“Singing once is to pray twice. Music helps in prayer as we sing or play our favourite songs and dance to people. In this way, they will feel God is a God of joy and healing,” said Maryknoll Sister Esther Warioba, who used music to encourage Covid-19-infected migrant workers recovering in the diocesan shelter in Tsing Yi at the height of the pandemic last year [Sunday Examiner, 3 April 2022].
When the pandemic was at its peak, many migrant workers tested positive and called for assistance. Some were terminated or sent out of their homes by their employers and had nowhere to go. Inmates in the shelters had mixed emotions of anger and anxiety caused by the unkind treatment and job loss. Sister Warioba recalls that the migrants in the shelter needed healing from God in different ways.
Sister Warioba, who came to Hong Kong five years ago, humbly said she offered no professional music. “We used to praise and worship God through singing or playing gospel songs. The instruments that we needed were only drums, microphones and amplifiers. But we played with the language of our hearts, that is, the songs that touched us and connected us with God,” she said, adding, “They were mostly English songs, or sometimes Tagalog or African ones.”
She recalled, “It was a way of bringing joy to the shelter to let them know they were not abandoned. They were very enthusiastic and loved to have activities at that time. They threw themselves at the music with feelings, eager to participate and sing their songs and feel a close relationship with God.”
She said what she offered was not music therapy either, but it helps a person’s body, mind, and soul recover. “By having music at the shelter or other places with people, a person feels joy while being involved and becomes calm,” she said.
Sister Warioba believes the spiritual gatherings helped to build up confidence and skills too. She remembered that, at the shelter, there was a lady who could play the guitar and brought one with her to play. While playing the guitar for others in gatherings, the worker regained her confidence.
The sister from Tanzania pointed out that songs in all languages have their uniqueness. “African songs, with their original language, are also special. It is alive as it involves dancing, clamping hands, and other rituals,” she said.
The Tsing Yi shelter is no longer operational as the pandemic has abated. At present, the sister still encourages asylum seekers and legionaries from St Jerome’s church in Tin Shui Wai to express their feelings through music in spiritual gatherings.
Last December, Sister Warioba was one of the performers in the Home Among Homes Fund-raising Concert organised by the Diocesan Fund-raising Commission for Church Building and Development and presented African music with a team consisting of African lay people in Hong Kong and vicar general Father Paul Kam Po-wai, who was assigned to Tanzania for a time in 2003.
Sister Warioba is also involved in prison ministry. Together with priests, nuns and lay people, she pays regular visits to Lo Wu Correctional Institution and Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre.
Moreover, she now does Bible reflections and spiritual sharing through prison radio hosted by Bruce Aitken every Sunday in the Swahili language.
Sister Warioba joined Maryknoll in 2014 in Tanzania. She worked as an adult education teacher prior to joining the convent. She also taught secondary school students, street children, and homeless people and was a coordinator of a mission institute. Furthermore, she served in a nursing home for the elderly. She believes all such services helped her understand the feelings of different kinds of people “before serving God through the congregation.”
She pronounced her first vows in 2016 at the Maryknoll Sisters Centre in New York. She renewed her vows last year and awaits her permanent vows in a few years.
“Hong Kong is my first mission, and I have the joy and peacefulness within me. I’m very happy to be here as I feel I’m needed. I’m very grateful for many things, including my ministries and the people who know me and whom I know,” she said. SE
