Days 113-118: Return to the Ellis Fam (12/5-12/10/20)

As I mentioned last post, we returned to the Ellis household for a week for ministry. Mrs. Ellis was able to pull some strings and provide for us a retreat, a couple days of school ministry, and a youth group event. Meanwhile, Grace was getting a hold of an old friend in Maryland, who might have a retreat for us to do before heading to St. Paul for December Retreat. Unfortunately, that was quickly cut because Maryland does not want us coming in from Pennsylvania, since there is a high COVID rate. Alright, fair enough, we still have enough ministry to keep us busy in Lancaster... until we didn't. The Harrisburg diocese, which Lancaster is under, heard news that we were in Maryland for a time. We were only there to go to Adoration and Mass at Grace's home parish, but it was enough to cancel our ministry for the week, as Pennsylvania has a strict quarantine law in which if you leave the state, you must test negative or stay home for 14 days before being ruled "safe". Hence, the school ministry was canceled, and the retreat just hours before nearly got canceled. So, we cannot do ministry in Maryland because we were in PA, but we cannot do PA ministry because we were in Maryland? Eeek... Yet praise God for last second flexibility, as the contact person for tonight's evening retreat found a way around the law. All we had to do was stay in the sanctuary of the church, and speak from the front of the church while the retreatants sat in the pews. No mingling, no interacting, just talking at them. Was that weird and not our mojo? Obviously, but ministry is ministry, and I'm glad we were able to at least put on a retreat. Plus, it was at St. Mary's in Lancaster, Sam Ellis' home parish, so he knew almost everyone who attended. Plus, he gave the talk, and it was awesome to see him thrive. . . The next few days was tough, personally, as Grace and I struggled to find fun team things to do. We knew we had to get COVID tests before returning to St. Paul, so we scheduled that in early morning. That evening, we went to the Christensen's house for dinner. The Christensen's hosted me and two other guys last year when we had an extended stay in Lancaster, and I stayed in contact with them over the course of the year, leading me to schedule dinner with them. Since last seeing them 13 months ago, they have had a kid, and their other four children grew up fast! The team loved spending time with them, and it was so cool seeing my connections come to fruition the way it did. Love that family so much! . . Elizabeth on our team is a ballerina. She has been doing ballet for years, and even starred in her local Nutcracker play. And in a time of need, she provided her services to teach us how to dance! It was very different, but it was a lot of fun. We also learned a couple other dances during this time too. We were also able to help the Ellis family with a few things, such as clean their grandparents' backyard and put up Christmas lights. It wasn't much, but we are keeping busy any way we can, and really investing in each other before we head into break. There is much fear about going home, yet much excitement, but we must stay in the present moment while we can, even if we do not know what we are doing next. . . After an extremely stressful couple weeks, Grace and I wanted to do something for ourselves. We both love hiking, yet being in the southeast and east coast, there hasn't been a whole lot of fun hiking trails, especially nothing like Seattle. If we were going to hike, it would be today. So we planned an extended fun meeting, leaving the rest of the team to go Christmas shopping in Lancaster or hang around at Barnes & Noble. We went to Kelly Run, a 4-mile long hike, 600 ft. elevation, that took about 2 hours to hike, and it was stunning! We missed hiking, and it wasn't too cold either. Afterwards, we got some Chick-fil-A, and played some games in the car. It was the refreshing time we needed for ourselves and our relationship, and I'm super grateful for it. That evening, we went to the Ellis' cleaning lady's house for dinner, and Amish convert named Barb. Not only did she provide great food, but she allowed us to ride in her horse and buggy! Riding in a Amish horse and buggy is another one of those bucket list items I did not realize you had on your bucket list, so that was exciting. . . Our final ministry event of the year. I know I mentioned it all got canceled due to COVID precautions, but we were joining a youth group over at St. Joseph in York, PA, rather than running a retreat, so it's totally legal. Besides, all our tests from Monday came back negative, so we were easily in the clear. There were only 6 youth and 4 adults there, but it was the best 2.5 hours ever. We had a discussion about the readings of the week, I led praise & worship, and we talked for an hour after the event on our own accord! We missed interaction and evangelization, so it was super awesome to be able to talk with people who are passionate about the faith as we are, especially the youth, who were on fire! We celebrated that evening with donuts from Maple Donuts, a local chain that we had to go to according to all the peeps. It was a very solid donut, I will admit.