Once we had made it to Brisbane and then Beaudesert (just outside Brisbane), we spent the first week with Nana and Pa, Brendan's incredibly generous and fun grandparents. We had tea at least three or four times a days, took some bush walks on their land, and enjoyed the relaxing Aussie way of life. Here is Brendan on a bush walk, trying to feed the herd of cows.
Nana and Pa took us to Marian Valley for Mass in the morning and it was beautiful! Saying the rosary surrounded by strong Aussie accents was more than a little entertaining. Afterward we were able to walk through a gorgeous trail of lifesize Stations of the Cross. They were a white stone against the backdrop of 6 feet hight poinsettias that thrived in the rainforest-type climate!
We also got to go to O'Reilly's - up on a mountain with great hiking and real rainforest. We did some hiking early on in the morning. In this picture, Brendan, Aunt Cathy, Samantha, and I were feet away from the edge of a waterfall that crashed down hundreds of feet and overlooked an expansive valley. Georgie and Pa were ahead of us at the Morain Falls Lookout. The stream feeding the waterfall was surprisingly shallow and calm, so we were able to hop on rocks to get out to this point. Once we made it back to the main area and had lunch, we fed brightly-colored parrots and completed a tree top walk.
When Aunt Cathy and the girls had to head back to Brisbane, they took Brendan and I with them and dropped us off at the Battles' house (Brendan's aunt, uncle, and cousins). We spent the next few days playing lots of ping pong, exploring the downtown area via the bus and Citicat (water taxi), and hanging out with their family. This sunset picture was taken while we waited to take the Citicat back to their house. It was very relaxing and quite an adventure!
We stayed in Balkham Hills, a suburb an hour and a half outside city, had daily catechesis (time talking with a different Bishop everyday about the Bible, life, faith, and teachings of the Catholic Church). The youth were truly on fire, and we got to know people from all over the world. At our catechesis site we met a ton of young people from Perth, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.
The days were packed with speakers, concerts, the Pope coming to hang out with us, real life Stations of the Cross, and the final Mass with the Pope in Renwick Stadium. We didn't sleep much, but when we did sleep it was good (we got to stay with the McGuire family who were as hospitable as anyone could be and their beds were really soft :)
The pictures are of me, while we waited to go to a talk on East Timor. In the background you can see the Sydney Opera House on the left, and the famous Harbour Bridge on the right.
The center picture is of the coolest adoration set ups we had ever seen. It was probably one of the only quiet places in the city, and after Reconciliation we were able to sit on the floor and express our gratitude to Jesus in the Eucharist (see John 6 and the Last Supper). The monstrance was probably 3 feet in diameter, but it wasn't the gold and silver rays that attracted our attention, but the spiritual reality of the presence of Jesus Christ. Wow...
Lastly, we have Brendan and I with Bishop Peppy of Florida who gave us a blessing as newlyweds. We met him at the Vocations Expo, where we also looked at the booths there for marriage, met some of the Canossian Sisters (the group we will be volunteering with in less than a month), and walked through an exhibit about Mother Teresa's life set up by the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa is one of my heroes and has provided an example of selfless love in service to the poorest of the poor (material and spiritual poor) that will keep us on the right track for our East Timor adventure.
These pictures are of the crowd for the opening Mass - people from all over the world, representing all countries, singing in all languages, unified by faith. The center picture is of Pope Benedict when we arrived at Barangaroo on Thursday. We were only one hundred feet away, but the better part was that we got a video of him driving up in the Popemobile from about 10 feet away. I'll see if Brendan can put that up soon. Our assigned tickets got us into the closest area you could be without being part of the media, which was amazing. We heard clearly as he spoke about knowing Jesus personally and letting that effect every element of your life. It was challenging and inspiring!
The last picture is me by a group of East Timorese that we sat by at the opening Mass. They were very nice and said they were excited to see us when we get there in December! That was encouraging because many of them live in Dili, the capital city, and we might actually see them again :)
After three weeks of adventure, a very tired Brendan and Rachel made their way on the 24 hours of flights back to Des Moines, Iowa, to work and prepare for Round 2 of international travel :)
