During the Easter octave, the traditional mission trip of the brothers took place. This year, it was held in the region of Wolaita, more precisely in Hadero. After more than 13 hours on the road, and several adventures on the way, we were able to arrive at our destination, and were warmly welcomed by Aba Abiot (from the community of the Capuchin Friars Minor) accompanied by some young people from his parish.

In this region where the population is mostly young and materially deprived, we met simple people whose charity particularly impressed us. The fear of God and the thirst to know Him are characteristics that we could see in the young people and even in the children on the day of the mission.  The small parish of Saint Padre Pio in Hadero, built by a faithful, was the place of the mission. Several young people mobilized by their young pastor Aba Abiot, made the trip from the neighboring villages to participate in this day.

Two teachings were given by the brothers. The first one took up the teaching of the pope during his meeting with the young people during his trip to Congo. It was a way for us to exhort them to live their faith by highlighting the importance of prayer, of commitment to community life, of witnessing to life as a Christian, of the place of forgiveness and of service. And the second talk, on the Divine Mercy, was a preparation to live well the Divine Mercy Sunday that they were going to celebrate the Sunday after the mission. These two teachings nourished the faith of the participants.

After that, we shared lunch, a time of games, followed by adoration with the recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. During adoration we offered confession. We ended our day with a little local touch with the traditional “bunna ceremony”.