Days 203-207: The French Quarter (3/27-3/31/21)

We only have a few more retreats left before our Easter Break! We have St. Luke’s in Slidell, LA, and St. Angela Merici in Metairie, LA, before we drive back to the Talbot’s in Baton Rouge. The retreat in Slidell was a high school CCD class retreat, so it was pretty lowkey, but I personally had so much fun being on retreat. We did roaming pictionary, which is pictionary but you must hunt down NET team members who are running with the list of words you must draw. We also had a directed rec jam session, and we played a ton of fun songs. It was only girls who joined us, but they vibed with the pop music I played, it was fantastic. After retreat, we went to mass, then returned to Theresa and Jim’s house and had red beans and rice for dinner. They took us out that evening to a soda fountain, then played Ticket to Ride once again, where host dad Jim destroyed us all. . . We left the next morning for an afternoon retreat back in the New Orleans suburbs in Metairie for St. Angela’s CYO retreat (another youth group). These peeps were AMAZING! They were so invested in the retreat, and since they were juniors and seniors we goofed off with them alot more, with more random jokes that they would enjoy rather than a 6th grader. They looked for something new and fresh, and got it from us. The guys stayed the night with the contact person at St. Angela’s, Diane, and her husband Tom, who are an incredible couple, while the girls stayed with another couple who fed us lasagna for dinner. We talked till the late evening, meaning another great day at the office. . . Today was a team day, led by Sarah and I, which I was super pumped about. We started the morning out with team prayer and dyads (1-on-1’s), as we waited for Amanda and Grace to return from their Oasis Retreats. Once they came back, we went out to a barbecue shop for lunch to honor Samantha, whose birthday was on the 26th. We’ve been so busy that we couldn’t celebrate it until now, but it worked out. From there, we finally went to downtown New Orleans! One of Elizabeth’s good friends’ parents does tour guides of the French Quarter, and offered to give us a tour for free if we wanted to. We took them up on that deal, and we spent the next couple hours walking the historical area. It was their first tour since the pandemic started, so they were just as excited to be doing this as we were. After the tour, we prayed over Samantha, then went to dinner at a pho shop, thus concluding the team day. When we returned to host homes, Diane asked the guys to lead worship for a virtual event they were running. Everyone was inspired by us, and it was a blessing to share what we’ve been doing all year with them. . . I ended up leading our final retreat before Easter Break at St. Angela’s 6-7th grade students. They were super fun to hang with, as they were an athletic group, and the retreat seemed very impactful to them. There was lots of hope for us too, as we got to play 2-hand touch football with the kids, meaning we could get a little physical with them. It was freeing, I haven’t been able to do that as much this year obviously. After retreat, we returned home for a little and chilled out until dinner at the guys’ host home. Once finished, we returned to the church to host a Praise and Worship Session for the parish! It was outdoors, and these events don’t happen often for both NET nor St. Angela. I got to play lead guitar while Brenden played cajon, while about 20+ parishioners showed up to the event. It was a beautiful hour of praising our Lord, and it is definitely a highlight of my year thus far. . . Easter Break had officially begun! As fore mentioned, we will be spending the weekend with the Talbot’s in Baton Rouge, but we stayed in Metairie all day writing letters for the NET staff and teams as part of our lent almsgiving, along with playing “What Do You Meme”, which was a riot. Late in the afternoon, we returned to the Talbot’s, where we would be for a much longer period than normal, which is super exciting. We played 9-square (4-square but with 9 squares), ate dinner, and watched Youtube videos. I’m so pumped for this break, as it is my first Easter away from my family in Seattle, but with another family of mine. There’s so much in store, and I can’t wait to write the next post! Much love to you all who still read these.