid of being human, because that’s what we are after all.

My experience may have changed everything I’ve known up to now. The point of view, priorities, the way of considering what really matters and what’s important. It made me doubt myself as well as my goals in life. Eventually made me find myself in a better place, with realisation that everything takes time, that as we can influence our lives we can never change what is supposed to happen as well. Although we can find ourselves on a place not really suitable at the moment or accomplishing tasks that don’t seem fulfilling enough, it’s happening for some reason. And what really matters is to do it with joy and love, which can be always find around or in ourselves, doesn’t really matter where you are. You are here and now, it’s time to be present and grateful. And that’s definitely what I am while thinking of my experience – infinitely grateful. The place, community and people, the joy, calmness and openness, all this together. And one beautiful country, Malawi, which once you’ve visited, it’s too hard not to coming back. And definitely impossible to forget.

Marie Mlatečková (Volunteer)

for more info get in touch with us via email on admin@mcspa.org

Growing up it never occurred to me that one day I would be a missionary, my understanding of being missionary was shaped by what I learned in school, to me a missionary was someone who had come from Europe to spread the good news of Christ’s salvation in Africa. 

This totally changed when I met Fr. Alex Campon a Spanish missionary priest of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA), most notable thing I remember in those early days when I began my missionary vocation in Turkana was waking up early in the morning preparing land for growing crops and planting trees with the local nomadic Turkana people in the almost barren land of Turkana which I thought was “madness” at that time little did I know that God was calling me in that way, now I trust that God writes straight in crooked lines. Going for “round masses” as we used to call them helped me hear the life stories of struggle of the local poor nomadic people and I came embrace the invitation that Christ was calling me to follow him through Fr. Alex Campon. It was not only to follow and remain dormant rather it was an invitation to share my life, capacities, and talents consequently from these experiences the Lord planted in me a great desire for missionary vocation.  

Even though at times the work, traveling around in an unforgiving terrain felt like a “punishment” and exhausting, at the end of each day I felt more refreshed and full of life than ever before. In Turkana I became aware of the adventure and the difficulties inherent in following Christ and in the midst of this spiritual transformation of sorts, I was learning and observing first-hand the ministry of long-term development being guided Fr. Alex Campon and the wider community of the MCSPA.

As a missionary in my own country among the poor nomadic people of Turkana, I have come to learn that direct service to the poor requires serious, consistent self-examination, deep prayer, and willingness to be converted and unlearn many things. No one serves perfectly, gives completely or works flawlessly. What is important is that a person knows and experiences the call to missionary vocation as a call from Christ, I don’t serve because it is good to do so, but I serve because I have been called in love and my response is to choose to return love.God created me in love, and has called me to life in service of others. In the poor, in those I work amongst, I see and know the Lord. I see the crucified, suffering Christ more often in the person broken by hunger and struggling to feed themselves, in that elderly person who has no one to take care of him or her, in that abandoned child and in many cases of desperation.

Through these experiences I have developed a burning desire to be more than just a participant in life, but to understand a spiritual calling to serve the Church. The strong presence of God actively working in my life has led me to seek a deep understanding of my personal spiritual growth. I am filled with joy to have responded to the call of Christ to become a missionary and now that I am in my final year of theological studies at Loyola School of Theology (LST) in Manila, almost being ordained deacon it gives me pleasure that I will further my life rooted in Christ and at the same time understand God’s intention for God’s creation and human potential, proclaiming and becoming an authentic witness to the Word of God in an intelligible manner as a future priest to the People of God, in the blessed land of Turkana where my missionary vocation was born.

Victor Otieno, MCSPA.

For more info get in touch with us via email on : admin@mcspa.org

My journey towards the missionary life started in 2007. I was still at Lodwar High School when I first encountered real missionaries. That is when the whole idea of missionary life began to take shape in me. 

My encounter with Fr. Francis Teo in 2007 was when the seed of a vocation was planted in me. It all began as a friendship that grew day by day and helped shape my vocation as a missionary today and this decision to journey towards the priesthood which I am walking along now.

