Sea Bass

It's funny, at the school we the guys have a spiritual big brother, and for the girls a spiritual big sister, but they call them companions. In the U.S. a companion is referred to as something else. So anyways, my spiritual big brother is Sebastien, but what cool is that he gave permission to call him Sea-Bass. Sea-Bass is actually from Belgium, he's a Deacon studying to be a priest. He actually studied engineering in college and then after college he was looking to do some volunteer work and ended up joining FIDESCO. http://emmanuelcommunity.com/newsite/mission.html FIDESCO, is actually a program run by the same religious community that run my school. It is a two year program where they send missionaries to third world counrtries around the world to do missionary work. He was sent to Africa, I think to the Ivory Coast. There he worked with poor children, I'm not sure if it was in a hospital, or in a school, or both. But he was telling me how amazing it was out there, and what a life changing experience it was. The people were so poor yet they were still happy. But also, what was sad is that he experienced a baby dying in his arms. Before doing FIDESCO he said he wasn't at all religious, but it was in those two years that he had a profound encounter with God. I would like to do something like FIDESCO in the future, but if I was going to do it I would like to do it already married with my future wife (God willing).

Sebastien is seriously one the coolest guys I know. He was pretty funny too, a really goofy/cool/wild&crazy guy. Goofier than me, can you imagine!

We would have our companion meeting once a month, it was kind of like a counseling session where I would be able to talk about whatever, what was on my mind, my concerns, or troubles, or if I was having a hard time. If I didn't talk it would be silent, so you end up just talkin and blabbing away to past the time. It's a good time to be heard. I think everyone wants, or needs to be listened too once in awhile. At first it was kind of weird because I felt like, "dude, I don't need any counseling," but after a few sessions I realized how good talking out my concern, or feeling felt. Looking back I don't remember having too many problems that I shared, but I think what I did share a lot was the things I've learned this year, and how I was growing in my relationship with God, and !How God was working in my life!.
Man I going to miss Sea Bass. I really looked to him as a big brother. And dang he can play a mean guitar. Our last meeting was the first Friday of June, and he busted out the guitar, I didn't know he played, and I kid you not he was rippin' some soul like Santana. His hand turned into a tarantula, crawling up and down the neck of the guitar. I forget what he was playing but it was some Brazilian Soul Funk, I'm talkin FFFUUUUNNNKK!!!

It was also cool because he would give me some good advise. For example, he was telling me how to discern what desires come from God. It's true how we have many desires, some of them last only for a couple of days, some only a couple of weeks, and some a couple of months, maybe even years. You can tell if a desire is given to you from God when you pray about it and that desire still stays with you after a long time, like months or years. An example of that for me was the desire of this year of mission in Rome. It was a friend of mine that told me about this school of mission and for a year I always had it on the back of my mind. I always wanted to do some sort of missionary work, and I just kept praying about it until I made the decision that I had to go. And man,......................(head shake, reflection).................(another 19 sec pause)........ it has been amazing!!!(tear drop, curtain close, exit stage left,--I'm playin').

-Yeah, I'm a cheeseball.

Pace fratelli e sorelle!!! (Peace brothers and sisters)