The Journey Continues in the Masaka Diocese

Asher Kaufman, age 18, set out on June 28 for a yearlong trip to help spread the Children's Rosary in Europe and Africa. He spent the months of July, August and the first two weeks in September in France. He arrived in Uganda on September 15. He grew up helping the Children's Rosary and participating in it. He now is helping to spread the Children's Rosary to more parishes and schools. He is also discerning a vocation to the priesthood and has applied to the seminary through the Archdiocese of Hartford. Please keep both his trip and his vocation in your prayers. He has been sharing dispatches from the trip. 

"On September 24, we went back to the Lukaya parish to visit St. Jude's School there. We arrived early for the 8:00 am Mass with the whole school, and then we proceeded into an open area behind the school to recite the rosary. The children knelt down, and we prayed a very well-led rosary together. The coordinator, Teacher Nalukumbi Jane Frances, was very enthusiastic about starting up the Children's Rosary again. We then hit the road again, this time in the direction of Kyamulibwa. Before I speak about our visit there, I want to say a few words about the roads we have spent so much time traveling on. I must say I was not prepared for the kind of ride one receives, especially on country lanes in rural areas. Even in the centers of many towns, the roads are often dirt roads with large gaps and potholes that necessitate slow driving and quick avoidance. Many times, not only are you bumping up and down vertically but swerving side to side often into the oncoming traffic to avoid some of the bigger holes. Even when roads are paved, they often have large holes that necessitate evasive action. In the case of the road to Kyamulibwa, it was a dirt road the whole way. On such roads, there is often a thick layer of dust particularly when it has not rained in a few days. When you are the only car on the road, it is easy to miss how much dust the car kicks up, but when a large truck passes you going the other direction, one has the impression of being in a small sandstorm. For a few moments, you lose all bearings like a ship in the fog. Sometimes, in villages or cities on such roads, there are so many cars and bodabodas (small motorcycles that are much more numerous than cars here that people hire like taxis) that there lies a pall of dust over the road like smog over an industrial zone. In such cases, even this can become so thick as to impede driving; I remember once when we were looking for a certain address on the side of the road, both Br. Henry and the driver were struggling to see anything to the sides of us. They rolled down the windows and peered futilely into the dense cloud. Upon arriving at Kyamulibwa, the old parish of Fr. Alex Musoke. Fr. Musoke had done much good work in bringing the Children's Rosary there as well as Fr. Musinzi, who is now deceased. The priest there now, Fr. Noah, very kindly took us to see three different schools in his parish. 

Two of them, St. Leonard school (uniforms in yellow) and St. Kizito school, had active Children's Rosary groups already. 

St. Kizito's group was particularly active, with an elected group of students who run it and different teams of children (such as St. Ann's or St. Joseph's team) who take turns leading the prayers. They had a prayer space and an intention box prepared, and all in all it was quite well run. The third school, St. Aloysius, had previously had a Children's Rosary group but had stopped due to the pandemic and other factors. We met with the teachers in charge and with those students in P7 and P6 grades who still remembered the group from when they were younger. They were the pioneers of the group originally, and they will help with starting it up again. The head teacher remained impressed with the Children's Rosary, telling us that in her experience these students who were part of the Children's Rosary group were not like other ones in her school. At the end of the day, we returned to Masaka to visit one more school, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Primary School.

This school is run by the nuns of the Daughters of Mary congregation. There was something very special about this community and their school. 

I felt a great joy coming from the sisters that we met and from the children that were under their care. It was as if they knew they were doing the Lord's work every day and took strength from it. 

The strong relationship between the nuns and the children was evident. The children listened quite eagerly to what we had to say. This school already had a daily rosary, so it will not be difficult at all to officialize the Children's Rosary. Ironically, though Br. Henry and I were both quite exhausted by this point in the day (it was well into the evening), we really hit it off with these students, being extra dynamic in our talks and establishing a good rapport. As I was reflecting on this day, I could not help but be so thankful for the people we had met, not just the new schools wanting to start or restart groups but the ones with groups already. It does happen in this mission that one begins to worry whether many of the groups that have been formed will continue to meet or gradually become abandoned and cease to exist. One can be tempted to try to think one's efforts are largely futile. However, on this day, I saw vibrant groups, groups that loved the Rosary and were transformed by it. For example, at St. Kizito's School, the children took their group so seriously and were so faithful to it that I myself was inspired by their conduct. It was a powerful testament to me that these children and their teachers and animators and the many, many others like them are the ones who feed the movement, and they do so through a love of the Rosary and a commitment to their regular prayer of it. It is God's work ultimately, not mine or anyone else's, and He will guide it in just the way He wishes."

To see all of Asher's dispatches from his journey click HERE