I, Victoria was so happy when I heard that Andreas and Barbara invited us to their home. It was a great idea to stop in Austria coming from Cracow for a few days! It was a big joy for me because I know them since they were in Egypt and in Berba. But now I really know them very well! I know now how they live in their daily life in real, not just to meet them, but to live with them. I felt like I am with my family. It was a special invitation by them. I have never ever dreamed about that kind of visit to their place called Linz.

Andreas and Barbara welcomed us with great joy and full of energy. Andreas took us for a walk and a little tour around Linz. It is a wonderful place and a quite area. We also went for one morning to test how it is to practice music and we found out that we can sing but just we need to practice a lot. We learned two English songs and one German folkloric song with P. Werner Hebeisen. He is a Jesuit priest. He is fantastic a brother because he knows many instruments and he had great ideas how to teach us how to sing. He let us try almost all of his instruments. It was amazing for me, really to see how many kinds of instruments he has.

Andrea and Barbara took us to their friends and we had dinner with one of their friends called Martin. He is a great friend of them. We had also a kind of interview with one of Andreas and Juliana’s friends. Josef Wallner is a journalist and he asked us about what we had done in Poland and what it was our experience. It was a lot of things we have done in these a few days.

Also we had the opportunity to visit Sr. Juliana’s house where she grew up, in the small village. And we saw Juliana’s nephew and her sister and her brother in-law. The village is called Holzackern near Meggenhofen. It is a beautiful village. For me I was surprised because everything is green and there are just a few houses! That it is a really village! If I will compare with my village in Berba it is so different! We had concert one night with many people. It was amazing how one of the musicians played the Piano! I was really unbelievable.

We also had our mass in the Church called “Christ the King“. So it was the feast of “Christ of the King“. It was in German and was different because some of the children were wearing crowns. They received something as sign of the membership in the Catholic children movement in this day. Then we helped to sell products made by Families in Bethlehem. Their group of Pax Christi is trying to help other people who needs help. I found it so great to help others if possible. If you can, why not.

I have never dreamed about that real experience! I am grateful to God and to the congregation, Andreas and Barbara for allowing us to get this chance. And for giving us that experience to share and enjoy with them and to see how they live. I don’t have an expression to express what I am really feeling about! That great time that I had  in Linz with Andreas and Barbara and their friends. I can believe that in short time I could do many things and enjoy the life in every moment.

With my love
Victoria