When he was a student at the Jesuit School of Philosophy and Humanities in Nairobi, Kenya, Crispine Adongo met Dennis Makokha who was then preparing to enter Glenmary. Dennis talked to him about Glenmary and Crispine did further research about Glenmary’s ministry through the Glenmary Web site. Through that research he found that his desire to “sacrifice for the poor,” could be advanced by a life as a Glenmary priest.

Crispine says he became interested not just in priesthood but in missionary priesthood because of the influence of a Comboni priest who served in his parish when he was growing up in Ulanda, Kenya. That missionary priest from Italy “planted something in my head,” he says. “I was attracted to mission work in a different culture.”

Glenmary’s mission chrism and its service in rural areas attracted Crispine as well. “Most of my life I’ve lived in rural areas,” he says. “I’m used to it.”

Continuing with the experience he gained in his parish in Kenya, Crispine was involved in the religious education of the young people at Glenmary’s former mission, Holy Redeemer, in Beaver Dam, Ky., while he was in Glenmary's prenovitiate program located in Hartford, Ky. “I like teaching,” he says. “It revives my spirit.” The small parish at Beaver Dam, returned by Glenmary to the Diocese of Owensboro in 2004, was very different from his home parish. “We had three Masses every Sunday—with 10,000 people at each Mass,” he says.

Crispine spent his college years at Arrupe College in Zimbabwe. There, he says, he experienced a more Westernized culture, so he has had a comfortable transition to life in the United States.

After he finished college, Crispine worked with street children in Nairobi at Charles Lwanga Boys Town where he counseled young people involved with alcohol, drugs and pre-marital sex. He encouraged them to stay in school and stay away from those who could encourage bad behavior. That, he says, is a ministry he would like to continue in the United States and in Glenmary.

Crispine will spent his second novitiate year working with Father Chet Artysiewicz in Glenmary's mission in Idabel, Okla.

For more information on Cripine Adongo's ministry:

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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