Some of you may wish to contribute this time to the various parish communities mentioned on the website.

More details 07790505881 or 01702601663

You can also donate using the button to the right. Any help is gratefully received!

This is the letter from the priest to the parish and below is a Follow Up of the progress made so far.

Latest news is I have, in a moment of madness, inspired by a desire I cannot name or express fully, paid a deposit and my ticket is booked to return to Brasil !!!!!!!!!. As you all know a part of my heart has been there since that journey began in 1998,

“Padre Ticao sends love and prayers to our sister parish Santa Maria Madre de Dios.

I remember fondly the Grand visit in 2000 and we all have many good memories of that joyful and special time.

Lily is returning in November for 10 weeks to continue and develop her work here with my pastoral teams. Our parish is involved with many projects always. Your help is gratefully received and used well. Thank you for your generosity.

Any funds you can send now will go to the latest project which is an orphanage shelter called the House of Youth for 22 children fom 6 months to 17 yrs old. They have no parents or homes. They stay there until adopted or placed in foster care.We are together making it a home and it needs a laundry room. Thank you very much and God Bless you.

Message from Lily : I will be leaving on November 22nd and if anyone wishes to send a message, raise funds or make a donation I can be contacted via the parish office.”

Follow up

Final date now set: I leave

***22nd November and return 1st.February 2012.***

I have 3 homes waiting to welcome me and look after me, I am so blessed.

I am hoping to arrange a get together in October so will let you know about that.

Your messages and encouragement are wonderful, I feel very supported and loved Thank you. You have helped me by having treatments, buying my books and having lessons to raise some of the money. Thank you.

I have been given embroidery thread and other little packages to give to the community.

Donations received £358.34. You are the best – what can I say except thank you and bless you.

From the gift of £2 (with a card saying God has plans for You ) to the gift of £100.

All very special – tears flowing with gratitude. Such generous quick response. A big hug from me. Love from Lily xxxx

The end cost is : Fare £802.86 + Insurance £140.51 ( premiums for age & length of stay ) = Total £943.37 WOW

Update – 26th October

27 days to go. The fund has now reached £650. Thank you.

On Sunday 13th November between 11am and 4 pm I will be at Fresh Horizons, 50 Ditton Court Road, Westcliff. saying farewell and giving a Presentation on Brasil and the work being done there.

Final figures

What can I say, I am totally blessed to have you all as friends who feel inspired to support me in this venture to return to Brasil to continue and develop Reiki training in the parish oh St. Francis of Assisi in Ermelino Matarazzo with Padre Ticao and his amazing community. Such generousity and love so freely given. I will take you all with me in my heart. I am hoping to be able to keep in touch while I am away so watch your e mails or my website. lilythomson.co.uk

My target originally was for my fare. As usual it took on a life of it’s own and you gave me funds for the project to create a laundry for a small orphanage and some personal cash for me to spend on ice cream!!
That’s what I was told to do – imagine the fun in that. And the ice cream there is to die for : you get a dish and fill it full of whatever ice cream you like, cover it in all sorts of delights, take it to the counter, have it weighed, pay and enjoy. I cannot wait.
I started this Adventure on August 20th

My fare £802.86 + Travel Insurance extra for my age and length of stay £191.49 = £994.35.
Today’s donation takes the total to £996.11 FINISHED well done.

Donations for the project is now standing at £88.80 and there are more coming in from St. Mary’s parish in Hornchurch tomorrow.

Any more cash I get will go straight to Padre Ticao – he started this small community 32 years ago with a small parish and now he has about 60,00 families in his family: He told the bishop he wanted to go to 1 parish and make a difference in his lifetime and leave it in a box. Just type his name into u tube to get a sense of the man- a force to be reckoned with. He with the help of his community decides who is most in need at any time and at the moment it is this laundry for the halfway house/orphanage for 17 children between the ages of 2 and 17. They stay until they are adopted or fostered by members of the community so it is a moveable number, as 1 moves out there is always another. Some of these children lost their parents through AIDS and now the grandparents who looked after them are dying or unable to care for them any longer. When I went there first in 1998 it was heartbreaking to see the damage the disease was causing to families and the church was taking a major role in educating and supporting victims and their families. I became part of the system working with projects ESPERANCA (HOPE) , SAMARITANO (SAMARITANS) AND LOCAL GROUPS and was enriched by the experience as you all know.

I have £40.00 for ice cream so I am a very happy lady.

god bless you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

24th November 2011

Thanks to Mark for getting me out of the house on time and Fidelma and Kieron for getting me to the airport and all of you with your good wishes and love.

Had a very smooth flight on TAM. the staff who check your luggage in are the people who are flying with you so check in is relaxed and chatty – very pleasant I got a better seat with extra leg room. Once the gate is opened you stroll on to the plane and make yourself comfortable. It opened at 7.30 and it was about 7.45 when i got there, expecting the usual queuing up, walked on found my seat and got my book out, learned how to use the entertainment system and we left at 8.55. It was very full, food delicious dinner and breakfast, regular water and juice and little hand wipes. watched my peppers penguins ??

Letitia and her mum met me and took me to my home for a few days. Beautiful very gracious home I was completely zonked out. had some toast and went to bed. woke in time to go for lunch at an Asian Kilo caffe where you pick up what you want and weigh it so you pay for what you eat -no food left on the plate. had a walk around the area a breezy 27 degrees and around the complex- swimming pool, sauna, gym, tennis court , lovely walking path and nice gardens. back to the apartment -another snooze.

