God moves in the sacrament of reconciliation!



We first met Abdel when his eleven year old daughter, Madosa, came to our mission base complaining of a toothache. Her family told us that she had been up all night crying. After talking with a priest who knows the family we decided to give them enough money to go to the dentist (the equivalent of about $5). We were also told that Madosa's father, Abdel, was an alcoholic but that he loved his daughter very much and would do anything for her.

Over the next few days, Abdel began working with our mason to complete construction on our bathhouse. After a couple weeks, he told someone in our community that he wanted to start going to Mass again, but he knew he had to go to confession before he could receive communion. That day, he decided to go to confession and come back to the Church. He made his confession on his knees, and was beaming with joy afterwards. It was a beautiful witness of the transforming mercy of God!

On the same night that Abdel went to confession, several teens who were just hanging out at our mission base decided to go to confession as well. Paul gave an impromptu teaching about confession in the chapel and translated an examination of conscience to help them prepare.

The next day, we visited Abdel's house. We know some of his other family members, including his sister Marilyn, a teen who had gone to confession at our first XLT. After talking with the whole family and reading the Bible together, some of his family members said they also wanted to go to confession. We told them to come at 6:30pm. That evening, two of Abdel's family members went to confession, along with another man who had also been at their house that day, and a teenager who had come to charge his cell phone on our porch!

A couple weeks later, Marilyn asked for someone to come pray with her. Two priests from our mission base went to their house expecting just to pray. When they came back that night, both of Marilyn's parents had gone to confession and come back to the Church! It has been amazing to see the transformation that can happen in a family! God has been glorified lately in the sacraments here, and we feel very blessed just to be a small part of that!


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