Sister Olga Nguérépawa, Spiritan Sister of Central Africa, on mission to the Mbaïki Community in the Central African Republic, is a member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council. She shares with us one of the achievements of this Council, in order to promote self-financing of the parishes of the diocese.
Each year, the Pastoral Council of our diocese of Mbaïki proposes a theme for the pastoral year. For this year, we built up the theme from the history of Monico.
Monico is a girl whose father was Chief of their village. In the center of the village there was a well and the women went there not only to fetch water, but also, they gathered there to tell stories and help each other. After many beautiful years around the well, a great drought occurred in the village and it dried up. The women, desperate, were looking for water everywhere. All the old people of the village feared to die. Monico, then decided to go in search of water for her People.
She walked for a long time and as she advanced, she was deceived by monkeys, panthers and termites. All of them promised to show her where the water was, but rather baffled her. Monico, tired and filled with sadness, fell asleep under a tree. Then a Papa Rabbit called all the rabbits who came running, carried Monico, and brought her back to her village. Then they all started to work. Quickly, very quickly, they began to remove the garbage inside the well, pieces of bricks, boxes, broken pots. Then Monico leaned over and saw her face reflected at the bottom of the well. She began to draw water to give her friends the rabbits and her People to drink.
Monico went very far, out of her village to fetch water, but the water was in her house, in her village. It was enough to remove the garbage from the well and to find water. It is with this beautiful story that we have built our theme for the pastoral year 2023-2024: ‘‘Monico, my People are dying of hunger’’ and Jesus answers ‘‘Give them yourselves to eat’’. Mt 14:16. Since all the infrastructures of the Diocese of MbaÏki have been financed from the outside, we wanted to sensitize the Christian communities to find ways to contribute to the construction of their Church. Also, we want to tell our donors that we are also involved in our development.
From 29th January to 1st February 2024, we made an evaluation of this theme with the Apostolic and Lay Workers delegates of the parishes. We have noted that all the parishes are looking for something to feed their people, all want to respond to this call, ‘‘Give them yourselves to eat’’. Concretely, here are two examples of the achievements of parishes,
The parish of Saint Michel of Boda created a parish plantation. The parishioners sowed corn and created a large vegetable garden.
The harvested maize was kept to help the population during the dry season. Also, from the products of their garden, they prepared flour for malnourished children.
Our parish, Saint Augustin Parish of Mbaïki, initiated the Harvest Festival to support the parish. It also kept in stock dried caterpillars, to be sold during the lean season. Period of famine.
At the diocesan level, always to respond to the theme of the pastoral year, an impelled quest was instituted to help build the churches of the Diocese. The objective is to build one chapel per year. For this, each parish will have to pay an annual sum, the amount of which has been fixed by the Diocesan Pastoral Council. For this year, the Parish of Saint-Esprit of Pissa will benefit. Our joy is to see that Christians have welcomed the project and participate generously.
Apostolic and Lay Workers delegates of parishes, at the mid-term evaluation meeting of the Pastoral Year.
Sister Olga Nguérépawa, SMSpS