Name: Crispine Adongo Hometown: Ulanda, Kenya Stage of formation: Seminarian

Crispine Adongo spent the second year of his novitiate, a year of immersion in the missions at Glenmary's Idabel, Okla., mission and extended that academic year to include the summer months as well. Summer in the missions means Vacation Bible School, and Crispine participated in this time-honored summer tradition by instructing 5th, 6th and 7th graders.

Crispine says his year in Idabel was a “time of learning,” and he enjoyed the guidance of Father Chet Artysiewicz, who pastors the Glenmary mission. Every week, Crispine was responsible for teaching high school CCD students and he says his relationship with the teens was one of the blessings of his year in Idabel.

“Learning is a process,” Crispine says, “and I learned new things every day!”

Crispine, a native of Kenya, became attracted to missionary priesthood when he was a boy and came to know the Comboni Fathers who served his parish in the rural area of Ulanda. “I was attracted to doing missionary work in a different culture,” Crispine says of his attraction to Glenmary.

Crispine identified the time he spent with Father Chet as a key to the lessons he learned during the second year of his novitiate. “I learned by sharing with him and through the weekly meetings we had. I saw the way he deals with people and his methods of the day-to-day running of the church,” Crispine says.

Crispine also speaks highly of his experience teaching CCD and says there were Sunday mornings when the young people of the parish would ask interesting questions about the Church and about Church teachings. Providing answers to those questions helped Crispine to search more deeply into his own faith.

“I was teaching them, but I was learning from them at the same time,” he says.

Crispine felt privileged to participate in the mission’s RCIA program and occasionally filled in to teach the class when Father Chet was traveling. Five people completed the RCIA class; two were baptized at the 2008 Easter Vigil and three were brought into full communion with the Church.

Crispine appreciates his newly-formed relationships with people who belonged to other Idabel churches, especially the pastors of the Ministerial Alliance groups in Idabel and nearby Broken Bow. While he learned much about parish management and communication from Father Chet, Crispine commends the Ministerial Alliance because its members provided him encouragement in his work at the parish and allowed him to meet and work with people of other faith traditions.

In addition to his work in religious education with young Catholics, Crispine visited nursing homes and acted as a guide at the Museum of the Red River, which displays art and artifacts of several native American tribes, including the Choctaw and the Caddo.

Twice a week, Crispine accompanied people to appearances at Drug Court, which offers offenders involved with substance abuse and convicted of less-serious crime the opportunity to participate in treatment and rehabilitation. “I would visit with people, trying to give them a positive influence in their lives,” Crispine says. “I mentored and went with them to court to see what kind of help they needed.”

At the end his two-year novitiate, Crispine took his First Oath as a Glenmary Home Missioner with his fellow novices Aaron Wessman and Craig Digmann. After a visit with his family in Kenya, Crispine will begin his studies for missionary priesthood at St. Meinrad Seminary in the fall of 2009. “I’ve been away from the classroom for three years, but I’m ready to go back,” Crispine says.

For more information on Cripine Adongo's ministry:

Crispine Adongo as a Novice
In Search of the Spirit - Glenmary Connectedness
Three Profess First Oath as Glenmary Missioners
Slide Show - Three Profess First Oath as Glenmary Missioners
Second-Year Glenmary Novices Continue Discernment
Slowing Down - Glenmary's Three Novices Finish the First Year of Novitiate
Novitiate Experience 'Enriching' for All
Father Vic Shares His Zest for the Missions
Pre-Novitiate Class Begins Formation

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