THE JOY OF BROTHERHOOD.

We (Bros. Mike, Moses and Chancy) the newly professed brothers of Malawi province would like to share our life experiences during our three years of formation as FIC brothers. We are happy and privileged for this opportunity to share our story with brothers in different provinces for them to know us, and more importantly to let them know what has shaped us during these years. Honestly speaking we have lots of experiences but we will be brief so as not to make the story boring.  

”A Journey of one thousand miles begins with a step”. This was our motivational quote when we started our journey to brotherhood in the formation house in 2015 as residential aspirants. We started as a group of five young men namely Francis Limbulo, Cornelius Finye , Chancy Mfune , Mike Mbato and Moses Mgunda, from different dioceses in Malawi. As a group we had different experiences both interesting and challenging. We had time to share our life experiences such as our vocation stories, family as well as educational background. The sharing opened our minds to realize the joy of being together as brothers.

 The whole group of five was accepted to start canonical year of novitiate which marks the beginning of religious life. Living in a community helped us to know each other  better through criticisms and recommendations from others. As a group, each had his own likes and dislikes but we have grown to respect each other and our differences, and this helped us to strengthen our vocation and our personal growth. There were moments of disappointment at one time or another during our formative years, especially when we took turns as leader of the group. The leader was a link between the director and the group. He could assign us manual work and represent the group when there was anything to communicate to the director. This helped us to develop leadership skills and also practice the vow of obedience among ourselves. This was the time we realized that togetherness is very important. To be honest novitiate is a period where most of the times we felt dry, and only prayer with the support of one another made us to move on. We agree to the saying that "the more you want to be closer to God, the more the devil wants to pull you down". Our life was tested through this phrase as we experienced moments of  hopelessness and anxiety about the future.  

At the end of the canonical year, the provincial council and the Formation team accepted only three of us, namely Mike Mbato, Chancy Mfune and Moses Mgunda into the apostolic year novitiate. Two of our friends were asked to withdraw.

Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep moving. During the apostolic year of novitiate, there were different experiences especially after losing our friends with whom we had grown in relationship and also shared a lot as brothers. However as time passed we accepted the situation and moved on. During the apostolic year the three of us were separated for community experiences. This brought about another type of experience because each one of us had to face the real community life alone. However we were strengthened by the phrase which says that "if you do not know where you are going any road will take you there".  

After the apostolic year the Provincial Council accepted the requests of the three of us to take the first vows on 21^st November 2018. As newly professed brothers the council assigned us to different communities to engage in different kinds of apostolate. Bro. Mike Mbato was sent to Mary view community to work as a teacher at Nguludi girls primary school, Bro. Moses Mgunda to Mzedi community,  where he is working as a bursar at St. Louis Community Day Secondary School and also to teach other subjects at the school and Bro. Chancy was sent to Bethel community and assigned to teach at St. Patricks Secondary School and an become assistant boarding master as well. As young professed brothers the Provincial Council assigned us to different committees such as vocation promotion team. We are doing our best to promote vocations among young men in secondary schools, colleges and universities across Malawi.

“Life is understood backwards but must be lived forward”. We are so grateful to God for our past experiences, they have shaped us to be who we are today. We are enjoying the present life and we hope for a better future in our congregation.