Fr. Mike with the present chaplain and students during a reception outside the chapel
Fr. Mike Snyder has spent his missionary career among the people of Tanzania in East Africa. Today he serves in vocations and as Maryknoll’s Director of Admissions. Recently he returned to East Africa where he met several men in Kenya and Tanzania expressing interest in a missionary vocation. While in Dar es Salaam the Catholic student community at the Muhimibili University of Health & Allied Sciences welcomed him for an evening of prayer and to give a talk. Fr. Mike spent 6 years as Catholic chaplain at this institute, the national medical university of Tanzania. He commented that it was like returning home. These students did not know him personally but they knew much about him and the years spent as chaplain to the student body. After the talk they showered Fr. Mike with gifts and a short reception.
A missioner’s life is filled with hellos and goodbyes. Events such as this one demonstrate the impact we can have on other’s lives and the joy we experience in service to God’s Mission living in other countries, experiencing new cultures and learning new languages. As they say in Swahili, the language of Tanzania: Mungu ni mwema – God is good!
Students welcoming Fr. Mike back home at Muhimbili
