T minus 4 Days and Counting

It's the last few days before we leave for 'down under', and lots of fun things have taken place. First and foremost, we received our itinerary from the World Youth Day registration team. This was a huge relief to me because (understandably) they were running behind and I wanted to have it before we left for Sydney.

We registered for some of the World Youth Day festival events that have limited seating and are happy to have the opportunity to celebrate mass with the pilgrims from the US in a gathering just for us. It is even rumored that The Holy Father will make an appearance there! The itinerary has us running from morning (5:30am) to late at night. We will have to be very careful about getting enough rest so none of us get sick. (Ok, so I don't sleep, but most everyone else does. :)

The picture above is of Australian money. It is very colorful (as you can see) and the sizes of each denomination are different. (The 20 is bigger than the 10, which is bigger than the 5, and so on.) Each time we do something else to get ready to leave, it seems surreal!

I received an email from my friend, Sister Kathleen Pittman. Many of you will remember her and Father Doug from our mission trip last year to St. Gabe's Parish in New Orleans. Her parish has sent us cards of encouragement and blessings for our trip, along with the promise to pray for us every day while we are gone. Some of the parishioners have even taken our individual names to keep us in their prayers at home! With the support we have at home, coupled with the support from St. Gabe's, we are sure to have a Happy, Holy, Trip!

I'm going to close for now. . . lots of packing left to do! May God continue to bless you every day in every way!

12 Days to Go!

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!!!

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!

181 Days To Go!

That's right! Only 181 days to go. I know that this sounds like a long time away, but we have been fundraising for this trip for over 2 years now, and all of us are getting excited to be on our way. I wanted to let you know a little about what World Youth Day is, and who is going on our pilgrimage. This way, you can follow along as we ready ourselves for this awesome adventure!

The U.S. Bishops explain WYD this way: "World Youth Day is an unbelievable weeklong spiritual journey where pilgrims from all over the world unite to share their faith. The week includes prayer, song, concerts, drama, sharing, liturgy, catechesis, and an unforgettable vigil and closing mass with The Holy Father." World Youth Day is celebrated annually in our parishes, and every 2-3 years on an international level.

We will be traveling to Sydney on July 12th, by way of 4 different planes, with the major one being on Quantas Airlines from LAX to Melbourne, Australia. This flight will take approximately 15 hours and 15 minutes. (Good thing I love to fly.) From there, we will catch a flight to Sydney. Once we arrive, we will have a charter bus pick us up for an orientation tour of the city. Hopefully we will get to see where the harbour, beaches, cultural centers, sporting arenas, and the entertainment district is. (Sydney Opera House anyone?) After the tour, we will be dropped off at our hotel, the Swiss Grand Resort & Spa on Bondi Beach. (Believe it or not, it was the cheapest one offered! Here is a link if you'd like to know more: www.swissgrand.com.au) It really looks nice! We will have three people to a room. (Once again, for cost effectivenss. The teens didn't mind having more than three to a room, but the hotel doesn't allow it.)

The World Youth Day Celebrations start the next evening with the Opening Ceremony scheduled for Olympic Stadium. Each day after that is filled with catechetical sessions with participating Bishops in the morning, and a youth festival with shows, music, prayer, and reconciliation opportunities in the afternoon and evenings. On Friday night, there is a Dramatic recreation of the Stations of the Cross. This takes us to Saturday when we have the pilgrim walk to the site of the Evening Vigil, sleeping out under the stars, and finally the Closing Mass with Pope Benedict.

Due to the large numbers of pilgrims descending on Sydney, we were told we couldn't get a flight out until the 23rd. This gives us two days to "explore" the area. With only 19 of us going, we shouldn't have any problem getting in wherever we want at the same time.

Our participants are Karen A, Brandon C, Pam E, Audrey E, Carolyn E, Mary Jo E, Erich G,
Brad G, Cathy H, Christine H, Emily J, Patrick J, Caitlin K, Daniel K, Andrew M, Patrick M,
Eric W, Maria Z, and myself! (We have 6 chaperones and 13 teens. . . Sounds like a good ratio to me. jk)

I know that this is a ton of information, but if you keep watching the blog, I'll try to post updates as we get them. Please know that we are grateful for all of your support, and will keep you in our prayers also.