In 2009 after finishing high school studies, Fr. Francis extended his invitation to me to join him at St. Augustine Cathedral, Lodwar. He was the Rector of the Cathedral at the time. Living with the priests of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA) helped me to see life from a different perspective. I was 19 years old then, and I started asking myself so many questions to which I could not find answers!

I was born in the western part of Kenya near an agricultural town. From there, I moved to Turkana to study. I never really experienced much hardship, at least nothing compared to the challenges that I faced later in the semi-desert of Turkana. Though born and raised in a Catholic family, it never occurred to me that one day I would journey on this missionary life.

Life in the semi-desert of Turkana was a very big challenge for me. Though I am Kenyan, I found it hard to cope up with that and I always wished to return to my hometown. However, I asked myself, “How I could look away from the same people of my country while here was someone who had come from very far and has committed all his life for them?”

This kept on ringing in my head and I felt that I could do something about it. And the way I figured would be for me to be part of the missionary community and do my little part.

My life with Fr. Francis and other priests of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle who were then residing at the St. Augustine Cathedral was a learning experience. I remember Fr. Manuel Hernandez and Fr. Angel Valdivia with whom we shared much time together. Together with Fr. Francis, they helped me mature in my vocation.

Accompanying Fr. Francis for masses to the outstations of the Cathedral Parish and helping to attend to the lines of people who came looking for help at the Cathedral, instilled in me a sense of service. This was part of the whole conversion process that I was undergoing deep within me.

I got exposed to other missions of the MCSPA. Thus I learned many things from the priests and other missionaries. I also learned to love. This was the most interesting part of my vocation. Learning first-hand from the missionaries was one big adventure!

I remember meeting the founder of our community, Fr. Paco, who made an instant impact in my life. From the first encounter with him, I saw a father figure in him. The love and care he showed at the first meeting was something that left me wondering what on earth did he see in me! He encouraged me to search for what would give me real happiness.

In 2012, there were some changes and new plans. Fr. Francis was on his sabbatical and he was to venture into Asia. I left with Fr. Francis to the Philippines where we started, from scratch, to slowly establish our house of study in Metro Manila.

The same year, together with other apprentices, I started philosophy studies at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. I also registered in a language school for Spanish. We also got involved in, very practical ways, with outreach at the slums of central Manila, at Parola. This also played a big part in the journey of discovery in my life as young missionary.

Nine years have gone by and I find my life changing and the zeal to serve as a missionary increasing. I think I have found my vocation and reason for my happiness, and I look forward to this missionary life.

Now I am in the second part of studies towards the priesthood. I have started theology studies at Loyola School of Theology in Metro Manila. I pray that through God’s grace, the work the Lord began in me on the day I said “Yes!” to this call may be accomplished in His time.

Brian Werunga, MCSPA.

As a young boy, I admired our parish priest, Fr. Raphael Ochanda, of St Michael’s Parish at Sigomere in Western Kenya. He was a simple man and believed in practical things. What made me admire him most was when I saw how he would be covered in dust while repairing his car. This struck me very much because of the idea I had before of a priest as someone “holy” and above all the grime and dirt. Thus, a light ignited in me and I told myself that I must be a priest one day. I started organizing games in which we would pretend that we were celebrating “mass” and I was the “presider”. Although I harboured this secret desire, I never managed to get near the altar as an altar server. However, this interest continued inside me throughout my primary school days. This feeling all but diminished when I entered the teen phase in secondary school. I lost interest in the priesthood and in the Church as a whole. I stopped going to church and instead kept myself busy doing odd jobs that could bring in some income for my private needs.

