Tuesday morning, January 12, the entire team began the day with Mass and a Holy Hour. We prayed together before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament the night before as well. In addition to the US/Honduras team and the eight youth from Torit, there are local teams of young people from both Nimule and Loa, and a contingent of Madi people from across the border in Ajumani, Uganda. They are helping us to make the mission fully bilingual, including musically. After breakfast we broke into groups according to different responsibilites. The musicians (above) practiced, the skit group (below) rehearsed and most of the rest went out into the streets and neighborhoods of Nimule to invite as many people as possible to the mission.
We began with some introductory interaction and several songs of praise and worship led by Josh Dart and the music ministry. The overall theme of the mission is "Why Be Catholic?" and Mario Dance (below) took the lead by giving us the first answer to that question: Jesus. It was a talk that spoke about the impact of Jesus and his followers have had on the world and human history, but as Mario shared about his personal experience it became a challenge and an invitation to allow Jesus to make all of the difference in our own lives.
After another song I gave the second answer: the Catholic Church as the original one founded by Jesus, and truly "catholic" in terms of being the church where we find the totality of truth and the fullness of life in Jesus.
It was a bright, clear day, with a strong sun and temperatures hovering around 100°. We began at 4:00 pm and those who came at first took refuge in the shade behind the stage or near tress, buildings and the perimeter wall. As the sun dropped and the shadows lengthened the crowd grew in number and moved closer to the stage.
We prayed the Rosary as the sun was setting, with each decade recited in a different language: Madi (the local tribal language), Acholi (a neighboring tribe), Pari (another tribe), Arabic and English.
As soon as it was dark enough we began the Jesus Film in Madi. Everyone, and especially the children, crowded close to the screen. It's beautiful to watch how captivating the Gospel story becomes when it's told in one's native language, and observe the spontaneous African responses to the events in the life of Jesus. They clapped when He worked a miracle or expelled a demon and let out a loud cheer when He rose from the dead. As the night wore on the crowd expanded to between 400 and 500 people by the time the film concluded.
Click to enlarge panoramic photo of crowd watching the Jesus Film.
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