...:: OUT OF AFRICA ::... News Bulletin of the Fransalians in Africa

Vol. III (2006-2007)

WE shall indeed find Him

Mrs. Eileen Hartl

Halo the Reader of OOA. Greetings from Northern Wisconsin, USA! My name is Eileen Hartl and I am a volunteer and board member for the non-profit corporation, Living Waters International. Our organization collaborates with the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales in East Africa.

Eileen with children in Kenya

I will begin with the premise that the entire human race was created by God, created to seek him, to honor and glorify him. We give him thanks and praise, honor and glory, not because it adds to his glory, but rather it helps us to draw nearer to him, to grow in our faith!

There is an old hymn titled, “Where Charity and Love Prevail.” If we have been created with the inherent desire to seek God, then it is through the doorway of charity and love. Bound by the love of Christ and their neighbors in East Africa since 1988, the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales dwell on the threshold of that door where God and true happiness can be found. Just think, it all began with one mission parish in Lububu, Tanzania and has now grown to four formation houses, twelve educational institutions, thirteen parishes and missions and other institutions for various other social, medical and other and humanitarian services. That is amazing and still there is more to come!

I visited the missions in East Africa in both 2004 and 2006. I have spent small blocks of time at many of the MSFS mission sites, and have had the privilege of getting to know many of the missionaries at least in a casual way. But even those brief encounters have given me a glimpse into their commitment and deep spirituality. I know they are happy and determined to go on doing the right thing, even if it means being persecuted for it. Because of poverty, people are desperate and sometimes resort to violence that impacts the missionaries’ lives. The priests often face indifference and threat from many corners in the very communities where they are trying to serve.

Now something from personal life:

I am a mother of two children, have many nieces and nephews, and am a religious education coordinator working with approximately one hundred teenagers every year. I am motivated through faith to guard the dignity and save the pride of these children. I want to echo Jesus’ invitation to open the door of their hearts to him. It goes without saying that this is my prayer for children and people of every nation. I live in the diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin who’s patron saint is St. Francis Xavier the great missionary. At the age of eleven, I chose St. Therese of Lisieux for my patron at Confirmation. Do you think it’s possible that this might have something to do with my interest in the mission fields of Africa?

So, while I have pondered the MSFS motivations, their personal histories, their preferential love for the poor, I think the reasons must be as St. Paul taught the Galatians that undeniably it is “…only faith working through love.” The MSFS give flesh and blood to Paul’s words, “Let us not grow tired in doing good for in due time we shall reap our harvest if we do not give up.” (Gal. 6:9).

Through works of charity, no matter how grand or minuscule, God, “is never really far from any one of us.” (Act. 17:27b) I am happy to collaborate in my little way with these Missionaries in joyously proclaiming the invitation to seek God first and one day we will cross the threshold into a magnificent mansion where an eternal banquet will be given in honour of “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Asanteni Sana, na Mungu Awabariki!