"Our judgement must be made" Julia Gillard , Prime Minister. These are the words that Ms Gillard declared during her address at the 2012 Dawn Service at Gallipoli. This day will come for us all one day, are you ready for it? This really made me think...if I was to be judged by the Lord this very second would He be happy with what he sees? Would he say 'No, Jo you need to fix a,b, c and d'...I don't think he would, we are given many opportunities to be grateful and thankful in our lives everyday, God has given us free will to choose our path and to use our best qualities to help and love one another. The men and women who served or continue to serve in the War everyday show their best qualities and if judgement day was placed on them they would be given an A+. Personally this was important for me to understand my Pop more. My Pop (my mother's father) was from an English descent, he lived with my family since I was six months old till he died when I was twenty. We used to play games as children but I never fully understood my Pop and as I got older we did drift apart. However this pilgrimage to Gallipoli has really helped me connect with my Pop and understand him alot more. I was worried for Pop on judgement day that God may not be so happy but now those fears have been cleared due to this service. Pop gave up his life for others, he didn't worry about the toilet conditions he was given (like I did today), he didn't complain about the food he got or the fact that a simple letter from home was a success. He was grateful. My Pop would have been greeted with opened arms, and from heaven he is teaching me something. Thanks Jack!
As you can imagine amongst the reflective faces and tears rolling down cheeks there was a sense of excitement and patriotism. It was impressive and harmonious of the Turks to allow us to grieve our soldiers on their land. It brought us all closer together. When the Cardinal entered the main arena as he was in the VIP area (we were in the 'special guest' area) we all gave him a big cheer. Michelle and I ran up to him on the 'red carpet' and he greeted us as if we were his grandchildren. He was so happy to see us (even though we had only been separated for a few hours) bless him! He just wanted to make sure we were comfortable and had good seats. When he was leaving the arena he got a bigger cheer than Ms Gillard ( as he had brought us, his biggest fans). It was a great moment. Whilst waiting around for the ceremony to begin my roommate and I got interviewed by the Sydney morning Herald's Political Correspondent. Check out the article that we appeared in....http://t.co/GZb4QW9Z
Then I had another touch of stardom when I was at Lone Pine. Ms Gillard greeted the crowd. I firstly shook her hand and then had a photo with her! My 15minutes of fame!!! I will post the pic soon, it's on my camera.
I had a very moving moment when the beautiful choir from a Catholic School in Brisbane sang 'We are one' at Lone Pine. I was looking at the graves and felt like I was walking along with Pop.
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