Page 83 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

62 LIFE AT HET wALLETJE
1835, he presented his first class-nine boys and girls-
for their First Communion. That afternoon, his old
pastor, now the Vicar Apostolig confirmed the children.
Work with the deaf and dumb was Van Beek's apos-
tolate, but at heart he was a frusrated missionary. His
dream was the Red Indian in America. He and Ryken
became acquainted when the latter was soliciting funds
for the Van den Poel project. Van Beek was fascinated
with Ryken's stories and especially with the Indian head-
dress that he showed him.
From his first days in Gemerr, Father Van Beek had
taught in the local Latin School. He became cGrector
along with a Father Wymelenberg who also dreamed
dreams. He would join the Crosier Fathers, once a
mighty Order but now, when no candidates could be
accepted in a Dutch monastery, reduced to four old
priests. He would save the Order.*
In September, 1840, Father Wymelenberg was finally
released so that he could enter the novitiate of the
Crosier Fathers, but Father Van Beek was sent to the
old seminary at Halder which was to be the new home
of his Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. With him on
the canal-boat went his trvo priest-instructors, six Sisters
of Charity, forty-six boys and girls, and all the furniture
of the old establishment. There was no escape for Van
Beek and no Red Indians. He envied Wymelenberg and
Ryken.

* Wymelenberg saved the Order, becoming the forty-ninth
Master General in 1853.