Only 12 days to go, and of course, like in all things youth ministry, we are going to have a few snags in the road. (JK) Truthfully, the WYD itinerary was supposed to be mailed out the week of the 16th thru the 21st of June, and it is now the 30th with no itinerary in hand. (Erich and I have called Australia and they confirmed that we were registered and paid in full, so we aren't sure what is going on.) We will call again tonight and see if we can get this straightened out.
Speaking of getting things straightened out, last Tuesday I received an email from our travel agent advising us that our flight times had changed. Our Quantas flight into Melbourne is still the same, but our domestic flights have all been moved up. I retyped the 'parent pages' and was able to give the WYD team the updated info at the meeting that night. (It really didn't change to much, just a half an hour here and there.) Because of this, Father John will now be doing the Blessing and Sending Forth at 9am instead of 9:30. (This gives us a little extra time to get to the airport before our 1:09 first flight.) We sincerely hope that if you are in the area, you will come and join us!
Mr. David Eck, the editor of the Catholic Telegraph newspaper, called and interviewed a few of us over the phone for an article that they are doing for the July 4th edition of their paper. It was fun to review our three year journey and talk about what we are looking forward to. Sometimes it is nice to sit back in the thick of the journey and take stock of where you have been. I am so grateful to everyone who has helped us be able to go. This is truly a trip of a lifetime, and we are very excited!
Please continue to keep us in your prayers for a safe, happy, and Holy trip to Australia! Till the next post, God's Blessings on Your Day!!!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
22 Days to Go!
G'Day Mates! I am sorry I haven't blogged in forever, but things have been crazy hectic around here! Only 22 days until we leave for down-under now, and the last minute preparations are outrageous!
I know that I have given you a brief overview of everything that we will be doing, but here is a little more information. Every participant at world youth day brings something to 'swap' with all of the other teens from around the world. We decided on hackey-sacks and small beach balls that have World Youth Day: St. Michael-Sharonville OH: USA~ printed on them. (Tom Theis from Adsco helped us design them and he did a great job!) Our tour company, Uni-tours, sent all of us backpacks that we can use as our carry-on. Pam and I have since stuffed them with the swaps and a journal that each teen can use to record their experiences of WYD.
We have received our tickets, and I have to tell you, holding them in my little hands made it seem so much more real. We are really leaving for the other side of the world! (OK, for all of you who know me well, you understand how anal I can be about making sure everything that can be accounted for, is. So this is a big deal to me :)
At our last meeting, the group decided on the 'top 3' things that we would like to see or do besides going to the WYD festivities. We agreed on the Taronga Zoo, the Blue Mountains, and the tour of the Sydney Opera house. Although we might have time for more than this, we didn't want to plan to much so our hopes wouldn't get busted. :) I keep reminding them that over 1 million people will be there, and they are all going to want to do the same things that we want to do, so we have to have PATIENCE!!!! (They seem to be doing much better at that than I am though.)
We have another meeting this week and hopefully I will have the WYD itinerary to share with them. For those of you who live around the Sharonville area, we will be having a 'sending forth' pilgrimage blessing on July 12th at 9:30am at St. Michael's. Please come if you can, and give the teens your blessings for a safe and Holy trip!
Thanks for all of your support over the past three years! We wouldn't be able to go without it!
That's all for now, I'll write more next week. God's Blessings on Your Day!
I know that I have given you a brief overview of everything that we will be doing, but here is a little more information. Every participant at world youth day brings something to 'swap' with all of the other teens from around the world. We decided on hackey-sacks and small beach balls that have World Youth Day: St. Michael-Sharonville OH: USA~ printed on them. (Tom Theis from Adsco helped us design them and he did a great job!) Our tour company, Uni-tours, sent all of us backpacks that we can use as our carry-on. Pam and I have since stuffed them with the swaps and a journal that each teen can use to record their experiences of WYD.
We have received our tickets, and I have to tell you, holding them in my little hands made it seem so much more real. We are really leaving for the other side of the world! (OK, for all of you who know me well, you understand how anal I can be about making sure everything that can be accounted for, is. So this is a big deal to me :)
At our last meeting, the group decided on the 'top 3' things that we would like to see or do besides going to the WYD festivities. We agreed on the Taronga Zoo, the Blue Mountains, and the tour of the Sydney Opera house. Although we might have time for more than this, we didn't want to plan to much so our hopes wouldn't get busted. :) I keep reminding them that over 1 million people will be there, and they are all going to want to do the same things that we want to do, so we have to have PATIENCE!!!! (They seem to be doing much better at that than I am though.)
We have another meeting this week and hopefully I will have the WYD itinerary to share with them. For those of you who live around the Sharonville area, we will be having a 'sending forth' pilgrimage blessing on July 12th at 9:30am at St. Michael's. Please come if you can, and give the teens your blessings for a safe and Holy trip!
Thanks for all of your support over the past three years! We wouldn't be able to go without it!
That's all for now, I'll write more next week. God's Blessings on Your Day!
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