Quite some time has passed since we last had regular reports from Silva and Nace Volčič. Those who have followed Operando from the beginning know that Operando began with the start of their journey around the world.
The First Year’s Travels in Europe
After founding the association, they began their missionary journey in Europe.
They lived in Italy, in the L’Arche community in Rome, where they worked with people with intellectual disabilities.
They continued in France, where they distributed food to the homeless in the middle of Paris.
In Ukraine, they wrote about the homeless in Kiev and the drug and alcohol addiction community in Odessa. As we know, both cities are severely affected today by the war.
In Lithuania, in Vilnius, they lived and worked again in the community of L’Arche, where they also completed their first year of travel.
Year Two was dedicated to Asia
The following year, they set off on a journey through Asia.
In the Philippines, they met one of the poorest quarters in the capital city of Manila: Navotas.
In Vietnam, they lived and worked in an English kindergarten. In Laos (in the capital, Vientiane), they met the community of missionaries and wrote about the experience of working on their missions.
For three months, they stayed in Thailand, Mai Sot, on the border with Myanmar, where they worked among the Karenians (the dominant people in this part of the country).
They continued their journey in Bangladesh, where they helped in the community for homeless and abandoned children from Bengal streets.
They completed their one-year Asian journey in Calcutta India, where they worked as volunteers for one month in one of the local orphanages.
Year Three: Missions in South America
They dedicated their third year of travel to South America. At the invitation of a missionary there, they travelled to Brazil, where they spent several months learning about the lives of people in the favelas of Hortolandia, São Paulo.
In Paraguay, they helped in Auntie’s garden, in a kitchen for poor children and elderly residents in one of the favelas of the capital city of Asuncion.
In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, they were received by missionaries of the El Camino community. For a month, they visited homeless people on the streets of the capital, young prisoners and people in the poorest communities on the outskirts of the city.
Then they took their journey in the Amazon region of Peru, to missionaries of the claritians in the city of Atalaya. With them, they visited small Native American communities deep in the primeval forests.
They completed their year of travel in Colombia in the city of Riosucio, where missionaries Claretins also work. There they experienced the harsh reality of war and wrote about the danger they found themselves in.
When they returned to Slovenia, the pandemic halted their journey for a while, but very soon they returned to Colombia. The purpose of this journey was to perfect their Spanish, as they felt their work would continue in South America.
Back on the Road
And now they finally traveling again. Silva and Nace are returning to the Amazon of Peru and will once again, share updates on their journey every week. We look forward to varied, instructive, and dynamic stories about the places and people they will meet – all that God will send on their way.
Next week, you can expect their first contribution from the new stage of the mission journey. Until then, you can read how native populations in the Peruvian Amazon reacted to Europeans for the first time they traveled there.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who support Operando with donations and prayer so that we can work, serve and witness—in a world often far away from God, among people who are often far away from themselves.
With the true stories of life – both the people of the periphery and those whom we help – and the prayers we publish, including the daily morning prayer, we want to help you to keep your gaze on the Lord and not give in to doubts, fears and concerns.
Stay in touch with us. Let’s stay connected.
