During our reflection time in the AM, Franca and I went over to the Oratory; we prayerfully walked through, and then sat down during the 10AM Mass. Incredible to see people there searching, praying, reflecting. We mostly prayed for them (and us, and for our city); my favorite time was walking through the "way of cross" prayer garden on top of the Oratory. (check here for more pics) WOW. It was amazing. Each statue represented part of Jesus' walk towards the cross. My love for gardens and Jesus was a good mix!
Our assignment that day was a double.
1. We served with Eglise Methodist de St. Henri in a local park off of Notre Dame (few blocks west of Atwater. We handed out roses to the women, invited people back to a hotdog supper, played games with the kids, and we're mainly open to conversations. They gave us a survey to help start conversation (10 questions, mainly about their feelings towards church and what kind of church would be relevant for them - very Saddleback/Willow 1980's, from what I remember in my reading). I wasn't opposed to the survey, but I felt more comfortable feeling my way through the conversation. I learned alot through them - from one in particular that no matter what a church looked like, she wouldn't go into one b/c there's no interest - more like an obstacle to her spirituality. ALSO, I was so surprised at how many English speaking people walked through the park. I started dreaming about ministry opportunities in the area.
2. We served with Welcome Hall Mission's Club de l'Arche. It's a truck that drives into a local park and does a 90 minute program including games, facepainting, prizes, music, and values through stories/teaching. We had a blast promoting the event - sitting on the back of a trailer hitch with blaring summer music behind announcing to the homes that we were starting at 6:30PM... the whole community was waving to us - it was like a movie.
Welcome Hall Mission really impressed me with this program! They repeat this in 5 communities every week.
This was a long day but a very good one. Our whole team felt really satisfied. I personally enjoyed the personal interactions today, so much better than just a task - but that's me, I'm a people person (most times).
2 comments:
Hey Dave, good to see the post. Your blog will prove useful -- I can just send people here to tell them what we did! Are you on Facebook? I couldn't find you...
Wes
try facebook.com/davidmanafo, see if that works; I'm also friends with Phil, so if you can get to his page you can find me on it - not sure why you can't find me.
glad to know you can also use my posts, I hope to post on the some key outcomes of the week eventually (but not sure when since I will officially VACATE on vacation this week, which means much less internet.)
Nice hearing from you. Have a great last night in MTL.
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