My name is Simon Njuguna, an Assumptionist from Kenya. Since I joined the Assumptionists as a candidate in 1997, I have been rotating between our communities in Kenya (Nairobi) and Tanzania (Arusha). I joined the Assumptionists after being in the diocesan seminary for some years. At some point I felt that my vocation was more inclined to religious life than to diocesan priesthood.
As a postulant I had an opportunity to work in the library of the Catholic University of East Africa, Nairobi, for a whole year. This was followed by novitiate and then theological studies. After my theological studies in Nairobi at Hekima, Jesuit school of theology, I was asked to be the vocations director of the Assumptionists in East Africa. I was based at our philosophy house in Arusha but I had to travel to Kenya almost every month for vocation ministry. I was in the vocation ministry in East Africa for at least seven years. Due to lack of enough personnel, as the vocation director I was doing other things at the same time. For example I was a community treasurer for two years, I was also in the regional council and finally I went to the parish. I worked as the regional secretary, then as the first assistant of the regional superior and finally as the regional superior of East Africa. I was in the regional council for 9 years. As I was working in the council, I was also the pastor of Sts. Peter & Paul parish which is in Arusha, Tanzania. The parish is dynamic and it kept me extremely busy. It was not easy to combine the responsibilities of the region and those of the parish. Nevertheless, I got some valuable experience in all these responsibilities but not without challenges.
After working as a pastor for slightly over six years, I left Arusha in September 2014 and went back to Nairobi, having spent almost ten years in Tanzania. Since September 2014 I was staying in our postulancy house in Nairobi where I was helping young postulants in their initial stage of formation. It was a good change after working in a busy parish for over six years. I thought that I could be in Nairobi for at least three years but in May 2015 I was asked by my provincial superior whether I could be willing to move to the States. Although the suggestion came at a time when I least expected it, I told him that I had no objection.
I was supposed to report here in September 2015, but the process of acquiring a US visa took several months. The process started in June 2015 and I finally obtained the visa at the end of January 2016. I took a few weeks to finalize my classes with the postulants and then to get ready to move. It took me time to pack because I had to clear the room for somebody else to move in and yet I could not bring all my luggage here. I was therefore doing double packing since some luggage had to remain in a different place.
Finally I left Nairobi on 6th March and I arrived here the following day. It was towards the end of winter and although I thought that it was extremely cold I was told that winter this year was very mild. I had not had the experience of extremely cold weather. But this was not totally unexpected. I was warmly welcomed in the community of St. Anne and I have felt at home since I came.
As I was coming I did not know what to expect as far as faith is concerned. I used to hear of America being more of a secular society. It might be true that many people no longer practice their faith. Nevertheless I was impressed to see that we have some serious Christians in the parish. We have a good number of Christians who attend mass on Sundays and a few who attend weekday masses. I have been impressed to see Christians who spend time in the church for adoration and other form of prayers. We have different ministries going on in the parish e.g. youth ministry, faith formation, children’s ministry etc. All these testify to the fact that the parish is alive.
I was used to serving thousands of Christians but here we have a few hundreds who come to church. I would be happier to see more children and young people coming to the church because that will give us more hope for the future of the church. As a matter of fact when we talk of vocations in the church, it is very difficult, maybe impossible for young people who never come to the church to be called to priesthood or to religious life. Ordinarily, we expect the person to be called to priesthood or to religious life to be practicing his/her faith and somehow to have grown in the knowledge of God. When small children or young people grow without the knowledge of God, it will be very difficult to bring them to the church when they grow up. There is a big difference between somebody who has grown in the church and one who has never been in the church. Perhaps I should hasten to say that everything depends on the culture in which one has grown. If one is brought up in a family which does not practice faith, chances are high that the person will grow without the idea of God. In that case the idea of vocation to priesthood or to religious life will be foreign.
Life in America is quite different from Africa. The culture is different, the rhythm of life, mentality and level of development just to mention a few. Many people seem to be too busy with their own activities almost to the extent of not having time for God. I was used to long masses of almost two hours, with a long homily, a lot of singing and processions but here things have to be short. I am learning to give short homilies which is not a very easy exercise for me because I have been used to long homilies of close to 30 minutes or more than that sometimes especially during special celebrations. For example an Easter vigil mass can take at least four hours or more, with several baptisms, confirmation and in some cases matrimony and first communion for the newly baptized. Generally I would say that the church is growing more in Africa than here in the States despite the fact that in Africa we have a lot of restrictions regarding who can receive communion, whose children can be baptized or who can be given a Christian burial etc.
I am happy that our pastor Fr. Peter has seen the need to use different approaches in faith formation in order to attain some spiritual renewal in the parish and possibly reach out to the Christians who no longer come to the church. I hope that with time, through the cooperation and efforts of all the people concerned, we will attain some positive results. However, this cannot be done through purely human efforts. It requires the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The pastor has initiated prayers to that effect and I believe God will do something at some point.
Needless to say, I am happy to have come to the States for the first time. This is an opportunity for me to learn many things. One of the things that might not be very easy for me to acquire is the American accent. Yet I have to make efforts so that people can understand me especially when I give homilies. I hope I will slowly get used to the American culture, food and other aspects of life in general. I pray that the work being done in the parish will bear fruits for the Kingdom of God.