Day 38-39- It Begins!! (9/21-22)

Our first assignment: a weekend in Central Minnesota. We would first head to St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Wadena, Minnesota, about 2.5 hours away from St. Paul, to spend Saturday afternoon leading a retreat and the night in a host home. We would then leave for New Munich, Minnesota for an all-day Confirmation Retreat at Immaculate Conception Church. We left the NET Center at 8am just to arrive at the retreat in Wadena on time, and we did. Our first unsupervised retreat went, well, a bit rougher than we hoped for. A few ministry mistakes here and there, but the impact was just as powerful nonetheless. Jakob and Ellie and Evan got to do music for mass which was really cool. Overall, it was a good retreat, and we got to spend the night at a retreatants’ home! Zach and Kayla Meeks were the kids, and the parents hosting the men were Laurie and Dennis, who were so great. They got to show off their trap skills with tons of animals skins hanging around the house, plus getting to play games with them was a joy too. . . The next morning we were planning to head out early in the morning. During breakfast we learned the Meeks owned a few pigs, and we got to spend the morning with them before being picked up by the ladies. Once picked up, we headed an hour south to tiny New Munich (pop. 350) to lead this retreat that had 80 kids from 7 different parishes around the area. This place was rural, and low in Catholic numbers too. 2 priests were head of 7 separate parishes in the area, which is extremely stressful and sad when you think about it. Praying that issue is resolved soon. As for the retreat, the kids were difficult, but not as bad as the weekend retreat, which was such a relief. We then stayed the night with an elderly couple, Doreen and Vern, and they were so incredible. They had the SWEETEST apple cider youve ever had, all natural, non-pasteurized, straight from their trees, and they served us this pasta called Kus Kus(?), which were mini pasta balls that were delicious too. Oh, and their neighbor was a giant water tower that glowed in the night, so Jakob, Adam, and I had a ball with them that night. Tomorrow we begin our road trip, and I could not be more excited! Its gonna be so much fun bonding with the team, and its gonna be incredible looking out to window exploring what America has for us.