Father Barnabas in Zambia!

Barnabas was a young seminarian from Zambia when I first met him four years ago at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio. Now he has been ordained in the Roman Catholic Church in Lusaka, Zambia!

I vividly recall the conversation with him that opened up my life to Africa. Our class in moral theology was small and we met for dinner. I was sitting next to Barnabas, and I asked him where he was from. "Zambia." Then I asked him where Zambia was. As he described the countries surrounding Zambia, I had to tell him that I did not know where those countries were either! That's when he told me that the sad thing about most Americans and Europeans is that they do not know where an African country is unless something dreadful is happening there. GULP--so true!

Due to our friendship and continued contact, I was one of five students at OST who traveled to Zambia in June 2006 with a professor, Ursuline Sister Maria Cimperman, who is the author of When God's People Have HIV/AIDS: An Approach to Ethics, a book I highly recommend. The trip was amazing, especially with the time spent in outlying areas with Catholic missionaries connected with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Our hearts and minds were stretched by what we saw and learned. We also met Barnabas' mother and his cousin who is a sister serving in Mongu, Zambia.

Since then members of our group have become priests, one continues his studies to become one, the sister continues in her process, and I started to blog. I was the only Protestant lay (older and married) person along on that trip; oddly, I added my mothering attitudes to our group and to what we saw, especially with the children, who varied from energetic to sick and apathetic in the villages, schools, and orphanages we visited.

I am grateful for Barnabas and praise God for guiding him and bringing him to the priesthood in the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It is good that he has returned to Zambia.