Challenges “We Can Do It”
Bernie Breen
Bernie has other stories in the book.
I walked into Cana in Albion St at 10am on my very first day and stepped out of my comfort zone, all in one stride, not sure what I was putting myself into. My very first hug on that morning came from (Christine/John). Brian Stoney, came down the stairs, and greeted me. He handed me a frozen leg of something that looked like ham but I wasn’t sure and told me “we have lunch after prayer.”
I thought I had a few hours to prepare lunch – a nice veggie soup with the frozen bone of meat to add flavour will go down well. The house was starting to fill up: Johnno, Owen, Shane, Rhonda, Di – I couldn’t remember all their names. Back to lunch. I looked around to find ingredients for my soup – found nothing. Panic hit.
Brian said half an hour till lunch. “Is he for real”, I thought. I’m standing there in the kitchen looking at this frozen thing on the table. I turned to Johnno and said “what do you think?” We decided to make toasted sandwiches with the ham leg. I went into prayer, Johnno stood guard over the toast. I forgot about lunch for a moment, and marvelled on how everyone hugged and gave thanks in prayer, it was a very touching moment for me.
I smelt burned toast. Thanks to Johnno, Di and many others who came to help the new girl, it was the worst and best toasted sandwiches I’ve ever had. I realised at the end of the day that the ingredients I needed to make lunch, when panic subsided, were in front of me all along.
Brian asked me if I was coming back next week. My head was saying “Don’t do it, girl”. My heart was saying “I have just experienced true unconditional love” and I did come back the following week, and for the next 14 years.
Our Cana experience
The Hope Family
An edited version of this story is in the book.
We signed on to do volunteer work with Cana Communities in March 2012. We felt it would be a meaningful and purposeful way for our children to meet the Community Service obligations required by their schools, and we wanted something that took them outside their comfort zones. As parents, we would accompany them, but it was really about the children giving of themselves and hopefully getting something out of it besides a few hours in their Service Diaries.
On our visit to De Porres on 9th March, we met Harold (*name changed) a 38-year-old refugee who has only been in the country a few months, after spending a gruelling period traversing Asia to finally arrive at his unknown destination, Australia. His journey here was the typical refugee story: fleeing persecution in his home land, he paid money to ‘a guy’ in return for his passage out of Iran to an unknown safe country. When he arrived in Indonesia, he thought this was where the journey ended, only to be told he had one more leg, to Australia. He knew no one, didn’t speak the language, came on his own, and was alone. What he endured in detention is unknown to us. He is teaching himself English by reading children’s books and so communication was manageable, but still challenging.
It took Harold a little while to warm to us at first. We ate together, along with the two other residents, David and Steve, John and Peter and continued to be fascinated and appalled at what Harold had endured. By the end of the evening, we were laughing together, debating politics and planning ways to make a better life for Harold in his new haven. We’ve managed to source a laptop for him that may enable him to connect with the refugee community in Sydney, and a lunch at a local Middle Asian restaurant has been planned, to give Harold something to look forward to and a much needed taste of home (although my husband is pretty excited also).
Most people’s idea of the refugee situation is limited to biased and politically motivated media accounts – faceless masses in a political tug-of-war. Meeting Haroldhas given at least one member of this faceless mass a name and a story, and there are many more. Overall our Cana experience has been enriching, challenging and highly valuable, more so than we imagined when we thought we’d simply be there to support our children. It has taken us all well outside our comfort zones, and has inspired us to do more.