The yearning to have a community appeared when I received the gift of speaking in tongue.
It has been five years since I, Mira Herliana, became a member of Holy Trinity Community (HTC) cell group in Melbourne. I found some friends, a new family and learned a lot of new things from scratch in the cell group. I found that the teachings and testimonies in the cell group are the way God equip me for unpredictable moments in my life. I saw people’s desire to find God in the cell group.
My spiritual journey in Melbourne started in the closing mass of a retreat held by the Indonesian charismatic prayer group (PDKKI) in 2015. That was my first retreat since I started living in the kangaroo land. I had had no friends. However, if God is truly willing, only the best will happen. In that mass, I asked God to work according to His will. I was given a manifestation to speak in tongue. Since then, I had been willing and having the desire to join a lay people community.
After the mass, I shared the story to a fellow retreat participant, Gloria, who was a servant at a Sydney cell group. She introduced me to Steffi, the Melbourne District’s servant at that time, who then referred me to my cell group until now, the St. Anthony of Padua’s cell group.
Learning to be Perceptive
I think the main benefit of the cell group is that I get some new friends, a new family and some spiritual growth. My cell group members are indeed very close to each other, in a way, we go out for meals together weekly and gather daily. I feel that we are like a family. When bad things happen, they surely will come to back me up and help.
From this cell group I got some new close friends, to whom I can share many stories which help me to become more mature and broaden my thoughts.
I could really feel my own spiritual growth, because I truly learned, seeing the living examples of the other cell group members like Alicia whose spiritual experiences touched me. She gave a testimony of how God worked in her life not as a coincidence, but because everything was in His plan.
I saw many people yearning to find God in the cell group. Here, I also learned to be more perceptive, to God’s love, as well as to my cell group mates’ situation. I learned so many things from scratch, to lead praise and worship sessions, to be humble. Out of this spiritual guidance, I found my true self and packed it up to be better and better so I could offer myself to God.
Nobody’s Perfect
My cell group has become my second family and nobody is perfect. Indeed, there are often bad feelings in the cell group. However, the cell group is formed with a goal to grow together. The key for growing is by opening yourself to the power of the Holy Spirit and by opening up to your cell group mates.
Occasionally, there would be some awkwardness to open up, even more if we were not close to the other members of the cell group. When this happens, we just keep to our own pace, as it doesn’t mean that we need to open ourselves straight away. Just try to open up bit by bit, and ask God’s mercy to help.
Stories shared by cell group member have to be kept in the group to respect the group members’ privacy as they have trusted each other with their most insecure and struggling sides. We also don’t judge each other and understand that people change, thus rather than judging, we teach and advise each other to be a better person. Each member has the responsibility to be a good listener, learn to become more emphatic and to let God works sprout from each of us to others.
Euthanasia
Honestly, there are so many experiences that touched me in the cell group, so I was a bit unsure to choose which one to tell.
A memorable one was the story when we had a cell group meeting in which the teaching was exceptionally unusual, about the Catholic view of euthanasia. Well, usually in our cell group meetings, we like to choose a safe topic, about our daily life, things that are applicable to it. Then, at that time, suddenly we talked about euthanasia. So, it was very different.
However, maybe it was God’s plan to equip us for the unpredictable times.
A few weeks after, one of our cell group mates had a disaster. It was frustrating, a struggle, when you know that one of your family members has a bad news and needs to decide which one is the best. At the sharing session, we had only been imagining, what if we were in that situation. However, then it was truly happening, the incident that made me remember about the teaching given, which in some ways, became one of the main consolations for our friend.
That event made me grow. God has different plans and providence for each person, which are not only for good happenings in our life, but also for the worst times.