WYD08 in Sydney experience

God is Good.He is indeed.To experience and be one among the hundreds and thousands of pilgrims from all around the world is far from my imagination.And to think way back when i was in the philippines...when the world youth day was in manila...i could not even afford to go when ironically it is just an hour plane ride to manila and yet it was'nt so possible for me that time.So to think about now....makes me understand God's perfect will.There will always be a season for everything.God always give you the desires of your heart...in God's perfect time and will.

Anyway,as i've said to be one among the many pilgrims here in WYD is just top of the world experience (funny for me to say that,when we're here in the land Down Under).To begin with..six months or so before the wyd,i wasnt so sure if we can join since we've got two kids.But then God works really in a mysterious ways.One sunday,carolyn ,a lay person in our parish St thomas asked us if we were interested to join wyd in sydney,willy and i were both not sure at that time because of having kids and travelling seem to be difficult they say...we were kinda worried of how we gonna do it even when we really hadnt done it yet.Carolyn was so encouraging that she put our names in ,we thought about it,we said,maybe we can give it a go..and if along the way we were not prepared or whatever then so be it.Days went by...our own parish organizer for world youth day had been amazingly doing heaps of fundraising activities,searching and booking travel and accomodations for the 25 pilgrims in our parish.God's divine providence had truly manefested in the most impossible way.Carolyn had disclose our financial needs to be able to be in wyd in sydney would cost around $20,000...and our parishioners were not that well off as well to easily donate money...but surprisingly we made it through.

Day one - 14 hours travel from geelong ,pass through melbourne to sydney.It was daunting for awhile for me n willy knowing we've got two toddlers.Yet as minutes and hours went by...so far they had been good.No throwing up,no crying.Fantastic!All they did was eat n sleep...well,a couple of whinging and annoying question like," are we there yet?" ,which was from maeve mostly.But notably i enjoyed the ride and the stop overs because we get to say hello to other pilgrims who were taking the same road as we are. Though their buses were a lot bigger than ours.I was informed that there were 200 big buses that went from melbourne to sydney.They were pilgrims from all round th world.We greeted italians,germans,other aussies from different parishes and schools,americans,koreans etc...And while we're on the bus we sang praise n worship songs ,listen to bible texts and meditations and pray d rosary.My spirit has been filled.

Day 2 we were on our way to our pilgrim venue site for the opening mass at Barangaroo,we went to blacktown train station and as we were walking,we met a group of pilgrims from Croatia...they were singing songs of praise as they were neo catechumen,as they walk through the streets.Then when we got inside the station....there were heaps of people from everywhere,singing and dancing.Such a jubilant atmosphere,i took a little wave to one of the mexican group across the railway...and from that the whole entire station seemed to shake with a loud thunderous OLA!It was crazy!

The festive atmosphere was just overwhelming more especially when we got out from the station,and went walking through the main streets of sydney....all the main streets that leads to the wyd venue were all closed to pave way to all pilgrims.The city streets were filled up with so much jubilee,the loud chants of italians,yelling Benedicto!the rythmic beating of the drums from the africans,the singing /rap voices of young canadians,americans,and aussies alike.It was a victorious day for all the catholic faithful.The atmosphere was more akin to independence day or our own EDSA people power revolution.My heart was jubilant.All glory and praise to God!ill take a halt for now ....to be continued....there's so much to share!