Thursday 2 June 2016

The last week

Monday. The core members go shopping as every Monday and work in the Rainbow. We stay at home because we will do the big washing up after the benefit concert. 

Tuesday. Today we are helping around the house together with one of the core members who sometimes stays home doing little works to have some calm time. In the evening everyone is very excited because tomorrow we are going all together to a big sport event. In the closing prayer they pray for a good day.


Wednesday. Groups of disabled people from all over Belgium come together to have a Sport day with a lot of different activities. You can choose four different sport activities which take part over the whole day. We leave Bruges in the morning with all the core members from both houses in two big busses. When we arrive we divide into two groups. One of us and one assistant is going with each group.
In the morning the activities are a
horse carriage ride and playing the drums with wooden sticks on big gymnastic balls. For Lunch we have a small picknick we brought from home and in the afternoon we play minigolf and paintball. That was pretty cool! Everyone is so joyful today that is nice to see. On the way home after a long exciting day we fell asleep in the car, tired but happy!
 


 Thursday. Today we are helping in the garden again. One of us in Moerkerke and the other one in the Rainbow.

Friday. Official cleaning day. Everyone cleans his own room and also the bath room, corridor, living room and other things. We help a bit assisting the core members when there is something they have difficulties with. After a quiet afternoon we are going to the prayer around the cross. In connection to the prayer Caroline one of the woman who is organizing it, invites us and the other visitors to join her at her home for a drink and some snacks.
We have a good time of talking with this entire people who have a lot of interesting things to share.

 Saturday. It is a relaxed morning for everyone. Time to leave is coming closer and we feel we want to experience so much more the less days we have so we go to have the best ice-cream of Bruges in the afternoon which we wanted to do for so long already.

In the Evening we have a big Taizé prayer with all the community members together in Moerkerke. Gerrit and István are playing the piano and violin and we do the English readings we choose before together with the songs
Afterwards we eat all together. It was nice to share this moment with the whole big group.
 
 











Sunday. Today we spend all day out. Going to the Vigil for Peace in Poelkapelle-Langemark with Gerrit. Here we attend a conference offered by Bleri Lleshi. He presents his new book “Love in times of fear”. A good subject for us as love is the most important thing we experienced in our time with the l´arche community. In the afternoon listen to a lot of other interesting people who contribute their bit for a better world, where all religions can live in peace together. Between the speeches there was a nice choir singing beautiful songs of peace.

Monday. Today is our last day in this beautiful community.
After the morning prayer in the Rainbow we say good bye to the core members and some assistants from De Barke in Moerkerke.
This evening we will have farewell feast with a delicious typical Belgium meal and crema catalane for dessert.


Tuesday. The last breakfast and then it is time to leave. We are so grateful for everything we experienced during our stay together with all this wonderful people we met!

Your God is with you. God will quiet you with his love and dance with joy for you. (Zephaniah 3:14-18a)