Our first youth mission in the Holy Land

Young people take part in a mission in Jordan for the first time.

From August 20th to 27th a group of 6 young Christian Arabs from different towns of Galilee, along with 4 missionaries and a Melchite priest, took part in a mission in Jordan. It is a Muslim country with a Christian minority. The mission took place in the parishes of Amman: Marka and Hashme.

Our young people accepted the challenge of leaving their comforts behind and going out to meet another reality. We spent the first days with the children and then we began visiting families. The strongest moment of encounter with Jesus was the prayer vigil.

The youth group of the diocese of Amman collaborated with us. They transmitted joy in their self giving and availability and we felt united in the same spirit. We are witnesses to how Jesus moves young people to proclaim the gospel and offer themselves; they are waiting to be asked and ready to be hired at any time. It does not matter if it is to take food to needy families or paint the Church’s playground. The important thing is that everyone feels necessary for Jesus. They threw themselves into things they had never done before, such as giving a testimony in front of people or leading a moment of prayer while visiting a house.

We finished with a small retreat on Mount Nebo. We have begun to glimpse God’s promise to us: that the missionary seed will grow in these young people and in those who want to join our project of a missionary group.

I am going to leave you with the sharing of one of the young participants: “I have discovered that self-giving is just as important as my engineering studies.” We have a lot of ideas for other missionary activities that can attract more young people. It’s when we begin to act that we discover how much we have to give and that the world is waiting for us!!!

clwakeling2Our first youth mission in the Holy Land