I leave for Kenya in less than a week to begin my work as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner. This is something I have been thinking about doing for quite a while and have had in the works for about a year. After all the preparing (including selling my house and giving away all my furniture), ten weeks of orientation at Maryknoll, and the past few weeks of frantically working to tie up any loose ends, the time to depart on my missionary journey is almost here. I’m very excited to see what lies ahead. I will do my best to bring myself to those I encounter and openly receive all whom I meet.
The Orientation Program at Maryknoll to prepare for mission was very special. I had the opportunity to meet and get to know eleven other missioners and three of their children. We lived, ate, took classes, and hung out together during our time in orientation. The class consisted of a very diverse group of people with various backgrounds and life experiences – some right out of college and others in retirement having raised families and completed professional careers. A few of my follow missioners were even born and raised outside the US. We were also blessed to have a Maryknoll sister participate in the Orientation Program with us. Although we had to say goodby to each other at the end of the orientation, each one of us will bring a part of every other person with us in mission. Our lived experience now permanently includes having been touched by each other.
The orientation classes spanned everything from social justice workshops to rabies prevention, theology of mission to trauma, popular education to handling money in mission. Also included were two retreats where we had the opportunity to reflect, pray, and discern.
I am the only lay missioner going to Kenya this year, but will be joining a great group of missioners who are already in country. My fellow classmates will be serving in Bolivia, El Salvador, Haiti and Tanzania. We are all departing for our respective countries in and around January 1.
During the Orientation Program, I also got to know and spend time with a number of Maryknoll Fathers, Sisters, and other Lay Missioners and staff. Many of them have spent decades in mission and have accomplished so many great things. I learned so much from my discussions with them and know that they are praying for me.
The culmination of the Orientation Program was a Sending Ceremony on Dec. 8. The ceremony brought us together with the whole Maryknoll family as well as family and friends.
As part of the Sending Ceremony, each candidate is “called forth” in the language of the country by someone who has served in mission in the country. I had the honor of being called forth by John and Cindy Korb, Maryknoll Lay Missioners who spent five years in mission in Kenya from 2010 to 2015.
I am often asked why I’m doing this – that is, being a lay missioner overseas. I can only answer by saying that I feel called to do this. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful life, family, job and friends. I now feel it’s time to give more fully of myself and share the gifts God has given me in a more radical and total way. Why do I have to do this in Kenya? Why can’t I just do volunteer work in the US? While there certainly is plenty of need in the US and volunteering at home has been very important part of my life, I believe that my neighbor is not limited to just those whom I live close to or even just those in the US, but includes my fellow brothers and sisters throughout the whole world. I feel that sharing myself with those of other cultures will help promote a greater degree of solidarity with those whom I encounter – something that the world surely needs. As is often stated with respect to mission work, the missioner gets way more out of it than they give. I’m looking forward so much to giving of myself as best I can and being touched by those whom I encounter while in mission.
As I embark on my journey, I will keep in mind these words of Pope Benedict.
“Whether we are shepherds or ‘wise men” the light and its message calls us to set out, to leave the narrow circle of our desires and interests, to go out to meet the Lord and worship him. We worship Him by opening the world to truth, to good, to Christ, to the service of those who are marginalized and in whom He awaits us.” – Pope Benedict XVI, 2007