My name is Lucy Gachuki and I am from Kenya. I feel humbled and honoured to share with you how I became a Sister of Mercy.
During my early years when I was in Secondary School my desire was to do well in my studies, and later train as a teacher and there after support my parents. However when I was in my last year in Secondary School we were invited for youth mass which was supposed to be attended by young catholic students from all over Kenya. Fortunately I was a member of this movement and therefore I was chosen to go and represent the students in our class. Little did I know that this was going to be my turning point in life. When we went there we found that one of the Comboni Missionaries Sisters was making her Final Vows. One thing I can remember is that throughout the Mass my heart was burning with great desire of offering myself to God like the way I saw that Sister doing.
When the whole celebration was over I went back to school and this time I suppressed the desire of becoming a Sister since I couldn’t believe what was happening within me and after all I thought God couldn’t call someone from a poor family. However despite of me trying to deny what was happening within me the same desire kept coming back, even after finishing school. At this time the greatest struggle for me was how to share this with my parents and the other thing that worried me was whether they would believe that I had that desire of becoming a religious. More over I had not communicated with any religious Sister about my desire.
It’s funny the way God works because it is during this time of wondering what to do or where to go that I met a friend who gave me different addresses for various congregations and Mercy was one of them. I contacted one of the Sisters of Mercy and she invited me to visit them. When I arrived in one of their convent in Kenya I will never forget the first experience when I encountered a Mercy Sister. I felt deep peace and deep joy within me which I had never experienced before. I did not join them immediately because I needed to know them well and they too needed to know me.
In the year 2000 I joined them and that is when I started initial formation and in 2003 I made my First Vows. So far I am still happy to be a member of the Sisters of Mercy and what matters to me as I continue to serve God is not how long I have stayed in this life but how I live each day.
