Young Chileans, Peruvians and Bolivians overcome borders in missionary encounter

Within the framework of the “Artisans of Unity” program, four students from the Catholic University of Chile, along with five young people from the Bolivian Catholic University San Pablo, and 20 from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, carried out a missionary experience in Manchay ( Peru).

This is a project that aims to establish ties in scientific, cultural, economic and social matters, within the framework of an Interinstitutional Cooperation Agreement of the three study centers.

The young Chileans who participated in this experience are María Paz Wahl, engineering student; Agustina Rosales, from the Commercial Engineering major; Teresita Ochagavía, law student; and Vicente Tapia, Communications student.

The experiences with the people of the community were so profound that one of the students was chosen as the Baptismal godmother of a child she met at that time.

In the first days, the Chilean young people were accompanied by Teresita Burcjhardt, coordinator of Pastoral Development at the Catholic University of Chile, who, as collected The Pastoral website of the Catholic University of Chile explained: “They are all volunteers who have participated in different Pastoral projects and have demonstrated a commitment to the evangelizing mission of the Church.” Their missionary experience was taken into account when selecting them as participants.

Father Brain Ed de la Cruz Riguetti, director of the University Pastoral Advisory Center of the Catholic University of Peru, explained that the young people participated in many activities such as local community sports, workshops, visiting the elderly, and helping in the ordinary jobs of local families.

“On the other hand, they carried out tree planting works through an organization there called Manchay Verde. We also participated in some parish activities and what the place celebrated, such as national holidays and the activities around them,” he explained. Another of the important ties during the mission days was with the local parish.

Furthermore, the mission had the purpose of immersing oneself in the daily life of Manchay to experience “the faces of poverty,” said the priest, “faces that will become visible in the day-to-day life of what people do, from going and knowing what happens in the square, in the interactions, in the jobs, in the markets.”

The bond was such that one of the young Chileans, María Paz Wahl, received a special request: to be the Baptism godmother of a child from the community.

“In the workshops I had had a very nice conversation with this little boy named Rodrigo. We talked about faith and God and the Church. And I had invited him to the baptism Mass. When he arrived at Mass that day, he went with his parents and their faces lit up and they asked us if Rodri could be baptized too. Since the only thing he was missing was a godmother, he asked me to be me. It was very exciting, in some way I feel like God wanted a little piece of me to stay in Manchay,” he expressed.