Maryknoll Lay Missioners - A 36 Year Journey - Missioner reflects on three decades of mission life

A 36 Year Journey - Missioner reflects on three decades of mission life

My name is Ronald Bosse, but people just call me “Bosse.” I have been a Maryknoll Lay Missioner for more than 30 years. My wife Carolyn and I have dedicated our entire mission career to working with Latin American indigenous people. We have served the Aymara in the Peruvian and Bolivian Altiplano, the indigenous people of the Argentinean Patagonia, and currently the Mapuche of southern Chile.

Carolyn and I have been reflecting, as we sometimes do, on our many years in mission. To us, mission is bridge building. Our role as missioners has been to encourage movement and two-way traffic on that bridge by people of all backgrounds, all cultures, and all life experiences.

Building that bridge hasn’t always been easy. We’ve lived amongst extreme poverty. We’ve witnessed the suffering of those we serve and have come to embrace as friends. Upon reflection, we realize that, although our work and our projects were appreciated, it seems that, more than anything, our companions on the bridge appreciated our presence. We were with them in times of turmoil, unrest, and sadness. We are grateful that we were also with them in times of joy and celebration.

Carolyn teaching in Zone Four.

We are very grateful to all the people who have participated in our mission work through their prayers and donations. We are grateful to MKLM, which has enabled us to serve in overseas mission for so many years. We feel much graced by that opportunity.

In Peru I worked in lay leadership with animators of the faith and their communities, especially in the Juli parish’s most remote Zone Four, which was 2 1/2 hours by jeep from the parish center. Animators of the faith lead services, pray with the sick, give sacramental preparation, and animate the community in their faith and in their commitment to the well being of its members. Isidro, one of the animators, was instrumental in bringing neighboring communities together once a month for a daylong celebration of prayer, music, singing, and skit presentation about social problems. Each community presented something. The day would end with a community meal spread out on a long cloth.

A classroom in Zone Four.

Weeklong courses were offered in the remote zones. The courses focused on people’s spiritual, emotional, and basic needs. The courses included talks on the Catholic faith, health, agriculture, and legal rights. Experts provided information and consultation. In the evening, we provided an educational video, but needed to do so by battery.

Carolyn was health coordinator of the Juli Prelature. She worked with LHP (Lay Health Promoters), making home visits and acting as a liaison in making referrals to the local clinic and to the Regional Hospital in Puno. One memorable event was when Juana, who had been going around the town asking for donations to help raise her baby grandson Cesar, came knocking at our door. Cesar was born with a cleft palate and lip to her teenage son and his girlfriend. The teenage mother was apparently overwhelmed, left the baby in Juana’s patio, and left town.

Carolyn supplies a medical referral in Juli.

Carolyn promised to help Cesar get the surgery he needed when he was a little older. A group of volunteer plastic surgeons periodically offered their services in the hospital in Arequipa. With a nudge, a promise that another missioner would meet her on arrival to Arequipa and help pay for the eight-hour bus ride, Juana took Cesar down to Arequipa for surgery on his lip, and again later for surgery on his palate. Cesar is now a bright, happy, handsome lad.

In Argentina, I participated in CAI (Christian Associates International) meetings, which fostered development within the culture. Carolyn was part of the health group in the parish. We both did home visiting and made periodic mission visits to Ramos Mexia, which was a four-hour journey by bus from the parish center in Jacobacci. Besides giving classes to children and adults, we visited homes in and around Ramos Mexia.

Bosse teaches the children of Ramos Mexia.

In southern Chile, where Carolyn and I presently work, we serve the Mapuche indigenous people. We continue to work with animators of the faith. In the Chol Chol area, we visit with marginalized people such as elderly persons, people with physical or mental disabilities, and people with chronic illness. I spend time with them, listening when they share their problems and life stories.

Our motivation for being in mission has always been one of service to others, stemming from our belief in a God of Life. Jesus said, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy but I have come that they may have life, life in all its fullness.” Jn 10:10. We wish for the people we serve to know this fullness of life.

Bosse visits with the elderly of Ramos Mexia.

It hasn’t always been easy being a missioner, but we have been humbly surprised and gratified by the generosity of the people we served who have reached out to us and enriched us by sharing their lives and rich cultures with us. We are very grateful for that interchange of mission and dialogue.

You support our work here and we are very appreciative. Only through your generosity are we, and our fellow missioners, able to stay in the field and continue the sort of work that I have described here. Please consider contributing to MKLM, the organization that keeps us in mission.

In mission,

Bosse

• Please consider contributing to MKLM, the organization that keeps Ron and Carolyn Bosse in mission. All contributions are tax deductible. Donate to help support MKLM missioners around the world.

• To learn more about Ron Bosse and his ministry, click here .

• To learn more about Carolyn Bosse and her ministry, click here .