Pastoral Placements
The second in a series of articles written by students for the priesthood from our diocese describing their Pastoral Placement.
Article 2
Life Changing?
Before setting off on my summer pastoral placement to Kenya this year, everyone wanted to give me advice. Many people said things like, “It will change you”, “You will have your eyes wide open when you get out to Africa, Marc” or, “It will be a wonderful experience”.
Everyone seemed excited for me (with the exception of my ever worrying mother of course!), but I was not particularly excited. In fact, after a long term in seminary, thoughts of a nice summer holiday seemed much more appealing than 8 weeks in the slums of Nairobi, but as soon as term at Ushaw ended off I went to Kenya, with an open mind but not sure what to expect. When I arrived I must say that all those people giving advice were right; it was wonderful! I fell in love with Kenya straight away.
I spent most of time in a slum parish in Nairobi looked after by Mill Hill Missionaries. The parish had so much going on, the parishioners were very good, kind-hearted and blessed by the Lord in their proclamation of the Good News, evangelisation, supporting and encouraging one another in their Small Christian Communities.
The Parish Council was made up of 15 Small Christian Communities, each known as “Jumuiya”, dotted around the parish. Each Jumuiya met weekly for prayer meetings, without the priest, and helped keep an eye on each other. At times the Parish Priest visited each Jumuiya and might celebrate Mass for them. I wondered if we could learn things from these Small Christian Communities here in Britain, especially at a time when the number of priests is falling. And in an age where many people don’t even know their neighbours, these small Christian groups get together in their local areas for prayer and for the welfare of each other, while also being fully aware that they are part of the wider community in the Parish.
Most of my time was spend with the youth, whom I got to know very well, and the younger children, who would come along to the Parish. The Parish itself was in a very dangerous area; shootings and muggings were all too common sights, and the Parish was a place for the children to come and play and enjoy each other’s company in safety. The children could also get involved in a wide rage of activities on the Parish compound. Many would practice liturgical dancing for the coming Sunday Mass, which added so much energy and life to the liturgy. The children would also pray the rosary together. We offered computer classes, a sewing school, religious education and sport for them.
As I wandered around the Parish compound one Saturday afternoon I realised how much the faith was alive and how much we have to learn from our brothers and sisters out there. I started that particular Saturday afternoon by first speaking at the Legion of Mary group.When I finished I wandered a few steps to listen in on the Justice and Peace group, before being dragged onto the football pitch by a group of young lads that kept calling me Rooney. “Show us Rooney skills” they begged. After playing with them for a while they realised I had no “Rooney skills” and they didn’t seem too upset to hear me say that I was going to watch the dancers for a bit, before going to listen to the simply breath-taking choir who seemed to be always practising in the corner of the Parish Compound. And it showed as the singing was beautiful.
As well as all these things the parish has programmes such as the Challenge Programme, which deals with mentally and physically handicapped children, VCT Centre for counselling and testing HIV/AIDS, (over 50% of the parish has AIDS!), Self-Help group and tailoring school.
The parish was very much a life giving function to many people, and it was life giving to me in that it allowed me to see a very different world. I come from a working class town of Jarrow in the North East of England andI thought I had seen real poverty in my hometown: people scrimping and saving to make ends meet. But I was wrong, I had not seen poverty at all, until I arrived in Kenya. People there really did have nothing and it was humbling to meet these people who would offer you what little they had.
Yet out this poverty really did come great richness, richness in the faith! Despite the problems that the people faced, the poverty, the AIDS, the corruption that is clearly rife in Kenya, the people had real faith. If I faced some of the problems that I seen there, I wondered, would I blame God? Would I turn away from the Church? If I watched my little brother dying of AIDS would I turn out to Mass every Sunday? If my sister had been shot dead by police for no other reason than being “accused” of stealing a tray of eggs from someone, would I be able to stand up and praise God every day?
Because these were some of the many things that were real life problems for some of the parishioners, yet their faith was like a rock, Jesus Christ our Lord was very much their centre, no matter what the world would throw at them.
And so yes, I did have my eyes opened. Yes, it was a life changing experience. And yes, it was a truly wonderful experience.