Thoughts and prayers ...

... are with those in Christchurch, New Zeland. After the devastating earthquake that happened on Tuesday this week, the death toll is continuing to rise. Many people are using an initiative launched by Google to find missing loved ones. Let's hope those trapped stay strong and are found soon. For those who have already passed, may God be with you and your family at this time.

Condolences,
Dani =) x

Trafalgar Square

Was stood outside the National Gallery admiring the view- well watching pigeons harrass the tourists, and in the quiet I did what I've found myself doing in all my spare moments at the moment- making mental plans for Spain.

I'm starting to get really excited about the raffle next week, almost finished finalising prizes (which includes paintballing for TEN people!) and there's a meeting coming up on the 6th March where we will finally get to meet all the young people who are coming to Europe with us.

Massive thanks to all the parishioners who have supported us so far and even bigger thanks to the young people for their enthusiasm and creativty about fundraising and actually using the time just to be together.

So while the half term comes to an end for some, the real work starts for us next week. Let's hope I have more luck with the final batch of booking forms.

I really hope this nice weather continues.

Night,
Dani =) x

The BRIT Awards

Ok so whilst I'm starting revision for exams, I figured The Brit Awards in the background would keep things running smooth and keeping me concentrated.

And then...

...Tinie Tempah goes and wins an award for Best Breakthrough Act AND Best British Single!!! A massive CONGRATULATIONS to him and all the hard work he put in to his amazing album.

Imagine how chuffed I was when he said 'I wanna big up God and my family for sticking by me when times are hard.' On Live. National. Television.

Can you remember the last time a young Catholic celebrity thanked God somewhere so public?

What an incredible role model for our young people! Some of you may remember me mentioning a few posts ago that a local celebrity was supporting our fundraising efforts? In case you missed the subtlety, yes it is Mr Patrick Okogwu himself who has pledged to support Greenwich Deanery on our trip to Europe.

I just felt it almost vital to stress how MAJOR it is for someone to work hard, be successful and still know that they came from Him upstairs. We are no one without God and it's lovely to see a young man know, recognise and actually say out loud 'Thank you God'. So- you know no matter where God takes you and whatever journey you end up on, He is always there. This doesn't just apply to the priest, to person who works in Sainsbury's but celebrities and if they can show us it's okay to be proud of our faith- what is stopping us?

Off topic, anyone else know Adele was that good a live singer? Stunning.

Back to revision now,
Dani =) x

Million Minutes

So this weekend I was doing one of my favourite things- baking. And these biscuits are uber special because they're for Million Minutes.

It's a non-profit organisation that raises money for young people! They're doing their bit for young people on the streets, young people overseas and even youth leadership. This million minutes initiative is encouraging people to keep shhtum for 24 hours in an attempt to raise 1,000,000! It's a simple and clever plan and has already got the backing of the community at St Vincent's, Whitstable who come complete with a notice board, packs and 'little people' for the schools to scribble down their fundraising achievemtents.

The 'big keep your gob shut for a day' event is happening in May so in the meantime, check out www.millionminutes.org for more information, (Delia Smith has pledged her support) ways to get involved and they've even got a blog which features pictures and info from the launch that took place at the beginning of the week.

Don't forget- they're also on Facebook and Twitter.

I'm off to enjoy to my biscuit now.

Night,
Dani =) x

Evening Scripture

'Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.'

Brownie points to whoever can identify this piece of scripture before I post again next week.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Goodnight,
Dani =) x

188 days to go...

So already I'm panicking about getting the rest of the booking forms in, (with email addresses I STILL can't decipher), permissions slips, meeting with parents (you know-I'm safe, your kids will be safe, we'll all come back safe) and I haven't even thought about how we are getting to the airport.

How do school teachers do it?

*sighs*,
Dani =) x

Fundraising

If anyone has any ideas on how to raise money to send young people to see the Pope, feel free to drop me a line at dani@scys.org.uk.

We are from South East London (so we're all skint)and it would be great to send a great big bunch of young people on a holiday, but realistically many of them won't be able to afford to go.

We've had some genrous donations from parishioners, pledged support from schools and even a local celebrity (but I won't tell you who just yet) is prepared to fork out some money to get us to Heathrow- or Gatwick , I'm not actually sure which one yet.

Please please for those people who don't love Jesus (which is fine because God loves you anyway) don't send me anything mean or nasty to my email address. For those of you who do love Jesus, have a think about what you guys do in your church when times are hard and the roof needs repairing.

Cheers,
Dani =) x

Hello!

For you lovely bloggers who have no idea who I am (I guess that's probably everyone =S) I'm Dani from London who is Catholic and is going to World Youth Day.

This blog is going to take you readers through the journey of the young people of Greenwich Deanery (who I will have responsibility for when we are away- eek!), our preparations, our fundraising and our actual trip to Spain.

We hope this provides helpful and exciting preparation for you as we share our journey with you.

We are also on Facebook ('like' Taking Southwark to Spain) and once we are in Madrid, we will have a Flickr page all set up so you can look at our snaps. So get involved and keep checking back as we give you updates.

God bless,
Dani =) x

The first step

Sunday marked the beginning of our journey to Spain.

After a lively warm celebration of mass, young people gathered over to the parish hall to find out a bit more information about World Youth Day. Forms were filled in (with some slighty interesting interpretations of BLOCK CAPITALS), questions posed and a little family for our summer holiday began to emerge.

No doubt there is going to be a lot of work to do; fundraising, meetings, more meetings, emails- my head is already spinning at the prospect of many a late night but d'you know what? It'll be all worth it to get some 16 year olds that little bit closer to the Holy Father.

The Papal Visit, benedictinsouthwark.blogspot.com opened up a new world for me and such an empowering and refreshing experience of what celebrating faith can feel like that I literally cannot wait to experience that for a whole week.

After doing a gap year working for the youth service, I kind of feel like 'representing the youth' is in my blood. I fell in love with the service you can do someone by showing them who the person of Christ is, and how very present he is in each one of us.

Not quite sure how this blog will take form, with any luck it will be a diary from now until August of many different voices, giving you an insight into where we are on our faith journey and how that develops and changes over the next six months.

Bye for now,
Dani =) x