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Mission Nigeria
Nachrichten - News - Noticias
 published: 2007-08-31

Nigeria, Eagle of Hope

Three Chilean Youths Go to Nigeria for Six Months as Schoenstatt Missionaries

 

Da kommen sie… Nigeria erwartet die drei Schönstatt Missionare aus Chile

Están llegando... Nigeria les espera a los misioneros de Schoenstatt que vienen de Chile

Look, they are comino... Nigeria awaits the Schoenstatt Missionaries coming from Chile

Da kommen sie… Nigeria erwartet die drei Schönstatt Missionare aus Chile

Foto: P. Alfred Kistler © 2007

 

Die Missionsgruppe im Heiligtum von Campanario, Chile

El grupo misionero en el Santuario de Campanario, Chile

The missionary group in the Shrine in Campanario, Chile

Die Missionsgruppe im Heiligtum von Campanario, Chile

Foto: Grupo Misionero © 2007

 
José Tomás Castañeda im Gespräch P. Jose María García

José Tomás Castañeda, hablando con el P. Jose María García

José Tomás Castañeda, talking to Fr. Jose María García

José Tomás Castañeda im Gespräch P. Jose María García

 
Cristián Portilla (l.), José Luis Vial

Cristián Portilla (izq.), José Luis Vial

Cristián Portilla (l.), José Luis Vial

Cristián Portilla (l.), José Luis Vial

Fotos: POS Fischer © 2007

 
Dyptichon der “Mission Nigeria” – eine Einladung zum Begleiten mit Rosenkranz und Gnadenkapital

Díptico de la “Misión Nigeria” (DOWNLOAD 1,8 MB)

Leaflet of the “Mission Nigeria”, an invitation to accompany the mission with the rosary and capital of grace (DOWNLOAD 1,8 MB)

Dyptichon der “Mission Nigeria” – eine Einladung zum Begleiten mit Rosenkranz und Gnadenkapital (DOWNLOAD 1,8 MB)

Foto: Grupo Misionero © 2007

 

SCHOENSTATT / NIGERIA / CHILE, mkf. A group of young Chilean students from the area of the Campanario Shrine are leaving at the present for Nigeria where they will work for six months helping to establish groups of university students or whatever else Blessed Mother wants them to do. The name of this group undertaking this project is called "Eagles of Hope." Three students are starting out and they will be accompanied by a Chilean seminarian of the Schoenstatt Fathers. In Nigeria, there is another Nigerian seminarian and a Schoenstatt Father who will support them. Before leaving, they studied diligently the conference Father Kentenich gave to the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary before they left for Africa in 1933 as Schoenstatt missionaries. They want to go to Nigeria in this spirit.

Before traveling to Nigeria, José Tomás Castañeda, Cristián Portilla, and José Luis Vial spent a few days in Schoenstatt, getting to know the place of origin, and especially, offering to the Blessed Mother in the Original Shrine their mission in Africa. How do three students come to the idea - José Luis studies architecture, Cristián and José Tomás study civil engineering – of leaving their studies for six months and go to a country in the West of Africa which many of their friends hardly know its location? "Ok," says José Tomás, 23 years old, "we talked, at the School for Leaders with Raimundo Costa, a seminarian of the Schoenstatt Fathers, about missions in the exterior – in Cuba, in Spain, in Portugal, in México, in the USA – and there could be another mission in another country….." While traditional missions are for evangelization, these missions have Schoenstatt as their one main goal: to take Schoenstatt to places where it already exists but where it needs the support, the enthusiasm and the commitment of youths in order to grow and strengthen, especially in the youth. It has to do with helping the growth of Schoenstatt with the experience and surrender of the youths. It has to do with being Schoenstatt pioneers in new lands for the Blessed Mother.

