When I first came to Melbourne from Indonesia, it was my first month here and I didn\u2019t have any friends at all. While I studied at Monash University, my sister invited me to COSDU, so I went. To be honest, I was just there for the free food, because they always advertised free food!<\/p>\n
I had been baptised Catholic and grown up in a Catholic household, but I had decided that I didn\u2019t want to believe. There was a lack of foundation in the Catholic faith, and when I came to Melbourne, I realised that there were people who actually knew what they were talking about.<\/p>\n
Growing up, I thought nuns would be scary, so when I met Sr Delma and she gave me that kind of love, it was beautiful.<\/p>\n
It was hard for me. English is my second language, and at COSDU people would talk in theological terms that I had no idea about. But they were so welcoming. They tried to understand my perspective. They weren\u2019t forcing me to understand everything straight away. They understood that I wasn\u2019t really faithful and that I had no idea what they were talking about. They took their time to introduce things to me. That was when I thought, \u2018Oh, wow. The Catholic faith is actually different than I thought before.\u2019<\/p>\n
The first time I went to COSDU, there was this lady called Sr Delma. I didn\u2019t know who she was because she wasn\u2019t wearing a veil. I just thought she was someone\u2019s grandma! She gave me a big hug and a smile. Growing up, I thought nuns would be scary, so when I met Sr Delma and she gave me that kind of love, it was beautiful.<\/p>\n
Whenever I came to COSDU, I had no friends. I would stand at the door thinking, \u2018Who can I talk to?\u2019 And Sr Delma was always there. She remembers everyone\u2019s name. She would say, \u2018You\u2019re welcome to COSDU,\u2019 and give you a hug. And she does it to every single one of us. I think that\u2019s Jesus. She really remembers and recognises and actually loves everyone by their names. I feel like that kind of love draws me closer to Jesus.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you need someone to come to you and say, \u2018I think God put that calling in your heart for a reason.\u2019 Sr Delma did that.<\/p>\n
There were times when I was really struggling and she noticed. One time, she invited me to her office and we had a really long talk. She was always providing for me, spiritually and with food. As someone who is very introverted, she really provided that safe space for me just to hang out, as friends, as sisters. She became that older figure in my life. <\/p>\n
She also encouraged me to serve on the COSDU committee. It was hard to say yes because you actually have to commit for a year. But before the AGM, Sr Delma called me and asked, \u2018Are you interested in doing this?\u2019 She said, \u2018I think it\u2019ll be good.\u2019 That encouragement helped me say yes. I think there are a lot of people who want to serve and who have been given gifts, but sometimes you need someone to come to you and say, \u2018I think God put that calling in your heart for a reason.\u2019 Sr Delma did that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kay When I first came to Melbourne from Indonesia, it was my first month here and I didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6866,6864,6865,6310,6868,6869,260,6867,6870,68],"class_list":["post-69430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-archbishop","tag-archdiocese","tag-catholic","tag-child-safety","tag-community","tag-jesus","tag-melbourne","tag-parish","tag-sacraments","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}