After secondary school, I moved to Kisumu city with my cousin. It is often said that God calls us in different ways and when He hooks us, we cannot escape. One day, while I was helping at the farm of our neighbour, Mama Quinter, who was sick at that time, I saw her daughter, Quinter, who had gone away from home for some time, entering the house with a visitor. Curiously, I went to ask Quinter who the visitor was and where had she been all this time. She told me that she was with a group of missionaries based in Turkana, northern Kenya. After narrating to me all that the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA) was doing in Turkana, I became interested in the work of the MCSPA although I was quite uncertain of how I could help. When I told her of my interest to go and visit, Quinter introduced me to Josephine Amuma, a member of the community, who arranged for me to go to Turkana. I was thus introduced to Fr. Paco who was later to become my guide and mentor. 

To this day, I am convinced that the first week in Turkana was the worst thing that I had ever experienced! I still thank God that there was no means of public transportation from the mission which I could have taken to return to Kisumu! The heat was too much for me to bear and I did not understand the language of the people. These factors made me feel that I could not fit in with the people.

However, when I gradually came to unveil the hidden beauty and happiness that lay in this dry part of Kenya, and among the local nomadic Turkana tribe and the members of the MCSPA, that light that had been extinguished during my teenage days rekindled with a new vigour. Working in the vegetable garden and attending the Eucharistic celebrations were my best moments. Masses in Turkana were marvellously long! Where the missionary community was concerned, it was amazing to see people from different backgrounds living together with love and understanding. I was very moved and decided that this was the life that I wanted to live. 

I stayed with Fr. Paco during his last two and a half years and I learnt a lot from him. Being a practical man, I learnt how to do many things starting from unclogging blocked sinks to praying the rosary. He stressed vocation promotion and caring for the vocations that God sent us. According to him, one should not live alone like an island. Instead one has to go out and call people to share the joy that one is experiencing. He made me realise the importance of vocation promotion. His departure left a void in my heart and the hearts of many who knew him. Paco’s fraternal correction, which was tough for me at that time, helped and shaped me to be who I am today. He was to me a true shepherd who was ready to leave the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness and go for the one lost sheep and being him or her back to the flock safe and sound. After his death, Fr. Antonio became my mentor and guide, and thanks to him I have reached where I am today. Antonio tried his best in helping me continue with my vocation. He helped me and continue to help smoothen the sharp edges in my life so as to bring me back on the better path.

It has been a difficult journey for me with all its ups and down. I have had to prune away many things in my life and that has not been easy for me! And still, I find more joy in being there for the people and helping out as best I can. I have never felt like giving up because I find joy here. It is through dying to ourselves and living for others that we acquire this internal and satisfying happiness. Now that I have started theology, I pray that I will not lose focus during these four years and that one day I may be ordained a priest, the kind who finds joy in serving others rather than in being served!

Zacchaeus Okoth Oduor

Senior Apprentice of MCSPA

For more information get in touch via email on – admin@mcspa.org

I am James Mangeni and I was born in Busia County (in Kenya) but I grew up in the bustling city of Nairobi. I am the 5^thborn of a family of 6 siblings brought up in a Catholic family. My parents instilled Christian values in us ever since we were young. 

I have been with the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle for the past 7 years, working at our missions in Kenya and Malawi. It took me time to confirm if I had the vocation to follow Christ or not, as I felt that I was not good enough to be a missionary, leave alone daring to dream that one day I would be serving the people of God somewhere in Turkana or Malawi.

Immediately after my secondary school education, I opted to look for employment, which, by God’s grace, I did find – cooking at one of the busy small restaurants in Nairobi’s Central Business District. While I was working at the restaurant, I met a seminarian from Uganda, who encouraged me to discern carefully if I had a vocation or not. He was very concerned and checked on me every day asking if I had made phone calls to religious congregations which he had recommended to me. Despite this seminarian’s insistence, I still did not show much perseverance! However with time, my heart became restless and a certain desire got the better of me: I felt a strong urge to give missionary life a try. I began sending out application letters to different congregations. 

I could have approached my parish priest to express my desire but I did not. One thing became clear to me: I wished for something different, other than being a diocesan priest or a Comboni priest. The booklet on congregations and institutes that I got from my Ugandan friend, gave me an idea and a summary of various missionary communities in Kenya. Thus I first came to know of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA), whose way of life and apostolate caught my attention. I also had an opportunity to attend the Yarumal Missionaries’ “Come and See” Programme which lasted a few days. 

