A Letter for West Brunswick Youth Group

Hi ppl!

Greetings from Perth! I'm here to share the happenings in Western Australia. I hope it's ok.

I attended church in Carnarvon, St. Mary of the Sea for about 6 months. You know how hard it is trying to go to church when my partner is a new Catholic. He said, "the sermon is boring". So what I did? I didn't attend mass when he "begged" me to. "I want to try the oysters in 2 Mile Beach!" - which is free anyway, and fresh. So to his taste I abandoned my mass, calling in mind that church is our body, our fellow human beings, and the building itself. It's not easy I can tell you, the priest thought I have converted to atheism, coz I didn't attend the mass. Nonetheless, I felt welcome in God's home everytime I prayed at the church.

Country church is diff from City church. D'oh what am I talking about? The country folks felt threatened when somebody new came into the church and became a regular. A foreign face (you wouldn't see many Asians at the church) is totally unbelievable. They thought I was a backpacker. Funny that, just on the day when I decided to ride my bike with a backpack full of stuff. When I walked to the church, they never asked. But so be it.

I loved this church without singers; they used CD instead as an accompaniment to the congregation. Only on school masses (they have primary school and high school up to year 10) they had a vocal group like ours. My Ash Wednesday mass with year 1 and 2 kids is unforgettable.

Now I belong to Applecross parish in metropolitan WA. My partner said, "the priest is normal, his sermon made sense". Thank God for that. He never missed a mass now, and I'm really glad. In this parish they also have Indonesian mass every Sunday - they belong to Western Australia Indonesian Catholic Community (WAICC) - but I only attended the Indo mass once. You know why, my partner doesn't understand Indo. And so for his portion, I would go to mass twice if I miss my Indonesian language.

Dear friends,
hope I didn't blabber too much. I remember I still owe you the Christmas 2006 film when we sang together. I also have footages on the swapping of the gifts.

In a nutshell, I miss our West Brunswick Youth Group.

Di (pronounced in Indonesian way, pls =) )