Like a mustard seed

As young people in a populous society that has witnessed great turmoil and unrest throughout the past few years, we feel the heavy responsibility that rests on us. We see the gap between the rich and the poor persistently getting larger and larger and together with various Christian charitable associations, we strive to fill that gap even if these efforts aren’t always met with gratitude or even support.

It’s been very easy to become aware of this reality and see how many people have lost hope and how they sometimes feel abandoned by the rest of the society. In a highly populated country like Egypt, It is sometimes hard to distinguish between what is right and what is acceptable, because what is acceptable by the majority of the society doesn’t have to be inherently right or good according to our Christian faith.

This high rate of disappointment that grew in the hearts of the young people after they figured out that change was not as easy as it sounded and that the core of change is in fact changing one’s self. We find our mission is to make clear the path that eventually leads to true change of the heart, the spirit and then reality. However, supplying these needs, that are steadily growing, requires making sure that our ways would be effective enough with the young people involved. And this end is impossible to achieve or reach without making of ourselves living examples for care and affection with enthusiasm towards those who need them.

Today, VMY is one of the best known Catholic associations that don’t only serve in the Christian community but also in the Egyptian society as a whole. In Alexandria, VMY Festival is the second largest annual festival in the city. The local group that hosted the event since 2008 found out how to reach to the hearts of families and plant happiness and peacefulness in the hearts that are varied by religious and political beliefs. In Cairo, and in spite of all the problems that the city has witnessed, the two groups continue to serve with great enthusiasm and effectively developed the formation program. The groups in Asyiut are constantly growing and they’re working on more than one service program that aims to helping the poor, the orphans and the widowed and spreading the spirit of charity.

These successes aren’t always easily achieved. I remember the numerous times when we were told that this effort is in vain or these projects are pointless. We find ourselves required to meet ignorance with care and patience even if the fruits of our work don’t appear instantly because sometimes the problem is too complicated to be utterly solved and our role in that case becomes limited in helping the situation not becoming worse than it is. Our key to success is the belief that all efforts are fruitful even if the results are sometimes not visible or less than expected because our existence and work in our society is itself a visible result of Christ’s work in the hearts of young people as we hold the belief that charity is not just a choice but an obligation to any Christian who is aware of his/ her faith.

On the other hand, disappointments have taught us a lot especially in the previous couple of years when it was very hard for the groups to function easily or even to meet during the disturbances. Our job in these hard times was to give the members hope and to make hope believable and sustainable even in the worst case scenarios because their job later took another step to spread this hope and to make people wonder why we were that optimistic. This happened on many instances and was very obvious when we saw people joining us in our group prayers shared on social media and the incredible interaction that took place later. That was the reason why many have been encouraged to say that they still believe that all things should turn at a point to be better and more peaceful and that belief is what we struggle to keep up till now.

One of our main goals in this period is to pay good attention to the challenges that young people face in our society these days and alternatively overcome these challenges by working on the development of our formation program in a way that suits the constantly increasing ideological needs.
As Vincentians we keep reminding ourselves of the good impact that people like Saint Vincent, Saint Luise and Frederick Ozanam have left on the future of their societies in times when the social conditions weren’t at their best. However, they never forgot that the mustard seed which is the smallest of all seeds grows so large that birds can rest in the shade of its branches.

To Jesus with Mary,

Andrew Wagdy

VMY, Egypt