Thinking Of Christmas - Oblate Mission Associates

Joe Devlin, OMI (centre)
I arrived in Aucayacu as pastor in 1999. Having had a
good experience forming 82 small Christian communities in
Chincha between 1990 and 1998, I hoped to do the same in
Aucayacu. It took a year to prepare the facilities – a parish hall
and lodgings for people from distant villages.
In September 2000 we had our first retreat and a couple
of communities were born. There were pastoral activities and
groups in the parish. One of them is Family Catechesis. This
is a First Communion program involving the parents who prepare
their own children for the sacrament. The parents meet
weekly in groups of 10 couples to prepare the teaching that
they pass on to their children. On Saturday or Sunday, young
catechists meet with the children to celebrate what they have
learned. We also have the Holy Childhood program that prepares
children to share their faith with other children.
In 2005, I was on the move again. I became bursar of the
Oblate delegation and moved to the Centre House in Lima. In
2007, I was assigned to Chincha and I was living there when
the devastating 7.9 earthquake struck on Aug. 15. A year later,
I returned to Aucayacu as pastor.
Two Oblate scholastics, Leonard Aguirre and José
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