date: 27.03.2015.
A married couple, Yvette and Armand Joseph Grah from the Ivory Coast, have been bringing pilgrims to Medjugorje. Yvette heard about Medjugorje from a book she was reading and decided to come on a pilgrimage with her husband. Yvette recalled the first organised pilgrimage from the Ivory Coast to Medjugorje in 2007: “We met a priest who invited us to go to the Holy Land, but my husband said he wanted to come to Medjugorje. The preparation for the trip was extremely difficult and stressful. We even had to go to Egypt to get visas. We prayed the rosary every Thursday for a year so that we would be able to prepare for the pilgrimage. People began to contact us gradually. We posted large notices in various places and spoke on the radio about Medjugorje, even though we had never been to Medjugorje. We were able to gather 50 pilgrims for our first pilgrimage. We were also told that it was the first time that so many pilgrims had arrived from Africa”. Armand said that during the first pilgrimage he was mostly touched by the people he met in Medjugorje and by the sacrament of confession: “I had a really a strong desire to pray here and to go to congession, because I hadn't been to confession for a long time. Medjugorje is love for me. After coming here, I began to pray the rosary and to go to Holy Mass every day. I am also trying to pray the rosary every day, although I find it a bit hard”. They come to Medjugorje twice a year, in June for the Anniversary of the apparitions and in August.