Soon after the experience with the Yarumal Missionaries, I received a reply from my earlier application letter to the MCSPA. It was from Fr. Fernando Aguirre and Andrew Yakulula, both members of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle. At this juncture, I was confused as to which path I should take. However, through constant and regular interaction with Andrew (who was then still a seminarian in theology studies at Tangaza College, Nairobi), I began to know more about the work and life of the MCSPA, and I was touched by the missionary work which its members were doing in Turkana. I visited the mission for 2 weeks and then, later on, I met Fr. Fernando for the first time. We exchanged contacts and I began to visit and help them with different activities at their Nairobi residence. 

After 3 months, my mind was made up; I resigned from my work, and left Nairobi to start my formation with the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA) in Turkana, particularly at Todonyang Mission. It is now 7 years filled with joy and happiness, and I have never doubted my decision.

I feel God’s grace showering on me throughout my time in Malawi. I thank God for the opportunity to be part of the initial team that started to set up Benga Mission in Malawi; we started the mission from scratch!

One of the beautiful things of Benga is the smile and kindness shown by the people, despite their difficult socio-economic situation, and this makes one feel accepted and loved. The people do their part in sustaining the parish activities through their annual contribution of tithes, grain from their harvests, and in building up the Small Christian Communities in the area. 

Although I encountered serious challenges in starting the philosophy course with the University of South Africa, I was able to overcome these challenges, thanks to the support and trust from Frs. Fernando and Manuel, and other members of the MCSPA family. At present, I completed the philosophy course and am currently doing pastoral work at Benga Mission. I spend most of my time at the farm with the different communities of Benga area, imparting to them animal management, aquaculture and solar lighting technology. I am also assisting with our program to assist albinos in the area.

What motivates me to be a missionary  – and this is the message that I would like to give especially during this Extraordinary Month of Missions – is the support and encouragement that I receive every day from the people in the MCSPA family, especially during difficult moments. It is not an easy journey but together, as a family, and with the grace of God, we will be able to keep moving forward. We journey with one another despite our cultural and racial differences but through these differences we are able to build up the communal spirit and confidence. This is what motivates me, and it is what fills me.

James Mangeni, Senior Apprentice MCSPA

My name is Carolin Auer, I am 27 years old and was born in Farchant –  a small city deep in the south of Germany. I work as a nursery and a religious teacher. Right now, most of my time I spend working as a community assistant and religious teacher I two parishes around Münster and Freising. After finishing my university degree and a year of working I decided to go abroad for a longer time to get to know a new culture and pastoral work in different countries. Luckily I was able to spend close to three months in the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle, to be exact in the Benga parish in Malawi, and become part of a great family. Here I was allowed to share faith in everyday-life, get to know the work in the different communities and find a culture which I ended up loving. This time changed me, and I will never forget it.

Starting the day with mass and ending it with a collective prayer, the vesper, and the daily pastoral work included me into the community. Even further, the people here turned into a family for me where I could feel safe and at home.

For two weeks I was able to work in the nursery and primary school which are located in the community itself. I was impressed how well the teachers were able to teach with little material to a lot of students. Education is key to a successful life, and it especially gladdened me how many schools are supported by the mission here to enable the kids to have a great future.

The masses in the different villages were impressive again and again. I could feel the strong connection in the prayer and the faith of the people. Singing, dancing and music turned the masses here into a visible and audible celebration of faith.

Time and time again I was able to visit elderly people in the villages. We brought basic food, celebrated communion with those who wanted and prayed with them. These visits were a gift to me. I was moved by joy of the people when Brian visited them and how thankful they were. Despite the basic living conditions, the joy in their faces gave me a reason to think about pastoral work and the life in Germany. Being there, just listening to them and giving them a smile is worth more than big words.

