Cruisin’ along the ACN Highway!

St Clare's, Chester

“Cruisin’?” you say, “as in ‘driving’?” Oh, yes, that is indeed what I said. Yesterday at 2:27pm I took my second driving test (well, my third actually if you count the one I took—and passed—in America when I was 17). My examiner was the same as last time (in the UK, obviously, not 30+ years ago in New Jersey…) and, let me tell you, I was petrified. In the end, however, I emerged triumphant and am now the proud possessor of a UK driving licence. Hurray! I shall still use public transport whenever I can (better for the environment AND cheaper for ACN!), but now I can arrive quickly to ACN ‘emergency calls’ from anywhere in the NW or North Wales; this scenario is highly unlikely, of course, but it would still be very exciting to have an ACN siren or flashing light to keep in the back of my car. Maybe I should put in a request to ACN HQ…

Passing my driving test yesterday is just the most recent highpoint in a truly remarkable week thus far here in the NW Office. On Sunday I headed to St Clare’s in Chester to attend an appeal by Karen Blundell, ACN Area Secretary for the entire Diocese of Wrexham and a little bit of the Diocese of Shrewsbury as well. When my children heard “Chester,” “Sunday Lunch” (my sons) and “shopping” (my daughter), the whole NW Office family was happy to leave home at 9:30 and drive 90 minutes to go to Mass before indulging in said Sunday lunch and shopping expedition. In the end, none of us was disappointed (I am off lunch and shopping now and am referring to the Mass!). It was lovely to see Karen and her husband and it was an honour to meet Fr Martin Onuoha, the Parochial Administrator at St Clare’s. Fr Martin is Nigerian and he trained for the priesthood at an ACN-supported seminary in Nigeria. His homily was inspirational (even my three teenagers said so!) and it felt like a great privilege to meet this kind-hearted priest. His strong support of ACN was obvious and I know that he made Karen very welcome in his parish. It is wonderful to see a priest trained by ACN in action—it really brought home to me that the support provided by ACN trickles down to impact on individual people. Without our help, Fr Martin might not have been able to realise his vocation; the most recent ACN report highlights the dire situation in Nigeria today and the piece on seminarians makes it clear that these dedicated young men are very worthy of our help and support.

While Karen was speaking to the community at St Clare’s, Chris Robson was making an appeal at St Joseph’s in Ansdell in the Diocese of Lancaster. Aside from a number of very generous donations to the collection, several people came forward to offer to act as ACN Parish Representatives; more names for me to follow up. I love doing this; I get a chance to talk to someone new and people always have interesting stories about how they came to learn about ACN and the ways in which they support us. I am saving this task for tomorrow (by when I figure my post-driving-test-glow will have begun to fade). It will provide a great morale boost!

By noon on Monday the NW Office had already taken five generous donations for Iraq—this is more than I sometimes get in a whole week! I am extremely humbled by the outpouring of generosity towards the suffering Christian communities throughout Iraq. Our accounts department in Sutton is working flat out to process everything quickly to ensure that ACN can provide aid where it is needed as soon as possible. I figure that for every single donation there are a number of others who may not be able to give funds, but who offer their support through prayer. Prayer and aid together surely provide the best way to help.

To this we can add another very generous donation from St Joseph’s in Accrington (Diocese of Salford). Fr Paul Blackburn, the new parish priest, held a second collection for Iraq last weekend and wants to send the proceeds to our Iraq Fund. He rang my mobile just as I was on my way home after my driving test (have I mentioned yet that I passed this?). Luckily I was not driving so I was able to answer my phone; it was the icing on the cake of my very good day. Many thanks to Fr Blackburn and the parishioners of St Joseph’s!

All of this wonderful-ness and it is only Wednesday…I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Thanks for reading!  Caroline