Hi Ephrem! Could you please introduce yourself…
My name is Ephrem Kisenga Mwangwa SDB, I come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from the Our Lady of the Assumption Province (AFC) and I have been a priest for eight years.
What inspired you to choose to become a missionary?
What drove me to become a missionary is the Congregation itself, offering me a missionary experience twice in eight years; then I fell in love with the mission: it is as if I had felt in a certain way a call from God, because the Superiors chose only me, despite having many people to choose from. I thought it was not by chance, it could be the call of the Lord, it could be my destiny.
Are you happy with where you are going? Do you still have any fears or concerns?
Yes, I am happy with the appointment made by my superiors, my only fear is not related to the mission for which I am destined, but concerns my whole life. My fear is that I will not live up to my confreres and the people, especially the young people. And my ultimate fear is to lose faith if I am tested beyond my strength, beyond my effort, even if I hope this does not happen.
How did your family members, friends and confreres react when you told them about your missionary vocation?
There have been several reactions: the first was the astonishment of some confreres who did not know of my plan to become a missionary. My mother and father only said that the most important thing is health, after all they are already used to my absence from home for three decades, because I left my home when I was 14.
What are your plans and dreams for your missionary life?
My project and my dreams regarding my missionary life are to be more useful to the people to whom I will be sent concretely, entering into the logic of the Province and the community in which I will be inserted.
Do you have some great missionary role models in mind whose lifestyle you want to follow?
There are some missionaries who have inspired me a lot, especially the humble missionaries like Fr Lanfranco Fedrigotti, Fr Johannes Kiesling, Fr Mario Valente, Fr Odon d 'Hose, Fr Alphonse Shifwe, Fr Joseph Tata Kaswakala... there are many. Humility is a virtue that I like in the person of the missionary.
What is your message to young people about missionary choice and vocation?
Dear young people, there is a very important thing in life that is to give, and when we give, we give our best. There is no one who can say "I have nothing to give", we all have something to give and we should follow the example of Jesus who gave everything to us, including his precious Mother and Father to give himself to us.
