Johnstone Shitsava Shisanya

I was born in a rural area in western Kenya in 1980, into a Christian family of seven boys. My parents are both Pentecostal, and some of my brothers and I have been converted to the Catholic Church. Throughout my childhood I was brought up with the value of service to others and respecting my elders. I was educated in mixed schools. After doing my O-levels, I moved to stay with my brothers who were working with the Catholic mission in Kitale. It was here, being encouraged by the kind of life priests were living, that I began to develop a desire to join consecrated life and priesthood. I began communicating with various orders and missionary congregations.

Accordingly in 2003 I joined the Society of African Missions, SMA, to discern my vocation – whether to become a servant of God in priestly ministry or to become a married family man in service of God. After three and a half years of formation, during which I did a BA in Philosophy and a Diploma in Religious Studies, my heart became clear that I was being called to be a true Christian in a married life. I had a serious discussions about this with my formators and finally I made my way out to settle.

My sense of being called to the service of God’s people has remained in my heart, and I find it hard to say no to this call. I became a teacher in one Small Christian Community in a parish in Nairobi, in 2007 and 2008, devoting myself to the teaching of the Catholic faith. I managed to join the MaryKnoll Institute of African Studies of MN/USA and Tangaza College in 2007 where I began studies, completing my course work by the end of 2008. Thereafter I was employed as a field research assistant in the same program. I am now in the last phase of writing my thesis for an MA. I have also trained as a HIV/AIDS counselor for positive living.

I am now married and we have a baby son.

In August 2009, I was employed by the Christian Brothers to coordinate the Edmund Rice Network in East Africa. Since joining ERN, I have found a home where my passion for service and empowerment has remained glowing. I joined with little idea about Edmund Rice, but with the desire to learn and be enlightened. I am finding scope to realize my gifts for raising the downhearted, the voiceless, and the marginalized into people with hope for tomorrow. What I care about most in my life today is ensuring everyone has his or her rights respected and that nature is upheld in accordance with the plan of creation. I desire to protect, uphold, educate, and encourage every member of society to respect and promote human dignity and care for the Earth. The process of advocating for these social justice and eco-justice elements has helped me to find a true meaning of life and to appreciate God’s creation in my day-to-day life and ministry.

Most of my time is spent visiting groups and ministry sites to encourage, educate, and mobilize members of the ERN to live and respond to the needs of our time in accordance with Scripture. I have found inspiration in the spirituality of Edmund Rice which is easily adaptable to all situations and to all people I come across. With the desire to liberate, be present, and remain compassionate, I have become more than a mere member of ERN; indeed I walk the spirit and talk the inspiration of Edmund wherever I am. Some people who meet me think of me as a vowed brother, and indeed there are elements of consecrated life that remain part of me.

During these past two years, the ERN has become my home. In it I see people whose values are geared towards affirming the Gospel truth such that they fight for the wellbeing of humanity in totality with the universe. I have become a true follower of Edmund Rice, devoted to expanding his mission to all corners of the globe. Indeed I have found it hard to restrict his mission of service to the existing ministry-sites of the Christian Brothers. I have been receiving calls from areas where there is no presence of Brothers, and have received a warm welcome from people in far corners of East Africa who thirst for the spirit of Edmund to shine in the lives of the less-fortunate.

I do my ministry with heart, enjoying it and seeing it as a calling not as a career. I enjoy the trust of my employer, the Christian Brothers District Leadership Team of East Africa, planning and executing my work without needing to be supervised. I am on very good terms with all the brothers and members of the ERN in this region and beyond.

My prayer is that the Gospel of truth about the dignity of humanity and of the earth will spread all over the world, as a fulfillment of Edmund Rice’s wish. To all my partners in this ministry, may God keep us bound together in that unity of diversity.

............................
	Camp scene	At an ER Camp in Arusha

published January 2012

• < Prev
• Next >