Hello everyone!
We would like to share with you how we have been here at our Formation House in Manila, Philippines. Ever since this Covid-19 lockdown was officially announced on 15th March 2020 here in Manila, with immediate effect, all movement came to a halt. Life changed suddenly for most people. We imagine that it is the same with you all there where you are.
Only one person is allowed out of our housing village for doing our groceries and purchasing medications if needed. We organised ourselves to do the daily responsibilities in the house – the pilotship, the garden, cooking, laundry, cleaning, liturgy – and we also have time for exercise. We are spending very much time together under the same roof and at the table – more than before. And we are happy for this! We enjoy the cooking even, learning new dishes, and we have our supply of greens from the backyard vegetable plot!
For the four of us studying theology, we officially end the semester this week. We had to submit all our assignments online. The others are still having online classes and exams until the end of this month. Some of us are learning Spanish online in the meantime. Our two Come and See candidates from Timor Leste are still continuing with English classes in the house. The older ones among us are giving them classes in grammar and composition writing. They are improving very much!
Besides the life in common in the house, during this lockdown, we have been helping the families who are constantly in touch with us through our apostolate areas of Payatas, Parola, Ronas Garnens and Daan Tubo. Those of you who have been to Manila know some of these places. Majority of the families are daily wage workers and in this time of lockdown, there is no work and so they are not in a position to put food on the table for their families. We have been channelling the help via the barangay (or neighbourhood) officials due to social distancing regulations or through point persons.
To give you an idea, since the start of the quarantine on 17th of March we have been able to assist with cash and relief food (rice, meat, milk) disbursements to about 380 families and groups, from the above-mentioned depressed areas, on a weekly basis. We were able to give one-off aid to relief efforts of church organisations and faith-based charities operating in the Diocese of Cubao and at Central Manila.
Thanks to friends and well-wishers from the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, we were able to carry out this relief effort, and we will continue to do so until such time as when the lockdown restrictions will be eased and families are able to fend for themselves again. We appreciate all the help they have given!
This time has been a very big learning experience for all of us. Learning to stay together, study, work and pray; reaching out to needy families in a coordinated way, and accounting for the help received; looking out and supporting each other.
We look forward for our lockdown here to be lifted or modified by end May. We will have to learn to live with the virus in our midst, trying to carry on with our lives but taking all the necessary precaution and adhering to standard operating procedures. And of course giving thanks to God for all the blessings, big and small, everyday.
We pray for the end of this pandemic. And we pray for all of you too, that you stay well and healthy.

From the community at Quezon City, Philippines.

Edward and Theresa got married when they were young in a small village called Source Yubu in South Sudan, just at the border with the Central African Republic. The two were blessed with three lovely children whom they loved so much. Years passed by and their love grew weaker day after day until they divorced. Edward remained in South Sudan and married. Theresa on the other hand went to Central African Republic, and married there too.

Sometimes because of our youth we do things that we may regret when we are older. This happened to Edward, even though he remarried, he was not very happy and always thought of his first wife. One day he made a journey in search of his wife. They met, but Theresa was not willing to come back.

The years went by, and now they were both old and had lost their spouses. They did not know, but fate would bring them back together. They both fell sick and became blind. Theresa had to come back home and her daughter would take care of her. The two met again and love flourished once more between them, and they came back together. Though now both blind, and unable to see each other, they have reunited and are happily living together.

When he hear stories like the one, we realise that the most important thing in life is to be happy and united with our loved ones.

We would like to thank all those people who act as bridges, to try and bring people, who were once divided, together again, to find happiness with their loved ones once again.

Benjamin Khandi
Apprentice MCSPA

In the face of the Covid19 pandemic, improving hygiene is very important, especially handwashing with soap and using disinfecting gels. This practice of maintaining hygiene has for many years been paramount in Nariokotome Mission, where we have long manufactured liquid soap, bleach, soap bars and disinfectant; that we use in our health centres, nurseries, schools and workshops, to maintain hygiene in our development programs.

Educating and promoting our Turkana community, in the practice of good hygiene in these critical moments of the pandemic, and doing it ourselves showing example, in the situation caused by COVID 19 is very vital. However, it is difficult to have clean hands in a place with a shortage of soap and water and constant dust.

