World Youth Day Brasil 2013 : A lesson in Trust and Faith in the Lord

My name is Michael Afam-Obanor, I am originally from Nigeria but currently 

residing in the US. I am twenty-two years old. I was born to a Catholic family, but I only 

practiced because my parents demanded that I did, I was never serious or cared much for 

the faith at this point in my life. I moved to the US when I was fifteen, the experience of 

moving came with the normality that accompanies relocation to a place other than your 

place of growth and development. The shock came mostly in the field of how blatant 

immorality was, and also a lack of compassion for ones neighbors. This prompted me to 

come to some sort of reversion a call to return back to the faith. I started out by attending 

meetings at a School Christian group called Students for Christ. From this group I met 

other students who were on fire for Christ and one of these Students invited me to his 

church, a request I gladly accepted and although I enjoyed going to his Church I always 

felt I was not in the right place a feeling that something was still missing, through this 

feeling I started exploring the faith of my birth again and started an intentional quest to 

get to know this faith. Through this exploration by the power of the Holy Spirit I came 

to realize that what was missing was the Catholic faith. This one time event is what gave 

way to my growth and development within the Catholic Faith.

The main reason for this article was to share my volunteer experience from World 

Youth Day (WYD) or Jornada Mundial De La Juventud (JMJ) in keeping with the Spirit 

of the host country’s native language, I felt it proper to first give a brief background 

about who I am and how I came to embrace the Catholic Faith. Below is an excerpt from 

a blog post I wrote to explain my experience on the first day in Rio.

In the course of two weeks I have come to experience the Mystical body of 

Christ in a completely different and profund way, I learned first hand that all borders 

are destroyed when celebrating the Catholic faith, I learned so much on the virtue of 

patience and humility while at the same time understanding our mission to be stewards 

of our faith, words spoken by Jesus in the gospels and reiterated by the Holy Father Pope 

Francis. Two weeks or fourteen days might seem to many as a really short time to learn 

and fully grasp these profound life lessons but unlike sitting and learning in a classroom, 

one learns so much quicker by immersing oneself in whatever it is they are passionate 

about which is exactly what myself and thousands of other international volunteers 

did by going to work in a foreign city where most of the internationals had little if not 

no understanding of the culture of this foreign land. Which brings to mind Christian 

missionaries of times and also gives testament to our call to be Missionaries a term used 

by Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, founder of the Marianist order.

On the fourteenth of July I boarded a plane to Rio de Janeiro to join thousands 

of other volunteers international and national to help make the event World Youth Day 

a success while also participating in a common union of believers to encounter Christ. I 

boarded that plane not knowing what to expect but having my faith and trust in God to 

see me through yet another experience in my life. I boarded that plane with just my task 

designation, no idea of my accommodation or where I would be working, The words 

spoken by Abraham when asked by Isaac his Son where the animal to be slaughtered 

was, and Abraham responded Jehovah Jireh (God will Provide) stayed in my mind 

throughout the process of packing, driving to the airport etc. This simple yet profound 

phrase and my Faith in the Lord is what kept pushing me forward despite having the 

normal human worries of the unknown, like the circumstance of not knowing where I 

would sleep or how I would navigate a country I knew next to nothing about, and only 

thing which was giving me so solace was the info I received which specified I would find 

out this information when I arrived in Rio and went to pick up my volunteer kit.

Landing in Rio at 9 in the morning left me feeling excited as I was actually in 

Brasil live and in person, and in the coming week I will be celebrating the faith with 

millions of people from all over the world. After waiting at the Airport in Rio for an hour 

with some new found volunteer friends among which are the likes of Andrea, Louie, 

Karina, Lucy, Kate, Jesus as well as others, we finally got some transportation to the 

Cathedral which is where we got to experience first hand the chaos and some idea of the 

amount of work the organizing committee had to deal with. A little side note it was a 

good thing everybody there wanted to be there and were willing to stay calm through the 

whole process and work with the organizers, the cooperation level with the volunteers 

was truly remarkable taking into account most of these people had been in a plane for 

more than thirty plus hours a feeling I think would make most people easily irritable.

Back to the scene at the Cathedral, We get to the Cathedral and at first I am surprised 

by the architecture of the Cathedral, which was not your normal European style this 

Cathedral was a Pyramid shape, coming back to my senses from the design of the 

Cathedral, the sight at the cathedral was one full of people with suitcases and flags and 

the national volunteers whose job was to help out with the distribution of the volunteer 

kits.

line so we could receive our kits and in my case get information on my accommodation, 

it is now like ten in the morning. The line was so long and winding that at first it was 

confusing where the line started but we eventually found the start of the line and the wait 

began. During the wait in line, I got into a small chit chat with some of the other people 

who where there and that is when it finally hit me that I needed to switch my 

communication methods simply because not everyone spoke English, the ones who did, 

spoke English but not fluently, as a result from that point on I resolved to only speaking 

Spanish or should I say a few Spanish words and a lot of English words. Hours later we 

hear from someone that the organizing committee had run out of Kits and they wanted 

everyone to go to their places of accommodation and return back the next day, which was 

fine except for the fact that some people had no idea where their place of accommodation 

was. Amidst the chaos that erupted when the above was announced I lost my group and 

made my way to get some help on my living situation, which turned out to be another 

experience all together in itself. I was informed by one of the volunteers I needed to head 

to the basement of the Cathedral, where I could receive better information on my 

situation. This I did and after pushing and shoving my way through crowds of people I 

finally got someone’s attention, a man whom happened to an American which was 

reliving as I could properly express myself. He pointed me to a room which had a list of 

everyone as well as their designated area of work and address, He also added if I did not 

receive help there I could just stick with him for that day.

