Jubilees are cause for special celebration…
Jubilee calls us to express our gratitude to God and to our jubilarian sisters for their faithful love which encourages us to greater fidelity.
You Are Sent GD 123b
The first part of Sister Elis Viebeck’s ministry was spent in public school teaching in Germany. In 1984, she joined the mission in Ghana. Sister Elis began her ministry at Notre Dame Secondary School, Sunyani. She then moved to the novitiate in Sunyani where she taught art and taught in the Salesian’s Don Bosco Street Boys’ Home. In 2012, Sister Elis went with a young boy, whose name is Sule, for one and a half years to Munich, Germany where he underwent eight reconstructive surgeries on his burnt hands. In 2014, she accepted the invitation to teach children with varying physical challenges at the Orthopedic Training Center in Nsawam.
Sister Elis holds dear a memory about how God used her to open the speech and mind of a young lady named Barbara, a former student and member of a youth group sister sponsored. This happened on an ice-cold day in Germany after the young woman laid in the hospital unconscious, with critical injuries and was unable to speak for months. When Barbara became conscious, she could not speak and seemingly her memory was also gone. Meanwhile, when she was still unconscious, she repeated Sister Elis’s name thus the doctors invited sister to visit her. When sister opened the door to her hospital room, Barbara tried to lift herself up and, seeing sister, she called her name. At that moment her memory and speech returned. Barbara and her mother shed tears as they hugged and thanked sister. Sister Elis is forever thankful to God for this miracle. From her experience of living 60 years of religious vows, Sister Elis says “It takes a lifetime to understand Jesus’ invitation to follow him on the way of his redeeming love.”
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Sister Roxanne Schares is from the United States of America and presently living in Rome, Italy, serving the congregation as general superior since 2018. She grew up on a farm in Iowa and joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mankato, Minnesota, where she was professed in January 1972. Her university studies includes English, education, and theology with an emphasis in spirituality. After teaching high school for some years in the USA, Sister Roxanne was missioned to Kenya in January 1982.
Serving a total of 27 years in Africa, Sister Roxannes ministries included secondary education, diocesan formation of teachers, SSND initial formation, and pastoral-social work and education with refugees throughout Africa. From 2007 to 2015, she was based in Rome serving as International Shalom Coordinator for the congregation. In her journeying with others in community and ministry, beginning in her home country, then to Kenya and throughout Africa, and other countries on all five continents through Shalom and now general leadership, Sister Roxanne Schares’s heart has expanded and grown to hold ever more of our world in its struggles and hopes with love and compassion.
The commitment of our sisters, associates, and partners in mission in their response to the cries of God’s people and Earth, in their serving at the peripheries and accompanying those in greatest need, encourages and strengthens sister in her life in mission. May each of us risk opening ourselves to the transformative journey to which God invites us now and into the future for mission.
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Reflecting on her time with SSND, Sister Carolyn Anyega shares, “Being in mission with SSNDs is a grace. Through mutual trust, collaboration and dialogue, we experience a unity of purpose that strengthens and empowers. Focused on Christ’s mission, we empower people to develop their full potential and to live responsibly. Ministering with my sisters as teachers, administrators and as congregational leaders, we strive to draw forth everyone’s full potential. What a joy to see transformation happening, graduates contributing to society, and some becoming SSNDs!”
Called to collaborate in God’s mission as an SSND is one of Sister Carolyn’s greatest gifts. She lives vowed life in an international intercultural community where they share everything together as SSND – faith, culture, resources, talents, and weaknesses. Each sister is a teacher and witness to her. Sister is empowered to face her shadows and to grow toward full personhood in Christ alongside others in mission, working for the transformation of the world. It is wonderful to join School Sisters of Notre Dame in mission and commit to the transformation of persons for the transformation of society. As consecrated women, we bear witness to Christ’s mission living lives of service through our efforts toward unity, our community life, our ministry directed toward education and our common search for and doing God’s will.
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Sister Nentaweh Wakger was born on the 26th of December in Pankshin local government area of Plateau State, Nigeria. Sister Nentaweh started her elementary education within her home area after which she proceeded to St. Louis College in Jos. She obtained a Diploma in Education from the University of Jos,
Diploma in Human Development, and Degree in Social Ministry, Tangaza College, Kenya; Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, Maseno University Kenya.
Sister Nentaweh has served in various capacities in her 25 years as a religious. They include: teacher at St. Patrick Trade School JOS, manager of Italian NGO for Women and Children Lokomasa, Sierra Leone, teacher/ acting principal Notre Dame Girls Secondary School Urua Edet Obo, community service SSND Generalate Roma, teaching and social work in Yambio, South Sudan. Currently, Sister Nentaweh lives in Homa Bay, Kenya where she serves as director of Notre Dame Children Outreach Project.
Among sisters’ hobbies are: cooking/baking, composing songs/singing, caring for nature/animals. taking a walk/socializing with people, writing stories/sharing, visiting the marginalized and knitting.
As we share in Sister Nentaweh’s joy, she enjoins us to be generous with our talents mindful of the brevity of life.
