Today was our last day on the mission. It has been quite an emotional day. The garden has been completed and will now help to support 14 families in the village with food and an educational programme based on how they manage the garden.

The fence which we have been painting has also been completed, the church in the village looks great.

We blessed the garden and dedicated it to the intecession of St Chad and after a very beautiful Mass this afternoon after which we blessed the fence.

Our work is done... It seems sad to say that, we will not be going back to see our work, see the benefit it will have. Our attention will now change to WYD itself. We are ready for it!

With a very full timetable that changes every few minutes throughout the day Alex and Heather haven't found time to sum up yesterday. You'll have to wait till we come back!

Today we finished painting the railing around the church on the mission, went river clearing and have almost finished the garden we have been planting.

Many pilgrims from Canada, Chille, Costa Rica, America and I'm sure many more got together for a little party. After Mass some went out for a little drink, others to rest. I went to my Brazilian adopted parents for various flavours of juice! We're playing the PS3 at the moment. Not only can I not play football in real life, I can't play it in the virtual world either!

It's been an intense and hard working day. Tomorrow is our last day on the mission before heading down into Rio for the main WYD events.

Thanks to a free 30min session of WiFi we can just let you know we're at our stop over in Paris. We found out that we are not the only pilgrims on our plane, there is a group of 25 young people from the diocese of Gibraltar on our flight. That is about 75 World Youth Day pilgrims on the flight! Who knows who else we might meet. This could be the last post until we finish our mission in Petropolis.

Here is a map of where we will be for the next few days. If we can't be in touch just picture us in shorts and t-shirts playing football (obviously, not Fr Michael!) singing songs, painting fences and planting gardens. Thank you following us!

Alex and Heather are going to post something tomorrow night about the second day of the Pilgrimage. There were lots of things happening so it might be a long post tomorrow. We'll only tell you enough to whet the appetite ready for ya proper and full report when we get back home. But so you don't feel short changed, here's a picture before heading off to the mission and a picture of the mountains around the mission.

We began out WYD pilgrimage with Mass in England. That day finished almost 40 odd hours later with Holy Mass at the community chapel in Petropolis. Yes, we have arrived safe and sound. It was great that this mammoth day of travel was framed by what is most important, meeting the Lord in the Mass.

We received wonderful welcome from our hosts for these days in the diocese. We had breakfast, a quick tour of the very beautiful city and it's cathedral. After lunch we travelled out to the village where we will be supporting the locals with a little redecoration... Watch out Alan Titchmarsh and Charlie Dimock, Birmingham Youth are in town!!

The lovely children at the mission treated us to some dancing that was a fusion between samba and ballet. We got to explain a little about where we have come from. I presented the crowds with a jar of our finest and locally produced Marmite. Even in Brazil you either love it or you hate it!

After supper and little stroll to aid digestion, we celebrated Mass and retired to bed. Me and three others have had the grace of being adopted for the week. We've been welcomed by a lovely family and their speaking pets.

God bless for now.

The first pic of the trip! We've done the first leg of the trip, a very warm bus trip from Birmingham to Coventry and from Coventry to Heathrow. Here we are out side Harrods, a last bit of Englishness before departing for France.

Hello all! Fr Michael here just checking in before tomorrow's journey. Not long now before we head off. The bags are packed, I think! I am sure that something has been forgotten. I know I have forgotten to order any currency for Rio. Oh well, it's a bit too late now. Just enjoying a little tipple with some good friends before going to bed ready to meet all the pilgrims for the Commisoning Mass at Holy Family in the morning. We will be praying for you all. God bless.

Next Wednesday we will be heading off to Rio!!  It is hard to believe that it is almost here.  Firstly, a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us, especially in terms of prayer and fundraising.  It is thanks to your generosity that we are able to go.  We are hoping to share our experiences with you at some point over the summer when we return.  But, I am sure you can't wait that long to hear about our experiences! Thanks to the wonders of technology we are going to try and keep in touch with you via this Blog page while we are away.  Bare with us though, where we are going for the Mission Trip may not have internet access or WiFi!  If you don't hear from us we will probably enjoying some incredible experiences and looking forward to sharing them with you... as soon as we find a connection!  In the meantime, thank you once again and keep us in your prayers as we will keep you in ours.