NURTURING MAMBA COMMUNITY

Mamba is a small farming homestead made up of people who left Kungi in search of farming land. The village lies behind the mighty Kungi hill, and overlooks Akweto on the other side of the parish.
The tiny Church Community of Mamba is made up of some 25 adult Christians and some possible "Catechumens" who still need a lot of encouragement. It is one of the most challenging of our mission stations.




To begin with, it is very inaccessible. One treks for about two hours descending through rough terrain to reach the village. Then often one reaches the village to discover the people had all "forgotten" the priest was about to visit them.

As a rule, when we get there, we celebrate the Eucharist for the few people who come. Usually there are about three or four communicants. The Mass is celebrated in the open air as there is no church building of any sort in which to worship.

The other day when I celebrated Mass we had to keep an eye on the cows that were grazing happily behind our makeshift church buidling of a few sticks and stitched fertilizer bags for a roof.

We also had to shut our ears to the passers by who made distracting and discouraging comments about the faith community.

What I find most interesting and attractive about Mamba is the pastoral challenge it offers us. There are quite a few children who do not go to school. The few people who come to our Eucharistic celebration and Church meeting make a lot of promises to enlist in the catechumenate, or to work harder at their Christian lives, and so on.One has to keep hoping that the people will one day think about
fulfilling their promises.


That is what motivates us to continue visiting the place. And now we are discussing a small project to construct a small prayer house for the people. We are grateful to Maria and Rainer Gramlich of Villmar in Germany who initiated a "Baustein" stand during their parish feastday to raise a little money as their contribution to a little prayerhouse in Mamba. Will the local people wake up and try to make their own little contribution for the project? Maybe the young people who have left the village for better ventures at Tiko and Likomba area will think of making a contribution when they come back to celebrate Christmas!!

Pray for us!