Mission Team 6: Torit 3

We were blessed with beautiful weather for the final day of evangelization activities in Torit. The sun was bright – and hot! – and the skies very blue. We began as usual in the late afternoon; this time, though, the setting sun illuminated the “stage” on the steps in front of Mercy House. The heat of the day made for a slower start of the activities; but, again, as dusk settled and the air became cooler, more and more people began to arrive.

The day’s specific emphasis for the overall theme of “Why Be Catholic?” was the Communion of Saints, and in particular the role of Mary. Carol Restaine shared a very moving testimony of her own discovery of the maternal love of Our Lady. I followed up by speaking about St. Bakhita’s journey from slavery and suffering to love and freedom in Christ.

With the help of Rosann Mucciolo we were able to print 5000 copies of a holy card of St. Bakhita to distribute during the mission trip. We handed them out to the crowd of 2000 or more people who had gathered just before beginning a dramatized video account of St. Bakhita’s life. Amazingly, at the end of the evening I did not see even one that had been thrown away or dropped on the ground. We asked each person who received the card to consider it as a personal invitation to holiness, a holiness that St. Bakhita proves is possible for all Sudanese.

Once again it was fascinating to see so many people captivated by what they were seeing on the screen, including many young men. The video presentation was good, but not of the quality of a major motion picture. The crowd, however, remained glued to the screen while standing for over an hour. One of the factors that seems to have helped these days have such an incredible impact was that in each of the videos we showed, the Jesus film in the Lotuko language, and the stories of the Uganda martyrs and St. Bakhita, there was something with which the people of Torit could identify on a very personal level.

As I was walking through the crowd during the film, I ran into Margaret, a local parishioner and member of the evangelizers group. She said that the whole town of Torit was buzzing about what was happening at Mercy House. She said she had encountered people on the street telling others, "Go there and see; there's something good happening!"

(Click on the panoramic image of the crowd and stage to enlarge.)






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