This is one of the things I want to take back into my own work, not spending the whole day behind a desk coming up with concepts and ideas. No, I want to go out, like in Malawi, to the people and be with them.

Something very special and very new for me was when I was allowed to help build a house for an old and sick lady. Carrying bricks and water, digging out a foundation and learning how to build a house without big machines but only by human work was a great experience. Seeing the joyful face of Belita, opening the house with a blessing by the priests and giving her a new home was one of the biggest gifts of the entire time I was here.

I was able to learn a lot from Fr. Manuel, Fr. Fernando, Fr. Steven and Brian who live for their work, for their calling. Accompanying them for most of the time and exchanging experiences with them enriched my stay in Malawi by a lot.

I suggest to everyone who has the opportunity to spend some time there, even if it is only for one or two weeks. It is not about changing the country, the structure or the pastoral work. No, I believe we all can learn from the people in Malawi, from their way of life and from their way of sharing faith. I was allowed to do this, and I am incredibly thankful for this time.

I found a home there, and this home as well as the people and interactions there I will keep in my heart forever.

Even across continents I know that I will be connected to the people in the community and Malawi by our prayers and faith.

I would like to thank Fr. Manuel, Fr. Fernando, Fr. Steven, Brian, all the people in the community and the surrounding villages in Malawi who welcomed me to their country with an open heart.

May the spirit of God be in the projects and his blessing with everyone.

Carolin Auer

When I finished my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in 2008, I joined my family business. My family runs a small hotel and restaurant business. I worked for a while at the hotel and that helped me develop business skills that have helped me to be aware of expenditures and how it is important to take care of small things in order to cut costs. However in 2010, my life changed drastically when I met Fr. Antonio Aguirre of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA) through a family friend.

My vocation as a missionary was born in Turkana where the MCSPA carries out much of its apostolates. I was deeply touched by the dedication and care that the missionaries gave especially to the sick, hungry and needy nomadic people of Turkana. As I accompanied Fr. Antonio Aguirre with whom I lived and worked in the Community, my life was immensely changed. I began to attend daily mass, and this helped shape my faith, the homilies and conversations that we had were like food for my soul which ignited a spark for the missionary life.

My experience in the Community enhanced my spirituality and my human formation to the point where I began to consider the priesthood. These thoughts burned in my mind and in my heart. When I gave a helping hand to the needy, I always felt so fulfilled. I also admired how the priests of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle touched concrete lives in their work, all of which had its inspiration and strength in values of the gospel. I saw how these values are translated into concrete and tangible realities. 

After 4 years in Turkana, I enrolled for philosophy studies at the Spiritan Seminary at Arusha, Tanzania. I was enriched with a wide philosophical spectrum of ideas that encouraged me to question many things that I had taken for granted. I was very much challenged not to take things at face value. This led to inquisitive moments of my life that also helped to reaffirm a commitment to my vocation. 

After the philosophy studies, I went for missionary experience out of my country, Kenya, to Malawi, a country in the southern part Africa, where MCSPA is running a mission. In Malawi, I was also struck by a couple of experiences that left a deep mark in me. I accompanied Fr. Fernando of the MCSPA as he carried out his pastoral duties. I saw how, despite their poverty, the local villagers offer the little they have to the priest. It was beautiful to see this spirit of generosity coming especially from people who have little. Fr. Fernando also impressed me; he addressed the community’s challenges and problems by checking the wellbeing of their domestic herds, their spiritual needs and their physical needs by drilling boreholes for the local communities. 

Thus many persons and experiences helped developed my deep desire to journey towards the priesthood. Through the concrete examples that I have seen from other priests, they have demonstrated to me the true meaning of a shepherd of the flock of Christ. It is in the encounter with the people in concrete ways that we touch their very lives and become true witnesses of Christ.

I have just enrolled at Loyola School of Theology in Manila, Philippines, to pursue theology studies with the intention of ordination. I continue the practical formation in this missionary charism of the MCSPA at our Formation House in Manila. 

