Don’t worry; I am still here!

ACN Kitty at Embrace-Liverpool 2014

I know that you have about given up on me at this point (and I’d like to believe that you would have been just a tiny bit sad at the loss…) and I am truly sorry for the hiatus in my blog entries, but I have been very, very busy (truly, epically busy, actually!). Immediately after I completed my last entry, I went to see my father in America for a week (a visit that was in fact at least 2 years overdue!). When I returned I had a week’s worth of work to catch up on and since then the NW Office has been a veritable whirlwind of activity!

 

Two days of feverous preparation saw your trusty NW Manager and her friend, Kitty, ready for anything as we headed to Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral for Embrace-Liverpool 2014 (http://www.embrace-liverpool.org.uk/), a huge event for young Catholics from all over the region. Kitty and I, feeling rather like Thelma and Louise, left Lancaster at 7am on Saturday 1 November in Theodora, laden with ACN literature, display boards, heart-weaving supplies and Iraq Solidarity buttons, wristbands and t-shirts. We managed to arrive at our destination without too much trouble and we got ourselves unloaded and set up—the accompanying photo shows Kitty behind our ACN stall. The day began at 10am and, for the next 8 hours, we met people, chatted about ACN, what we do and the people we help. We wove lots of paper hearts (most while standing up and talking to people—which is NOT easy I can tell you!) and collected messages of support to send to displaced Iraqi and Syrian Christians.

 

Archbishop McMahon reads out a greeting from
Pope Francis at Embrace-Liverpool 2014

We met students, teachers, youth group leaders, lay chaplains, parish priests and young families. We handed out ACN reports and contacts details for the new NW office and we told people about Prayers for our Hearts and Farid Georges and the new Religious Freedom Report. We explained about the Arabic N symbol for 'Nazarene' (this means Christian in Arabic and the initial has been painted on Christian houses in Iraq by IS members) that is currently all over the internet as symbol of support for Arabic Christians in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. I was disappointed at first by how few young people had ever heard of us, but very soon I was much gratified by the enthusiastic way everyone took our literature and contact details. I emerged exhausted, but feeling very determined to find ways to make ACN much better known to younger people throughout the North West…I have IDEAS about this. Watch this space…

 

Many, many thanks to Kitty for all of her help—I simply could not have managed without her!

 

Thanks for reading!  Caroline