Wednesday 18th October 2023
Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
It was a holy satisfying task last night as we headed to a new task location - the Comboni centre for spirituality.
On the plus side, it was brilliant to finally be able to celebrate Florian reaching that first magic milestone -50 good deeds! A huge well done Florian, well done for all that Wednesday night hard graft and weekends spent planting, litter picking and helping out at parkrun. You're a GG hero!
On the less positive side, the rain that had been pelting down all afternoon was showing no signs of stopping, and it was set to be a very damp task. We united as a group at the centre, which is run by the Comboni order of nuns. It is a sacred quiet space in Chiswick which is open to all to experience prayer and to put love into action by reaching out to the poor and needy. We were met by the brilliant Sister Natalia, who greeted us with a very apt quote from their patron saint - ""Night and day, sun and rain, will find me equally and always ready to help in your spiritual needs".
Sister Natalia led us around the peaceful garden to let us know exactly what had to be done. There were plenty of weeds, but we were under strict instructions not to touch the rhubarb, as the Sisters enjoy it with custard.
The team got stuck in to all the various patches, soon filling up bag after bag of weeds. Meanwhile, I was hearing all about Sister Natalia's stints around the world in places like South Sudan, the DRC and Uganda, where she slept on the jungle floor and experienced civil war - pointing out that after all that she was not going to be put off by the increasingly heavy rain! She also invited all GGers to come to her special service on Sunday where she will celebrate 50 years in the order.
After a good session in the garden the rain was getting worse, so we decided to call it a night and head to the pub to celebrate Florian's 50th good deed with an absolutely amazing cake!
The Centre is run by 2 Catholic nuns. A number and activities are held at the centre, including couples counselling, one on a one spiritual meetings, prayer meetings and various events.
See moreThu 19th Oct 2023 at 9:46pm
Thank you Ana for this special report, your kind recognition of my milestone and celebrating with me! 🙏 I look forward to many more tasks and runs to come! 👍
Hounslow
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