MISSIONER TALES
I first learned of the concept of accompaniment, of “walking with the people,” from the Maryknoll Sisters. This, I thought, is the ministry to which I am being called here in Nicaragua.
Tales from Tanzania & Guatemala
Missioner Tales March & April 2015 In Tanzania, where I serve as a Maryknoll lay missioner, it is not uncommon in the rainy season for a storm to occur during the night. In the morning fallen trees in the neighborhood are soon put to good use. First, the youngest children claim them as makeshift playgrounds, bouncing up and down on the limbs as...
Tales from Bangladesh, Kenya, El Salvador & Tanzania
Missioner Tales January & February 2015 During my 22 minute-walk from Medi Aid hospital to a school run by the Maryknoll Sisters in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a short and energetic fellow stopped me on the street. He said his name was Bacchu and he wished to take my photo. He intended to show it to his boss, who he said was casting for actors to make a...
MISSIONER TALES
After four months of language school in Guatemala, I offered to take the Sunday Masses so one of the local pastors could have a vacation. Before leaving, he explained that after Mass some people might come for medicine from the little dispensary attached to the chapel. I will never forget the elderly couple who came in with their grandson and a...
MISSIONER TALES
In Mwanza, Tanzania, where I serve with the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, I help run a program for girls to learn life skills, handcrafts and entrepreneurship. One day a group of us went on a visit to the home of a 20-year old girl who originally joined the program but dropped out because she was pregnant. She was afraid to attend the program because...
MISSIONER TALES
Ten months after arriving in Hong Kong and completing some beginner's lessons in the Cantonese language, I was assigned to teach English and religion at the Maryknoll Fathers’ School in Kowloon Tsai. In its primary and secondary sections there were 1,500 pupils. Most of them were non-Catholic children from the refugee squatter huts in the...
MISSIONER TALES
Leung Ying, who was partially disabled after a stroke, came to live in our home for the elderly in Hong Kong, where I served in mission. She appeared very sad and would walk up and down, dragging one foot a little and weeping. She continually repeated the same thing, but no one could understand her and nothing we said or did seemed to cheer her...
Missioner tales
I had recently arrived in Peru and was assigned to Taraco in the department of Puno, 13,000 feet above sea level. Every six months we had to take a break from the physical stress of the high altitude. I decided to go to Lima by way of Cuzco and Machu Picchu, the famous Inca ruins. I arranged a tour to the ruins. The woman at the tour agency said,...