I made my way to the room the American pointed out to get the information I 

needed, then I went to one of the volunteers working, to get information on how to get 

there, which was a pretty straight forward direction, looking at it now, but taking into 

consideration the fact that it was my first day in the city, the person giving me directions 

communication pattern, and my exhaustion from travelling all day etc,made it seem so 

much more complicated.

After a few wrong stops, speaking in broken Spanish with officials trying to get some 

help as to where I was and needed to go, I finally arrived at the Church I was designated 

to work in. Only to find out the Church was closed, and at this point it is close to ten at 

night, shops are starting to close and I am stuck in the streets of a foreign city with all my 

belongings in a suitcase. This was somewhat of a breaking point for me and I almost lost 

hope, but closing my eyes and remembering the prayer I said before leaving the United 

States "Lord I do not have the slightest idea what I am getting myself into but I do know 

I am going to do your work so therefore I am placing this whole trip and my life in your 

hands and I trust you will see me through it". I opened my eyes and preparing for my 

next course of action I look up and see a pharmacy still open and I decided to try and use 

their phone to call the Church. I head into the pharmacy and this is where I experience 

first hand the accommodating nature of the Brasilian people or in this case the Cariocas 

(People who live in Rio De Janeiro)but I would not be surprised if all Brasilains were 

like that. I walk into the pharmacy and the first words I say to the Clerk is Puedo usar su 

telephono por favor, from the look in the clerks face I saw some concern maybe because 

I was lugging around a suitcase late at night with a look of frustration on my face. He lets 

me use the phone and first I call the Volunteer help line for native English speakers but 

no one answers, then I call the Church Santo Alphonso that I was designated to work, 

unfortunately for me the Priest did not speak any of the languages I had some degree of 

fluency in, this is when the pharmacy clerk comes in. I explain to the clerk to the best of 

my ability my situation in Spanish and ask if he could talk to the priest for me and tell 

the priest my situation. After talking on the phone for a while the clerk comes back and 

relates to me what the priest had said, which were within the parameters of no one is 

supposed to stay here, tell him to go back to the Cathedral where he can be helped since 

the Cathedral was the volunteers point of reference. I think about what the priest had said 

and decide it would be safer to sleep on the steps of the cathedral which was in a fenced 

compound for some reason I have this idea that the Cathedral would closed since it was 

so late at night, after making up my mind the pharmacy clerk takes me outside and hails 

a taxi gives the taxi driver directions on where I was headed, then he hands me a piece 

of paper with his number and tells me if there is any problem I should not hesitate to call 

him.

The taxi ride to the cathedral was a bit awkward because the taxi driver tried to make 

small talk and I could not communicate so I just stared at him nodding my head and 

smiling, we finally arrive at the Cathedral, I pay my taxi fare and proceed to the 

Cathedral steps and prepare myself to sleep, which involved putting my passport and my 

money in my socks leaving small bills in my wallet so if I got robbed the robbers would 

not get too suspicious. Just when I was done preparing myself to sleep a man walks up 

to me, gestures for me to make my way to the front of the Cathedral, which I do only to 

see that it is open and three local volunteers and the director of the volunteers are still 

inside cleaning up. Feeling relived that I did not have to sleep outside, I go and talk to 

the Director of Volunteers and tell him my situation, he apologizes and assures me I will 

have a place to sleep and I do not have to sleep outside, just at that moment a lady walks 

in looking for some volunteers as she was in charge of providing accommodation for 

three volunteers who had not yet arrived or got lost in the chaos of that day, Antonio the 

director of the volunteers tells me to go with her just for that night and the next morning 

everything will be sorted out.

This first day experience was another great way to the see the trustworthiness of 

the Lord, A minuscule experience of the missionaries of old and an idea of what they had 

to deal with but on a larger scale.

Two things I could take away from my first day experience in Rio that I would 

like to share with the audience is this, although life seems to bring you down having faith 

and trust in the Lord makes life more livable. Also the second thing to be taken away is, 

we are not alone in our journey there are so many people especially young people who 

strive to be Jesus to others here on earth in times of doubt remember St Paul when he 

says in Romans 8:28 “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, 

who are called according to his purpose”. This is my first entry and by the grace of God I 

hope to post more articles that addresses different aspects of the faith. I also want to 

apologize for the formal manner this article is written, which is without much regard for 

proper grammatical rules, I figured since I will be talking to peers it would be proper to 

be formal in my approach. Also goodbye for now and may the Father and the Son and the 

Holy Spirit be glorified in all place through the Immaculate Virgin Mary be glorified in 

all places Amen. Also as a postscript props to Jamil for starting this site God Bless you 

brother.

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