It was a great joy to have the AMA (Assumption Mission Associates) Lucia Valverde form Spain in our community. It was a remarkable experience whereby we shared our prayer life, community life and apostolic life together with Lucia. We were touched to see how she easily integrated to our life. We were enriched by her simplicity to share her culture with us and we also had the opportunity to share and enrich our cultures together times of meals, social aspect of her life and family spirit to the extent of bringing closer her parents to us and even celebrating her birthday with her parents in our community. We are grateful to all those who have the mission of the AMA which is a unique mission in our congregation. It is our hope that it continues.
Lucia had the following experience to share:
“My name is Lucia, I am a 22 year old law student and I come from Madrid, Spain. I spent the last months of June and July as an AMA at the community of Kawangware.
Before arriving, I was a little bit afraid of what I could find over there: I had a lot of doubts about my decision because meeting new realities is always a big challenge. Despite my doubts, God gave me the value to go to Kenya.
During this two incredible months I have grown in many different aspects.
As for my work in the school, teachers and sisters have taught me how to be patience with myself and with others, how to be caring and get involved in every activity of day to day life no matter how important it is. They have taught me, with their example, how to smile when things are not easy and how to put my heart in every single thing.
As part of my tasks, I had to assist the playgroup teacher and try to manage the class. It has not been easy, because little kids give a lot of work, but you always learn a lot about them, like the way they share everything they have with each other and they never let a classmate back.
Another very important part of these two months in Kenya was sharing time with the community. The sisters welcomed me from the very beginning, making me feel home since I arrived. With their example they have helped me to strengthen my faith, to have God present in every part of my day and to put all the problems, big or small, into His hands.
During this two months I have come to know what is so special about the sisters’ lives, they have God inside them and they work very hard to not let Him go. During the prayers I have realized how they take care of every little detail to make God happy and not for others to look. They live as if God was the only one looking and that is why they give their best in everything they do.
From the sisters I also admire how they take care from each other, how they always put others first and how they love each other. I have truly seen in them the values of charity, comprehension and acceptance, which enable them to live at the Community with peace and joy.
Now that I am back I just can be glad for everything that I have lived and that I have learned. I will always be grateful to the sisters of the Community, to the teachers of the school and, in general, with the country of Kenya for giving me the opportunity to be part of their so generous society.
I call upon young people like me to trust God in all that you do in life. As I mentioned above, initially I was very much afraid to go to Africa. However, it turned out to be a remarkable experience in my life. Therefore, with God it’s possible to courageously face the “unknown”, go beyond doubts, fears and challenges of our time.”
I call upon young people like me to trust God in all that you do in life. As I mentioned above, initially I was very much afraid to go to Africa. However, it turned up to be a remarkable experience in my life. Therefore, with God it’s possible to courageously face the “unknown”, go beyond doubts, fears and the challenges of our time”.
Kawangware Community & Lucia Valverde