THE CHALLENGES OF BEING A MISSIONARY IN OREGON

We are busy preparing for the departure of Fr. d’Herbomez, Bro. Surel and Bro. Gaspard for Oregon. What a mission that is! You would not believe what our dear Fathers suffer there, as cheerfully as anybody in the world. The last time Fr. Chirouse wrote to me he said that he had sent a Father to Fr. Pandosy who had nothing to live on, but that he had in his larder a dog and two wolves which would be enough for him until Lent. He had made himself a soutane from a blanket.

I sent them a little parcel of shoes, trousers and so on. This time Fr. d’Herbomez is taking them everything from a needle to an anvil, 22 packages altogether. It is amusing. But what will not be amusing is remaining 7 or 8 months at sea, for they will have to go round Cape Horn.

Letter to Fr. Etienne Semeria, 10 November 1849, EO IV n 13.

Writing to Fr. Casimir Aubert, Eugene gave more details.

Tempier is immersed too and I pity him. One has no idea of the trouble he had to go to for the departure to Oregon of Fr. d’Herbomez and the two brothers, Surel and Janin. It is unbelievable! And amusing too for that matter to see a Vicar General hunting through the shops for a miscellany of all sorts of things, from a needle to a plow and an anvil. Toys, trumpets, whistles, glass beads of every colour, seed of every kind, striped shirts, caps and bonnets. Nothing could be funnier than to see people coming to ask seriously where the general store of Monsieur Tempier was to be found. At last our dear evangelists took their departure and with the help of God they will arrive in seven or eight months. How edifying they were!

Letter to Fr. Casimir Aubert, in England, 24 November 1849, EO III n 33

REFLECTION

A sea trip of 8 months around the southernmost point of South America, knowing that they would face a mission of hardship and many challenges once they arrived in Oregon! In our world of instant communication it is almost impossible for us to comprehend the hardships that these courageous missionaries had to undergo. Yet, they went joyfully because they had given their lives to God in oblation to be able to bring the Gospel to people who had never heard of it. They were indeed cooperators of the Savior, and it was this conviction that made sense of their way of life and made them generous.

How many personal hardships and sacrifices are we prepared to endure in order to be Christ-bearers today?