Many coincidences

"Not long ago, Raimundo commented: I would not be surprised if a group would go as missionaries to Nigeria…..," Cristián continues. "We then talked about Nigeria where there is a Shrine and Schoenstatt Fathers, but very little Movement. That is how it started." This happened two years ago in the School for University Leaders which meets annually with ten or twelve youths. The idea caught on among a few of them and they contacted Father Felipe Ríos – leader of the missionary group – who shortly thereafter left for his tertiate in Schoenstatt, Germany. He mentioned to Father Heinrich Walter, the idea which had come about in Chile. He responded that they had recently thought of how to help with the foundation of the Movement in Nigeria…..Blessed Mother manifested Herself and that is how the concrete preparation began: they talk to their families and girlfriends, they talked to the university officials, they thought about vaccinations and the medication for malaria; they searched for material, raised funds for the trip and for their boarding during the six months they would be in Nigeria, but above all, the most important: prepared for the mission with contributions to the Treasury of Grace, prayer, and self-education in order to go as a genuine missionary who searches for nothing but to take the message of Schoenstatt to those whom Blessed Mother wants to attract to Her Shrine…..in Nigeria. "What we did not know when this idea came about was that another member of our School for Leaders, almost at the same time, met with Charles (then a seminarian and now ordained) from Nigeria and he spoke to him about his country and the need to support the Movement and he invited him to visit him…..," says Cristián. The dream turned into madness and now into a reality…..

Preparations for the mission

During the preparation, there were moments of enthusiasm, very emotional moments, moments of being on fire for the mission. There was also disillusionment and feeling overwhelmed with the challenge, recalls Cristián, who at 25 is the oldest of the three missionaries. "But we told the Blessed Mother that we had to be faithful to the end and if you do not want this, it will not happen! Always, at each moment, we found an answer from the Blessed Mother! Blessed Mother has educated us in perseverance, in confidence….." From the beginning, there were three who would go to Nigeria….."but not the three who went in the end," says Cristián smiling at José Luis. Only a month ago, Ricardo, a student who was also in Portugal and who had been named leader of the mission for Nigeria, received from his university officials a surprising negative to his request for being absent for a semester. He was not able to go….. Almost at the last minute, José Luis joined. He is 21 and on November 18th will celebrate his birthday in Nigeria.

What did the parents, siblings and friends say, and especially what did the girlfriends say upon learning of this madness? "The greatest challenge is the unknown," says José Tomás. "Additionally, the present negative image of Africa is a factor, but as time passed, they began to support us!" "They see how this gives us much joy," says José Luis. "They see how radical this is and they also see how important this is to us. In the end they said: "How can I not support you in this! How can I not let you go!.....Since my parents and everyone else only had a month to get used to the idea, it was, obviously, quite a shock. In the farewell letters I received, I could sense that they understood more the meaning of the mission. My girlfriend does not belong to Schoenstatt, but she understands the essence of the mission. The mission is something which also changes the hearts of the people who accompany us in one way or another."

The mission transforms the missionaries

They hope, says José Luis, that they may be able to take a first step in Nigeria and that other youths follow them, and that this be a blessing for Nigeria. They call their mission "Eagles of Hope." Why? "Because the Nigerian soccer players are called the Eagles of Nigeria," José Tomás says smiling, and later more seriously: "We think about the Eagle that soars toward the highest, toward the sun….. We want to fly high, we have to fly high." Nigeria, a fertile country for sowing, is a country of hope.

It is the first time that the three of them go on a mission outside of Chile. They know other youths who have participated in a mission, and with their witness of surrender are an example to them. Can you detect a change in those who were on a mission? The three hesitate a bit: "They are normal people, before and after….." But yes, there is a change. "He is another person," they say when the missionary returns. Why another person? It is a process. To live a radical surrender to God and to mankind, produces a change. To give one’s time, one’s strength, to live a high and heroic commitment, to leave aside one’s personal interests during that time, to leave aside family, friends, the girlfriend, the career, economic security and to give it all for the mission makes you enter into a dynamic process which brings out the best of oneself. It makes you mature more quickly, explains Father José María García from the general council of the Schoenstatt Fathers

It produces the seal of heroes, a seal of radicality and maturity in surrendering and it is evident in them. It makes one think of Josef Engling, Max Brunner, Hans Wormer, Alex Menningen and so many more. It is no longer surprising when José Tomás says: we have to be saints in order to take Schoenstatt to Nigeria.

Nothing more and nothing less.

Translation: Carlos Cantú Family Federation La Feria, Texas USA 090607

 

 


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