I am Karla Núñez from the Peruvian Province. I was born in Lima December 30, 1970, but my childhood and adolescence were spent in Piura in the north of the country. When I finished secondary school, I moved to Lima for further studies.
My brother and I learned from our parents how to live “open house,” where there is always room for the other. Welcoming different people, who fitted right into the family from the beginning, and were treated just like ourselves, became second nature. Because of this, the text that has always resonated with me is “Whatever you did for one of these least of my brothers or sisters, you did it for me”. (Mk 25, 40)
My first contact with the Congregation was when I studied Education at the Women's University of the Sacred Heart. Working in our school , Chalet de Chorrillos, helped me affirm the call of the Lord to follow him, since I identified every day more and more with the spirituality and charism of the Society. Not only did I feel resonance with my desires, but also my fundamental experience of finding the Lord in children and the poor was renewed.
Since the beginning of my experience of religious formation, I have not ceased to thank the Lord for allowing me to be in close touch with the mission of my Province. I have had the opportunity to live the mission in different marginal urban or rural contexts in Lima and in the provinces. These have been apostolic experiences that have made me realize the faithful love of the Lord: our educative calling lived according to the sentiments of the Heart of Jesus.
The mission in Bambamarca brought me to savour God Incarnate revealed in our life, in the simplicity of daily life, in the quality of relationships, in the field with women and children. This first experience of apostolic service as a young professed turned out to be very significant, because I experienced how the desire of Our Holy Mother can be realized: to offer the best of ourselves to those who have least, especially women.
Significant to me was the challenge of working in the program we carry on as a mission with adults for those who have not had a school education. This work was an enriching learning experience, as I had to shape the educative work according to a special curriculum that responded to the needs of formation for country people, for the country and from the country, developing a dialectic method to promote gender equality in a markedly machismo society.
Then a new apostolic service greeted me: “Jaén”. From the very beginning I experienced people who with their youth, joy, and welcome, keep their apostolic effectiveness alive.
A whole new area of formation for me as missionary was to begin an entirely new work with young students from the cultural groups, Awajum and Wampis. This intercongregational ministry allowed me to learn to accompany them in work of inculturation with these tribes in the city of Jaén. At the Waymaku Centre there were space and possibilities for promoting, appreciating, and spreading their culture by formation in professional, human, and Christian dimensions, so that when they returned home they would be able to be leaders.
The work in Tinta, short but significant nevertheless, helped me to experience the strength of a south Andean people, with their cultural richness and tranquillity. God is revealed in the silence of the soft breeze, inviting me to grow in interior life. There I felt strongly the need for greater theological and professional preparation in order to be able to give better service in the total formation of youth.
Being back again at Chalet de Chorrillos after the privileged time in which I had so many different experiences helped me to renew my sense of myself as educator. Working with children made me relive the words of Our Holy Mother: “They will be mothers to them”, which always invites me to pour out love and protection.
This most recent time at El Agustino, located in a marginal area that lacks resources, has allowed me to have some space to prepare for Probation. Being able to integrate the theological formation I was receiving at the University with the pastoral work with children and the poor made me deepen my sense of the presence of the God of life in the favourites of his heart: the poor. I learned to enjoy and thrive with very little, I learned that they have a very large heart to share from their poverty, and I learned to give them much love and affection.
I really feel very much loved by the Lord through the many manifestations of free and unconditional love shown in so many ways, such as being able to support my Province in its commitment to pastoral work. This gave me the opportunity to revive, renew, and strengthen the call of the Lord in the here and now.
During this time, "on the way to Probation," I live in a dimension of grace out of all the experiences the Lord has given me. Being in Malta enabled me to enjoy the presence of the Lord through the welcome and the affection of the sisters who spoke to me of our “cor unum”, one heart and one soul, and to appreciate “the riches of internationality” which enable me to know, welcome, appreciate and love a new culture. On this beautiful island, the warmth and closeness of its people and the tranquillity of its serene sea lead me to profit from its peace and tranquillity, from the moments of solitude, and from the silence that leads to discovery of the Lord always doing his work.