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Sr Emma de Guzman ICM

¿PERDIDO? LOST? Lost (And Found) Missionaries

By Sr Emma de Guzman ICM

What happens when Filipino missionaries working all over the world come home, either for vacation or for good? Just imagine them in Africa or in any other part of the world, giving their best to the people they are called to love and serve, sharing those people’s lives and dreams and struggles, learning to speak their language. Then after five, fifteen or 30 years they must come home to thePhilippines. They are somehow lost. They experience cultural shock in reverse. The Philippines has changed and is still rapidly changing.

‘Africa’ In Cubao

By Sr Emma de Guzman ICM

After 30 years in Cameroon, Sister Emma is now working at home in the Philippines.

To the beat of drums, shouts of joy, clapping of hands and swaying dances, we celebrated an African Mass on Sunday, 27 February. Everything was African except the place - Holy Spirit School, Ilang-Ilang Road, Cubao,Quezon City.

‘Jesus, Je T’aime’ ‘Jesus, I Love You’

By Sister Emma de Guzman ICM

Kwada is 4-years-old and her brother Kodji 6. They are the two youngest of a family of eight children of Delu and Kudji, the couple working with us at Okola.

Different tongues

When Delu and Kudji arrived from north Cameroon about 15 years ago, they had only two children, Tije and Mossi. Tije was left in the north and Mossi, then a little girl of 4, grew up with us. When her parents were very busy, we in the community baby-sat her and, later on, the other children. In my baby-sitting time, I taught Mossi how to say short prayers. The shortest was ‘Jesus, I love you’ in English and French. I then added it in Ewondo and then in other languages. The two youngest children, Kwada and Kodji, can now say it in 12 languages.

Of Rising Moons and Flaming Trees

By Sr. Emma de Guzman, icm

The days before Christmas had been extremely warm and heavy. And while the other parts of the world are coated in snow as Christmas approaches, the whole of creation in this part of the world is covered with omnipresent red dust, any passing vehicle creates its own clouds of red dust that settles on the leaves of every tree so that they appear to be made -up in red! One can understand why the houses are made red clay mud; this is the season of the year when red clay is joined to red dust, even the homes made of cement walls and painted take on another coating of the season’s red.

The Ant Solution

By Sr. Emma de Guzman, ICM

Sr. Emma discovers (what some men never realize) that looking after a child is a full time work-unless you are very creative!

I thought that baby-sitting is not one of my qualities, until it was put to the test one day. Nicole, the two-year-old daughter of Kudji who works with us in the Center, was alone at home. Her brothers and sisters were in school and Kudji needed to o to the dispensary with their three-months-old baby. Being the only adult at home, I was requested to look after Nicole.

Appointment with God

By Sr. Emma de Guzman ICM

Sr. Erma de Guzman of Cameroon is a long time correspondent of MISYON. She had an accident recently in a jeep which feel over a cliff. Her companion Sr. Louisette was killed but Emma was spared. She shares the frightening story with us.

We left Mvolye at five on a pleasant morning. By midday we were at the Bishop’s House in Kumbo. It was a pleasant trip, being Sunday and having left early. We had lunch with the Bishops and took off for Nkambe after lunch. The roads were better as the graders were working and we were along the cliff driving slowly because of the many dangerous turns.

Cameroon Notes

By Sr. Emma De Guzman, ICM

This a photo story of two Filipinos – one visible in the pictures one not visible – because she was holing the camera. These photos tell the story of Andy Gunzalo, CICM from Bauko, Mt. Province, and how he was ordained Deacon in Cameroon by Cameroonian Bishops Mons. Jerome Mimboe Owono. Behind the camera is veteran missionary Sr. Emma de Guzman (sister of Fr. Efren de Guzman SVD in Angola)

Mission Adventure Beyond the Beyonds

By: Emma de Guzman, ICM

Time: August 4, 1974
Place: Manila International Airport
Event: First Departure for Africa

Plane Roared Off
That warm August afternoon in 1974, I boarded a Sebena DC 10 for the first time in my life. Destination: Cameroon, Africa. The tear shed by my family (and mine) were drowned away by the planes roaring off into the skies in what was still the Manila International Airport.

A Good Friday Story

By: Sr. Emma G. de Guzman, ICM

Sr. Emma, a veteran Filipino missionary in Cameroon faces the age old dilemma- how to help the poor without playing God and without damaging them. She shares the anguish of all missionaries with us...

Time for Vigil
I woke up early (4 a.m.) to join the end part of the Holy Thursday all night vigil in our parish. After our community’s morning prayers, I decided to spend this particular Good Friday in quit recollection and prayer, to be alone with our Lord Jesus in reliving His suffering and death. I also thought to be one in solidarity with our modern world’s anguish, pain and deaths.

Call to Cameroun

By Sr. Emma de Guzman, ICM
Okola, Cameroun, Africa

When I arrived here and began working in the 70’s only men were allowed to be catechist; I initiated the revolutionary idea that women could become catechist too, especially for children and young. As a result, there are now more than 2,000 mother catechists and they are doing the work well. We have to be patient and wait until men (including parish priest) accepted the idea that women could also preach the Word of God in a society where women are not allowed to speak in public. We still have a long way to go; but the idea is gaining ground: everything is GRACE and the Holy Spirit blows where it wills even if the parish priest and the chief catechist are opposed to it!