Bro. Emmanuel Luwanga

emmanuel-luwangaI trace my vocation to religious life back in my early teen years. A missionary priest, from the congregation of the Missionaries of Africa, used to be our family friend and could visit us frequently. He used to teach us and our neighbors about the Bible and the Catechism. He could also explain to us what it means to be a priest, religious brother or sister. It was through such discourses of his that I got inspired and felt the desire to serve God.

As for my vocation to the Hospitaller Order of St John of God, I trace it from 2004 when I came to know about the existence of the Order itself. A team of vocational promoters of various congregations of priests, brothers and sisters came to visit our school for promotion of vocations. Among them was Br John Bangsi OH, who was by then the vocations director of the Order in Malawi. After each one of them had given a talk about his or her congregation, I was much interested in what Br John explained about the brothers of St John of God and the uniqueness of their mission. I took his contacts to enquire more information. I kept in touch with him until I finished my secondary school education in 2006. I then applied to join the Order. After various visits to the community in Mzuzu – Malawi, I was called to join the postulancy in 2008 and I went to the novitiate in 2010.

Since I joined the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of St John of God I have always enjoyed the hospitality that we share among ourselves as brothers and with the entire society. I have always felt joyful and the presence of God in my brothers and sisters who are sick and in various sufferings through the small services that I offer them. My formation and experience from postulancy, novitiate and in scholasticate has been very nourishing and inspiring as I still continue journeying on my vocation.