Turin (Italy). From 23 July to 28 August 2024, 20 young people, a Daughter of Mary Help of Mary Help of Christians Province (IPI) and eight Salesians of Don Bosco of the Special Circumscription Mary Help of Christians (ICP) have completed the “In the Heart of the World” journey, with a missionary month in the Salesian houses present in Lithuania, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Kenya.
There are about 300 young people from the Provinces of Europe who in summer 2024, accompanied by FMA, lived a missionary experience.
The experience of a summer on mission does not come out of nowhere. The formation course saw young people engaged for a whole year, with the goal of “equipping” them through meetings aimed at developing in them personal openness: called and sent, ready to serve as communities in mission lands with the Salesian style.
The primary purpose of a missionary is to bring within the lived experience in remote villages or urban peripheries, the sign of God’s closeness. An experience that can certainly reserve “surprises” in the short term, but also that help to discover the joy of a life that is simple and without haste and touch other realities that are not lived in the context that you come from.
More than “doing”, the young people of the missionary groups stood alongside the Salesians, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and the animators who are already working in the various destinations to carry out a kind of summer animation – camps, youth summer, liturgical celebrations, Salesian and vocational celebrations. They have made a strong experience of community and above all, offered their free time, without illusory expectations, marked by the humility of those who realize that in other contexts, everything that we think we know is not so useful, But you learn new things and are enriched.
When you return, does life change? In the stories of young people, after the mission, you can feel that something has moved in them, has changed. The hope is that this experience will be for young people who have lived it, not only a seed of change, but of transformation and decisive choices, wherever they are, in their professions and with their families.
Testimonies of the groups on Instagram
Brochure of the Journey “In the heart of the world” 2024-2025