Given the shortage of water and other supplies, we thought it would be a good idea to start producing our own sanitizing gels, and explaining how they should be used as a preventive measure for daily use.

Thanks to the help and advice of Antonio Matji, a pharmacist who knows the mission and its needs, it has been possible to achieve it. We have started producing sanitizer in sufficient quantity to supply the Turkana population living in the mission, for our own consumption, and we are even producing to be able to distribute supplies to nearby populations through our mobile clinics.

Lenny Jillo MCSPA

Dear friends,

I write to you from Ave Maria Mission in Mboko, Tombura-Yambio region in South Sudan. I came here to visit our missionaries and also to discover the possibility for mission work here. We were among the last persons allowed to enter the country just before it went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now there is no turning back, I will be here until the borders are opened again … God knows when!

At the moment there are apparently only 2 suspected cases of infection in South Sudan. I pray for many of you who are now either locked down or have your movements restricted. There are many who have lost their loved ones because of this virus. We pray that during these hard times, we may be strong and united in faith and spirit.

The few weeks that I have spent here in South Sudan have been wonderful and I am learning many things. I arrived with the preconceived idea that this was a poor country because of what I had seen in the media. During the flight from Juba to Yambio I could only see whole forests of mango trees laden with fruit. In Yambio town and later on at Ave Maria Mission, there were again plenty of mangoes even on the ground and no one even bothered to pick them!

As I am living in Turkana, I have the urge to pick the mangoes and carry them with me to the house to make mango juice or dry them and keep them for later. It is not good to let these precious fruits go to waste!

The most striking moments have been these last three days of the Paschal Triduum. We could not celebrate mass in the outstations because of the need for social distance. However many people have been coming to the mission, walking sometimes for 6 to 9 km, to see if perhaps the priest would allow them to attend mass at the mission. Some of the faithful cried when they heard that there would not be masses over Easter.

But we thank God that despite all this, they went back home affirmed in their faith.

Happy Easter of the Resurrection to all!

Lillian Omari, MCSPA

Happy Easter from Ave Maria Parish, South Sudan. As we could not celebrate Easter mass for our Christians, Frs. Albert and Avelino and the rest of us went around walking for some good five hours, to meet Christians at their homes.

We had short prayers and there was blessing of seeds and different stuff that is valuable to them. This is a tradition here in South Sudan. During Easter, everyone brings seeds, tools for planting or hunting, torches, books, logs for harvesting honey, matchboxes, firewood, and just anything you can imagine. So that soon after, when rains will come, their plants will do well and will have plenty of harvest.

We thank God for the privilege of being able to share with such a strong-faith people as these. Any opportunity of a priest visiting them is a big blessing.

While walking to the different homes many passerby stopped us for blessing. Others rushed home to bring their seeds, and along would come the whole family to receive the Easter blessing. It was a great joy seeing how people were singing and dancing after the blessings.

At least the people were able to celebrate Easter in a different way. Indeed, the light of the risen Christ has reached them today in spite of not being able to attend mass.

Lillian Omari MCSPA

The situation that the whole world is going through right now can bring the best or the worst out of each one of us. It all depends on the path that we take.

It’s almost two weeks since we attended the last celebration of the mass at El Paraíso, the neighbourhood where the Missionary Community of Saint Paul the Apostle has been working for over three years at the request of the Bishop of Xochimilco, Rt. Rev. Andrés Vargas. El Paraíso lies inside a cultivated area called Chinampas in the district of Xochimilco. Since the contagion rate has apparently been slower here, Mexicans are still carrying on with their normal lives. Some of the families that live in El Paraíso told us that there is no way that they can stop going out of their homes to work because they would not be able to get their basic necessities. Most of them are street peddlers who cannot stay home and have to go out into the streets because “there is no other way”.

How can you ask a population that lives from hand-to-mouth to stay indoors? How can you ask them to wear a mask when there are none left although the government says that there is no scarcity?

Being aware of this latent need and with the support of Bishop Andrés and Caritas Diocesana from the Xochimilco Diocese, we have started a campaign to help those in need. We are giving to each family of the poorest communities in the cultivation area of Xochimilco, food and cleaning products that could last for a month.

We have been able to do this with 70 families thanks to donations from many friends and acquaintances. The beneficiaries were very thankful for the help since many of them did not have any more food to eat. It is important to understand that a lot of these families survive on temporary jobs: cleaning houses, selling things in the streets etc. and many of them have family members with chronic diseases or who are disabled in various ways.

