FR. NICHOLAS ONYAIT MCCJ
Nakayondo is a Catechist at St Balikuddembe Sub Parish Kinawataka. She is a true revelation that God does not consider the qualities when he calls us to serve him. He calls the imperfect and perfects them.
When we reflect upon different vocations in the Church, we often imagine the qualifications, both human and spiritual. However, the story of Catechist Josephine Nakayondo is a true revelation that God does not consider the qualities we humanly seek when he calls us to serve him. He calls the imperfect and perfects them.
THE BEGINNINGS
Josephine Nakayonda is a Catechist at St Balikuddembe Sub Parish Kinawataka under Our Lady of Africa Mbuya Parish. She was born in 1950 at Namataba in Mukono district to Mr Musa Mudaaki, an Anglican. Her other siblings and her were brought up by their father because her parents had separated. Josephine had started primary one and two in Namagunga before they relocated to Kalisizo Kakondo, in the present day Kyotera.
However, she did not continue with school because she got married to a man in Kabwooko, Masaka in 1966. She bore two children in that marriage which unfortunately did not work out because her husband became violent. She thereafter relocated to Kampala in 1973 and settled in Kinawataka. Josephine remembers how life was so tough and how she started praying to God to show her a means of survival and the purpose of her life.
THE JOURNEY TO BECOMING A CATECHIST
Prayer brought her closer to the Church. She kept praying in order to get a good job in which she would be able to earn and take care of her children. However, the more she got closer to the Church, the more she got involved in her activities. She started assisting the Catechist then, Bartholomew Kalindi who was running two Out stations; St Balikuddembe and St Zuria. She started taking readings and with time, she could read eloquently in Luganda. One day, Catechist Bartholomew Kalindi got sick and they needed someone to replace him.
The Christian community recommended her to Fr Domenico against her will. She was afraid because of her low level of education but more so because she did not speak English. She urged them to choose someone else, a request, which met no response. In the meantime, she collaborated with Fr Domenico in identifying the sick persons in the community, visiting and praying with them. She was surprised one Sunday when Father Domenico after Mass presented her to the Christians as the new Catechist of St. Balikudembe Sub- parish.
She had no way out. She felt like Jonah who run away from God but had to eventually accept. She says she was terrified because she had never stood in front of people to preach. Her only consolation was that having been a member of the new catechumenal way, she knew and understood the liturgical year and they had taught her how to read.
THE FIRST CHALLENGES
Kinawataka had no Church. They used to pray in a makeshift structure and because of this, most of their Christians opted to walk to Mbuya for Mass on Sundays. Her first challenge was to mobilize them to construct a better Church. They started mobilizing resources first of all to buy
land and they managed to collect one million five hundred thousand Uganda shillings and with the help of Fr Joseph Archetti, a Comboni missionary and the then Parish Priest of Mbuya, they bought the land on which the Church now stands in Kinawataka.
THE TURNING POINT IN HER LIFE
In 1995, a Muslim woman approached Josephine and told her to stop her son from frequenting her home but she thought it was just a concern that any parent would raise, especially to avoid seemingly bad company for their children. However, she was shocked when the woman sent her son fetishes that made him possessed and he died in a few days. She knew who had caused the death of her son and many people asked her to take vengeance but she sought forgiveness. One time, the son of the woman who had caused the death of her son greeted her. She did not want to reply but eventually relied to his greeting and at that instance felt a strong headache, fever and paralyzed. She felt possessed by evil spirits and embarked on prayer. She remained convinced in her faith that God never abandons those who trust in Him.
Eventually, she got well and learnt the power of forgiveness. She remembers how she took care of the mother of that woman when she was sick, visiting her and bringing the priests to administer to her Sacraments since she was Catholic. Josephine rejoices for the great gift of forgiveness, which she received.
THE JOYS OF SERVING THE LORD
Being a Catechist has been one of the greatest joys and consolations Catechist Josephine upholds. She has worked and collaborated with a number of priests. Moreover, she is convinced that God’s way is always the best, however much we try to resist it and came to understand that God sees us differently from the way we see ourselves. Unlike her, she is so proud of her son wedding in Church and happy that she is seeing what she desired being fulfilled in her children.
“Indeed the Lord raises the lowly; he has answered my prayers in very strange ways. I once saw a dress that I desired, in the evening of the same day, my son without knowing that I wanted it brought it for me,” Nakayondo testified. She says that we should learn to trust in the Lord even in the most appalling situations of life. She encourages young people not to fear serving the Lord and the Church.
