“You don’t have to leave home to a distant country to be a missionary”: Bishop in Botswana

GABORONE , 19 October, 2020 / 8:05 PM (ACI Africa).- 

As Catholics globally marked World Mission Sunday on October 18, a Bishop in Botswana has reminded all the baptized in the Southern African nation that they can still be missionaries in the comfort of their home countries.

“I notice that some corners of our country have not yet received the good news. They need you and me to go to them sharing the gospel of love, thus giving them hope,” Bishop Frank Nubuasah of Botswana’s Gaborone Diocese says in a Sunday, October 18 reflection seen by ACI Africa.

He adds, “You do not have to leave home to a distant country to be a missionary. You can pray for those who do and support the work they do according to your means.”

The Bishop, a member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) explained, “Being a missionary from home is focusing on the mission and adopting a parish or country as your mission field.”

“All are apostles, all are sent, all are missionaries,” Bishop Nubuasah said in the October 18 reflection and added, “Mission today is in our hands. We have to continually bring the good news to all corners of our world.”

He underscored the need for Christians to awaken the desire to go out to others with the treasure in their hearts and to seek opportunities to share the Gospel noting, “Our motivation in all we do should be to bring the love of Jesus to all.”

“Recognizing that I have spent half my life as a missionary in Botswana makes me grateful for all missionaries,” the Ghanaian-born Bishop said and added, “I pray blessings on their hearts and ministry. Fruits borne of such works of love would be pleasing.”

In his reflection, he acknowledges the sacrifice of missionaries from various continents who brought the Good News to the world’s second largest continent, Africa with “enthusiasm and courage,” noting that besides evangelization, they also brought education, health and social development.

“Their only weapon was the faith that propels them forward. Many died and are buried in our land,” Bishop Nubuasah says referencing missionaries who have evangelized Africa and adds, “Through that reality, they have become part of us forever.”

On the day of resurrection, these women and men of faith would rise with us and stand together before the seat of mercy, the Bishop says in his 196^th reflection amid COVID-19 pandemic.

“To be a missionary is to care. It means to be willing to help convert our communal brokenness into something beautiful for God. It should lead to joy and hope,” he says in conclusion.

The 71-year-old Prelate who was among the first SVD missionaries to be commissioned to Botswana has been serving in the Southern African nation since his ordination to the Priesthood in July 1980.

After eight years of ministering in Botswana, Bishop Nubuasah, then a Priest, was recalled to his home country, Ghana to help in the formation of novices. He served in that role until June 1998 when he was appointed as the Vicar Apostolic of Botswana’s Francistown Vicariate that had just been erected.

In October 2017, he was appointed the Bishop of the newly elevated Francistown Diocese. He was transferred to the Diocese of Gaborone in June 2019.