ENGLAND, Clare Lyddieth-Barnes •
Preparing for this year’s family week was similar, in many ways, to preparing for any other family week, especially one in the U.K: pack 13 outfits for each child, shorts and sandals as well as cardigans and jumpers, potential fancy dress outfits plus concert costumes, buckets and spades alongside wellies [rubber boots] and waterproofs [raincoats], 70 nappies[diapers] and a pram[baby carriage] with a rain cover. My full packing list would probably take up the whole magazine and, while Patty is eager for articles, I don’t think she’s that desperate!
Warning: breakfast ends at 8:45, no telly, no Wi-Fi
There was one major difference in our preparation this year, namely that we were bringing my 15-year old cousin with us for the first time. As we all know, the best way for anyone to understand the family week is to experience it, but we needed to give Holly some idea of what to expect.
This started with the practical things (bring a nice outfit for the last meal), progressed to the more pressing problems of teenagers (breakfast finishes at 8:45, which promptly made her dad choke on his tea and wish us luck) and, when we were fairly certain we weren’t going to put her off, we embarked on the less common aspects of a family holiday – “There’s no telly. [TV]”
“That’s alright, there’s nothing on anyway. As long as I can get Wi-Fi to do my streaks on Snapchat.” (At 32, I, perhaps misguidedly, still consider myself to be ‘one of the younger ones’, but even I don’t understand this sentence!)
Tragedy – faith?
The main reason why Holly was encouraged to join us for the week was the awful atrocity at Manchester Arena. Whilst not directly affected, Holly had several friends at the arena that night, including two who very sadly lost their mums. Such a dreadful attack on our city was bound to affect all our young people, and it’s understandable that they would question their faith as a result. So Mum, as Holly’s auntie and Godmother, took it upon herself to encourage Holly to come with us to Whitby and help her to feel more secure in her faith.
Evangelizing 101: Joy!
During our discussions, one message stuck with me; you don’t evangelize by pestering people or throwing Bible quotes at them – the best way for people to understand our faith is to see the joy it brings us. In our group, Bill told the story of a family who were approached about the secret of their happiness and their answer was to lead the questioner to their home shrine. Liz also shared that, early on in the week, she had taken a few moments to look around the group and had witnessed everybody happy, smiling, laughing and soaking in the atmosphere despite very real difficulties and sorrows that she knew certain people were facing. It occurred to me that this is what we do for each other – this is one of the reasons why we love the family weeks so much – we provide each other with joy; the joy of socializing and sharing jokes, the joy of a 2 year old and a 70 year old partaking in the same game of rounders [a bat and ball game] and the joy of sharing our faith. For teenagers especially, I believe this is important – knowing that you do have peers who think like you and live like you. It was certainly important for my cohort of Schoenstatt teenagers.
This is perhaps why our family left Whitby feeling hugely successful. Holly was happy and had enjoyed herself = job done!
Beyond happiness: JOB DONE!
But it went beyond happy. Within an hour of arriving, she asked me if she could come next year. Throughout the week, she grappled with many unexpected occurrences such as the random addition of a performance to the quiz night, at which point she asked me in a slightly panicked voice, “What is this? What have I got to do?” And my equally random answer was “Just pretend to be a duck and don’t ask questions.” Whilst not knowing the words to any of the songs on the sing-a-long night, she politely sat and sipped an illicitly bought Malibu and Coke (big cousin perks). By the time of the legendary final night concert, I think she had become accustomed to the unexpected and had found a belief that each moment would be enjoyable so it didn’t matter what was planned.
To top off the week, her buddy wrote her a card, which, even though it was simple, nearly brought me to tears when Holly showed it to me. “To the bravest of holiday-makers, well done for coming by yourself and joining in so well. Hope you enjoyed the week.” I asked her if she had, and she emphatically replied, “Yeah, I don’t want to go home.” I told her I was glad because that’s how we always feel too. She said, “Well why would you?” Even with no telly? I questioned, “Yeah” and limited Wi-Fi? “Yeah, I’ve not even used it.” JOB DONE!
As we got into separate cars to leave, she said she wanted to come every year, and I am confident that she will have a renewed faith and will face this next year with a slightly different outlook from the one she may have had without experiencing our family week. So thank you one and all for another thoroughly enjoyable week and for showing Holly what our family week is all about.
P.S. She made it to breakfast with time to spare every day (far more than I ever managed on a family week at 15!)
Source: MTA Magazine. The magazine of the Schoenstatt families in England. Autumn 2017
Photo: IStockGettyImages,
Edited: Melissa Peña-Janknegt, Elgin, TX USA
