Days 66-67: Pit Stop in NJ

Scheduling can can be really, REALLY weird sometimes. Next up on the agenda, we will drive 4.5 hours to Kinnelon, New Jersey to lead one retreat before traveling back to Olney, Maryland to run another retreat the day after. So we woke up somewhat early, and were on the road by 7:00 to try and arrive in New Jersey by 11:30am. Kinnelon is northwest of Newark, so although New Jersey is two hours away, we need to drive to northern Jersey. No matter, I’m excited to minister in my 5th state. We arrived at Our Lady of the Magnificat in Kinnelon, NJ for the confirmation retreat, and an hour later we put on the retreat. This retreat was different in many ways. For one, Nels, who planned this retreat, had to schedule around a reconciliation service and a service project that the parish wanted. This is atypical of a usual retreat, but I really enjoyed doing something different like that. Overall another good retreat. That night, we stayed with the person that contacted us to host the retreat, whose family treated us so nice. I spent as much time as I could before calling my dad to wish him a happy birthday, which turned into me facetiming my whole family for an hour and a half. I didnt realize it until now, but I miss home alot. Despite this, I wouldnt have it any other way. . . It kinda felt like deja vú the next morning: wakeup and leave around the same time, put on a retreat an hour after arriving at the parish. Before we left, the parish had a US map on the playground, and we got to take photos and videos of where we were all from (from WA to CA to PA to GA), and where we have been together. Honestly fascinating. Anyways, we arrived at St. Peter’s in Olney, MD at around 11:30, and put on the retreat from 12:30pm-7:00, the same time frame as yesterday. Fortunately, we would be staying at this parish until Friday, so itll be awesome having some consistency in my life. As for the today’s retreat, it was very interesting. It was a youth group of 30 youth from 5 local parishes, 2 of them we would visit within the next week to put on a retreat at their parish. The youth was interesting, a mix of rowdy and quiet, but what stood out to me was the adult ministry support. I got to lead an adult small group with Monica, and it was honestly so much fun listening and hearing what the adults had to say. Was it backwards that two 18 y/o’s led it? Yes, but it was still fun. From there, we were picked up by the Cooley family, Chad, Lisa, Evan, Ryan and Olivia, who would take Adam and I in for the week. All of them were so amazing and such a light in their own unique way. We talked to Evan, 16, for a while about nature and his dreams and aspirations with it, which left me in awe. Oh yea, its gonna be a good week with them. Yes we have retreats, but I am so excited to invest in this family.