Days 72-73: More Days in MD

What I love most about the road is that everyday is vastly different than the ones before it, and this one was no different. We woke up at a reasonable time, I prayed, then we said goodbye to the Cooley family as we headed to mass. It was our last few hours in Olney before our next city, Germantown. Before we left, the priest, Father Kleibo, offered all of us the sacrament of confession! All of us took the opportunity, and I learned something valuable in my confession. He told me about our human value to God, which is represented through the 5 holes in Jesus’ body during the resurrection: two on his hands, two on his feet, and one in his heart. This can be be a reminder for all of us through marking our hands and feet with a Red sharpie circle. This fascinated me, and when I have an opportunity I am definitely buying a Red Sharpie. After confessions, we had Men’s Session, where the five guys went to Five Guys, obviously, then we had some ministry practice. Then it was time to leave for Germantown, a 30-45 min drive to Mother Seton Catholic Church. What I loved about this evening retreat is the racial diversity of the group! It was the first diverse retreat in awhile, and the youth were also super obedient and respectful, which made our jobs super easy! Definitely a solid group. Then we went to host homes, where we stayed with an older couple who were watching the world series! The local team Washington Nationals were in it, and it blew my mind that I was so close to a World Series game and I wasnt there! Its okay, it’ll be fun if the Nats win. . . We woke up early the next morning in order to head out and arrive to the next retreat place in time. We gathered back at Mother Seton parish, packed up, and left. An hour later, we arrived in Bowie, MD (pronounced Boo-ee), at St. Pius X Parish, ready to lead a confirmation retreat. The youth was a confirmation group of 25 kids who were getting confirmed on November 9th! Whats cool is that they couldve chose not to invest in the retreat, but instead they matched our energy, and it made everything alot of fun! That night, after pleasing a chinese food craving, we all went and played on the playground for a couple hours, which was so fun and refreshing exercising and exerting energy into something other than ministry. Finally, we went to bed at the parish. In the rooms, they had these self-inflatable mattresses that fascinated me, and made me wanna buy one on the spot. No idea what the name is, but Im definitely buying one when I get home.