Dear JYs Ever since I have received a new lease of life, courtesy our great lord, he has made me so much aware of his wonders that my heart can never stop praising.
Last week my brother was invited by a Father from St. Xaviers College to visit a remote village in Manor, Maharashtra. The father was in charge of the Aicuf unit [a catholic youth body of the college, pr.]. On further prodding from my brother the Priest agreed to let me come along. We were to supposed to spend some time with the Advasis [Tribal] Children. So Yesterday morning at 7.00 we all met at Santacruz Station. There were around 30 of us. At around 7.30 the bus arrived. We almost left one of the Priest out thanx to my brother who saw him just in time and we managed to halt to bus. Praise God or else we would have been one Priest less. In two hours we reached a place called The Shanti Seva Mandal which were run by two Jesuit Preists. We all were amazed when we reached here because basically both the Priest are lawyers. They were shouldering the responsibility for fighting for the rights of the tribals. They had released books for the tribals where tribals were educated on law matters. They had also started a boarding and they were giving free education to the Boarders as well as working children who were minor laborers. The one hour we spent there was amazing as they share their joy and experience working for the disadvantage and the threats they received to their life. Infact they even told us of their working experience with Mrs. Navin who was stabbed recently 19 times to death because she was fighting for the tribals. After that we had gone to Manor Village. Now the place we had gone was a hut owned by Mr. Fernandes, a devout christian. Around 25 years in the prime of his youth he had given up all the pleasures of life and shifted into this remote village where he dedicated his life to service of the tribals. Mr. Fernandes runs a boarding for 100 children. Since the children belong to the poor tribals they werent able to afford education. Also they were always faced scarcity of food. So Mr. Fernandes also gave them food, education material, clothings etc. As we neared the village there were many small children who were waiting to greet us and ran alongside the bus. It really touched the hearts of all of us. When we reached here the very first thing Mr. F'des made us all do was visit the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and spend a short time in prayer. After that we were made to mingle with the young children. It was so wonderful. We played games with them. After 1 hour of game they joined us all in celebrating the Eucharist. Though 3/4 of the Mass was in Marathi it really felt wonderful sharing the moment with them. We then ate our food which was prepared by some of young children themsevles. After that in the afternoon we had gone for a swim where we joined by some of the local boys. I can never forget the moment where as I was returning back from the pool and one of the small boys with whom I spoke earlier with just came up with me and caught my hand as I walked back. He seemed so happy just to catch my hand and I just felt like cuddling him. After that we all assembled to give thanks to Mr. Fernandes. We all dug in our pockets to make in a contribution and we managed to contribute around Rs. 4000/- which was amazing considering that most of us were just college going students. Some of us had even donated clothes, stationary etc. In the end as I travelled back in the bus. I couldnt help praising and thanking the Lord for this opportunity. Its was so wonderful. God's love is so wonderful after all. and he cares for all of us. urs in faith Jason Mumbai. ======================================================== Content makes poor men rich Discontent makes rich men poor **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
