Mission to London!

Another insanely long gap between my last post. Sorry about that! Contrary to most years in which I get a break around Christmas, life got even more crazy than ever. But I'm now on break in France with one of my friends from the school. Life is good, and I finally have time for a bit of an update.

So much as happened in the past month! We went on mission in London for 10 days, we had an intense 3 day silent retreat, we celebrated Christmas, traveled to France for another retreat, and then separated from each other for the first time in 3 months for our first break.

The mission in London was amazing. We had been preparing for about 2 months beforehand, so it was great to finally be able to put all our planning in to action. All 20 of us from the school, along with about 15 others from the Emmanuel Community across Europe, and even as far as California, came to join us for the mission.

We stayed with host families in the area. I stayed with a lovely Irish couple, who were convinced that I was totally under-fed and insisted that I eat at least two times my body weight at every meal. They may have thought I was preparing for a rugby match rather than a mission trip. Not sure.

The people of England tend to be very introverted, and do not particularly like to share their feelings. Religion tends to be a private matter that is not shared with others. So we were a bit worried about how people would react to the message we came to proclaim. In fact, we were all slightly shocked at how receptive people were! Each day, we would brave the cold and snow (it was the first time they had this much snow in 17 years!) to go out to the main area of town to invite people to our different events at the parish. As always, a few people just brushed past or even got angry, but the vast majority of people listened to what we had to say and seemed interested. Many people thanked us for what we were doing, and expressed great enthusiasm at our witness. Some great conversations ensued, and we were able to pray for alot of people.

The thing I was dreading most - going door to door - actually turned out to be rather fun! I had a certain conception in my mind of how it would be, and I'm not gonna lie, I was terrified. But people were super nice and accepting, and even if they weren't interested they at least listened to what we had to say and nicely declined. Well, most of the time...

One group from our team was invited in to a man's house. He had just found out that day that he was diagnosed with cancer, and he was given medicine to take, but he couldn't read it so he didn't know how much to take. He was basically in despair, and they were able to help him with his medicine, and pray with him and let him know of the love of God. He was brought to tears. 

Another group who was going door to door was invited into the apartment of a couple who had a 9 year old daughter. The mother hadn't been to church in a long time, but had been considering going back. Her and her daughter wanted to come to the event we were having that night, but they had no car and no way of getting there. We were able to arrange someone to go pick them up, and they both came. Both mother and daughter loved the evening, and the mother was especially deeply effected. She went to confession for the first time in 30 years.

Each day we broke up in to groups and went in to 4 different schools to speak to kids ranging from 5-17. I went into an all girls middle school one day to put on a retreat for 4 different classes. We would start off with some sort of game to get them laughing and having fun, and then give a few witness talks about how God had worked in our life, do a skit, and end with a time of prayer. The girls accepted it all amazingly, and by the end they were all feverishly writing prayer intentions to give to us. 

I was also able to go into an all boys school a few of the days. This school consisted primarily of trouble youth, many of whom are in gangs. I went in a little nervous, but quickly realized that these boys were thirsting for the truth. It again surprised me how well they received us, how attentive they were. They had tons of awesome questions for us, and we had time to just talk and hang out with them after. 

During one of these sessions with they boys, the teacher came up to us at the end. She had been impressed with one of the skits we put on. She was the drama teacher at the school, and she said she had been praying for over a year that God would show her how she could bring His message to these boys. She prayed that He would send her a group of people who would do just that. And according to her, we were the answer to her prayers. That exact day, in fact, turned out to be her birthday.

It was difficult to get people to come to the events we held each night at the church, because even the people that did want to come were so busy that it was hard to squeeze something else in. It was a bit frustrating at the beginning of the week when only a few people would show up. But as the week went on, and we were able to talk to more and more people, the numbers began to increase. Not that the numbers really matter. If we were able to touch even one soul while in England, all the time and work would have been worth it. But obviously we wanted to reach as many people as possible! By the end of the week about 40 people came to a "mercy night" that we held on Friday, and on Saturday there were probably around 60 young people that came to an event called "Night Fever," a night of music, testimonies, adoration, etc.

By the end of the week we were completely spent. It had been an exhausting, but totally fulfilling week. It was beautiful to hear the testimonies of people who had been sending emails to the parish priest all week. One lady had only seen us singing on the street and had been so touched that she emailed the parish priest and told him that she wanted to become Catholic! Crazy. God truly does use us in the smallest ways every day. We probably never realize it 99% of the time, but things like this help us to trust that the smallest witness or act of kindness can touch someone at their core.

On the last day, we had a bit of free time, and were able to travel in to the heart of London to do some sightseeing.  Such a beautiful city. It was a real blessing to be there, and so nice to be back in an English speaking country for a little while!

We traveled back to Rome, back home to the warmth, the crazy drivers, and the daily pasta-fix. We came back united as a group in a new way, for we had all experienced something totally new together, and something which had stretched and challenged us. London was a beautiful experience. We'll have the opportunity to go on 2 more missions like this later in the year.

Ok that was way longer than I intended it to be. I'll try to write more about my other experiences over the past month soon, before things get crazy again.

God bless you all! I hope that you had a blessed Christmas and New Year! Know that I'm keeping you all in prayer.

Peace,

Eric