Making a new friend

An African sister was just one pew ahead of me at Mass yesterday at the Cathedral. I saw that she wore the lanyard and name badge of a conventioneer--the lanyard proclaimed "THE YEAR OF THE GIRL 2012." After Mass I asked if she had a few minutes to tell me what she was involved with. Turns out, Sister Hilda is a member of a diocesan congregation in Zimbabwe, and she is in town as a chaperone for a group of "Girl Guides" (yes, they are still around!) for an international conference of girls' scouting organizations. Evidently the Girl Guides and the Girl Scouts dominate the occasion. Ordinarily, Sister Hilda is teaching 2nd grade in her community's school (they also run a high school, an orphanage and a hospital, about 42 km from the nation's capital of Harare). But for now she is engaged in some sort of effort on the international level to have girls recognized as human beings. Sister asked where she and her girls could get cell phones to use--so this evening I will meet Sr Hilda again at Mass, and we will head down to Radio Shack to see what fits the bill. I figure it is part of my ministry as a Daughter of St. Paul to serve not only as an agent of direct evangelization, but as a technology advisor to people in ministry!

As we walked together back to the Marriot where all this is happening, we were met at a corner by some tourists who had also been at Mass: two moms and their kids, ages 12 down. The youngest, a boy of seven, was jumping with joy that he had been able to visit and receive Jesus. In fact, the group had only been to the Cathedral to make a short visit to the Blessed Sacrament, but stayed for the whole Mass. Even more interestingly, they not only know our sisters in St. Louis (where they are from), one of the moms said she has two or three copies of my book for children's adoration! All in all, it made for a pleasant evening, and one--I hope--with a long future.