Lubumbashi, DR Congo - Fr Alphonse Owoudou, Councillor for the Africa-Madagascar Region, visited the community of the St Francis de Sales Institute of Theology in Lubumbashi from 21 to 25 November as part of his Extraordinary Visitation to the Province of Central Africa (AFC). It is a community of 42 Salesians: five formators and 37 young Salesians in formation preparing for priestly ministry. It is an international and inter-district community that brings together Salesians from 6 nations: Burundi, Uganda, Congo-Brazzaville, Guatemala, Italy and Congo-Kinshasa; and 4 circumscriptions: Africa Great Lakes (AGL), Africa Congo (ACC), Mozambique (MOZ) and Central Africa (AFC). Since this year, the Institute of Theology has become a faculty of the young Don Bosco University in Lubumbashi (UDBL), which is also open to external religious students. Fr Owoudou met personally with the Salesians, conversing with them with great openness and encouraging them to bring their talents to bear, not to be afraid to develop their own sense of creativity and put it at the service of the Congregation. "And if Christ had been afraid, and if the apostles had been afraid, and if Don Bosco had been afraid" said the councillor, "how would it have been possible to proclaim the Gospel to poor and abandoned young people?". Fr Owoudou also met, employees in the house as a group, and the young people at the oratory, to whom he addressed the traditional Salesian goodnight thought on the afternoon of 22 November. For all, the Regional Councillor’s visit was a moment of reflection, renewal and encouragement to continue on the path of vocational growth.