Days 177-180: Disneyworld (3/1-3/4/21)

One more night here in the Palm Beach area, as we have our final retreat in this diocese at St. Juliana School in Palm Beach. This is the first retreat where the contact person requested for 2 retreat themes. Usually we go with one theme on retreat, but the teacher wanted the Lent theme along with a Men’s/Women’s Session. As Retreat Leader it was different, but it ended up like any other retreat. This was the 8th graders’ first NET retreat, and they really dived into all the parts, which was so nice. After retreat, we drove north to Orlando, where we stayed with the Redington Family. It took a lot longer than expected because of van issues, but we made it. The Redington’s have been hosting teams for years, and have two NET children of their own, including a daughter who served last year with me! It was a fun evening, but on my part, I feel exhausted. The travel and ministry is catching up to me physically, and it’s getting alot tougher no doubt about it. We’ll get through, though. . . The next couple of days are ministry prep days. We found a parish about 30 minutes away from the Redington’s in Orlando called St. Joseph, and did various things the next couple days, from Men’s Session in hammocks, listening to a discernment podcast, to fixing the van. After the first day at St. Joseph, the Redington’s took us out to Disney Springs, a massive shopping mall at Disneyworld. We explored all the stores and bought some clothes, and it was epic, two hours wasn’t enough to even explore the whole place. Trust me, I tried. After the second day, we stayed the night with the Scott family, only 20 minutes away from the Redington’s. Our team has so many connections with them. Their family grew up with Grace’s family in Maryland, Their oldest daughter was on NET a couple years ago, and put on a retreat for Luke in SoCal, and her dad, Jim, gave us a talk at NET Training about mass shooting safety. They are a wonderful family, and we had a lot of fun playing with them. . . Oh, I forgot to mention: the Redington’s generously donated us tickets to Magic Kingdom today. Apparently they typically do that for NET teams that pass through, but it is still insane! We got up early the next morning to head out, and met up with Mrs. Redington, who got us into the park. Unlike Disneyland, Disneyworld has been open for awhile, with small capacity but very strict on masks. It was as magical as it sounds. It’s not as big as Disneyland’s Magic Kingdom, but it’s still super cool and a dream come true. We went on the Pirates ride and Haunted Mansion as a whole team, while only most of us did Space Mountain. In the afternoon, I got tired of rides, and hung out with mainly Sally on Main St., and just took it all in. I surprised my mom at lunchtime by facetiming her in, as she loves Magic Kingdom, which was also amazing. Yup, today was magical. We came back that evening to the Scott’s, and hung out with them one more night before leaving the state once again. What a way to leave one of my favorite states. Praise you, Jesus!