"Faith makes all things possible...love makes all things easy."
-Dwight L. Moody
BORIVLI, NOVEMBER 23, 2010:Like every year, this year too the Sunday school children of std. VII & VIII were looking forward for their Mission trip to Talsari, as a part of their Sunday school syllabus.
On November 18, fifty eight children of the VII and VIII class, accompanied by Fr. Allwyn & the animators – Brian D’souza, Adriel, Jophin Mathai & Elvira Gonsalves left for what can be aptly called as a two days faith formation-cum-mission camp to Talasari. The basic purpose of this camp was to bring the children into first-hand contact with the hardships of the people living in these villages and the zeal and enthusiasm with which our missionaries are working there to bring about a change vis-a-vis education and rural development.
On reaching Talasari, we were introduced to Fr. Dion who is one of the Jesuit priests working there in the mission at Dnyanmata Sadan. He elucidated in a loving manner to the children about the history and the culture of the people living there. It was interesting to see many of the curious children asking him questions and taking down notes .A similar routine followed when we met Fr. Vincy who is the Director at Dnyanmata Sadan.
After lunch children were divided into two groups which left for the village visits, where we were given a grand welcome with aarti & kumkum and this made us feel very special. The school we visited had put up an exclusive program for us with Prayer dance, cultural dance & some others as well. The most appreciative part was that in spite of children having their Diwali holidays, they were all present in clean & tidy school uniform only to give us this warm welcome. The visit to the villages ended by a performance of their tribal dance known as "Tarpa" and some of us even joined in with them.
Our children were exposed to the difficulties faced by so many of the village children of their age which made them realize how privileged they are compared to them .Our children had brought gifts like notebooks, pens &; other stationery which was presented to the Supervisor of the schools.
In the evening we prayed the rosary and after dinner we enjoyed the campfire where the groups presented their skits on different topics given by their animators.The next morning after breakfast we visited Dayanand hospital which is run by the Canossa sisters. We were guided by Mother superior, Sr. Paulina an Italian nun who came to India as a missionary in 1968. It was surprising to see how fluently she converses with the inmates of the hospital in Marathi language being an Italian. We were shown the good work they are doing and how the health of the people and their attitude towards diseases like leprosy has improved over the years. We returned from Talasari enriching ourselves with that “FAITH” which makes all things possible.
Special Thanks to Fr. Ronnie, our parish priest who has been leading us to give the children this kind of real life experiences of faith & love along with the Sunday school knowledge that we share. Not to forget Fr. Allwyn & his endless support & enthusiasm due to which we are glad that our children got an opportunity to witness the life & struggle of the humble villagers & the zeal of the missionary priests & nuns looking at which at least some of them may be inspired by God to be laborers in His vineyard.