Taking all the above into account, I am fully convinced that I may obtain a quality formation and develop a better understanding of my faith. I am certain that the theology program, practical formation and personal experiences will provide a better and deeper understanding of the Gospel values, so that I may be competent to transmit my faith effectively, in theory and practice, to the societies to which I may be called to mission in the future.

Sammy Gitau Muchiri, MCSPA

Note: For more information contact us on admin@mcspa.org

Looking back, I think my journey towards the missionary life could be traced back to when I was 8 years old and an active altar server. I used to accompany and help our parish priest (who was an elderly Irish missionary priest at Kainuk Mission, in southern Turkana, Kenya) for outstation masses on Sundays. This was a routine that I always looked forward to and Sunday became my best day of the week!

At first I thought it was the mere excitement that a little boy would have in enjoying car rides and going to places with the priest. Little did I know that there was something more in me that needed to be ignited. During my days at Lodwar High School at Lodwar town, I met Fr. Francis Teo who was the chaplain of our school then. As an altar server, I was able to interact with him a bit more and we became friends. Fr. Francis is a member of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA). It was on my final year that Fr. Francis asked me if I felt attracted to the priesthood. I did not exactly understand what he saw in me that made him ask such a direct question. My first response was a smile followed by silence until he asked again and I hesitantly uttered a faint “Yes”!

From then on, I realised that some thing in me had been aroused because from that day onwards that question kept lingering in my mind. I visited him from time to time at the Cathedral in Lodwar, until one Sunday afternoon he invited to travel with the group to the remote northern part of Turkana County, to the Mother House of the MCSPA at Nariokotome Mission. I had never been to the place despite being born in Turkana. 

On my first day at Nariokotome mission, I was mesmerized by the lushness of such a place in the middle of nowhere. It is simply “a garden in the desert”. I later learnt that this “garden” grew as a result of the effort of several dedicated individuals who had come together to live the gospel and to make it alive in a place where one would quickly deem to be harsh and impossible at supporting any growth or life. This caught my attention and, perhaps more than being attracted, I was inspired to know more and so I chose to stay. I got involved with the usual rigorous routine of mission life, always on the move to the mountain regions and across the dry plains for masses, mobile clinics and visitation of projects. Sometimes I would go to take care of the vegetable garden. Throughout these journeys and with the kind of poverty that I encountered, I began to understand the meaning of suffering from thirst and hunger, and the lack of other needs. Seeing what the MCSPA has been doing throughout this time, compelled me to help the community carry out this mission because I realized that true service goes beyond mere words and it makes more sense when action is involved. I could see the seriousness and consistency in everyone I got to know at Nariokotome. The meaning of “love for others”, especially the needy, sunk deeply into my mind and touched my heart especially when I realised that the majority of the members of the MCSPA come from distant countries and chose to live this life. I felt challenged and called to share my life and to give love to others as well.

Where my family’s reaction towards my decision was concerned, it was not an easy thing for me. Everyone in my family objected to my joining the missionary life … everyone except for my mother. They were most unhappy and thought that I was insane. This is because as I am the only boy child in the family, I was expected to continue the family name with a family of my own. So, to my family, it was an unthinkable choice on my part! Only after 4 years of my being in the community, they slowly began to understand and to accept this decision. I guess it was because they saw a strong conviction and a great desire in me to follow this life which I had chosen.

Being a priest sounded simple to me before. However, since I joined the MCSPA I came to realise that it involves so much more and I felt a strong desire to serve God as a missionary priest with the help and guidance of Fr. Francis and the MCSPA family. I am glad to have responded to this call and I pray that the grace of God may fill and propel me to actualize this potential to serve in a manner worthy for His people, wherever it may be. I am now beginning my first year of theology studies at Loyola School of Theology in Metro Manila, Philippines. I pray that I may continue to be guided by God always within the MCSPA family and to render praise to Him through the service of others.

Stephen Ekaal Iyerio, MCSPA Senior Apprentice