Days 74-76: First Retreats in DC!!

We woke up early this morning for our day retreat at Our Church of the Nativity in downtown Washington D.C, only a few blocks from Catholic University! It was extremely rainy this morning, and we loaded the van in a huge puddle about ankle-high to Adam, the main trailer packer, and I, the co-trailer packer. We arrived in DC for the first time as a team, and this church was a classic old church with a basement that reminds me of a bomb shelter, where we held the retreat. This crowd was a tougher group, and the weird weather threw me off physically more than usual, making it a more difficult retreat than usual. Nonetheless, God worked his way into the retreat. After the retreat, the sun came out and we left immediately for host home. Tonight was a rectory at a church called St. Gabriel’s in DC. Father Kevin, the main pastor of the church, welcomed the brothers with chicken cutlet and spaghetti, which was delicious. Then we chilled out the rest of the night with UNO and TV, specifically the World Series Game 5, (which took place 15 minutes away from me!!) and Sunday Night Football. A classic men’s night. . . After sleeping in a bit on the futon, the ladies arrived to the rectory for loading and team prayer. Today’s retreat was in the evening, so we had a chill morning. After prayer, we headed to our next location in Derwood, MD, to find a playground to hangout at. The one we found was wild, it had this huge, 20 ft. net that looked like a spider web wrapped in a ball, so of course we played gravel/grounders/Marco Polo on the playground like little kids as we were dodging little kids who were also playing. In the midst of it all, we had lunch and overall check-ins, which was a bit eye-opening for the team, understanding what we need to do as a team to help support one another. Finally, it was retreat time. It was a youth group at St. Francis of Assisi in Derwood, MD. The group was good energy, but unfortunately they were too connected to their phones, which was a bit disturbing but at least it was the first time its happened. The host home we went to was a sweet family, who hosted Adam and I for the evening. The mom, Melissa, worked for the church, and drove us to the home, where her husband and two daughters were watching Guardians of the Galaxy. We bonded over that, but due to an early morning we went to bed early. Something I noticed about host homes is that they choose to host us in the midst of a busy life, whether its fixing the house up or moving to different houses. It truly a blessing having such generous hosts every night. . . It’s crazy that we can finish a retreat at 8pm, but then start another retreat at 8am the next morning in another city. This morning was another case, as we traveled back to Washington DC to Our Lady of Victory School. We woke up at 4:40 and left by 5 to arrive on time. Praise God for car naps. But in all seriousness, I loved this retreat alot. My small group was the 8th grade boys of the school, and they were really cool! They asked questions and listened really attentively to what I had to say, making life so much easier. From there, we left for our home for the night: a retreat center in Bethesda, MD, just outside of DC. We held team ministry work, such as team prayer and drama practice. We also ran into another group of missionaries, one of them knowing Haley, my first friend on NET! It was a super chill night, and we got to hit the hay early after a long few days. It was so nice because we all got our own separate rooms with beds and bathrooms, which was so nice having that sort of freedom. Never thought Id say that, but its true. The fatigue is starting to get to me, but its still the work i love, so why should i complain?