Sunday in Nairobi

After celebrating Mass and having breakfast with one of the other priests staying here at Regina Pacis, I ventured out to do a little visiting.

I first met up with the German missionaries Daniel and Toby, whom I knew from my previous visit in June. They are both serving with the African Inland Church (AIC) in Nairobi. After working in the field, driving trucks filled with supplies across the border from Lokichoggio in northern Kenya to Torit in Southern Sudan, Daniel is now doing administrative work for a few months in Nairobi, filling in for his boss who is away on leave. Daniel is in his late twenties and has served for several years in Africa. Toby, who’s in his early twenties and is beginning the second year of a two-year missionary commitment, serves through his abilities as a trained electrician. I am inspired by the faith and generosity of these two young men. We took a walk through a nearby park in which there were monkeys roaming freely across the paths, and had a great conversation about their long-term desires and plans for the future.

Daniel and Toby dropped me off on the outskirts of Nairobi, where I caught up with Leo Capobianco, a Memores Domini (literally, “Memory of the Lord”) – a consecrated lay member of Communion and Liberation. Communion and Liberation (CL) is a wonderful movement in the Catholic Church begun by the inspirational Italian priest Luigi Guissani, who died just a few months before Pope John Paul II in 2005. I have interacted with CL both in Honduras and this past year in New York. This past Sunday happened to be the day of the monthly general assembly of all the CL groups in the Nairobi area. I arrived as different members were sharing their experiences of the international meeting of coordinators that took place a few weeks ago in Italy. After the assembly I concelebrated Mass and preached for those present. The gathering took place at St. Kizito Vocational School, an initiative of AVSI. AVSI is a non-profit outreach of CL that works in developing countries. Leo works with AVSI Kenya. While in Sudan in June, I ran into AVSI workers and volunteers distributing supplies to displaced families in Hiyala, a village in the Diocese of Torit (see: First Impressions: Visit to Hiyala). I’m hoping to get together again with Leo and some of the other CL/Memores Domini folks later in the week.

On Monday I will start working on visas, banking, getting medicines and a few other things that have to be taken care of in Nairobi before heading north to Sudan.