“The Lord is my shepherd and there is nothing I shall want. Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose. Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my spirit” – Psalm 22 v2
Welcome back to term 3, I hope that all had the chance to spend time with family and friends and took the opportunity to take rest during the school holiday break.
Catch the Wave Retreats
In the last week of term 2, the Senior St Edmund’s and St Clare’s Youth Ministry teams collaborated to help run the ‘Catch the Wave’ retreats for our Year 9 and 10 boys. This is an introduction for all boys to engage with Youth Ministry and then as an outcome the boys can express an interest to sign up for a specific Religion class dedicated to it. It was great to see the senior leaders lead the younger students through this experience in sharing their faith in such a fun, relational and authentic way. Many laughs were shared through various games and icebreakers and then there were times where our Senior Ministers requested that boys have some time to be still, reverent and quiet. A big congratulations to our Senior Ministers for whom many this was their first experience running such a retreat.
Eddie Rice Camps
On the 8th of July 5 current Eddies boys and 2 graduated boys met with 8 volunteers from Sydney to make our way down to the Pines at Tuross Heads for the first ever Eddie Rice Camp on the South Coast. When we arrived at The Pines we unpacked, then had an afternoon of team building games and ice-breakers which had us all going to bed with confidence for the week ahead. After a good night’s rest, Monday involved many preparations for the arrival of the fantastic children. A few lucky children joined some leaders for a road trip from Canberra, while others were collected from various locations along the South Coast in the afternoon. We were all together and getting to know each other by 3pm. On Tuesday we were blessed with spending some time with the Tuross Head Fishing Club. Four incredible volunteers from the club met us at a beautiful local spot and shared some tips about fishing and taught us many valuable skills. Our afternoon was full of adventure as we broke into groups to explore the whole town and did our own version of the Amazing Race. Wednesday involved jumping in the bus for a walk along the beautiful coastline. After a long walk we enjoyed a sausage sizzle and then had arts’n’crafts and sport at the Eurobodalla Botanical Gardens. On Thursday we enjoyed a super relaxing day which included a lot of bonding over shared memories, creating some beautiful art together and playing sport. Our evening was highly entertaining with the presence of three incredible MasterChef judges, and some classic camp pranks on the leaders. We were in fits of laughter all evening! Unfortunately, Friday came along to quick and we had to say goodbye to all the wonderful kids. After a tiring drive back, we had our final review session and it was time for us Canberra boys to be picked up. It was an emotional time saying goodbye to all of our new friends from Sydney and Perth. We have all learnt qualities about ourselves that we didn’t know existed before the camp, we also made life long friendships.
“The camp was one of the greatest experiences of my life, I learnt a lot about myself and created friendships that will last a life time” Harry Buckley, Year 11
The boys were: Eamon McCoola, Harry Buckley, Duncan Kilmister, Justin Teng, Lachlan Hayes, Sam Stubbs and Gerard Teng
Lachlan Hayes (Year 12)
http://www.edmundricecamps.org/
Staff Service Day
“The greatest among you will be your servant.” – Matthew 23:11
Last term our staff took a day to serve others at various locations including Mountainview Aged Care Plus Centre, Baptist Care Aged Care Centre, HOME in Queanbeyan (both cooking and gardening), Roundabout (re-homing essential baby items & equipment for those in need), Narrabundah Vinnie’s store, Vinnie’s Night Patrol packing, Marymead (gardening), OZ harvest (preparing meals) amongst others.
It was a great day shared together as a staff team helping various organisations within our local community. This is not an action or behaviour that we value, it is more than that, it’s part of our Catholic identity.
More photos at https://sec.act.edu.au/works-of-mercy-term-2-2018/
Eddies – serving others!
Michael Monagle (Director of Mission and Identity)