Treinta y Tres (Uruguay). From 11 to 14 December 2020, the young people of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) of Our Lady of Treinta y Tres Educational Center, where the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of Immaculate Conception Province (URU) have been present for 40 years, lived a missionary camp to share, in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, their faith and hope with the families of the nearby El Oro area.
The members of the Salesian Missionary Youth, with the animators of the Oratories Laura Vicuña and San Benito, accompanied by the FMA and the educators, contacted the local catechist and the parish priest responsible for pastoral care, who enthusiastically welcomed the initiative. The young people involved their families for the authorization to participate and for the daily transfer by car, in compliance with health provisions.
Every day before leaving for the mission in El Oro, the young people, the educators, and the FMA – Sr. Erica Mora Pereira and Sr. Adriana Silva – met to prepare themselves through a time of reflection and personal and group prayer, which ended with the Eucharistic celebration.
The young missionaries then traveled through the town, sharing their testimony, inviting people to gather in the town square to participate in some pastoral and animation activities, such as preparing and praying the Advent wreath and making Nativity scenes to bring home. Accompanied by an FMA, some young people went to pray and sing in the courtyard of the families who desired them to come.
This initiative left the young people and lay people of this Educating Community with profound joy, certain that their faith and hope in Jesus have been strengthened and multiplied in this exercise of sharing with others. This is why they decided to make the commitment to continue to accompany this small community of the Treinta y Tres countryside.
At the end of this experience, a group of young missionaries together with Sister Erica, will return to visit the town of El Oro, to provide the families who requested them with texts and resources to deepen their faith.
¡Qué lindo grupo! Jóvenes abriendo caminos!