Sorry it's been so long since the last post. The marathon that started in Uganda continued in Sudan and Kenya! We arrived back in Torit on Sunday 12 December. There was a lot to catch up, including some small construction projects still being done on the property. I left for a brief trip to Kenya on Wednesday 15 December and returned the following Monday 20 December. The purpose of the trip was to make some preparatory arrangements in light of the upcoming referendum in Sudan, just in case of any "disruptions" that might occur. By the time I got back preparations for Christmas were in full swing.
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| Eastern Equatoria State Governor Louis Labong Lajore reading at Christmas Day Mass in Torit. |
Christmas Day turned out to be a very beautiful celebration of the Birth of Christ for us. Fr. Sylvester was asked to be main celebrant at the English Mass in Torit Town. All the stops were pulled out for this celebration. Everyone was dressed in their finest. The shelter where Mass is celebrated was decorated beautifully. The choir had been rehearsing for weeks and were dressed in formal black and white. And the church was packed.
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| Fr. Sylvester celebrating Christmas morning Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish. |
My experience was a little different, but no less beautiful. I celebrated Mass in the local prison in the context of a larger ecumenical gathering. The inmates were extremely attentive and very responsive. We had been able to pick up 250 bars of soap during our trip to Uganda, which were distributed to the prisoners later that day. A local benefactor made it possible for meat to be served at the main meal that day. Being in a setting like that was a reality check for me, and helped me to understand a little better the impact of the Incarnation.
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| Children at the orphanage watching an animated version of the Christmas story. |
Later in the afternoon we went with five youth to an orphanage on the outskirts of town. An American couple, Kevin and Sheleen, are helping a local Evangelical pastor, Romano, build a home for 32 orphaned or neglected children who were in danger of becoming victims of human trafficking. The setting is beautiful and the atmosphere very peaceful. We showed the children an animated version of the Christmas story that the youth helped to translate, then colored pictures of Jesus and Mary and the Christmas angel.
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| Coloring a picture of Jesus and Mary. |
Kevin and Sheleen told us a very moving story about the newest child who just come to the orphanage a few days before Christmas. He's from one of the border tribes, and apparently the child's father had killed his mother, then left the child behind to fend for himself at the border crossing. Kevin and Romano had made five trips with truckloads of construction supplies to build the orphanage in the preceding months, and the soldiers and officials at the border had been very helpful. Now it was their turn to ask a favor of Kevin and Romano: to take this abandoned child to the orphanage they were building. As it turned out there was one space left that they had been waiting to fill, and this was obviously the child for whom it was intended.
The little boy's name? Emmanuel - one of the names for Jesus, which means "God is with us" (Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 7:14).
We were very grateful to share a delicious Christmas dinner with Kevin, Sheleen, their infant daughter Abigail, and Pastor Romano and his family.
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| Using fire in Helio to dry the drums newly re-skinned for Christmas. |
The day after, Holy Family Sunday, we travelled to Helio for Mass, where once again everyone was decked out in their Christmas finest. The Gospel focused on St. Joseph, so we were very glad to show the outstanding Italian-made film about him, Joseph of Nazareth. He's an incredible example of what it means to be a Christian man, husband and father.
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