Local Outreach Activities in Torit

Dr. Will shares youth ministry experiences with the St. Daniel Comboni Missionary Youth.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, almost from the moment of our arrival we began  to meet with the youth with whom I had worked intensively during the past three years. We have typically met several times a week for different purposes:  faith formation and discussion, Eucharistic Adoration and Lectio Divina, and outreach to others: the general public and young children. At the gathering above the youth wanted to hear about Dr. Will's experiences as a youth minister in his parish in Virginia. At a gathering last Wednesday, Isaac (below, left) shared about his recently completed six month program in discipleship and evangelization at Emmaus Center in Katikamu, Uganda - made possible by the benefactors of our missionary outreach.

Isaac (left) listens as Hellen (center) asks a question.

During our visit to Torit we re-initiated our regular Sunday afternoon Catholic film showing for the general public at Mercy House. Since the meeting room we had used previously is now unavailable, our only choice was the chapel. After reverently reserving the Blessed Sacrament temporarily in another place, we made a screen out of a bamboo frame and a white bed sheet. Maynor snapped the photo below as we carried the bamboo from the market to Mercy House.

On Sunday, October 16th, we showed two newly released videos produced for Catholic Radio and Television by a Polish film crew (whose visit I helped to coordinate in November 2009 - click here to see more) under the patronage of Aid to the Church in Need. The short films were documentaries about local hero Fr. Saturnino Ohure - a strong supporter of the Southern Sudanese Catholic resistance to the forced Islamization and Arabization imposed by the north in the 1960s, and the other telling the story of Gabriel - a local catechist. We followed these with a video about the Blessed Virgin Mary, since October is the month of the Rosary.

About 150 people filled the chapel and overflowed onto the street (above), with some standing across the street (below) to try to glimpse the film over the heads of those crowding around the door. The next day, Monday, we showed the first half of the animated film about Moses, The Prince of Egypt  - significant for it's setting in Africa, to a smaller group of young children.

Dr. Will's limited vacation time prevented him from staying with us for the entire time we will be in South Sudan, but before he left for Nairobi on a missionary flight to continue on to the US we paid a courtesy call to His Lordship, Bishop Akio Johnson Mutek, to thank him for his hospitality in welcoming us back to the Diocese.