January 2009 

Hi everyone,
 
Hope everyone has had a great Christmas. Being the start of a new year we thought it would be a good time to send out an update of what happened with AYUDH around the country in 2008.

Youth Retreat

As you know, AYUDH only started up in Australia in about June 2008 and in August we held our first youth retreat with Bramachari Shantamrita Chaitanya at the Melbourne ashram. We had about 10 people at the retreat which was a nice number to start with and it really was a beautiful weekend. We felt so lucky to spend so much time in close proximity to Shantamritaji and enjoy his stories, humour and frisby skills. We hope to run another retreat in 2009 during Swami Ramakrishna's Australian tour so hopefully we'll see some of you at that retreat.

To see a write up and photos of the retreat go to www.myspace.com/ayudhaustralia. For those of you on Facebook, we also have a Facebook group called AYUDH Australia so it'd be great to see you join up and get the word out there.

Melbourne

Amma's children, including several AYUDH members came together to raise money for Amma's Ashram by selling dutch poffertjes (little pancakes) at the Rudolf Steiner School Open Day on the 15th of  November. We were incredibly lucky to get the stall to begin with, because by the time we had applied, all of the places had been taken. However, the school was unable to get in contact with the poffertjes man who had applied for a stall before us, and so lo and behold, "Amma's Poffertjes" were offered a place at the school fair. Amma's grace was evident throughout the preparations for this stall, from the school offering us free eco-friendly plates and cutlery, to my local paint store giving me free paint for the menu board because they couldn't be bothered doing the paper work to put the sale through!! !
 
The weather was forecast to rain on the day, however, it has never been known to rain on the day of the Steiner School Fair, and we were blessed, yet again with a beautiful sunny day. We started off slowly as many of us were making poffertjes for the very first time!!! However, with Amma's grace we very quickly improved, and with Ishwar's supervision, every plate of delicious poffertjes was beautifully presented. It was hot inside our little marquee, and constantly standing over the hot stoves was very tiring. However, everyone worked so hard, with such love and devotion that I think we all inspired each other not only to keep going, but to enjoy the opportunity that we had to serve Amma.
 
This was a very costly fundraiser, not only did we buy the stoves, pans and other equipment, but because the fundraiser was held at a Steiner School, we were required to use organic products, which doubled the cost of ingredients. In the end, we only managed to break even, however, we now own a six-burner stove along with other equipment that can be re-used. So hopefully, we will have another chance to sell poffertjes to utilize the equipment that we now have, and make a profit!
 
Srimayi   
 
(You can check out the photos of this fundraiser on the AYUDH Australia Facebook group or MySpace)

Hobart

On 5th December some of the local Hobart youth got together at Arati's house to watch a movie and make pizza. There are just a small number of devotees in Hobart so Arati and Sylvia enjoyed a night on their own - proving that you only need two people for a satsang!

We had a fun night and shared different experiences we'd had with sprituality and discussed potential events we could organise in the future. We're planning to have another movie night in January or February where we'll have at least another two young people there - double the numbers! See - it's so easy to hold an AYUDH event. What's important is to come together with other people of similar interests and values and share in fun activities and/or seva.

AYUDH overseas

To see what other AYUDH youth are doing overseas, check out the latest AYUDH International newsletter, at http://www.ayudh.eu/newsletter/

Upcoming events

Clean Up Australia Day is on 1st March 2009 so it would be great for AYUDH people to organise groups to participate in the clean up.

Let us know if you would like to be involved in the clean up, or would like to organise a group to participate in your local area. We'd love to hear about what you're doing and include some details in the newsletter.
 
AYUDH is also keen to work together with Greenfriends in the future with environmental activities so if you have any great ideas on possible events/activites, let us know.
 
If you have any ideas for AYUDH events in your local area, or would like to organise something, we'd love to hear about it and can always give you advice and put you in contact with other youth in your area. Also, don't forget you can always talk to your local M.A Centre coordinators about organising youth events as well. Either way, we'd love to hear from you!
 
Peace and blessings to everyone,
 
In Amma,
 
AYUDH Australia