In Guinea Bissau I discovered my way
The testimony of one who, following Jesus’ invitation in the Gospel, went to “see” in Africa, in Guinea Bissau
In July 2003, during a missionary youth conference, seeing the joy and light in the eyes of those who were about to leave for Africa, the same desire was born in me and so I set myself to graduate by the following spring and give myself the summer experience with the PPOOMM’s MGM.
On August 5, 2004, as I descended the steps of the plane that had just landed in Bissau, I had the feeling that I was right there where I had wanted to be for so long: not on a beach to rest from the labors of study, but to see for myself a glimpse of the mission life that had so captivated me in recent years.
Providence wanted me in Empada, in southern Guinea Bissau, a guest of the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata, with the legendary Sister Emma, a 70-year-old with extraordinary drive and strength! I left thinking that I was the one who wanted to do it and had the strength, but actually mine was an unconscious response to the Lord’s invitation “Come and see.”
It was a seeing the works of the Lord through the missionaries who give their lives in “being with” while respecting the timing of the mission, which is by no means the “all and now” of us Westerners. I had come home with a realization: that “the Lord needed me for the world,” that I had to give witness to God’s love.
I was still dealing with the African sickness and looking for some project that could take me back there where I had left a piece of my heart, that an unexpected opportunity came along: working in the administration of the Missio Foundation.
I thank the Lord for these 19 years of work in which I try day after day to look beyond the paperwork that populates my desk, remembering or imagining the faces of those who do the mission on the ground.
(Franca Cicchella, Popoli e Missione, July-August 2024, p. 33, from the dossier “Yes, Travel. Destination Mission)
Source
- Popoli e Missione