We have seen that donors have answered with a great amount of generosity, sharing what they have even if they do not know how long this whole situation may last, and letting faith guide their actions with the hope that there will be enough for everybody. Pope Francis said that “we are all in the same boat”. We can honestly say that, now more than ever, this quote make so much sense: what affects one person affects all of us.

This Holy Week will be about us all walking alongside a suffering Christ, recognizing that our humanity is what brings us together, rather than our place of origin. It is our time to decide whether we want to come together, making sure that everybody has what is necessary to stay home and safe, or if we wish to be carried away by fear, protecting only what is ours because the world outside apparently does not affect us.

We will keep trying to provide more and more families with food, gloves, mouth covers and workshops to prevent the spread of the virus. It is our mission to be able to say “stay home and leave only for the essentials, with a face mask and gloves” but for that, we are in need of generous hearts.

In Ethiopia, many millions of people eke out a living for the bare necessities of life. They do this by harvesting their fields, looking after their herds, selling their products, doing some work for which they are paid on a daily basis.

The possibility of staying at home and surviving on what one has in storage simply does not exist for most people. Firstly, it is because there is not much to store, and added to that are the tiny spaces that make up their homes, which are clearly unsuitable for storing anything. In addition, the requirement of confinement is a near impossibility because many homes comprise of just one room or, at most, two tiny spaces separated by a wall!

Yesterday, we went to the market at Muketuri, the village where we live in the Ethiopian Highlands. It is a traditional market where little grain, fruit and vegetables are sold and bought; there are also clothes, accessories, household items but not much else. Despite insistent calls from the government for social distancing, the market was very crowded with people buying and selling. Really, what other choice do they have?

If only those who live in the rural areas could have water and vegetable plots where they could grow their own vegetables instead of relying on the trucks that supply the area which sometimes do not arrive. Again, that is not the case either. In many villages, water is still a very scarce commodity or one that can only be obtained by walking long distances. Opening the tap at home and seeing this element coming out is literally a chimera for many people here.

The only thing we can do, therefore, is to continue digging wells and distributing seeds to farmers so that the harvest season is not restricted to just three months per year.

And, above all, we need to REFLECT… so that, when normalcy returns and the imminent danger is over, we can think together about how to avoid the situation where so many human beings lie at the brink between life and death in a permanent and normative way. Maybe we can make that day come so that, when faced with a threat such as the Covid-19, we may all be able to isolate ourselves for a while so as to amortise the damage, and come out, as they say, stronger and not more impoverished, vulnerable or helpless.

The strength and comfort of Faith will be important to continue working for a more equitable world.

Lourdes Larruy, MCSPA.

MCSPA members of the Prince of Peace Catholic Mission, have joined representatives from the Nyangatom local government on Sunday, in order to show solidarity to the people of Kibish, who lost their homes in the recent fire this week.

This initiative is a real sign of love and peace between communities that are still in conflict due to cattle raid and excess of small-fire-arms.

We pray that such kind of signs will be the beginning of a real peace based on a mutual respect for the dignity of every member of the community across the divide.

Fr. Angel Valdivia

During the days 28-30th January, the MCSPA, present in the area of Muketuri, together with a Spanish foundation, called “Fundación Harena”, distributed 120 solar light sets to illuminate the homes in 3 villages, Abo Kaso, Gore Ketema and Jebene. These villages are 21 km, 7 km and 17 km away from Muketuri.

The solar sets have 3 points of fixed lights and one mobile, plus a telephone charger point. The families received a training to install the lights and showed their gratitude y happiness for what will change their lives: to have light in their homes, for cooking, living together and with a great impact in their children´s lives who will be able to study when there is no sun light.

At the 3 villages the people organized a party to celebrate the event with a meal, dances and speeches.
In one of the villages an old women expressed her joy saying:
“we don’t know how to thank all this: first the missionaries brought us the water, a well and after this agriculture with the drop system and then a dining room for children under 7 and pregnant women, and today, with these lights they have given us eyes to see all that we have achieved together!”

Many more families have registered to receive solar light for their homes. We hope to get the funds to extend the program to more people.

Lourdes Larruy MCSPA