In our European society, where nationalism and xenophobia
are always a danger, it is urgent that we create links with
real people of other cultures. Young people, who have lived
an experience of discovery and sharing in a southern country,
do not look at situations and happenings in the same way.
They discover the reality of the mission on the spot, beyond
the simplistic stereotypes so common in Europe, and this
marks their lives and their work.
Today
there is a great interest among the youth to discover at
a deeper level the "somewhere else" that many
believe to know through television and tourist trips. Since
several years, more and more young people want to spend
some time in the Third World. They want to meet people who
are different, people of other cultures. They want to help
out a bit and give some time (two months to a year), to
meeting and sharing in order to enlarge their horizons.
The
'Groupe Romand', (Swiss French-speaking group) of Missionary
Orders, of which the MSOLA are members, set to work looking
for places to receive them. Travel/Sharing was born.
Twice
a year, the old members meet the new ones and tell them
about their experiences, their discoveries and what they
have received from these trips. Those who are ready to leave,
share their fears and hopes... and the link is made. A core
group of young people ready to give some of their time to
Travel/Sharing was formed to lend a helping hand when needed.
This
kind of experience allows us to create links and openings.
Young people who have lived for some time in a mission come
back transformed. Their vision of the world and of Southern
Countries has changed. This often leads to their engaging
in missionary activities here at home or in the Third World.
Interest is awakened. The testimonies of the young people
who return are often impressive. Some rediscover their faith
and realise that they too are able to give themselves for
others, without counting their pain.
Having
been confronted with social problems, poverty and even misery,
the young people come back much more aware of local and
international injustices. They feel obliged to keep in touch
with the new friends they have made and they encourage sharing
in their own neighbourhoods.
We,
who are animators, often notice that their values have changed.
Some make decisions which they would never have dreamed
of before leaving. Their Christian faith has been put into
question vis-à-vis the options and religious practices
they have witnessed. For example: a nurse who now never
leaves for work in the hospital before having spent twenty
minutes in silence and prayer.
These
testimonies from the young people, these pearls, are for
me, an expression of gratitude for the work which I accomplish
with great pleasure and joy.
This
is another way of doing missionary animation, .a new way
to awaken vocations for the mission. We have before us a
new phenomenon. The young people ask the Church to help
them. Today it is important that we missionaries provide
an answer to their appeal. But for that, we need the young
Churches, the communities that work in Africa.
Through
Travel /Sharing, the young Churches of the South can give
a real service to the Churches of Europe by helping our
young people to enlarge their horizons. In fact, at the
present time, when more and more often, cultures find themselves
side by side, we see a rise in racism, fear and suspicion.
That is why it is urgent to create personal links. The young
people who have had the experience of discovering and sharing
in another culture have a different outlook on events and
on strangers in their home countries.
For
us, missionaries, who can be a link between the cultures,
we have here an action plan for the future: to facilitate
mutual encounters, helps to extinguish all the violence
which comes from not knowing the other.
