Here I am presenting to you this fascinating land!
I am Frauke, a consecrated sister who works toward the New Evangelization at the Federal
Center of our Koinonia John the Baptist Community in the Check Republic. I wish to share
with you what I believe is a special gift from the Lord. I wish to share with you about
our mission that just took place in India! Suddenly, after 17 years from the first time
since the moment I thought the Lord was calling me to work in the world of Asia, the door
for India opened through our Kerygmatic School of Evangelization. I was in fact called to
be part of the international group that had the task to begin the program of Evangelization
and of formation for the whole country. This is done in collaboration with the Commission of
Bishops for Evangelization in India. This time this group was really ’’special’’
because it was composed of people coming from different walks of life, consecrated brothers and sisters,
married couples, single people and priests almost as to show that announcing that Jesus is
our Lord and Savior is everyone’s task.
This has given us the possibility to give a beautiful witness of the fact of what the Holy
Spirit is calling forth in the Church as well as to give the possibility to all of the
participants to be able to realize that they were being called to be evangelizers. My stay
in India lasted 2 months. At a first glance the program might have seemed a repetitive experience.
We had 10 Philip courses followed by a Methodology course (this means that first there is an
announcement of the Gospel’s message that brings those who participate to have a personal meeting
with Jesus and then to teach them how to reproduce the same experience for the others).
It was when I saw the hidden vision of what this multiplication of these simple 10 courses
that I was astounded and my heart exulted and was filled with true joy. At each course I saw
how the participants, priests, religious, laity and almost always, also bishops or archbishops
were transformed. Their faces, their way of speaking, their way of thinking, their participation
and their enthusiasm were all new. I could see a marvelous project, inspired and sustained by the
Holy Spirit. During this period, I had the privilege of seeing great part of this immense land
rich of particularities. Here are some details that are wrapped up in an exclamation ’’So many
people! Such diversity in the colorful and beautiful clothes! So much traffic in the city!
Many cars, trucks and buses,that were also very colorful. Taxis and Rickshaw of all kinds,
motorcycles and bicycles, always full of people, carrying entire families! So many cows on
the streets! So much food and always spicy! How tall are the peaks of the Himalaya and what
a diversity of features in the faces, so much so that one can feel how close China is!!!’’
What truly fascinated me was not all this diversity as much as to experience the support of
the Holy Spirit. The first day of the Philip course, we always started in the morning and I
was amazed that even those who had traveled all night would manage to stay awake. Notwithstanding
the good will of the participants, the experience of the team was as we were pushing a huge stone
uphill. Even though everyone cooperated in the animation, in the dynamics and the many activities, it
was difficult to see at the beginning if the message we wanted to give was penetrating. Then as time
passed, our experience was that we reached the peak and then everything went ahead as if by itself,
in an overwhelming way. It was the ’’recompense’’ for all our work that was arriving,
fruit of the Spirit and the Word of God.
To increase my amazement was the response of the Bishops and Archbishops who were the first to
give the example of their participation, in the animations as well as in the group dynamics.
It was an unforgettable experience seeing with my own eyes the appreciation of all the participants
to the course’s methodology, and particularly to see how they experienced in a personal way the
effectiveness of the dynamics through the six steps of the kerygma. The apex of all of this that
the participants became so enthused that they reproduced the course in the many dioceses in India
so that it’s message arrived in every parish. This means a concrete number of 9,000 Philip courses
in one year. This was the fruit of 2 months of work!
I enjoyed very much the work of the team, the atmosphere of friendship, the joy, the support that
we gave one another and the amazement in front of what the Lord prepared each time. I am grateful
to my community for thrusting in me for this mission, but I know that this step represents only the
beginning. Why then couldn’t you (who read these words) also accept this challenge that the Lord gives
you: ’’Go in the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature...’’? When I started my first Paul
Course, where I was formed for the evangelization, I would never have thought that the Lord would have
pushed me to do so much. Glory to His name for doing so! He can do this also with you, try to take with
courage the first steps in this marvelous adventure.
Frauke
