Sister Magda (Gertrudis) Schreurs
|
|
|
|
On September 4, 1952, Sister Gertrudis left Zutendaal for Congo. She was a member of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary. Within her congregation, she was known as Sister Magda, and she wished to follow in the footsteps of those who had gone before her.
Her missionary work began in Buta, a mission post founded in 1924, where she taught European children living in Congo. After a year, she was transferred to Zobia, a mission post established in 1926. There, she experienced what missionary life in the bush really meant. She taught 200 children, divided into several classes, assisted by Congolese teaching aides (monitrices).
In addition to her teaching duties, she was responsible for preparing catechumens for baptism and couples for marriage. Twice a week, Sister Magda went into the forest with a sister nurse. In the small village schools they visited, she taught the girls knitting, while the nurse conducted child welfare consultations. Afterwards, they visited the sick in their huts, providing them with medication. Those who were seriously ill were taken by truck to the mission hospital. In cases of imminent death, some received baptism or the last sacraments.
From 1956 to 1960, Sister Magda worked once again in Buta. First, she served as head of the training school for local teaching aides (monitrice school), and later she founded a new school in the centre of the Congolese community. The school soon attracted a large number of pupils; by 1964, it already had 401 girls enrolled. In 1958, she also started a Guides group, an activity that offered not only recreation but also training in solidarity and service.
Difficulties following independence kept me at home from 1960 onward. In 1960, Sister Magda returned to Belgium, first staying in Berlaar and later in Stevoort. Yet, from afar, she would be confronted with a tragic event. On May 30, 1965, 31 missionaries in her former mission area of Buta were martyred — eight of them from Limburg. What followed was devastation: the abandoned local population fell into poverty, and only a few Congolese priests and sisters continued their work. In time, foreign missionaries resumed their service, but there was now a Congo before and a Congo after independence.
Sister Magda experienced this change firsthand when she returned to her mission post in Buta in 1982. She lived there with a few sisters in a working-class neighbourhood, acting as a mother figure to the many students pursuing higher education.
From 1989, she was allowed to slow down and live more quietly within the convent community of Berlaar. In 2013, she moved to the care home of the Sisters in Heist-op-den-Berg, a difficult transition for her, though she found comfort among her fellow sisters.
She passed away there at the age of 97.
Missionaries of Zutendaalse side by side...
On the world map...
born in Zutendaal 1922
deceased in Heist-op-den-Berg 2019 
first vow in Berlaar 1945 