Home visitation is a very important apostolate for the Religious Sisters of Charity. Our Foundress, Mother Mary Aikenhead, saw it as a great need in her time. Since then Sisters of Charity have continued to reach out to people in their homes. This has proved to be an effective way of listening to people and giving them quality presence with dignity. It involves sharing of personal experiences with a great deal of trust.
Sr. Augustina Alozie is a Religious Sister of Charity who teaches Catechesis and does home to home visitation in the Ijegun area of Satellite town, Lagos. She loves her ministry and she carries it out with love and compassion. For her, there is more to home visitation than walking into peoples’ homes and listening to their life experiences. She sees the whole idea of home visitation as a means of reaching out to God’s people in their homes and identifying with them in their human situations. She does this ministry with great enthusiasm and passion.
In one of her home visitations in the Ijegun area of Satellite town, Lagos, Sr. Augustina met with a sick lady named Beatrice who had a bad leg and was suffering from an Asthmatic attack. She spent some time with her, prayed with her and offered her some words of encouragement. Then, on her second visit to the house, Beatrice was freed from the Asthma attack and was in a good disposition to share her life experiences. She recounted to Sr. Augustina how she was knocked down by a vehicle, on her way to a pharmacy shop, across the road from her house. Her right leg was badly injured in the accident. The driver took to his heels but a passer-by came to her rescue. Beatrice ended up in the hospital for about six months. She had made some progress in recovery and since then has been supporting herself with crutches in terms of mobility. The most striking thing about Beatrice is her cheerful disposition despite her condition. She seems to be very sure of God’s healing presence at work in her. Beatrice is very grateful to God for saving her life on that fateful day with the help of the person that witnessed the accident. This encounter with Beatice has made a deep impression on Sr. Augustina as she reflects on the awareness of God’s presence. She has also been challenged to find God in all things.
