Issue Nr 54, February 2009

Newsletter

Den Bosch Trinity

by Michelle Moran

I can hardly believe that it is now 3 years since we began our Partnership with the Den Bosch Diocese. Having completed three Parish missions and trained many people in one to one evangelisation, it now seems that things are gradually beginning to move forward.

Our third Parish mission in Aalst Waalre encompassed two villages on the outskirts of Eindhoven. The Parish itself is quite thriving there are around 300 people attending Sunday Mass and as they only have one service this means the Church is full. (Yes we do have too many Masses in England). There are some established groups in the Parish that work well e.g. they have Baby Praise (a kind of Christian parent and toddlers club which meets every second week) . Whilst we were there they celebrated their 5th birthday. So there was a celebration with cakes, balloons, puppets, noise and mess.

Unfortunately the visiting in this Parish was not as numerous as they expected because they identified some target groups which were a bit narrow and then it was left to people who fitted into these categories to request a visit. Inevitably, there were few requests so when we began our week of visiting we only had 35 visits. However, an intense ringing around of people with a persuasive style of leadership meant that in the end we visited more than 50 homes. (Remember in the Netherlands the visits are by appointment and they are expected to last 45 mins - 1 hour). Unsurprisingly some of the most fruitful visits were those we got at the 11th hour. Following the visiting phase we ran a Pass it On course as a kind of pre mission for the next planned mission in Den Bosch City. We then had Mass with the Cardinal and a Parish Party lasting the whole afternoon. During the party entertainment was provided by some seriously professional Choirs who had obviously been practicing for some months. Meanwhile, the Sion scratch choir consisting of Jools, Marijke and me under the baton of our musical director and conductor Peter Moran stole the show. Please visit the Parish website http://www.heiligefamilie.nl click “Dagelijks verslag/foto's parochiemissie” ...... lees meer, hopefully a new page will open, then select 15 February) enter details to hear our rendition (don't forget to wear ear plugs). Remember we rehearsed extensively for about 30 mins.

Thanks to Marijke’s hard work, the programmes that we did in the two local Catholic schools were very well received. The Parish priest was especially pleased about this, as he doesn't’t have easy access to the schools due to all sorts of politics. Also the faith dimension in the schools is very weak. So it was a great privilege and blessing to be able to proclaim the Kerygma to so many children and young people. For me personally these missions in the Netherlands are always a blessing as I get to stay in the same place for 10 days or more. I have an opportunity to be involved in music ministry, Schools work, preaching  in Old people’s homes where the first 4 rows are taken up with people using Zimmer frames and I get to sit on the play mat and share the toys with the babies and toddlers.