By Gianna Goytizolo Velasquez
I have attended Sunday mass with my family all of my life, but after I started going to Alpha, listening to mass gave me a different feeling. I just wanted to sit closer to the altar, I wanted to pay more attention, I felt more open to greet other people at church. I want to read the Bible more, I feel happier and I have more joy in my life.
Alpha has strengthened my faith and my prayer life and I have developed amazing friendships. I feel myself surrounded with more peace now and I have learnt to ask the Holy Spirit for his daily guidance in my life.
The first time I heard about Alpha was when the priest in our Parish mentioned it to me and invited myself and my husband to attend. We had no idea what it was about and at first, we were ready to say no, but just out of curiosity we decided to attend at least once and then we were not coming back anymore.
The first night at Alpha was an unexpected experience. After watching the first Nicky Gumbel video I felt like I wanted to hear more, I didn’t want the video to stop. Then, at the table, when we started the discussion, I felt shy at the beginning, but once other people started sharing, I realised that there was no judgment and there was no one that would say that’s wrong! I started to feel free to share, to give my point of view and to ask questions.
I learnt about other people’s beliefs and I started to have a great relationship with the people at our table; to the point that when we were finishing Alpha at our last session, I was feeling sad just to think that we would not meet anymore.
“After I finished Alpha, I offered to help with the following Alpha. I just felt this passion to share with other people what I found out and how I felt myself when I did it.”
Before Alpha I thought I was happy, but now I know I am totally happy!
In July this year I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Alpha Conference in Kuala Lumpur. I had the chance to meet Fr James Mallon from Canada, he is a member of the Global Catholic Alpha Board and he was a speaker at the Conference. I remember in his speech he said that we need to spread the word, we need to encourage people to come and encounter Jesus and experience the Holy Spirit.
After four days of powerful prayer, ministry, worship, seminars and encouragement, it inspired me tremendously to come back to my Parish empowered with a vision to help, through Alpha, with evangelization and the transformation of our community.
I have helped with more than three Alphas now and every new Alpha I help with I feel the same passion, I want to share my experience, about learning and understanding more about God and the feeling that he is closer to me making my faith grow stronger each time.
I am going to Peru, South America in December this year to visit my family, and because I have been talking so much about Alpha with my friends and family there, they have become curious and are waiting for me to arrive so I can share my experience and how it has changed my life for good! I need to share my joy!