Below are stories from past issues of Columban Mission magazine. The Columban Fathers publish Columban Mission magazine eight times a year. Subscriptions are available for just $15 per year. Sign up to receive our next issue. Read more about Columban Mission magazine.
My name is Olajoke Ajikolu, and I am from Nigeria. I have five brothers and a sister, and life seemed to be pretty hard for us. I stopped going to school at the age of 16 as the family could not afford the school fees for me.
Bishop Jin, the late bishop of Shanghai, who died aged 97 years in 2013, was Agnes Dong’s great-grandmother’s cousin. Her grandmother on that side of her family was a devout Catholic, but her other three grandparents were not Catholic.
I’ve been here in Taiwan for many years already, and I find it very interesting that a lot of my “kababayan” (countrymen) wanted to work abroad. Initially I felt that people wanted to work abroad for economic gain.
During the national convention of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians (LAOH) in St. Louis two years ago, I encountered many participants who had a strong connection not only with my native country, Ireland, but also with various Columban missionaries scattered across the world.
My first experience of engaging in pastoral ministry in Japan was at a residential center, run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, for adults who had various physical and intellectual disabilities.
We rejoice in the great gift of life. But as we grow older this gift is overshadowed by experiences of illness, pain, and loss. The certainty of an ever-approaching death often makes life itself seem meaningless.
I came to live in Fujisawa after getting married 58 years ago. I have been fortunate with my health. I have never even had a cold, and last year I had my first visit to a hospital.
Fiji for me will always be one of the most wonderful places in the world. I never expected to end up in Fiji, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean surrounded only by a vast expanse of water. It’s almost impossible to get further away from Ireland, my home country.
Editor’s Note: On Monday, November, 23, 2015, Columban Fr. YoungIn Kim celebrated the Feast Day of St. Columban in Cuzco, Peru. He described the experience in the article below.
In 2007 my father talked to me about the possibility of going overseas as a lay missionary. When I began to attend, with 20 others, the orientation program in Suva I had no idea what being a missionary might be about.
The Columbans are a society of missionaries, including priests and lay people, who minister to people of various cultures as a way of witnessing to the universal love of God.