The Invitation

I first heard about the NCW from my former pastor. Although he was very neutral with his words when discussing about the NCW, I grew a negative sense of the NCW presence on Guam. For this reason, I was always weary on anything dealing with this "group", and because of this ignorance I missed the invitation on numerous occasions.

On more than one occasion, there was a group of about nine people who would attend the Sunday Parish Mass. These people were not from the parish. They would join in the celebration and then at the end, the pastor would invite one of them to the podium to share something. Most of the time it was someone speaking about their personal struggles and about how the NCW had come into their lives at the right moment. This testimony would last a few minutes and then the group would be at the doors passing out these cards inviting the parishioners to a catechesis for adults and youth.

I always ignored these cards and these people for that matter. I would try my best to slip out through one of the side doors just to avoid having to deal with them. I was always successful.

Well, one night as I was heading home I realized that the church lights were on so I drove by slowly, I thought it was a rosary or a meeting that I had yet to hear about. With how slow I was going I realized it was the catechesis. I thought to myself, "Why dont I pull in? Whats all this secret stuff about? If it is secret, they will send me away." I had these thought because of prior conversations I had with people against the group. I had already expected them to send me away, or to atleast give me the vibe that they were hiding something. I was wrong.

I went in, took a seat at the back of the church and put up with the talk for about an hour.

I said to myself, "this is all a bunch of crap, this is beginner stuff".

They gave a general invitation for everyone to return in a few days. No one ran up to me afterwards to meet me or put in a few last words to get me to come back. I thought I wasnt gonna return too.