Such Joy

by Jack Chui

Sunday 24th August 2014 will be remembered as a joyous day when Nicole who started coming to StAY a year ago was baptised in the presence of St. Augustine's Church and the young people of StAY. In my typical fashion, here are 3 of my take outs:

The Purpose of StAY...

is to bring God to young people. And I guess one of the highest forms (if not the highest?) of fulfilling this purpose is to see young people enter into God's family here on earth --- which is for the Catholic Church through baptism. It's moments like baptism of a friend who I've been following through StAY when I see a visible sign of God's hand at work through the ministry, that all the work and prayers have resulted in the joy of His Children entering in full communion with the Church.

Bringing People Together

I was really glad that Nicole hosted a lunch gathering using her unique occasion to celebrate and it drew just about everyone in StAY. We had all been waiting for this day, preparing with her to celebrate this day and we filled the hall. The hall we had always had our cell groups in was packed. Some members had come from their usual parishes for this and its amazing how such an event can bring together so many people. The Firebrandz choir put on their best. How StAY has grown and what hope it brings to others we haven't met in Melbourne.

Need for Hospitality

The lunch gathering was open to the rest of the church and through it, two new people came and were introduced to StAY and its activities. Without the gathering, we might have missed these people who by chance were attending the baptism as part of their Sunday mass obligation. We had not been seeing new people coming to StAY cell groups on Tuesdays recently and it reminded me that I had not been inviting people that I see from church/mass to join us. I used to do it along with some others but now that StAY has become too big it felt like I didn't need to invite any more because we didn't need more people. But how we can miss out on bringing God to these people if we don't invite. I should not take our apparent blessings for granted...

So all praise and glory to God for his work through StAY and its people.