Word: mekendu
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...Mekendu wants his visit to Australia to benefit the young people he works with, too. Many are on the path he says he once took - of idleness, alcohol, drugs and crime. "I was in their shoes and I have come out," he says. "Now I want to help raise them out of bad activities." He's had some successes: three of the youths in Sydney with him are ex-prisoners made good. The World Youth Day experience has made him want to work even harder. "While I'm here, I can't just do sightseeing," he says. "I have...
Between events at World Youth Day in Sydney, presided over by Pope Benedict XVI, many of the Roman Catholic pilgrims shop for souvenirs, call home on their cell phones or sip cappuccinos at outdoor cafes. Others, however, find that money is tight. For Cyprian Mekendu, just getting to Australia took a miracle of sorts. Like many young Papua New Guineans, he has no paid job. He lives by selling vegetables from his food garden outside the capital, Port Moresby. But, says the volunteer youth worker, he never gave up hope: "Jesus said, 'Whatever you ask in my name, I will...
...instantly, though. It took two years, a lot of fund raisers and many pleas for donations before Mekendu and 13 others from his parish finally had their fares. Now they're camping in a Catholic-school hall. It's the first time any of them have been to Australia. "It's really overwhelming," says Mekendu, who's wearing a woolen beanie and a couple of T-shirts under his track suit; it's also his first experience of winter...
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