"... Merciful and holy Lord, continue to send new labourers into
the harvest of your Kingdom, assist those whom you call to follow you in our day,
may they respond with joy to the wondrous mission."
John Paul II

The problems of missions in contemporary world are a very often discussed issue in our pupil's environment. As a part of our catechesis, we would like to present the enormous needs of missionary countries to as many young people as we can. We would like to sensitize them to the needs of other people and, what's the most important, to encourage them to pray for those who decided to devote their lives to present the others the truth of the risen Christ.

This year's Mission Week was an opportunity to discuss the whole issue once again during our R.I. classes. At our school the Week started with a Missionary Contest on the knowledge of Africa. The main aim of this contest was to promote the African continent with drawing special attention to the work of Polish missionaries. Despite a very difficult material to learn, more than 30 candidates took part in our competition.

The Missionary Exhibition introduced us to the next aspect of the Mission Week. Every participant could visit it and admire plain dishes, agricultural tools, and marvellous jewellery made of shells used by Cameroonian women. We also had the possibility to watch the film "Children of Africa" in which we could see the image of Africa we hadn't known before, i.e. childhood filled with physical work.

As I have mentioned before, we put emphasis on praying for missionaries. That is the reason why our second-year students prepared a rosary prayer for all who work in far missionary countries. They said it together with parishioners from the St. Lawrence parish during the evening rosary. During the moments of reflection the parishioners could gain some knowledge about the continent in which Polish missionaries had taken up work. They could also take up an internal commitment to remember in their prayers about people working far away from their homes and their families.

The culminating point of the Mission Week was the meeting with a Fr. Missionary who had worked in Togo for several years. Fr. Krystian pointed to the burden of missionary work. He strongly emphasised that missionary work wasn't just an expedition to get to know an exotic country or new trends of life. He explained that missions were a hard work on God's field and that Jesus was the One whom every missionary carried to the remote corners of African bush.

Now it is our turn to share material goods with those who really need it. Our whole student community will decide on the form of doing it.

Every Mission Week organized at our school is for us a huge challenge. However, we have more and more ideas and more and more practice in emphasising this important event in our student community. We are happy that we could once again remind ourselves of the need of bringing Christ to the entire world and we would like to thank all people who helped us in it.

Dr Edyta Bem - the catechist in Vocational School Complex no 1 in Strzelce Opolskie

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