Paray le Monial - Jubilee Celebration of the Emmanuel Community
After the Youth Forum in Germany, Kev and I got a lift to Paray le Monial for the International Gathering to celebrate 40 years of the Emmanuel Community. We got there a couple of days early to vote for the new council of the EC.
The Gathering began on August 11th and continued until August 15th. It was a wonderful occasion to be with other members of the Community from all over the world. There were over 30 Australians - some of whom I hadn't seen in years. I also got to see students from my class-group of ESM as we had our 10 year reunion. We also had lots of meetings (as usual) and also worked on recruitment for new students.
Sydney
We left for Australia on August 17th. We were absolutely exhausted. Kev managed to sleep on the plane but I only dozed for about an hour (after travelling for about 30 hours). After arriving at Kev's parent's house, I did my best to stay awake so as to avoid getting jetlag. At about 2:30pm I almost keeled over so I went to bed. I woke up about 24 hours later and had jetlag for a week.
We got to see all Kev's family, including lots of gorgeous nieces and nephews. We got to know our new sister-in-law (Danny's wife, Laura) better as she gave us Spanish lessons! We had a lovely dinner with some former students - what a laugh!
Bernadette, Kev, Hele, Jess, Dave
I also caught up with my godson Joseph, (not to mention his parents Dougie and Sandra).
Aurelia and Joseph
On the same trip I saw Julie and then Bishop Julian. We also had the great pleasure (and honour) to stay with the McDonalds for a couple of days. Such a delightful time was had by all.
Jigsy, Lady Sarsy, darling kids, Hele and Kev
Gold Coast
We flew up to the Gold Coast for two nights. We stayed with my aunty and uncle - Carmie and Jack. We were able to spend some quality time with my cousin Tessie and her family.
Tessie and Hele
Isaac, Sylvia, Paddy, Timmy, Joseph
Hele and Grace
The next morning we drove to Lismore to catch up with Kev's family. We had a charming lunch with his grandmother and some aunts and uncles. Kev's grandmother is so warm and welcoming. She really encouraged us in our mission and the work that we do for God.
Chris, Hele, Kev, Philip, Nan, Liam
We caught up with Kev's cousin Phil and his kids on the way back to Tweed Heads, where we stayed the night before travelling to.....
Melbourne
It was so nice to be home again. We got to spend lots of time with mum and dad and my brothers and their wives and the wonderful nephews: Mikey, Tibby and Chris t pher. We went to an Emmanuel Community Day so we saw lots of our friends. We tried to visit other family and friends, but we didn't have the chance to see everyone...we just ran out of time.
Kev and I went to the baptism of our new little goddaughter Susanna, who is the first born of our dear friends Sarsy Gal and Damian. She timed the birth and baptism beautifully to coincide with our trip to Australia!
We were so happy to see my best friend Dan Ban (Daniella) from school and her two boys. They came over one day and had a great time running around the back yard with boys.
Dad and Tibby
Hele and Dan
James and Liam
Alex and Mikey
Nick and Tibby and Mikey
We had a great time in Australia. We had a little time to rest, lots of time to catch up, and also made time to stay up to day with work.
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