De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

I am indeed proud to be a De La Mennais Brother and I want the whole world to know it :-) I'm proud of what we stand for - helping young people to grow as individuals and in particular helping them to come to know and love Jesus Christ. I'm proud of the individuals in our congregation and the marvellous work they do. I'm proud of their dynamism, their dedication, their enthusiasm (even when they are no longer young), their warmth, their prayerfulness, their hopefulness.... I'm proud of our Brothers' communities and the fraternal atmosphere that reigns in them. I'm proud, and I want our congregation to be able to carry on doing it's work which I feel in today's society is ever more relevant and necessary. To give but one example... I know many Brothers who after having reached the end of their professional careers in France at the age of 60 decided to commit themselves to the missions and spend their "retirement" teaching in our missions in, for...

Later on during our last day in Ibanda, Bro. Vincent (the Ugandan Provincial who had come to meet us in his home town) took us to visit his mother and other members of his family. Even as a Brother, he still has an important role to play in his family as eldest son, adviser, settler of disputes, etc... Bro. Michel with Bro. Vincent, his mother (centre front) and other members of his family). The main street in Ibanda. A frequent scene throughout Uganda (and also Togo, visited last year) - bicycles, mopeds, motorbikes by the dozen. The evening's festivities began with an invitation to a scout jamboree led by members of the school's scout group. A bit like the campfire fun and games at Kasasa, we were entertained by dances, songs, sketches, etc... Team Win! members in borrowed scouting gear. And finally... back at the Brothers' community they were waiting to offer us a farewell party with an abundance of food and drink (as you can see below... the drink, at least!). As it was...

Here is a video clip from our time in Ibanda orphanage on day 14 (see previous article). Click on this link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfkeQvvt27E then on "watch in high quality" just under the video window to the right, otherwise the resolution is too low.

Well, it's been a very busy last few weeks, what with doing lots of translation work (French to English) for our Congregation's new magazine, La Mennais Magazine, and of course celebrating my 40th birthday!! which required me to attend a couple of meal celebrations that did end up going on a long time... a real bind, you know! ;-) Anyway, here's another blog bit. ********** Day 14 was our last in Ibanda before going back to Kisubi near the capital Kamapala for the last 2 days. So we tried to fit as much into the one day as possible. I think we did pretty well, but it means there's too much stuff for one article. So here's the first part. We were asked by one of the Brothers if we would like a tour during the morning around the enormous school property and its farm. Team Win! go exploring. Note the seriously big palm trees. Francis leading the way. Some innocent, inquisitive pork-flavoured friends about to be cruelly taunted by Giant Jack T. with shouts of "Baco...

Our Sunday at Ibanda started with a Mass for the whole school. We sat in with the school choir and helped lead the music with a few items of our own (inc. Lord I Lift Your Name On High). We fell in love with some of the infectious Ugandan hymns that often seemed to mix a Gospel "spiritual" style with that of modern English/American charismatic hymns. And here as a sample of what I mean is a little video clip from the Mass that will be on the tour video that I hope to finish editing sometime before Christmas (over 5 hours of footage from different sources to whittle down!). And a photo from the same Mass. A local hotel owner and entrepreneur whose son goes to our school in Ibanda and who is a good friend of the Head Teacher, Bro. George, invited us for lunch in his hotel... quite a surreal experience. Such an elegant building with immaculate grounds. We all enjoyed the meal and the welcome we received, but I think we were also perhaps just a little embarrassed and awkward, giv...