LAVIGERIE HOUSE COMMUNITY 2016-2017

One Team, One Identity

Sport is one of the aspects in the four pillars of our formation, basically community life. We as Lavigerie community endeavor to foster this aspect. Football among the many brings this out clearly and makes us one family with a common goal that we yearn for during the antagonism. It links the whole Lavigerie house - formators and students, who actively participate directly or indirectly in the game. The players and the cheering squad are all connected by the same objective of triumph and toil hand in hand to accomplish it.

At the beginning we chant Lavigerie anthem - Sancta Maria to bond ourselves with the founder and invoke his spirit to aid us during the match. The players are inspired by the cheering squad during the match enhancing their hazards of winning. During half time, players receive different observations from the spectators on how to progress and win the game. Formators too join in giving advice as the players actively and presently listen and admit their areas of improvement. After the match we also juncture hands and sing Sancta Maria as a sign of unanimity with our founder who is always with us and convoys us in all that we do.

Kokoyo Zino

JESUS CALLS US TO BE MISSIONARIES (POPE FRANCIS)

Painting at our Chapel (Lavigerie House, Jinja)

"Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love. Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are “disciples” and “missionaries”, but rather that we are always “missionary disciples”."

Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel, 120

Our Little Farm

Our little farm of local chickens, cassava and bananas, is just part of our little efforts to curb in our Lavigerie community the use of genetically modified and processed food. Our new project of  about 100 local chickens give us manure for our bananas and cassava plantations. We hope to  get 'good eggs' from our local chickens and also meat to salvage our community from consuming 'artificial eggs and broilers chickens.' This little efforts are also part of our 'community learning' to grow our own quality/organic food instead of relying solely on supermarkets. 

Oswald Mallya, M.Afr. 

Family Visit in Busoga Region (Uganda)

Fr. Yago with his parents visiting our candidate Jean-Marie and his family

Family Visit in Central Province (Kenya)

Fr. Yago with our candidate Peter Wachira and his father (+) and mother

Family Visit in Eastern Province (Kenya)

Fr. Yago with our candidate Urbanus and his family 

With our candidate Patrick Mwema and his mother

Our candidate Patrick Mwema with his uncle, ant and niece

Family Visits in Busia (Kenya)

Fr. Yago with our Candidate Peter Bwire and his mother

With our candidate Ian Bwire and his family

With our candidate Gabriel Ouma and his family

With our candidate Simplicius and his mother, together with our candidate Gabriel

Family Visitation in Karamoja

Fr. Yago with our candidate Michael Longoli and his parents 

With our candidate Tony Ocheng and his grandfather, parents, and brother

With our candidate Nicolas Iwuala and his family

OUR MISSION STATEMENT 2016-2017

OUR THEME 2016-2017

Designing our Signpost

Tonny and Jean-Marie in action

MBEZI EXPERIENCE

Mbezi is found in Tanzania. It is one of the biggest areas that make up Dar-es-Salaam City. I happened to be there with other aspirants of the Missionaries of Africa. We were from the three East African countries, namely Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. We reported to Mbezi on the 15^th of January 2016 for the pre-first phase program of 6 months. The main point for this was to prepare us (the aspirants) for philosophy in Jinja.

Aspirants

Important to note is that the time in Mbezi was so marvelous to say! The challenge experienced was one of high temperatures rising up to 45 degrees. It was a struggle at the start since I had never encountered such high temperatures in Uganda mostly in my home town Soroti. It was a wonderful experience. I could call the temperature issue a minor one compared to the beautiful and exciting things I got in Mbezi and Lavigerie Formation House.

In the house, there were many good activities namely French classes, liturgy, Swahili and an introduction to Theology amongst others. We also had games like football, volleyball and indoor games (chess, ‘uno’, etc.). We also had birthday celebrations and outings on weekends to the beach. We would swim in the Indian Ocean waters. All these activities were indeed live-giving since most of us were given a chance to display our talents and skills.

Aspirants with Fr. Cor and a lay person in Bagamoyo (Tanzania)

Pastoral work is one of the things I cannot go without mentioning. Sincerely, I enjoyed it the most because of the Christian songs taught to the children I interacted with. It was also a time for sharing my personal life experiences with the local people, to share with them the love of Christ. Above all, it gave me the opportunity to learn the wonderful culture of the people and their way of life, their language which is far much different from my own. I met hospitable, loving and kind people. I must admit that I learnt a lot from them. These experiences gave me a bit of a taste of what missionary life really is. The lesson learnt is all about being flexible where need be. Indeed as the saying goes, “It is only the flexible that do not break.”

If you give love, you will receive and experience love. The key to all is, to love Christ is to love the people you meet, you walk with, stay with and the ones you share with. All the above is summary of my life in Mbezi-Tanzania.

In prayer and love we meet Christ.

OGWANG ISAAC