Precious lives

Some time ago we welcomed a journalist from TV2000 who chose to tell our experience in a documentary made for Easter. The red thread that was proposed to us was that of water as a source of life. For us it was an opportunity to look at the "Paschal" dimension that is present in the mission and service we live.

Jordan is one of the countries in the world where water is scarce, every drop is precious. Over the years, we too have equipped ourselves with rainwater collection tanks, tap filters, drip irrigation ... so that nothing goes to waste.
On the other hand, the earth is very fertile, it knows how to exploit every milliliter of the little
which is given to her.
A broken water pipe along the road is enough for grass to grow in the surrounding land, a rainy day for small plants to sprout in the cracks in the asphalt.

For us, this is also a good sign of the service we do here: the image of the flower that blooms in the desert reminds us that any drop of water, of life that we are able to bring can truly germinate in the people who they receive it.
Being together as a family for those who knock on the door of the Arsenale is like a small fountain of fresh water in a thirsty ground. In a deserted place you see all the urgency and importance, and this pushes you to roll up your sleeves (physically but above all in your heart) and to try every day with the little we have, with our efforts but also with all our faith .

This year marks 20 years that as Sermig we are present on a stable basis
in Jordan with a fraternity that lives here. When we arrived there was still little awareness and a lot of closure regarding disability, but the desire to create paths of welcome and integration was beginning to arise. For us it was very nice to make ourselves available to this desire. Through the services that the Arsenale offers, we try to bring out the beauty within everyone. It is very nice to see how everyone manages to enter a new harmony over time: many are shy and closed when they arrive, it is difficult to communicate ... and gradually - even through manual and playful activities ranging from art to agriculture, from mosaics to music – they become familiar with themselves and with others and are able to express and communicate, each in their own way, what they feel and who they are. Their changes move us. It is they, apparently the smallest and least "capable",
to let us touch first hand that being reborn is possible.
And they question us whenever it seems to us that we cannot change, they question us in our inability to communicate at times and to communicate with each other.

Looking at life at the Arsenale we have come to say that deep down it is a bit as if we were given the gift of living an Easter experience every day. Every day those lives
that you expect "little vital" are there to testify how much life they have inside. Every day we get up with the desire that the suffering we will encounter and welcome is a path to resurrection. Because there is a new life that enters everyone's life to the extent that they feel welcomed, loved, desired and expected as they are. This is also the personal experience that we have lived and we live: the greatest moments of restart occur when you feel hopelessly loved as you are and for who you are,
not for what you think
to have to be.
It is this love that allows your life to be reborn.

We are very grateful for this occasion which has made us look at our daily life with resurrected eyes. May our arid land always allow itself to be visited and irrigated by the Living Water of Easter, so that the Lord can make it sprout in us every day
his new life.


Arsenal of the match
NP May 2023