Sunday May 11. 2nd edition. On a Mission. Happy Mothers’ Day!

Written by Jack van Ommen on May 12th, 2014

It is a coincidence that I am here with Sjoerd Koppert in Carpinteria on mothers’ day. We met in 1998 because of our mothers. They befriended each other in the war as political prisoners in the same three concentration camps. Sjoerd was the one who gave me the photograph of one of the first reunions these survivors had in 1947, when I left on my first long crossing from Santa Barbara in 2005. His mom was a life long friend of Willemijn Petroff-van Gurp, they went to school together. Willemijn is the last of the group of 200 AGFA-Kommando survivors who is still very much alive at 95. I had the honor and pleasure of meeting her last year, see : https://cometosea.us/?p=3793

Sjoerd is building a new audio/visual studio with the latest technology and equipment.

The mass at the mission was a treat for me. I lived a year in Santa Barbara from my return out of Vietnam in March 1963 till May 1964. Lisa, our first daughter, who just turned 50, was baptized in the Mission. The mission has great acoustics and I like to sing in it. There were 6 youngsters taking their first communion and the mothers were blessed and honored and received carnations. When I dated Brenda, just before the turn of the century, I would frequently visit her after she moved from Seattle to Santa Barbara. If I could afford to live here I’d be moving here in a heartbeat. The below picture of the preceding Sunday service was taken in St.Frances Xavier Cabrini church in Yucaipa. You can see that the R.C. church is going with the time, with the projection so that all three sections extending from the altar can follow the service. I went to the Spanish mass. The priest spoke good Spanish with a heavy American accent, instead of the other way around. He made frequent use of the word “Bueno” like we use “You know!” that made it more original and I think I will try to mix this in more often to improve my Spanish. The church had to hold at least 750 people and it was 3/4 filled. Lots of young families. Good music with guitars and also the texts projected on two screens.

The console of Sjoerd's studio

The console of Sjoerd’s studio

S.B. Mission built in 1786

S.B. Mission built in 1786

Santa Barbara the seafarers' saint.

Santa Barbara the seafarers’ saint.

St.Frances Xavier Cabrini church, Yucaipa on 5/4

St.Frances Xavier Cabrini church, Yucaipa on 5/4

 

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