It was a hot sunny February day when we four seminarians and four lay Columban volunteers set out to prepare for a month of mission to the north of Lima. After seven hours we finally managed to reach the town of Jimbe, a small community mainly of farmers. As we started our first week of visiting the people I began to notice the signs of life in these desert communities, life in the land and life in the people! It would be quite easy for people driving up from Lima to notice only the sand and more sand and nothing else. But as they near Jimbe they might notice channels of water running beside the road and into fields of sugarcane, mangos and avocados. They might also notice many other plants showing that the land is very much alive.
That was my experience with the people of Jimbe. In the villages of Santa Rosa, Macracancha and El Arenal we saw many houses in poor condition with leaking roofs in a region where it rained at least three times a week. We saw houses damaged by soil erosion and flooding. We heard from the people and their parish priest, Fr John Davis, that many of the houses had little furniture in them and no beds or mattresses. So at first I thought that this truly was a desert where the people were living with so few necessities for life or reason to hope for a better future. But then gradually I began to notice the signs of life and love in the concern the people showed for each other and in the close relationships between the families in the communities, their kindness of the people in sharing what they had and their willingness to help each other.
Two events brought this fact home to me. First, we received news that a water canal had burst its banks and was causing the erosion of cassava and mango fields and the flooding of a village, pushing down houses on its way. But before long the word of the need for help got out and men came from nearby villages and some of our group joined with them to rebuild the canal and begin to clean up the flood damage. I was truly moved by the spirit of all the helpers and their willingness to put so much effort into saving their neighbours’ farms and dwellings.
The second event happened just a few days later. It was a festival day in Jimbe and the festival custom involves a tradition of cutting down a huge tree from the bottom of the valley and then pulling it up with ropes through the village to the top of the hill. All the people joined in the task, young and old, men, women and children and both the strong and the weak, all joining in as much as they could. This time I was astounded by the fun and joy they found in this playful custom in the midst of the poverty and struggle of their lives. Again it displayed to me their connection with each other, their unity and what they shared as a community as they struggled to live together on this rocky and hilly desert land.
Every day our mission programme started with morning prayer together with the parish priest and ended with a Mass in the main town chapel in the evening. In this way we sought to draw strength for our efforts from the source of all creation and the one who sent us to carry on his mission. We drew inspiration from St Francis of Assisi and his example of both word and action.
At the final Mass on Saturday night I was surprised when the main celebrant, Fr Wilmer, asked my seminarian companion, Dong, and I to share a few words about our experience of this mission with the people of Jimbe. This was because we were leaving to return to Lima the next day. After conferring with Dong I decided to speak first and I thanked the people for helping me to see and believe how God exists in them, the people of Jimbe, and in their lives and relationships despite all the difficulties and challenges they face every day from poverty and natural disasters like the rain and floods. I told them that they showed God’s love and presence to me by the way they lived with one another.
Then, just before the beginning of Mass, a procession brought three crosses from the top of the hill. This too, they told me, was an old tradition in the community and was called “Cruz del Siglo” or the "Cross of the Century" and for me it was another sign of their faith and trust in a close and merciful God. So it was with much gratitude and fulfilment that we returned to Lima the next day, having experienced so vividly the rich and precious spiritual life of the people of Jimbe.
Martin Koroiciri, a Fijian Columban seminarian on his first mission assignment in Peru.
Related Links
- Read more from The Far East - July 2017
