My Vocation Story

Sister Patricia became a Daughter of Charity in the Southeast Province in 1962 as an educator. In the early 1980s her life changed with a news program about Africa and was at a point in her life when she felt a strong desire to respond. She attended an international mission workshop that helped her decide to follow God and her heart. In March of 2003, Sister Patricia arrived in Kenya and continues her mission work there.

Starting a new mission offers many challenges. Her community is located in a remote, mountainous district of western Kenya. It is one of the poorest districts and reveals many possibilities to serve as the people struggle in their daily lives and to meet their basic needs.

Sister Patricia is shown demonstrating African dress to children at Mother Seton School in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Sister Patricia’s efforts focus on pre-primary education in Kenya and continue to expand to meet new needs. For instance, the mothers expressed a need for a nursery and today there is a nursery for 80-100 children. Teachers were trained and today these teachers assist in the training of some 20 others who volunteer in the more remote substations of the project’s area. This original site is now a center for the improvement of education for young children in the entire area.

Certainly there are challenges! A great deal of time, for example, is spent on gender awareness training, leadership training, and community participation in the projects. One of the greatest challenges is reminding those serve to continue their participation and to take ownership of the various efforts.

She explained that her work at the mission is like threading lives together through words of the Gospel. Her mission is to teach and enable others so that they may continue to do the same. According to Sister Patricia, it is rewarding to see the young ladies of the village complete their education. Their education provides them with knowledge and tools to continue their mission to teach others in their village. Stella is one such young lady. She comes from a homestead deep in the mountains. On one visit to Stella and her family Sister Patricia walked 2 – 3 miles up the mountainside, a visit that was an honor for both Sister Patricia and Stella’s family. Stella is the first woman in her family and in her village to graduate from secondary school and teacher training. Sister Patricia was grateful for the opportunity to be a part of their lives and to have the honor of meeting Stella’s family.

Sister Patricia’s fondest moments is working with the children. One afternoon, as she worked in the school office, several little children wandered into her office and gently placed their hands on her lap. They came to her wanting to know what she was doing. When she returned the question to them, they told her with such enthusiasm that they were working, too. These children do not know the difference between work and play, and find pleasure in coming into the school even when school is not in session.

Sister Patricia’s mission is about the Gospel of John where it is written, I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full… Through love and education, Sister Patricia has found her peace in working the mission in a country where so little means so much.