This Jubilee year has been a very qualified moment of faith and experience sharing and communal growth. May God’s life-giving Spirit fill us all, with a renewed capacity to serve the Good News of Jesus in everyone and everywhere.
In Sudan, where I am working, education has been used as an important tool for evangelization from the time of St. Daniel Comboni to the present day. We have almost 1000 students and more than 60 staff members from different backgrounds. It is an Intermediate and Secondary school. Regardless of who they are, and where they come from, everyone felt welcomed and school has proved that we all can work together as one human family without any distinction or discrimination.
The teaching mission of the Church is one of the greatest gifts the Risen Lord has entrusted to his disciples: “Go forth and teach all nations” (Mt 28:19). This service of teaching the young generation has been one of the most important and most known characteristics of our mission here. As Comboni Sisters, we are proud of our rich history.
Education activities are suffering from the ongoing political unrest in the country, the recent revolution, the pandemic of COVD-19, the economical situation, the floods that left many with nothing, especially the students and their family who lost everything they owned, without forgetting the recent coup. Shortage of fuel and continues increasing of price in everything, every day. This left people with a lot of frustration and a lack of creativity. Here in Khartoum all our activities, pastoral and school are conditioned by the calendar of continuous demonstrations.
Regardless of all these, we continue giving life to Comboni’s dream, ‘of empowering Africa through Africans themselves in the field of education, fostering the formation of leaders, empowering our girls, through faith formation, Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Dialogue. Every day we reach out and serve where wounded humanity is calling us. We strongly feel that our presence here certainly is a visible and concrete proclamation of Jesus’ love and mercy, not only through our words but through the silence life witnessed.
Sr. Weynshet, Principal of the Sisters School Khartoum, Sudan, with some of her students.
St. Daniel Comboni wanted us to be “women of the Gospel” – And every day in our ministry here, we find ourselves being a bridge of reconciliation among cultures, different religions, ethnic groups, languages, faith, and traditions. A bridge for students, teachers, and parents to meet and experience solidarity and companionship; a bridge for wounds brought about by isolation and prejudice to heal: A bridge that keeps alive the dreams and hopes of all those migrants especially, South Sudanese, Ethiopians and Eritreans who left their homes because of insecurity or lack of opportunities.
In recent days, we are witnessing more strife and tension, where people are unable to accept each other’s differences, where human selfishness puts the interests of the few over the right to live with dignity of the many. We see this happening every day and it takes a lot of courage to keep on witnessing the values of God’s kingdom where life has be-come so vulnerable and so hurting. It is here that I learned that Christ as the owner and chief protagonist of the mission has never failed me, not even in the most challenging times. His presence was even felt more in such situations.
We continue remaining very close to these people, we keep high the hope that a better future is still possible, and by so doing, we mediate a way to peace and reconciliation, no matter the fear, no matter the cost, even to our safety at times. I feel that our presence and the prayers with and for the people we are serving have brought a lot of hope and trust in God to the people.
Weynshet Tedesse, cms
Missionary in Sudan
