Just call me "Sister Gina"
Two years ago Sian had her First Holy Communion. I had to bring her to a set of evening classes to prepare her for each of the three sacraments. This year Rhiannon will be doing her first sacrament of reconciliation.
I was asked if I would mind being one of the parent leaders. It means that for four weeks a group of 5 kids and their parents will arrive in our house and will spend an hour talking and finding out what it is all about. I was so nervous yesterday. Religion is a quiet and personal thing for me and I don't like forcing my opinions on others. Also some of the people due to arrive were total strangers. I spent the day manically racing around cleaning and scrubbing everywhere from the front door through to the back room we would be sitting in. Mr B was delighted that my religious tendencies were having such a good effect on my poor housework skills!
The meeting started at 7pm and was due to last an hour. My biggest worry was that the amount of things I needed to teach would take longer and that everyone would be bored out of their trees by the end. We went at it at a furious pace. The kids were brilliant, laughing and answering questions with very little prompting. The pages were flipped over in my leader book at a great pace and when we got to the final prayer to say goodbye I looked at my watch... it was only 7.30! I put a couple of songs on to play and the kids sang away merrily for the next few minutes. At ten to eight I had run out of anything more to do or say and they all got up from their seats and headed away, kids humming their songs and parents relieved that it was all done so quickly.
One Mum smiled as she left and asked "Any chance you could keep the pace up, we could squeeze the next 3 sessions into week 2 and then go off for a coffee for weeks 3 and 4!"
