On the occasion of World Mission Day 2021, in which all Christians are invited to share “what we have seen and what we have heard”, I like to share my testimony; I will do it in a simple way and with a grateful heart for my vocation as a Capuchin Tertiary Sister of the Holy Family weaving life with people of every race, language, people and nation, whom, thanks to the Good News of Jesus Christ, our Faith and Hope, I can truly call them sisters and brothers, pronouncing their names since a shared life and mission.
That is how I live the mission and the gift of fraternity that, like every gift I must accept and , acknowledge and also apply myself so that it may bear fruit in abundance; that is, for me, a path of purification and salvation that I am walking along little by little, with patience, wisdom and the mercy that Jesus has with me, expressing it through the concrete gestures of my Sisters and of many people who, even without knowing it, are helping me to grow and to mature as a consecrated woman.
It is beautiful to see how, just when I experience my fragility as a foreigner, different, not knowing the language or the different and countless cultures in Africa, having a skin that gets burned, not enduring one day without eating, for example …, I meet people that take care of me, help and protect me with kindness. Also I receive from them a life lesson when, suffering my «impatience» originating from my own rhythms, way of thinking and seeing things, they are patient with me. As well, discernment helps me to move on from «mine» to «ours», freeing me from the arrogance of thinking that «mine is the best» and that what is «mine … what I think, feel, believe, my culture… ” is not the best, but simply “mine”, and leading me to open myself to the richness of welcoming “what comes from the other” that many times is completely different, valid, enriching and leading me to the beautiful path of “ours”.
One of my faith certainties, according to what I have lived, is that God never allows himself to be won in generosity, He multiplies to unsuspected limits everything given with love. Thus, fraternity broadens and allows me to reach any of the thirteen communities that we have in Africa, D. R. of Congo, Benin, Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea, feeling at home, welcomed and loved by my sisters, enjoying and also searching out, all together and with lay people and beneficiaries, how to carry out our apostolic works sharing the mission and putting into practice a fraternal and fair economy in which all contribute and receive; through numerous projects we also receive a great help from our benefactors.
When I go to Rosario de Soano Home for young women with different abilities, in Morogoro (Tanzania) and I knock on the door, I am welcomed with a wide smile by Magdalena, a girl living in this Home. When I arrive at Ntuntu (Singida – Tanzania), small groups of children of San Juan María Vianney Kindergarten coming from their scattered houses, appear among the trees, go to Mass early in the morning and then they accompany us on the way to the school. When I stroll about Kigamboni (Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania) the children, youth and parents of Fray Luis Amigó Schools greet me with affection and without distinction of religion, Christian or Muslim. When I greet people in Kasungami, neighborhood of Lubumbashi (D. R. of Congo). I enjoy the family that God has given us: Maman Georgette, already old and alone, lives under the protection of the Sisters and always welcomes me, speaking to me in Swahili and French and thinking that I can understand all that she says and without stopping her work, the children and young people of Hoy Family, the sick people of Saint Claire Health Center, the children of Montiel Kindergarten. And also it has been an experience of family to celebrate fifty years of presence in Kansenia (D. R. of Congo) and to welcome groups from distant parishes, coming walking during three days to participate in the fest, to visit with the group of novices the abandoned elderly in Ouessè (Benin), the villages where the women’s cooperatives t are a source of life and development for the families and the malnourished children and sick people cared in Nikki, Cotonou, Gló and many other persons whose names I keep in my heart that I have meet in Evinayong, Equatorial Guinea …
Blessed be God for the gift of my family that, through its witnessing, made me growing in the faith in Jesus Christ and allowed me to discover the importance of serving others, for my beloved Congregation, and for the service that I am currently rendering to my sisters and brothers. .
As our dear Father Luis Amigó said: «Let everything be for the love of God».
SR. EVA MARÍA SALVADOR ASPAS, TC