Testimony of Fr. Saurel Houinsou: “Together we join towards the Kingdom of God”

My name is Fr. Saurel Houinsou. I am from Benin, in West Africa, from a village called Semaboji, in the south of the country, where I cursed all my studies: primary, secondary school and so on. After I went to the university, in the capital city.

And later I joined the Comboni missionaries whom I discover in one of the parishes where I was going called Saint Francis of Assisi. This is a very nice and big community where the Comboni Missionaries are still working. That was where I met them and got interested in their way of life, specifically of those priests who introduced me to the style of life which latter on I joined in 2010.

I started my formation journey in the postulancy of Togo, in a city called Rumè, where I stayed for three years. Later, I went to the novitiate of Beni, in the city of Cottonù, for two years. Later, after my first religious vows (poverty, chastity, and obedience), I was sent to Kenya for theological studies, which I did for five years, including the time I took to learn English.

After that, I went back to my Province which is composed of three countries: Togo, Ghana, and Benin. In Ghana I did what we call “Missionary Service”, a period of over one year of service in the mission. Sequentially, I was first ordained as a deacon and some months after as a priest, on December 4, 2021. It is already more than 2 years since I became a priest.

Then I was assigned to the province of Ethiopia for my first missionary assignment. At my arrival, I was given the opportunity for some months to study the Amharic, the national language in the country. Later, I went to a town called Mendida to practice it.

From there, I was sent to my first mission, to Gublak, among the Gumuz who are in the north-west part of the country, in the region called Benishangul Gumuz, where I have been working since my arrival.

For sure, God’s ways are always mysterious. Nobody would think I will be here today. But once I received this call, my missionary vocation, I was happy to embrace it and I’m happy to be who I am today in what I’m doing. I am happy especially to be among the gumuz people where we find ourselves among, doing what we call First Evangelization to build up Christian communities from scratch, initiating the people in the Christian faith. Our purpose is to help them in that faith, so that one day, God willing, they may become autonomous and turn out also to be a missionary church, preaching the gospel to their own people. This is the place where I have been working since my arrival.

In the mission of Gublak, we are three priests working together, one from Togo, one from Kenya and myself from Benin. Though the mission is a bit challenging, considering the hot weather and the external situations of the country, what prevails at the end is the joy we feel in our missionary vocation by finding and meeting new people who become new families to us. That is the benefit, the joy we receive from being missionaries.

So, dear brothers and sisters, do not be afraid of embracing whatever call you receive, either to religious or to marital life. They are the same in the sense that they are calls or vocations that we receive from God. We should be happy to embrace either vocation, trying to live it out fully.

So, have a blessed day and never hesitate any time you may feel becoming a missionary. Among the Comboni Missionaries we are open to welcome you. I invite you not to be afraid to experience God’s missionary call in you, even if at the end you may find out that it wasn’t that. Try to experience it and see if it is truly the call you have received… You never know, God willing, one day you may also become a missionary and do like us, enjoying the announcing of Christ to people, encountering new people, creating new families, and together we join towards the Kingdom of God.

Have a blessed day and God bless you!

Comboni Missionaries Ethiopia