22 April 2010
by Christine Lamwaka
Wao!! Days are running like water and months are just a click and go, I can’t believe it’s now 8 months since I joined this ministry. Why? Because it was enjoyable with all the excitement at the beginning not realising how the months goes. Indeed, the last 8 months has been a great opportunity for me with a growth both spiritually and socially. Being a part of St. Patrick’s Parish Blacktown is such a nice experience to me because of the multicultural community it possesses and how supportive the community is. I am so delighted and happy to be a member of such a parish and all these was due to this opportunity of Internship given to me.
Yeah! When I come to some of the achievements that we have made over the past 8 months in this parish due to this WYD internship program, I can’t express all the excitement in writing; however, as mentioned by my colleague Philippe, I can start with the most exciting and great one which is the formation of the AFRICAN CHOIR in the Parish, this is something I had in mind before but could not do it because I did not know where to start from. But through this opportunity given to me, I was able to start it and was so impressed to see the young Africans coming to join us and joining the parish as well because there is nothing interesting like being a part of community and I am grateful that they are happy to be a part of St. Patrick’s community, glory and honour be to God for that.
Not only that, being involved in the Easter preparation and being part of the celebration was so amazing. It was so touching to be involved in the STATIONS OF THE CROSS as I took the challenge to organise and lead the program which was so amazing seeing young people dedicating themselves in doing such a great task and this could not work without our dedicated volunteers who took part in the Stations of the Cross not to mention the exciting part whereby we had “An African Jesus” that is Nambiri (Jokes) who acted as Jesus for the first time and of course all the volunteers who were all youth, inspiring the young ones to join the community. And as well African choir leading the Easter Sunday mass at 10am which was so amazing involving people from different parishes who came and celebrated with us the Resurrection of our Lord and bringing more people in our community too.
Being part of St. Patrick’s, I was also able to join Multi-denomination Christian Fellowship (MDCF), it is African Christian community who always come together at the end of the month to fellowship together as one children of God from different denominations and I am always there to represent the St. Patrick’s Catholic Parish Blacktown. Not only that, they also invite the African choir to go and perform there which we always do, in order to represent St. Patrick Parish.
Oh! Not forgetting being part of the Parish Assembly in March this year, it was so amazing and I was so happy to be there as part of the community and also representing the youth of the Parish although the greatest number on that day was the elderly people, but being part of if made me learn a lot and was able to share with members when we were divided into groups about youth involving in the community and I just love being part of it. And also getting the opportunity for attending Bishop Anthony Fisher’s Installation at Parramatta Diocese was so exciting as I was there representing the Youth of St. Patrick’s as well, something which I have never attended in my life, and all this was due to involvement in the Church activity and being part of St. Patrick’s parish. It was a great night and it was nice meeting youth from different Parishes.
Lastly but not the least, as I mentioned from the beginning; I can’t write everything here because I may write pages and pages with no ending, I have learnt a lot form this opportunity and I am grateful that I am still continuing to learn more and grow more in spirit and to participate in the parish activities and being a member as well. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Lisa, Philippe and not forgetting Fr. Peter for all the support that you people give, it is so amazing working with you all and I am glad that I am working with you and everything is still going on well. I pray that let us keep on with this spirit for the development of our parish and the community at large, and with all the amazing activities taking place in the parish, I am sure our parish will always go forward through dedication and commitment of oneself.