8/29/2008
Day 1 of the Retreat
As I drove to Moncks Corner, which took me about 3 1/2 hours, I listened to my ipod. Using a shuffle function on it, I listened to various songs that I have on it. It came across to one talk by Sean Dalton on the topic, "no excuse." He challenged us to pray, "Lord, give me today one person come into my way." And so I prayed.
Arrived at the abbey around 2:30. The following conversation ensued
Store Recipient (SR): "Retreatants?"
Me: "Yes."
SR: "So, where are you from?"
Me: "Well, it's a long story. I just graduated from ..., moved to ...,SC a couple week ago. But I'm originally from Indonesia."
SR: "Where in Indonesia?"
Me: "(I told him my hometown. A small city.)
SR: "Really... How long was that from Jakarta?"
Me: "About 5 hours. How do you know Jakarta??"
SR: "Wow! See, I was born in Indonesia! After all these years, I never thought I would meet somebody from Indonesia ever again! It's been... 60 years since I was there!"
Me: "Wow..." (In awe...)
SR: (talking to the other store recipient, "Hey X, guess where he's from? He's from Indonesia! That's where I was born in!"
She goes on... telling me her background. She told me how her mom loves to cook Indonesian food like nasi goreng (pic1), gado gado (pic2), rijsttafel (pic3), and peanut sauce.
She was ecstatic. I was surprised too. I guess, that's what we call "Divine Providence."
Here she was, leaving Indonesia on 1943 because of the Japanese invasion. It took her two months inside the ship to move from Indonesia to Europe.
The abbey
The abbey was cool. I was surprised to see that they chanted the psalm using a guitar. It was a stark contrast with the Abbey of Gethsemani where they used organ. It feels more contemporary at Mepkin. Other than that, I'm tired. I need to just take a rest and live in the present moment. I will try to wake up at 3 AM in the morning and follow the vigils.
my goals from this retreats are ... (confidential)
1 comment:
kalo dia bisa masak juga... hahahaha keren juga...
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