MEET
THE MSOLA SISTERS
Personal Encounters with the
Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa
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Get
to know some of the
Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa
and their rich missionary life experience.
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The
visitation , drawing made by
Sr. Gyslaine Dubé, MSOLA
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Sr.
Anna Brigitta
Sr.
Anna Brigitta was born in the Netherlands and has spent
most of her life in Tanzania as Missionary Sister
of Our Lady of Africa, working with young women at school
and with all kinds of destitute persons.
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Sr.
Anna Brigitta is actually at Mwanza, on the shore of Lake
Victoria. She teaches in secondary schools Home Economics.
In the actual situation of Tanzania where tourism is developing,
the students are prepared to become cooks, and to work in
hotels and restaurants.
She
visits a camp where sick people with leprosy live. She makes
it possible for the children of the patients to go to school
and to continue their studies. She makes sure the patients
and their families get food and medicines.
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Sr.
Anna-Brigitta visits Monika, a
woman alone in danger in her
village, at Bukumbi (Tanzania)
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Sr. Elisabeth Villemure
from Grand-Mère (Québec) to Uganda and Kenya
I
come to share with you a love story that is some years old
but still alive. I invite to enter into this mistery.
My name means "God's house" and I like it! The
history of my vocation started when I was 10 years old.
A sister came to talk to us. What an emotion to listen to
her praying the "Our Father" in a language that
made us laugh so much... The seed was planted and the idea
of becoming a missionary started growing in me. I have had
doubts, hesitations, struggles. I was a teacher and I was
engaged.
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Sr. Elisabeth
visiting a patient in Kangemi
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Then
during a retreat the light dawned on me.
In the certitude and the deep inner peace, I got the courage to
become religious missionary.
I join the
MSOLA postulate at Quebec, with 11 companions. I have never regretted
that decision. God is patient with me. He respects my journey.
To prepare a missionary needs time.
En 1971 I
arrive to Uganda! What a beauty and what a people! and I am sent
to bring the Good News. I am young, enthusiast, ready to give
everything so that Christ might me known and loved. I teach maths
in two secondary schools: a boarding school for girls and the
seminary. I put all my heart to get to know those young men and
women. I discover their wonderful country, their values and their
culture.
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Sr.
Elisabeth buys roasted maize from one of the many
jjobless people selling things on the stree. |
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Seeing
how they live it is me who is evangelized! I am marvelled
at
the faith of the people. They walk miles to come to Church
on Sundays.
The celebrations are joyful: songs and tamtma, it is colourful
and full of life.
Greetings
are important and necessary before any talk! What a lesson
to be attentive to the person...
I see how those having little share with their neighbour.
Often I am that neighbour that receives the little they
had...
In 1982
I am called to Canada for a service of missionary animation
in Quebec. Three beautiful years where I become aware of
another dimension of my missionary vocation: become bridge
between two
cultures. I try to make Canadians discover the richness
of the
Ugandan people. I see myself as a sign of the Church's universality.
In 1985,
I return to Kenya. I learn "kiswahili" the language
spoken there. I live in Kangemi, a parish in the outskirst
of Nairobi. More than 50.000 people live in that "bidonville".
There are 15 small christian communities, with its leaders,
catechists, and voluntaries looking after the sick, the
poor and the many refugees.
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I work with the youth, the catechists and the readers. I am responsible
of the formation for the different ministries. Working with them
I discover their courage to face life and to keep their commitments,
and I am evangelized by their faith and their witness.
I am happy
in Kangemi, but I am asked to go back to Uganda. It rebuilds itself
after years of war. I am at ease in the middle of a people proud
of their identity and happy to live despite difficulties and suffering.
A people rooted in their culture, their faith and the courage
of its Martyrs. I am happy to live there my missionary vocation.
Looking back
at these years I see how good it has been to live at the service
of the Africans. With them I have learnt the joy of living and
the meaning of sharing.
Sr. Elisabeth Villemure, MSOLA
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Sr.
Pauline Gastonguay, in Zambia with the lepers
Of
my 19 years in Africa, my six years in charge of Minga
Leprosarium in Zambia were the most fulfilling.
I discovered the power of love and smiles to help
people to find dignity andnew
meaning in their lives. They had been rejected by
society, even feared. I found myself filled with a
deep, unconditional love and it was given back to
me.
When
my African co-workers did better than I, I would tell
them so. We formed a wonderful team. The residents
loved my smile and gave it back to me. Love flowed
from deep within us, and our sense of self-worth grew.
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Some
people with leprosy smile at those
who care and come to visit them.
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After
my stay at Minga, my health deteriorated and I where I have
done other services.
Since
March 1999 I am doing the work I really love with people
who are also rejected and feared, because theyare HIV positive.
I started
as a volunteer at a home for persons with AIDS, and since
Nov. 1999 I am part of the committee for the Practice of
Material and financial Aid (PAMF in French). I still help
the sick as needed and visit the dying. I have access to
a computer in their headquarters on which I am putting my
memoirs. I smile a lot and the people soon realize my love
for each and everyone of them. I get echoes from time to
time. " We were just talking about you. Some one was
saying: "When Pauline walks into the room, it is like
the sun just came in" A new person said:" How
come Sister Pauline loves every one?" My computer "mentor"
said: " She knows we are all children of the same father."
Many of them are homosexuals and feel rejected by the Church.
I feel that Jesus received inthe daily Eucharist is there
in me and it is His Love for them that I express
Sr.
Pauline Gastonguay, MSOLA
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