The family came home at 6.30 the 2 girls go to school from 7 to 6.30 the morning is for lessons the afternoon for sport and social activities. Thereza the mum works until 6.30 and picks them up. Letitia and her sister both start work at 7 am. Let’s job is 20mins away but Cynthia has to travel for almost 1 and 1/2 hrs both ways so is up very early. She works in a kitchen cooking experimental food for recipe books !!! Let is a personal asst. we went to bed early and i woke up feeling worn out – jet lag ??

I have now had instructions from Ticao to stay here until I am energised because when I get to him I will hit the ground running everyone wants a piece of me just as well there is a lot of me ???/ today 29 deg just nice for me very relaxed Julia (let’s mum) and me -( her english is as good as my portoguese ) had a lovely lunch now going onto the balcony to read my book

love to you all xxxx

22nd December 2011

well I am just having an amazing time

Everyone welcomed me and I have been working with Reiki in the morning in various locations or attending meetings , break for the afternoon and then more visits to sick or friends in the evenings, lots of prayers.

I have been away to a ¨farm¨ for the weekend- this is really a small private holiday camp with a large kitchen where we all prepare the food together. the families I was with booked the place for 40 adults and 20 children bring all your own bedding food and equipment – has swimming pool, snooker basketball and fishing. fun.

A BIT CRAZY 3 big houses, in our house we had 4 rooms, 8 in mine 8 next door 6 and 5 in the other rooms -like camping with some comfort. Bunk beds. ladies all together and gentlemen all together — separate
I really had time to spend with the Youth Group who were preparing for an annual conference. They sang us all to sleep each night singing hymns.
We arranged a get together where we were able to explore Healing Touch
( Reiki without the initiation). Feedback from the leaders : every time we felt overwhelmed or stressed by the course we gave each other Healing Touch and felt the energy support us.
Near the end of my visit the group produced and beautifully performed a piece telling the story of Reiki for everyone.
The youth here are totally involved in improving their lives and organise events with other areas to educate each other for a better future.
While I was there I was invited to an afternoon function. The youth had been away for a week and were returning. purpose of the week was to find gratitude for the life you had. I was moved to tears as each teenager spoke to parents saying thank you, sorry for the problems and worries, and declaring how much they were loved and felt love. lots of hugging.

A trip to Aparacida (the Lourdes of Brasil) was lovely because it rained a little and was cooler.

Lots of celebrations for the Christmas season and Saturday morning watched a demonstration of dancing by the senior citizens, a nativity play by the children and then lunch.
Spent time with the young mothers group, the old people’s home, the handicapped house and introduced them all to Healing Hands.

Sunday mass in the hospital celebrating 20 years being open then went to a Christmas party and sat on Santas knee. everybody got a small bag of sweets and then presents were exchanged lovely food and lovely people Santa had a silk suit hat and bag

Every day is different and sometimes arrangements change spontaneously. have to be adaptable. People keep remembering the group and all the families they stayed with and it is very moving

it was 29 degrees yesterday and 31 today and very hot – going to get hotter was at the shops, i have never seen flip flops like they have here, i want to buy them all

Christmas is celebrated with mass at 8pm and then family barbeques with father Christmas to the early hours. very jolly. It is more like the Scottish first footing because several houses around are hosts and you are invited to all of them. It is expected that you spend 1 hour with each family and move on. You are also expected to partake of food and beverage with each.

On Christmas day people travel to see each other or go to the beach. All transport is running, no shops. Very sociable. hope you had a wonderful Christmas filled with blessings. Wish you were here lol xxxx

NEW YEAR
Spent New Year’s eve in the centre of San Paulo with Letitia’s family.
Fireworks everywhere. we were up on the roof at midnight. It was raining , the view was spectacular from all around.

January flew by. I was approached by the leaders in the retirement home (a place for elderly who have no one to take care of them ) for basic training in Reiki. With the help of 2 of my Reiki Masters we got them started. This was to be followed up by the 2 Masters after I left.

The youth Group found out I meditated every day and made time for it to be introduced to the Community. My Mantra for Meditation is Maranatha and this amazingly was the WORD OF THE YEAR for 2012. I am very passionate about The World Community of Christian Meditation and I opened the meeting dying to share my story. After 5 minutes I realised I was talking in English and they had not understood a word.
I just burst out laughing. Silly ass. We all had a giggle and then had a lovely meditation together.

I became much more part of the Family of Ermelino Matarazzo and the underlying trust they have generationally. The progress that has been made is mind boggling.
In 1998 I stood by a river and was told by Padre Ticao that were are building a university here. Now 2012 it has 1500 students BUT only a bus service. He plans to have a train line into the city centre one day.
In 1998 my group were helping to dig out foundations for a housing project that was being built by the community themselves on empty ground.All that was there was a hut for meeting together. Today Santa Ines is a Flagship for the government. A block of flats and a chapel and meeting centre is used daily.
I was guest of honour at a special Mass of thanks for the Parish of St. Mary’s for their solidarity spiritually, financially and in friendship.
I did not realise I was guest of honour and I had to make a speech. I recalled my first memory of standing in that silly hut, which for them was like a palace( a place to go and meet and talk ) in 1998 and reminded them how inspiring it was for us in England to be part of it and to see what can be done with joint will. Love these people for their courage, determination and love. They dream and the dream comes to pass. Time does not matter. They just work towards the dream. Other projects are being planned and I wish them well. All of you at St.Mary’s who helped in any way a big THANK YOU from the Community of St. Francis De Assis . God Bless.