Living the Gospel: “As free children of God”

Chocolate Factory
During the summer I travelled with a friend to Germany, to work in a well-known chocolate factory but we were given a very cold welcome by the 400 employees. One woman in particular was particularly grumpy towards me. One day, she made a big mistake that could have been very costly for her. When the section manager arrived, without even hesitating, I took the blame for the mistake. I was severely reprimanded and told that it could cost me my job if it happened again. But I was happy: I had done it to Jesus in my colleague. That gesture impressed my co-workers. From then on the atmosphere changed; we began to treat each other more cordially and, when the time came to leave, it felt like leaving a real family behind.
Krisztina – Romania

The Great Novelty
During a meeting at the parish I remained quite struck by the joy and simplicity of one group of guys who were more or less the same age as me. For someone like me who only ran to God in times of trouble, hearing people talk about God as Love was a novelty. Without reasoning it out too much, I decided to do as they were doing. First, I started helping around the house and keeping an eye on my little sister. One Sunday, I even skipped football match in order to help my Dad put up a roof. At school, instead of studying alone as I usually did, I helped some friends with their studies.
Daniel – Argentina

At the Supermarket
I went to the usual supermarket to pick up some things for a supper with thirty boys at our house and, since I would be busy at a meeting for a few days, I thought I would do one big shopping that I could leave at home. As I was placing the groceries onto the check-out counter, I noticed the woman behind me with only a few items. Behind her was an elderly woman with ten tissue boxes. I asked her if she wanted to go ahead of me. She told me that her husband had gone to get a case of water.

When her husband came, I let him go ahead of me as well. Then, I began filling up my many shopping bags. In the end, the cashier pulled out the receipt and said to me: “Today you don’t have to pay anything!” I thought it was a joke. The cashier asked me my name. “Chiu”, I said. I heard over the loud-speaker: “Today, Miss Chiu has won 107 Euros!” I never imaged this would happen to me when I loved my neighbour behind me in the queue !
Chiu – Hong Kong

Grocery Stores
I run a grocery store and so I’m used to the commercial world where profit comes first – not the customer. I met several Christians who try to put Jesus’s commandment of love into practice. I thought: if they can do it, why can’t I? The next morning I thought: I don’t want to go on weighing the goods with two heavy pieces of cardboard; from now on, I’ll only use light piece of paper. I felt such a great sense of joy and freedom, I discovered that loving opened new horizons to me.
Beppino – Italy