My Name is Lucivaldo Costa and I am thirty-years-old. I am Brazilian from Tomé-Açu- Pará and I am a Xaverian Missionary.
I come from a big family of six siblings. My parents separated when I was a child and I was fostered by my grand-uncle. When I was sixteen I went to live with my mother. With her, I had my basic Christian formation and I started my commitment with the Church.
Before joining the Xaverian Missionaries, I was graduating from high school and working in a supermarket to pay my own studies and I had a girlfriend. At that time, I had the plan to study Math and become a teacher or to study civil engineering.
The first time that I encountered the Xaverians was in Saint Mary Parish in Tomé-Açu that belonged to the Xaverian Missionaries. In 2007 when I became the coordinator of youth ministry in my village, I was invited to participate in the vocation promotion circles organized in the parish by Fr. Filippo Rota, SX. From this moment I was moved by the Xaverian Charisma. In 2008 and 2009 I was invited to join the Xaverians, but I did not accept because I did not want to give up my job and other things. At the end of 2009, I finally accepted the invitation to be a Missionary.
What I liked in the Xaverians was the simple way of life and the goal to make the whole world a single family and the call to see, seek, and love God in everything. I decided to join the Xaverians because of the call the make the whole world a single family and the mission Ad Gentes.
Today I am studying theology in the Xaverian International Community of Manila in the Philippines and my dream of Mission for a future work is to be a Missionary in Japan.
The invitation that I have to the youth is that they may not be afraid to experience God in their lives and to accept his calling to make the whole world a single family because “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Mt. 9:37) and we need you.
