A one day picnic “Salt & Pepper” was organized for the JY Family at the Don Bosco Seminary, 60 kms away from the city on 17th Sep ‘06.

Once we reached there after a comfortable bus journey, we were welcomed by Fr Sebastian who was truly happy to have us in their midst.

The day started with an introduction session where the theme for the day “Salt & Pepper” was explained by Bro Rodney.
One of the interesting things about salt is that when it is used it loses itself. You do not see salt in your food because it makes its contribution and is gone. Salt used on icy highways and streets makes winter travel safe and disappears. In the same way, Christians who are the salt of the earth do not hesitate to give of themselves as they serve their God and their fellow man.
Matthew 5:13 says , “Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted”.
It was an apt theme considering the fact that like salt Christianity is no good if it is not used and when used loses itself. Hence we must not hesitate to give ourselves to serve our God and we must not be afraid to lose ourselves when we do this.
The other aspect of theme – Pepper – is intended to bring forth the fact that we Christians are to be like Pepper – hot-boiling with the fire of the Lord, spreading our essence in the dull and listless world that we live in.

We then participated in the celebration of the Holy Mass by Father Sebastian. It was unlike the usual masses that we normally attend as father made it an interactive celebration. The wonderful celebration touched most of our hearts as when father asked us to close our eyes and ask God what he wants us to change an inner voice inspired by the Holy Spirit revealed it to so many of us and we offered this change to the Lord during Offertory.

This was followed by an ice-breaking session which was fun and also helped us know each other when we were asked to act like God and enumerate the good and bad things about us.

We had a delicious fellowship meal the famous Hyderabad biryani, and were then divided into groups and played a few games which resulted towards highlighting our creative talents and teamwork.

The first game was where each team had to decide on a group theme and present it in the most creative manner possible which resulted in presentations like songs, skits and role plays.
Next we had to present a skit with the themes suggested by the group leaders which were given by way of lots to each team. The themes were basically biblical events like Jonah, Noah’s Ark, Creation, etc. All the groups put in their best efforts to relive these events. A challenging game was when each group was asked to choose a hymn and convert it into an action song. It was interesting to see the various ways in which the hymns were being interpreted into actions.
Next each group was asked to build an altar with bricks, wood, 5 different types of leaves, 10 round stones and a live chicken which was an eventful one. Every group was at their creative best in making the most prayerful altar and then explained the significance of the components of their creation.

A soccer game between the JY team and the Novitiate team was a good one which resulted in the Novitiates winning a tough match which almost resulted in a tie. The grand finale for the day was a treasure hunt which proved to be a good exercise for all.

The tea break turned out to be a mutual introduction session for the Novitiates and JYs and the novitiates were given a brief introduction about Jesus Youth.

On the way back home, when everybody was comfortably seated, tired and ready to leave for home the bus developed some technical snags. Despite repeated attempts of pushing the bus it just would not start. Eventually when the human efforts were in vain and we began interceding a miracle took place where the bus just had to bow to the Lord’s command and everyone reached home safely.

Salt ‘n’ Pepper was time taken out from everyone’s otherwise normal-busy schedule, to mingle & be together with other JY family members outside of the normal environment. This time spent in togetherness helped everyone bond better, relax and to just enjoy themselves.
A complete day of fun and laughter, song and dance and what better way to top it when at the end of the day, the LORD Himself taught us and reminded us all yet again to depend always upon HIS grace and HIS infinite mercy.
Yes !!! Salt ‘n’ Pepper will remain etched in memory for a long time to come !!!!