Salesian Lay Missioner Nick's Gumbo, South Sudan: Orientation Overview

Greetings friends!

I apologize for not posting this sooner, the past couple months have been keeping me very busy in terms of closing this current chapter of my life and opening a new one. Hopefully as things wind down, allowing me to have more free time, I will be able to give you more frequent posts the next couple weeks.

Today I wanted to recap my experience during the Salesian Lay Missioners Orientation that occurred from July 23 to August 15. During the orientation, I gained a lot of tools, training, experiences and moments of spiritual growth. I came into my orientation well aware that I was officially starting my ministry, and so I came in with the mentality that I was now a lay missioner. The orientation happened in the span of three weeks, and could be best summed up by splitting them week by week.

Week One:
The first week of orientation was mentally exhausting. We spent most of our days in New Rochelle, NY getting trained at the Salesian Mission's Office and we spent all our nights that week lodging at Monroe College's dorms in their downtown New Rochelle campus. In terms of meals, we ate at Monroe College's Dining Hall, where the food was very delicious but also plentiful because they served us big portions. Since we were given lots of delicious food, we had to walk a lot. The Monroe College campus, where the dorms and dining hall are, were a 15 minute walk to the Salesian Missions Office, where our training was. We would walk back and forth a lot to attend prayers/mass, eat our meals, and go to training.

The bulk of our training consisted of cross-cultural training, where we: learned to be culturally sensitive of the customs in the countries we are going to, learned the importance of our active presence at our respective sites, and gained a lot of valuable exercise tools that will help in times of hardship and struggle that we can keep in the back of our mind to better cope with inevitable situations.

I attended the orientation with 15 other SLM (Salesian Lay Missioners), who were to be commissioned to serve at various countries and sites around the world. Along with cross-cultural training, I got to know each and everyone of them personally by talking with them during our walks, but also having sessions where we all shared with each other our stories of how we got here and why we chose to join the Salesians. (One other thing we did was have a session with a psychologist, which helped a lot in deciding what to talk about when it came time to sharing our stories.) I feel I really got to know my fellow SLM's and I very much admire all of them for their commitment to service and the strength of their faith.

Telling my story! PC:Deacon Pat Kearns

Week Two:
The second week of orientation was physically exhausting. The second week was the service week, where we spent all our nights that week at the dorms in Monroe College, but spent the whole day serving the community at Port Chester , NY. During week two, we would wake up from our dorms in New Rochelle, get into 2 buses/vans and take a 15-20 minute ride over to Port Chester, where the day started with morning prayer/mass/adoration, followed by a full day of service toward the community, followed by evening prayer and dinner with the Salesian priests of Port Chester, and then finally return to New Rochelle to sleep.

For our community service, we were split into two groups, where one group would work at the Salesian kid's summer camp, while the other group would work at the Salesian soup kitchen/community center. Mid-week, we would then switch jobs. Although I was only there for two days, I really miss the children of Port Chester, they are great kids with a lot of energy and curiosity. I happened to be placed with the big kids (seniors), who were incoming 8th and 9th graders. Of course it was a challenge, but overall, I really enjoyed working with them. At the soup kitchen, I helped cook and bag food for the homeless, low-income families, and migrant workers of Port Chester. I also spent my days cleaning, dusting, throwing away garbage and painting the community center and soup kitchen.

The Second week, also had some great surprises in which we got to spend time with Salesian Brother Sal, who was assigned as the master carpenter of building the pope's chair, in which Pope Francis used to say mass at Madison Square Garden in New York during his US visit. Along with spending every morning and evening around Br. Sal (he taught us how to make paper doves), we got to see his work and sit on the chair that would eventually become the pope's. We also went to watch a New York Mets game vs. the Washington Nationals (where we landed a night game that caused little sleep) and enjoyed our time together watching a professional baseball game. The week ended with us spending time together at Oakland Beach in Rye, NY, followed by a barbecue treated from Deacon Bill of Port Chester.

Although I was physically tired, I felt accomplished and spiritually renewed because I had the pleasure to serve a great community!

Sitting in what will eventually be Pope Francis' chair!

On the bus! PC: Taylor McColgan

At the baseball game! PC: Taylor McColgan

The guys taking a jumping picture on the beach! PC: Taylor McColgan

Week Three:
The third and final week was spiritually renewing (I would not say spiritually exhausting). We moved out of our dorms in New Rochelle and moved into the Marian Shrine and Retreat Center at Haverstraw/Stony Point, NY. The retreat center was very beautiful, which consisted of: a walking rosary way, a large statue of Mother Mary, a beautiful chapel, and a giant field to play sports! We happened to have our retreat in conjunction with the Salesian Eastern Province SDBs' (priests and brothers') retreat, which they are required to attend at least once every year. Although our sessions were different (in fact, our retreats were two separate retreats), we got to meet a lot of the SDBs during meal times and recreation/break times. We would say morning prayer/mass, evening prayer/adoration, eat and play sports together.

It was such a great honor to attend our retreat alongside the SDBs. The first day of week three, we saw three brothers profess their perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, which they made permanent by saying that their vows will be forever. Our last day of week three, we got to see eight brothers renew their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

As for the SLMs,we were officially commissioned on August 14th (second to the last day of orientation) in a beautiful and heartwarming mass! At our commissioning mass, we officially became SLMs ready to go to our respective countries!

I was very emotional that I finally made it, I am finally ready (as ready as I'll ever be) to go to South Sudan!