Days 181-185: Georgia Ministry; Happy Birthday Sarah! (3/5-3/9/21)

After an incredible day at Disneyworld, we had one more morning at the Scott’s home before heading to Georgia for a few days of ministry. We spent the day celebrating Sarah’s birthday, which is on March 7th, but had time today to do stuff for her. After Team Prayer, we prayed over Sarah, went to Eucharistic adoration, and watched How to Train Your Dragon 2. After lunch, we said goodbye to the Scott’s, and left Orlando and Florida officially. I love Florida so flipping much, I’m going to miss it for sure. We drove just a few hours north to the Florida-Georgia Line (hehe), where we arrived at Our Lady Star of the Sea parish in St. Mary’s, GA, off the first Georgia exit on I-95. We attended our first Stations of the Cross of the year as a team, then had some Knights of Columbus Fish Fry for dinner afterwards, which totally hits different. That evening, we stayed the night with George, an older gentleman who fought in the Vietnam War and shared how God worked in his life during the war, which was truly inspiring. Vietnam has held a soft spot in my heart for a few years now, as my grandpa fought in the war, so I’m always intrigued by the stories soldiers share. . . I had the day off at Our Lady, and so did Luke and Amanda. We spent most of the day together, first by driving back to Florida (since it was so close), and visiting Fernandina Beach. I got a haircut, and met a wonderful lady who recently converted to the Catholic faith, and had an awesome conversation. She recommended we take a hike on Egan Creek to find some gators, so we went, but were unsuccessful in our exploration. Then, Amanda wanted Luke and I to get our first manicures... so we did. It was wild. After the manis, we ate lunch, took calls and returned home, where we chilled out and had time to ourselves to do what we wanted/needed. When we returned, we had Team Prayer and Adoration with some of the Our Lady staff and hosts, which was amazing. It was a very special night, and a very nice way to close out our stay. . . We left early next morning, on Sarah’s official birthday might I add, to drive a few hours to St. Joseph in Macon, GA, and put on a confirmation retreat. The youth were very fun, and I gave the main talk which was baller. But, it was another in n’ out retreat, and before we knew it we were on the road again. We arrived in the late evening to Warner Robbins, GA, where the guys and girls split into different host homes. We stayed with Al, the principal of Sacred Heart School where we are putting on the next two retreats at, and his wife Laurie. They are super professional, a class act no doubt, and they made the craziest treats. We are very well taken care of, and I love it. . . Our next two retreats at Sacred Heart were small but fun retreats. The students have 2 NET retreats per year, one per semester, so they are very familiar with NET. The first retreat was for the 6th and 7th graders, where I had all 13 guys in my small group. Sounds chaotic, but because I don’t have as many small groups this year I was thriving. The second retreat the next day was for the 8th grade class, who have had 4 retreats prior, and were very open to what we had. I did alot more behind-the-scenes work this time, and even had an awesome conversation with the school receptionist. After the second retreat, we packed our retreat supplies, said goodbye to Al, who I absolutely loved being with, and headed out to Birmingham, Alabama. Just like that, we were done with Georgia. Another few hours later, we arrived at John Carroll HS, where we would stay the night. We are not putting on a retreat there (though I wish we could), but they put us up in the school gym, which was fun having a whole school to ourselves. The next couple days we’ll be putting on retreats for a K-8 school nearby, St. Rose Academy, ran by Dominican Sisters! This should be very exciting.