Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya, Africa.
Jose Domingos is a first year philosophy student, in Nairobi (Kenya).
He was born in Brazil.
He is a seminarian for the Foreign Mission Society (SME).
Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya, Africa.
I greet you all with love and with the affection that I have for all of you dear friends.
I was looking for time within my few ’free’ hours, to write you to share a bit what I am living and what I am doing here in this very moment in Kenya.
In Brazil, the topic of this missionary month is: ``Mission is Sharing``. I was thinking about this and I took the decision to share a little about that.
I want to start saying that my health is good, and I am very happy about my personal process of evangelization which I am living. What I mean is that my process of evangelization is the same as my process of academic, spiritual, community and human formation. Each day I am discovering how to evangelize myself among my brothers whom I am living with, my formators and the people whom we are working with.
I am living in Nairobi, together with 2 formators, six seminarians from different countries of Latin America and Africa. The experience that I am living here has been a great challenge for me. At the same time the challenges help me to grow in my personal evangelization, and in our cultural differences. I thank God for them.
I am finishing philosophical studies next year. Perhaps it is not very clear for some of my friends and relatives that I am undergoing a formation in order to be a missionary priest. I tell you that this is what I am doing here, and my boat is in the middle of the sea and my desire is to go further.
The studies are not giving me much headache as before. I do not suffer a lot with the difficulties of Language. Everything is going well, thank God. I have 76 classmates, all Africans. I was the only foreigner with them but at the beginning of this year a new seminarian from China came to do Philosophy with us and this makes me feel better because I am not the only foreigner anymore. The challenge of the acculturation, as Fr. Bertrand says, is the challenge of the Gospel. It is difficult to understand and difficult to put in practice because of our cultural diversity.
During the weekend I do pastoral work in a slum called Kibera. On Saturdays I visit the sick people who are suffering with HIV and Tuberculosis and, on Sundays, a group of young people called UNDUGU. The sick people are not Catholic, they are Muslim and this is much better for me. Not because they are not Christian and are suffering but because I am seeing that God is God of all, full of compassion and love. God loves them without discrimination of colour, race, creed or culture. God takes care of them with the same love. I repeat, the challenge of acculturation is the challenge of the Gospel. As Fr. Eloy says, God is God of all. God is not the property to any tribe, any culture, any nation or any religion; God is God of all.
UNDUGU in kswahili means: brothers. Undugu is a group of young men and women, Christian and non Christians. In total, they are 25 between 17 and 30 years of age. This group was born soon after the post election violence in 2008. Undugu family is a relationship of people who believe that they are sons and daughters of one Parent, one Father or one Mother who is God. The focus of Undugo Family is on issues of conflict, inequality, violence, racism, ethnic intolerance, wars and the division between 1st and 3rd world countries, which place more value on wealth than on the brotherhood. All this is done with view of creating a future of peace equality, democracy and prosperity for all.
UNDUGU in kswahili means: brothers. Undugu is a group of young men and women, Christian and non Christians. In total, they are 25 between 17 and 30 years of age. This group was born soon after the post election violence in 2008. Undugu family is a relationship of people who believe that they are sons and daughters of one Parent, one Father or one Mother who is God.
The focus of Undugo Family is on issues of conflict, inequality, violence, racism, ethnic intolerance, wars and the division between 1st and 3rd world countries, which place more value on wealth than on the brotherhood. All this is done with view of creating a future of peace equality, democracy and prosperity for all.
The goal is to bring about a new generation of people who can value their identity and relationships as brothers more than anything else. This is the first pastoral experience I am doing with non Christian people and this has been very rich for me. I am learning with them how to be open and receptive to other creeds. We are always speaking about interreligious dialogue and I am having the experience to do so and I like it. The experience is the experience of loving heart to heart.I wish you all the best in all your activities.
May the Good Shepherd guide you and illumine your way.
Sincerely
24.10.2010
José Domingos Damasceno Barão
Sem, Foreign Mission Society (SME).
P.O. Box21654,00505 Ngong
Kabarnet, Street 1921
Nairobi, Kenya, East África.
