At least a dozen members of St Luke's Miranda will travel to Orange today to remember their friend Emma Hansen, who was killed on Tuesday in a freak accident at a bus stop in Kogarah.
Emma, who died in hospital after being struck by a car, had been a member of St Luke's since the middle of last year.
She had come to Sydney from her home town to study fashion design at St George North TAFE.
"Although Emma had been at our church for a short time, she made a big impact," says rector Stephen Gibson.
"Her Christian faith was evident in her desire to quickly find a church and to exercise ministry."
Emma had joined a Bible study group within weeks of her first visit to the church and had volunteered with crèche at the church's Tuesday morning women's bible study group.
More recently, she had been helping out with the crèche at the parish's new Miranda North Community Church.
"It was one of those terrific situations where someone joins your church from another area and they don't hold back," says Stephen.
Says young adults minister Graeme Howells, "Emma was really friendly and keen to be involved in bible study and made friends quickly."
As Emma's Bible study group met on Tuesday night, the day of her accident, Graeme says they were comforted by their last study with her.
Emma's "deep Christian curiosity" had shone through at the study as she had asked several questions from Revelation about what heaven would be like.
"We reflected that last week, Emma had a curiosity about heaven, but this week, she has a complete and perfect knowledge," says Graeme.
"It was important for her Bible study group to come together to have the opportunity to share with other people who knew what it was like to feel what they were feeling."
St Luke's remembered Emma in their evening young adults service last night, where members of the congregation were able to share their memories.
One of Emma's friends had prepared a scrapbook of photos and other memories from Emma's time at St Luke's, which will be given to her parents, Mark and Lynne, and brothers Simon, 18 and Martin 17.
Stephen and Graeme had visited the family at the hospital on Tuesday afternoon, a couple of hours after they received the news of the tragedy.
Graeme says he is keen to make sure Emma's friends have the chance to talk about what they are feeling, and to support Emma's Bible study leaders, as they support their group.
The funeral will be held at 1pm this afternoon at the Catholic cathedral in Orange.
