Hosting at ME House - 1 to 3 Jul (ME376)

Dear All

It had been some time since we hosted a ME weekend. The last time was in 2005, a year after our original ME weekend. I believe our LC did it as a 1st year anniversary celebration for our very young Love Circle then.

Below: The new signage of ME House

Below: Mike&Teresa from LC307

Below: Tucking into breakfast after a busy morning of preparation

It brings back sweet memories "living" within the 4 walls of ME House. ME House holds many sweet and a little "bitter" (at least for me) memories for Bert and me. It was the place we first went for EE Weekend. I still remembered the hosting EE priest, Fr Nicholas Ho. He was such a romantic priest, who was so in love with the movie Robin Hood starring Kevin Costner then. I remembered Bert and I had not seen the movie then, so Fr Ho was encouraging every couple to do so, and kept on singing the theme song. It's so important that our beloved priests supports married lives. We are so blessed with our wonderful EE and ME priests, not to mention Choice priests too!

Below: Tiffany preparing ham & eggs sandwiches

I remembered we had alot of couples from our LC either staying overnight, or coming in or going out over the Nov 2005 weekend. It was quite different for this month's July 2011 weekend. I supposed it's because it was not the school holidays, so parents are all working and unable to take leave, as the June school holidays had just ended.

But the show must go on. Couples have committed their time to attend the weekend, the priest has availed himself, the 3 presenting couples have committed themselves, heart and soul, into this. By combining couples from 2 LCs, we formed a team. In the end, only 2 "residential" couples, 1 each from each LC, were able to stay over at ME house. I am so edified that our LC couples came through....though they couldn't stay over night, J&J came early in the mornings to help in the breakfast and wherever they could. When they can't make it on the last day, and so too by the other hosting couple (they had to leave on Sat night), we were worried....only we had to host it...but true to the LC spirit, E&C came like manna from heaven. Indeed, thanks to the prayers and cooperation of everyone involved, we managed to host the July ME376 weekend, with our wonderful LC leader, L&J presenting that weekend as well.

Below : Bert & I taking turns to attend to the red bean soup

The girls stayed overnight with us. They were very helpful and after some guidance, were quite skilful in rolling paper napkins over the cutlery. Tiffany learned how to cook beautiful scrambled eggs for breakfast under the guidance of the uncles. With the help of the ME House residential couple, Andrew and Belinda, Tiffany learned how to blend the balance of the ham and scrambled eggs to make sandwiches for tea, and I learned how to make red-bean soup with whole orange! E&C added the final orange zined to the soup. Felicia was happily washing all the cups outside with her daddy carrying the washed cups back to the kitchen. She and her sister had never seen so many plates, forks and spoons to wash and dry!! It was great bonding time for the girls with us, and for us with our LC couples and M&T from LC307 (I believe - I cannot remember for sure). It was so nice to make new friends from another LC :)

The ME 376 weekend was a small group of 10 couples of which 2 couples were from Thailand. We also had 2 Thai priests. We could see that the Holy Spirit had touched the participating couples very deeply during the weekend as we witnessed their exchange of marriage vows once more during the Sunday Mass. We know (later on) that hosting couples should not attend the ME Sunday Mass, but we had no choice...we didn't know till then, and that was the last Mass for Sunday. Luckily Fr Louisou allowed us to :) As we watched the deep love that was rekindled between husband and wife, we also felt like a happy community with them. We secretly hoped we could be allowed to also exchange our marriage vows too, but I supposed this Mass was actually for them, so we should be as inconspicuous as possible. Anyway, Felicia was excited that she had the chance to taste the wine at the Holy Communion. It's been some time since I also had the chance to taste both Body and Blood, so all-in, we were so blessed to be allowed to attend this Mass.

Love Theresa