God's Grace and Smiling Session

Hi Emmaus! I’m back again,hehe.. It’s not really good to be back here because Indonesia is so enjoyable and I love holiday (we all do), but I missed u all! =))

This Saturday before mass Preily, Ivonne, Elizabeth, Henry, Valent and I went to the Red Cross Home for the Disabled People. That was my first time going to such place and it was so true that I was so shocked to see the people there. Some of them can barely communicate and some can’t get rid of their bed. I agree with what Monique had said. God is gracious that I can see some of them smiling and laughing. They don’t feel any pain or hurt. They welcomed us so happily and I make friends with some of them as well; there are Agnes, Bee Lian, Pauline, Christopher and others.

I really feel compassion for them. Firstly, I did not know what to do with them because I heard that they may not understand what we are saying or doing. Then we asked some of them if they like durian ice cream and so we fed them. They really like it and even asked for more.

Even though they are handicapped, some of them are smart; Christopher is able to guess what day our birthdays are. We were amazed how he did that. He also writes some and is hoping to publish it someday. God really lives in their live. And I think they are great examples for us who whine all day long for unfair life. However, we could not stay so long, but hopefully we can visit them again next time.

We went for mass and after that, Emmaus prayer group continues on the growth journey. It was quite an interesting day. During the praise and worship, one of Leo’s guitar’s string snapped and Jebie as the worship leader asked casually (while he was supposed to still leading) what happened. Then Leo said it snapped (casually and laughing) in Bahasa and it was quite loud. Then everyone giggled.

This time we had one guest, Ms Rita. She sat next to me and because she is not around our age, I thought she might be someone from the parish office. And when the testimony time was ending soon, Ben came in and everyone shouted at him to give one testimony. Then Ms Rita was confused who was this guy thay everyone cheered to. But eventually we found out that Ms Rita is not someone from the parish office.

Then we proceeded to the talk by William. It was about what is Bible, which is God’s words, and how important it is in our intimate live with God. We also did discussion of what Bible is with the person sat next to us. From that, I was refreshed that Bible is essential. He also advised us to “read bible today, and do not read it tomorrow”. That’s a good motivation so that we’ll read everyday.

After the talk, when we wanted to pray for evangelisation, the windows needed to restart and so we all waited there.But then that’s not the end; when we were going to sing the closing song, there was one slide missing and so some of us who don’t know the song just mumbling around till the next slide.

It was funny of what happened that day. There were accidents but funny ones. I think it had never been this casual before, away from formality. Despite that, the whole session was fun and I still felt God’s presence among us. After that, we also got so much food from Indonesia and we could not finish all.

God lives in our live",

Jessica ^.~v