The sixth of eleven children, I received the gift of the Faith through my parents, who taught me how to be open to our faithful and loving God. They also taught me to pray every day from the time I was very small.
My name is Emma Marie Umurerwa Ruhunga. A Rwandese by birth, I am currently a member of our FSP community in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Rwanda is located in eastern Africa and is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi. I was born in Rwanda in 1951 but for various reasons it was necessary for my family to leave the country when I was nine years old. We emigrated to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that is where I grew up. In 1995, the rest of my family returned to Rwanda.
The sixth of eleven children, I received the gift of the Faith through my parents, who taught me how to be open to our faithful and loving God. They also taught me to pray every day from the time I was very small. Going to church, praying the rosary, practicing love of one’s neighbor, especially toward the elderly, the suffering and the poor–this is the context of faith and love in which I lived from my earliest years. I saw my mother renounce many things–even necessary things–in order to help others, and it is an attitude she preserves to this day.
As the years went by, I felt a growing desire for God and his faithful love. My heart was parched with thirst for the Absolute. But even though I felt God calling me to follow him more closely, I closed my ears to his voice and invitation because I wanted to run my own life. It was only later that I came to understand that God is very patient and that he often leads us by unknown paths in order to bring to completion his plan for us. I first got to know the Daughters of St. Paul when they visited my parish. Day by day I discovered the wealth and depth of the Word of God. That was the beginning of my desire to consecrate myself to him.
During the Mass celebrating the 25th anniversary of the presence of the Daughters of St. Paul in the Congo, as I listened to the Old Testament reading from the Book of Isaiah, I felt as if the prophet’s words, “Whom shall I send?” were being addressed directly to me. That same year I participated in a spiritual retreat that turned out to be decisive for my vocation. I entered the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul in the city of Kinshasa, where I worked, because I felt in syntony with the Pauline vocation to proclaim the Gospel to all people, using all the instruments of communication.
Today, after 28 years of Pauline life, I thank God for all the graces he has bestowed on me, both in times of joy and in times of sorrow. I consider it a precious gift that I am a member of the Pauline Family and am able to carry out our beautiful apostolate. Like St. Paul, I feel compelled to say: “Woe to me if I do not evangelize!” I am happy to make my small contribution to the service of the Gospel in the various ways open to me here in the Ivory Coast.
Emma Marie Umurerwa Ruhunga, fsp