Greetings to all…
In 2007, my husband Jun became a fulltime pastoral worker. During that time I was so engrossed with my work as in charge of the Child Sponsorship Program coordinator for ANCOP Canada. In 2008, our National Director, during our one on one asked if I could pray and discern if I am being called by the Lord to become a FTPW. There were sleepless nights because the work in ANCOP gave me a sense of fulfillment, a sense of achievement. For years, I was so engrossed with my work.
But God has other plans for me. In 2011, with much prayer and discernment, I gave my Yes to the Lord to become a FTPW.
As we go on mission here in Africa, my heart felt why the Lord asked me to come with my husband to do His work. Our different missions opened my eyes that with the many Christian Life Programs that we opened and still opening, there is a soft voice asking for help…At night when I rest my head in my bed, images of children on the streets begging for food and asking for help keep on flashing.
Now I see how God slowly showed me each piece of the puzzle, how He prepared me for what I am doing today in my service for our community. God has brought me where I am right now, doing missions to remote places in Nigeria, Kenya and India as a missionary. Through these trips; my eyes were opened to the reality of the sufferings of the poor. In my prayers, I would always ask God why He allowed me to experience all these.
As I immersed with them in our mission trips, my eyes slowly opened to the reality that something has to be done.
We cannot be preaching and telling the people how great God’s love is, they would not be able to grasp its meaning because it is difficult to equate love when one lives in squalor and in such dire miserable conditions…
And so God led us to open the very first ANCOP Child Sponsorship Program in Soweto in Nairobi starting with 19 children. With the start of the CSP, I realized one important thing, that before we could answer this unique ‘calling’ of serving the poor, we have to begin with the radical transformation of our hearts. We have to be renewed first before we can begin to really appreciate what we are called to do- our work with the poor!
I am blessed to be in this community called Couples for Christ where we are given this opportunity to express our love for the Lord in our work for the poor through our ANCOP programs.
INDEED, It is a time to Rejoice because from our first Child Sponsorship Program in Soweto, we are now present in eleven different areas of the different dioceses in and outside of Nairobi with a total of 250 children of which 26 are seminarians. Let us clap for the LORD!
I often wondered what the phrase “to see the face of Christ in the poor” meant. In the midst these poor children; one can’t help but be overcome with an overwhelming sense of joy. To share their joy and their sense of total trust in the Lord, knowing that despite all these, the Lord will always be with them and will never abandon them. That my dear brothers and sisters is what an experience of God means!
The sponsored children would always say “thank you for the sponsorship..” BUT I say, THANK YOU TO all these children for I was the one who was transformed. In the very words of St. Teresa, “like Jesus, we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her—it has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she deserves.”
At this point, I would like to invite you to watch this video of our experience with these children with the hope that you too may share in my experience of the pain, joy and hope of these kids.
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I would like to invite you to come and experience the joy of sharing. Let us be the Lord’s vessel of hope and love to them. In behalf of all the children; let me greet each of you; Mungu anakopenda- God loves you.
Asanteni Sana!
Thank you and May God be praised!
Malou P. Clarito
ANCOP Canada Mission Worker, Africa
Couples for Christ Canada