It was a long time since we had been invited to a distant parish celebration.
On the eve of that celebration everything was ready, so we set out on our journey for the distant village very early. We had heard about the difficulties due to the poor road construction and the prevailing weather conditions. We were advised by a lot of people not to take this trip for the aforementioned reasons. However, we had decided to go to the village, as they were expecting us. After doing our cross, we set out. We left the asphalt road and entered the dirt road that would lead us to the village. The first difficulties occurred soon and the car often got stuck in the mud and occasionally rolled. Soon night fell and as we were unable to see clearly, we lost our way. We were moving forward without knowing where we were going. The people we asked did not know how to guide us properly.
Things became really difficult when we found ourselves in the forest, in the unknown. We could see nothing but heaven and earth. We were moving forward praying and putting our hope in the Lord that we would get to the main road. After encountering plenty of difficulties and losing our way twice or three times, we finally managed to get to the main road. To our dismay though, the road was full of mud, and the car, sliding from side to side, finally fell into a big ditch.
It was then that we lost all hope of going forward and decided to stay there for the night, since it was quite dark. Each one of us found a place in the car to sleep in. Early in the morning, we contacted a person from the parish and 3-4 people came to help us. Fortunately, despite the difficulties and the fact that we were immersed in the mud, we managed to get the car out. We all happily went down to the village. We still had a long way to go but we finally got there. The people were waiting for us and everyone was happy for our arrival. After cleaning ourselves from the mud as much as we could, we began the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly and we reached the end of the sacred service. After the dismissal, we gave them our gifts: lots of clothes for every family, which made them very happy. At every celebration that takes place in the parish, the ladies prepare a rich festive meal. We were given the chance to enjoy this good habit of theirs when we all had dinner together as a family. After the meal was over, we made our way back as early as possible to avoid the previous day’s adventures…
† Ignatios of Antananarivo
