With an Accent from Holland

Last Week, Bad Cold, Youth Group, Internet

It’s harder than I thought to update a blog without an Internet connection at home. I can’t really write anything at work, because it’s much too busy for that. And I don’t really like writing it at home and then putting it on the blog a day later at work, because then there’s a big delay and some of the information may not be relevant anymore. But now I’m at home, writing this offline and I’ll go online briefly to post this.
Last week hasn’t been too spectacular. I’ve been to work, I’ve had my first classes and I’m having a terrible cold. I feel really bad and sick. Well, maybe that’s a little bit exaggerated, but I feel like I need to be pitied. Yesterday I had a sore throat and today I’ve been sniffing and sneezing and blowing my nose all day long. I just hope it’ll go away quickly.
Tonight I’ve been to the Youth Group again. I was at home between work and the group for half an hour to eat and I doubted whether or not I should go. I felt really tired and sick because of my cold and because I’ve worked 3 days in a row. I just decided to go, because I felt so good about it last week and I wanted to see if I could experience that again. Tonight we had a night of Praise. We sang some Praise songs together in an improvised little chapel and we had Eucharistic Adoration for about half an hour and one of the Brothers talked to us about Mary, because it’s one of her feast days.
After the adoration we went back to our own room and talked to each other and had a few drinks. I just sat down on a chair somewhere, just listening to some conversations when Brother Ignatius came and sat down next to me. He started talking to me, first about my parish and then some more about me etc. I showed him the book that I am reading (“We Believe” – A Survey of the Catholic Faith) and we talked some more. I told him that I was looking for someone to help me and guide me in my development as a Catholic. I also told him that the pastor of my parish is involved in the Neo-Catechumenal Way and that I am unsure whether that is something for me. I also told him that I have the materials for the ‘Alpha Course’, but that the contents of that are too shallow for me. He really seemed to understand me very well. Then he said that the Brothers might be of some help to me. They can also guide people in their development towards the Holy Communion. So I made an appointment with him over 2 weeks. I’m really excited about it. My Language Lab teacher said we’re not allowed to call things or people ‘nice’ anymore, but that we need to describe it in another way, so let’s try. He’s a really sweet guy (the Brother, not the LL teacher), he’s not too old (not yet 40 at least), he’s from Austria and he speaks German, French and Dutch fluently, as far as I know. We had a really nice (whoops) conversation tonight and I feel like he kind of understands what I need. I explained to him that I know a lot about Christianity and the Church already, I just don’t know a lot about the Catholic Faith, the depths of it yet. I really hope this is going to work out and that they’ll be able to help me and get me started somewhat. I feel like God didn’t want me to choose and just gave me another option and that this is kind of the answer to my prayers.
I have some other great news as well. If all goes well, and that means nothing can go wrong, then we will have Internet again by next Wednesday. There’s still a lot that could go wrong. We still need to receive the modem, they need to activate our ADSL line by Wednesday and there are probably a whole lot of other problems I can’t even think of right now. But we might have Internet by Wednesday, or I hope at latest at Friday, if we can fix all the problems by then. I really hope it’s going to work out and that we will have Internet again, and a really fast connection too. That would be so awesome.

posted by Charda @ 16.9.06