Day 49-50- St. Louis (Part 2) (10/2-10/3)

Another day, another retreat. Its felt extremely nonstop since we arrived in Rhode Island, as it rightfully has. Today’s retreat was the 7th grade class, who we’ve heard from Moreen and Pat is alot crazier. They were correct. The retreat started extremely well: the kids were respectful, not bad at all. Once lunch turned, they were let free in a sense. Fortunately we got to them enough where Prayer Ministry was still very successful, but I was definitely getting worried towards the end we would lose it, so Praise God for that. For Team Prayer, we headed back to the chapel, where we were met by a seminarian named Greg. He joined us yesterday for Team Prayer, and was truly inspired by our zeal and charisma during Praise. So, to pay it forward, he exposed the Eucharist for us for surprise Adoration! It was truly a special moment, and the whole team was extremely thankful for that. After team prayer, we returned to host homes for one more night. We ate dinner, made a quick Walgreens run, and played intense Uno for about an hour, one of those games for 45 minutes. It was so much fun hanging out with Moreen and Jim, and I’m truly thankful for them and every host home up to this point, as every single one has treated us so kindly and taken us in with so much care. What a life we are living. . . The morning was earlier than usual, as Nels texted us to arrive about 30 minutes earlier than usual to load the trailer. It would be another quick turn around after the retreat. So we packed up, said our goodbyes to the Osborn’s, and left for one more retreat. This time it would be the 8th graders, who knew what was happening because of the past two years. They were great though, because they were still completely open to whatever God wanted for them, so it felt once again extremely successful. After the retreat, we said our goodbyes to Pat, and left for Willow Street, PA. We would actually spend the night with the Ellis family tonight rather than the 6-hour night with them on Sunday! We arrived at around 8pm, met the whole family this time, and was introduced to an international dinner!! So much food was served to us: rice, shrimp, margaritas, pasta, beef, brownies, and much much more. They took such good care of us too, and I got to explore more of Sam’s room, which included a lot of medieval weapons that frightened me. In the morning, we would arrive in Massachusetts, and stay there for the weekend. But staying and actually meeting Sam Ellis’ family was a true joy, and it excites me for what is to come!