Mill Hill Missionary students currently undertaking their Mission Experience Programme (MEP) in Cameroon recently gathered in Bamenda for a special time of prayer, reflection, sharing and renewal from the 6th-9th of September. Despite the current challenges of travel and the lockdown in the English-speaking part of Cameroon, all the eight students were able to attend the meeting. Coming together from their various places of mission, the meeting offered the students an important opportunity to step away briefly from the demands of their daily apostolate and reflect together on their journey of mission experience in Cameroon.
Mission experience is much more than simply being sent to a new place or carrying out pastoral activities. It is a journey of encounter with God, with oneself, with other people and with the realities of the local Church and society. The Bamenda meeting created a valuable space for the students to look back on this journey, recognize what God has been doing in their lives and learn from one another’s experiences.
A Day to Be with the Lord and With Themselves
At the heart of the gathering was a day of recollection. It was a deliberate moment of slowing down and creating space for God in the midst of the many activities, encounters, joys and challenges that accompany missionary life.
The recollection invited the students to be with the Lord, to be attentive to themselves and to reflect prayerfully on everything that has been happening to them since beginning their mission experience. Away from the usual rhythm of pastoral engagements, they had the opportunity to listen again to God speaking through their experiences.
It was also a moment for honest personal reflection. Mission changes the missionary as much as the missionary hopes to contribute to the lives of others. Living among new people, encountering different cultures and facing unfamiliar pastoral situations often reveals previously unknown strengths and weaknesses. The recollection therefore provided an opportunity to bring these experiences before the Lord and rediscover the deeper meaning of being called and sent on mission.
Telling the Stories of Mission
One of the most enriching moments of the gathering was the sharing of mission stories and experiences. Each student came with a story shaped by the people, communities and circumstances of his particular place of mission.
There were stories of welcome and friendship, moments of joy and fulfilment, lessons learned from local communities, and experiences that had challenged previous ways of thinking. There were equally stories of difficulties, cultural adjustments, pastoral challenges and those ordinary moments of missionary life that gradually shape a person.
Sharing these stories allowed the students to realise that, although each person’s experience is unique, they are all participating in the same missionary journey. Listening to one another brought encouragement, laughter, learning and a deeper sense of fraternity.
The sharing was not simply about recounting what had happened. It became an opportunity to ask deeper questions: What am I learning from the people? How am I changing? Where have I encountered God? What has challenged me? What kind of missionary am I becoming?
Learning for Mission
Alongside prayer and personal sharing, the gathering included important inputs designed to help the students understand and live their mission experience more responsibly and fruitfully.
One of these focused on safeguarding, reminding the students that missionary ministry must always respect the dignity, safety and wellbeing of every person, particularly children and vulnerable people. Safeguarding was presented not merely as a set of regulations but as an essential dimension of responsible pastoral ministry.
There was also reflection on mission itself. What it means to be a missionary today and how missionaries are called to encounter people with humility, openness and a willingness to listen and learn.
The input on culture change/shock was particularly relevant because mission experience often places students in communities and cultures different from those to which they are accustomed. Entering another culture can be enriching, but it can also bring moments of misunderstanding, surprise and discomfort. The discussions encouraged the students to recognize these experiences as part of missionary formation and to approach cultural differences with patience, respect and humility.
Attention was equally given to the local Church. Mission does not happen in isolation. The missionary becomes part of an already living Christian community with its history, gifts, struggles, structures and pastoral priorities. Understanding and respecting the local Church is therefore essential for meaningful missionary presence.
A Time to Review the Journey
In many ways, the Bamenda gathering became a moment of taking stock. It provided the students with the space to review the different dimensions of their Mission Experience Programme: their spiritual lives, community experiences, pastoral involvement, cultural encounters, relationships and personal growth.
Such moments are important because missionary life can easily become dominated by activities. Moving from one pastoral responsibility to another may leave little time to process what one is actually experiencing. The meeting reminded the students that reflection is itself part of mission. Experience becomes truly formative when there is time to look at it, pray about it, speak about it and learn from it.
The atmosphere of fraternity also made the gathering special. Being together with other Mill Hill members and fellow students who are passing through similar experiences provided encouragement and a sense of belonging. Meals, conversations, prayer, card games and laughter and informal moments all contributed to strengthening the bonds among the students.
Returning to Mission Renewed
The students had arrived carrying different experiences from their places of mission. They left having prayed together, listened to one another, received helpful input and rediscovered that they were not walking the missionary journey alone.
Over the weekend, they returned to their respective missions refreshed, renewed and re-energized.
They returned to the same communities and, perhaps, to some of the same challenges. Yet something had changed. They returned with fresh perspectives, strengthened fraternity and renewed awareness of the presence of God within the ordinary experiences of missionary life.
The Bamenda MEP meeting was therefore more than simply another programme on the formation calendar. It was a moment of grace; a meeting point between experience and reflection, prayer and action, the individual missionary and the wider missionary family.
Ultimately, the gathering reminded the students of an important truth about mission: before mission is about what we do, it is about who we are becoming in our encounter with God and God’s people.
And so, strengthened by their time together in Bamenda, the MEP students went back to their different mission stations ready to continue the journey, to listen, to learn, to serve and, above all, to allow themselves to be transformed by the people and the God they encounter along the way.
Ignatius Nshing, MHM
