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New life for Don Bosco’s work in West Africa
At the beginning of January 2003, Fr Francis Preston, our British Provincial, was at a meeting in Ghana concerned with our missionary work in West Africa.
Before returning to England, Fr Francis flew to Nigeria and visited the young men at Ondo who are hoping to become Salesian priests and brothers. He sent the following message on Tuesday 7th January:
Today after a good night's sleep I celebrated Mass at 6.30 a.m. for the novices and prenovices. I spent the first part of the morning exploring the facilities inthe Salesian compound. The second half of the morning I spent talking to the novices and prenovices. There is a very strong and impressive Salesian presence here. This afternoon I was given a tour of Ondo town and I visited two of the churches in the town that the Salesians serve. Tomorrow I am spending the day at Akure, the state capital. It is about an hour's journey away and there is another Salesian community there. On Thursday I am giving the novices and prenovices a morning of recollection. On Friday I return to Lagos and from there I travel back to Accra.
I have been given a great welcome by the community and I already feel very much at home. The majority of the community are from Italy so as you can imagine I am enjoying the pasta and practising my Italian!
Fr Silvio Roggia SDB, the Director of Novices at Ondo, has sent these photographs of Fr Francis and the young novices and pre-novices. We pray that God will guide them in His ways and send us many generous young people to continue Don Bosco’s work in Great Britain as well!
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