Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Arrival at the Airport in Austin, TX


Our journey started this morning. We all gathered at the parish to celebrate the Eucharist and a special blessing for the pilgrims attending World Youth Day 2008. Interesting enough, the local news station KBTX in Bryan, got word of our little group attending World Youth Day and wanted to a new piece. Sylvia and Jordan came by to interview our group. They would show the piece at the 5, 6 or 10 PM that they would try to televise the news piece about our group. You may want to check their web page for mo

Afterwards we gathered for prayer before making the journey to Airport in Austin. Well everyone (ya'll) we arrived to the Airport in Austin. We hope to post pictures as we journey on our pilgrimage.

1 comment:

Marty Huvar said...

From KTBX 10pm News;

Brenham Church Group Leaves For World Youth Day In Australia

Youth from around the world are making their way to Australia to celebrate World Youth Day with Pope Benedict the 16th and two Brazos Valley churches will be well represented in Sydney.

Teenagers from Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in College Station left this past Sunday and a group from Saint Mary's in Brenham left early Tuesday morning, but not before receiving a special send-off.

Early morning Mass at Saint Mary's in Brenham had more teens than usual at the seven a-m service. But no one is complaining about the early hour.

Instead of sleeping-in, these kids were there to receive their special blessing before leaving for the airport.

Their final destination, World Youth Day where they'll meet up with half a million or more other teenagers from all over the world. All of the teens attending the event have one purpose in mind as Mary Weiman a member of the group says, "to feel the Holy Spirit and grow more stronger in my Catholic faith."

And it's that faith that prompted the group of 14 to achieve what some probably thought was an impossibility...raising almost 60-thousand dollars! While they accomplished their goal, it was an effort that didn't come easy or quick and it took them more than a year to achieve.

When asked about her daughter, Amy Ruesewald says, "she has earned her own money earned her own spending money. She's worked so hard and I'm so unbelievable proud of her for that."

When 15 year old Mary Ruesewald was asked how she felf about her mother's words, she said she was very happy to hear here such praise from her mother ant that she felt extremely loved.

That message of love and unity is the exact message that Pope Benedict the 16th is hoping to teach the you attending this World Youth Day. And these teens know hearing that message-- in person--from the pope is a once in a lifetime experience.

Koryn Weiman says, "in my future, I would like to be a youth minister so I feel it would help me along my journey."

While the future is important to these teens, on this particular journey to the land down under, these youngsters are focusing on the present. And even though they'll be far from home, it'll be a home-coming of sorts because...as Weiman believes, "we're all connected together in one faith, that even though we speak different languages we're still all one."

During the final stages of their fund raising effort, members of the group also turned to the Brenham business community for help and Blue Bell President, Paul Kruse who was quick to jump on board says..."this group had a plan and they had set a goal for themselves more than a year ago. I was so impressed with their dedication and hard work that Blue Bell could not turn them away when they came to us towards the end of their campaign."

If you would like to keep up with the group, while they're in Sydney you can access their blog and see some of the photos they'll very soon be posting...all you have to do is click on the link below.

Link to story:

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/24089164.html

These are some awesome young adults and their adult leaders!

Marty Huvar