After just a few months here and a lot of hard work, self-doubt and feeling overwhelmed, God came through with a strong response this weekend. Remembering Sister Laurel’s message, ‘Elm Grove will not fail’, we got to experience a taste of this. We had the blessing of my “Men Alive” friends come to do a full-on working bee over the Anzac Day long weekend.

They achieved what would have taken me at least a month to achieve with fellowship, prayer and great food and drink. One guy who left on Sunday morning felt the need to come back because he ‘was just sad leaving’, so he brought his wife and her friends back to join us that evening.

Fr Dave from the Missionaries of God’s Love (MGL) celebrated mass in St Clare’s chapel (our first mass) and Sar and I couldn’t stop the tears. A chapel with 26 people, feeling the Spirit moving, and us knowing very deeply that this is exactly where we are supposed to be and what this is all about.

This is just the beginning. Imagine hundreds coming to connect with what is most important – our true selves – and of letting the shadows go! Sar and I have no idea on the ‘How’. But God is showing us glimpses of what might just be possible for Elm Grove into the future. We will do our best to say Yes.

Please pray for us. An awesome weekend, thank you God!

(MGL is a Roman Catholic religious contemplative community of priests, brothers, and sisters that came into being in Canberra, Australia in 1986, founded by Fr Ken Baker who was inspired by St Francis of Assisi during a visit to Umbria, Italy in 2000. He founded the Young Men of God Movement to reach out and empower young men with the love of God and to encourage them to become leaders within their own communities; maximise the talents God has given them; and realise their full potential.)