Just a few weeks ago, we embarked on a new adventure — our participants from various migrant nationalities, who participated in our pastry cooking workshops at CCEM, have now become the leaders of our new outreach plan to reach other areas.
For those who are unaware, CCEM is the Columban Centre for Missionary Studies here in Lima, Peru. We organized the workshops to help migrant women grow in self esteem and self confidence and to be able to earn some much needed income for their families.
After concluding the pastry workshop with our second group of migrants, we felt inspired to spread what we had learned in a different way. I’ve always been eager to take our activities beyond the walls of CCEM, and during our final evaluation—a meeting with both the organizing team and participants—the idea suddenly came to me.
I proposed forming small groups with the same women who had completed the workshops, bringing this shared work to different areas. These are places where people might not have access to such activities, but where we knew they would be welcomed.
At first, I felt insecure, even doubtful, about asking for extra time from these incredible volunteers on their weekends. But to my surprise, every single one of the women accepted. They showed immediate interest and a deep commitment to sharing with people in other communities. I remember one of them saying, “What an honor.” That simple phrase filled me with such pride; it was clear that our simple actions had touched their hearts, fostering a genuine sense of respect and solidarity.
And so, we began.
Our first visit was to “Tunales,” a community still part of the Columban parish. There, a “soup kitchen” serves lunch from Monday to Friday at a very low cost. The people in this area are wonderfully humble, a mix of migrants from Venezuela and Colombia, as well as locals from various provinces of Peru.
We found a mixed group of participants, young and old, their eyes shining with happiness and curiosity. They were more than ready to join. It was amazing to see people helping each other; though many had likely just met, they encouraged one another effortlessly. Despite the small space, every participant learned how to prepare three short recipes.
More importantly, we created a space to talk about our gifts — the talents given to us by God. We reflected on how we are often unaware of these gifts, living in such a hurry to accomplish daily tasks that we rarely stop to see ourselves as the important, gifted creatures we are.
Sometimes, our life experiences lead us to believe that we are not enough — that we do not deserve more, cannot learn more, or should simply remain in admiration of others’ gifts. We look at what others have and, thinking we lack the same, conclude that we are not as precious.
However, we need not compare ourselves to anyone else. Instead, we are called to be open to God’s grace, which manifests His love through countless events in our lives. Our task is to learn to recognize our own Godgiven value, from the smallest daily blessing to the greatest achievement we reach.
This is an invitation: an invitation to open our eyes and our hearts to embrace our uniqueness as children of God. We were not created to be the same as everyone else. We were created to respect our differences and to share this journey of life together.
As we continue to visit other areas beside Tunales, our mission continues to spread hope and to help one another see the beautiful things that persist, even amidst the weight of our heavy lives.
Columban lay missionary Marisol Rojas lives and works in Peru.
