“A Venture of Faith”: Summer Apostolate in Ethiopia

Having finished exams and with hearts stirred by the Lord’s invitation to find Him among the poor, Brian Baker (Atlanta ’13) and I embarked in June on a venture of faith that took us deep into the heart of Africa. For four weeks, we eagerly assisted the work of the Missionaries of Charity in Jimma, a small city in the mountains of southwestern Ethiopia. The Missionaries’ center in Jimma provides housing for a few hundred men, women and children. Many of those housed at the center suffered from disease, especially tuberculosis and AIDS, while others were physically or mentally disabled. Joined by Jacob Strand (Milwaukee ’12) for the first part of our stay, we ministered to the sick, changed dressings in the outpatient clinic, visited the surrounding villages, played games with the children, and helped with a variety of manual tasks, including milking cows and painting. Every day afforded new encounters and presented new challenges.

It is hard to paint a realistic picture of the “otherness” of daily life in Ethiopia: sleeping under mosquito nets but swarmed by mosquitoes in the chapel; horses, goats, dogs and children wandering freely through the muddy streets while three-wheel Bajaj taxis weaved in and out; monkeys playing among the tombs of a cemetery as consecrated widows prayed for the souls of the dead; daily Eucharistic Adoration continually accompanied by the sound of barking dogs and loudspeakers which broadcast the Muslim and Orthodox Christian calls to prayer. It is a world away from the United States or Europe.

Ethiopia is a land of rich religious diversity, with Ethiopian Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims all living in close proximity. In this setting, the Missionaries of Charity carry on the mission of their foundress, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, by providing a home for the destitute and dying and by loving the needy one by one in their suffering. One of the Polish sisters with us was fond of saying, “Come with me, I have found a Jesus for you!” It was this vision of seeing Christ, in the words of Mother Teresa, in “His distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor” that imbued our whole experience.

One of the highlights of our experience was helping with the distribution of grain for the local inhabitants. Some 1600 people sat in the grass, visibly hungry but also trusting that the Lord would provide through the hands of the sisters and volunteers. I could not help but think of the similar episode in the Bible when Jesus and the Apostles fed the multitudes. Looking back on our experience, I am amazed at how little we could offer in the face of so much need. We were reminded by the example of the people that we must be humble and that it was really God working through us. Though having nothing, the people were filled with trusting faith in God’s care. This brings to mind Mother Teresa’s reflection about the difficulty faced in Western nations where the “spiritual poverty” of loneliness, doubt and despair prevail. As she often said, those who suffer from this kind of poverty are everywhere, even in our neighborhoods, in places like Rome and Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Perhaps my most dramatic experience came unexpectedly as we were making our rounds one day. Abandoned newborn twins were brought to the complex, the smaller of which weighed only about two pounds. We assisted in warming their tiny bodies and inserting feeding tubes. As the littler one’s struggle for life continued, one of the Missionaries of Charity brought a cup of water and asked me to baptize him. I did so with three drops of water, naming him Cosmas. After two days Cosmas expired and went to meet the Lord. This experience provided me with an opportunity to “see through the eyes” of priesthood — to recognize the power behind the sacramental mystery and the call of the minister to be humble before the Lord, who pours out His saving grace despite our own unworthiness.

We learned much from the poor themselves and also from watching the Missionaries of Charity interact with them. The sisters provided a powerful witness of poverty, chastity, obedience and joy in their choice to spend their lives for the poor. That example provides an encouragement for us, as future priests, to model our lives on Christ, the servant of all and lover of the poor.

“Blessed be Jesus Christ in the Poorest of the Poor”
(Missionaries of Charity, Divine Praises after Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament)

by Spencer Howe ’13, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis