Days 213-218: 4 Retreats, 4 States (4/6-4/11/21)

After a long stint in Louisiana, we are finally moving around again. We were in a new state every weekend the first semester, but recently we have been more local, which is a nice change of pace. That is not the case these next few days, as we will be traveling to all new place, starting in Metairie, LA. We return to ministry after an awesome Easter Break with Archbishop Rummel High School, another all-boys school in the New Orleans suburbs. We are doing half of the 9th Grade class today, then the other half in two weeks, and the first retreat at Rummel was really fun. My small group had a lot of questions, which was really good, but they were very difficult questions since the youth were full of doubt. I did the best I could, I definitely enjoyed it, though. Immediately after retreat, we booked it for Western Mississippi. Our retreat tomorrow is at St. Joseph School in Greenville, MS, which is familiar to us because it is the school we were supposed to put on retreats for before the massive snowstorm hit Mississippi in February. Their retreats got rescheduled for tomorrow and early May for our last retreat of the year. They put us up in two beautiful lake houses in Arkansas, since Greenville is on the border of the two states, and since it was late, we just checked in and crashed, preparing for another school retreat. . . There was a lot of firsts in this retreat at St. Joseph's School. It was Elizabeth's first time leading the retreat, my first time giving a specific talk, and Samantha's first time playing a lead in a drama on retreat, and one she just learned that morning! The talk I gave about authentic friendship was one I gave a lot last year, but none this year since other people got assigned that talk. Yet, because I had it approved, I could give it whenever I desired, and since we had the authentic friendship theme a lot on the road, I put myself in. As for the middle school retreat, the youth were really good and very attentive when needed. The evening was super chill, having dinner at the lake house, while Grace and I went off to our business meeting. A highlight: a thunderstorm with no rain, driving home while watching lightning fill the sky. It was spectacular to watch. . . I had the morning off, and I spent it productively by mailing packages and resting on the dock at the lake house. We loaded up the van, went to noon mass at St. Joseph's in Greenville, had lunch with the pastor, then drove to Memphis, TN. If you want to get an insider on team life nowadays, we spent most of the 3-hour drive listening to the Cars movie. Not watching it, just listening to it. It was really funny, because I could picture each scene of the movie without the visuals, that is how iconic that movie is. We arrived at Sacred Heart Parish in downtown Memphis, where we had dinner with the youth minister, Jose, and had an evening of quality discussions. . . Our first and last retreat in Tennessee did not start until the evening, so we made the most of the day. After breakfast and team prayer, we did a flipped men's and women's session, where I would lead the ladies and Grace would take the guys. I took the girls to a manicure place to get our nails done, then got ice cream on me, while Grace took the boys ax throwing, and we all had a great time. We reconvened for lunch, then went outside and played 9-square in the church parking lot, where youth minister Jose joined us. Then, we prepared for the confirmation retreat. Memphis is an extremely diverse city, especially the parish, as most of the retreatants were of Hispanic or Vietnamese descent, which reminded me of home. It was a very solid retreat, as the youth were more active than a typical retreat. We also met some great college chaperones who became interested in NET, so hopefully they become missionaries too. . . As we were packing for our next stop, the pastor, Fr. Simon, asked if we wanted to take an unused guitar with us. We took a look, and it was a Martin Dreadnought, one of the top-tier guitars out there, with a starting price upward of $1500! It was pretty damaged, but with the right person it can get fixed fairly quickly. We accepted the gift, and Elizabeth would take ownership of the guitar, while Katherine would take the guitar case after the road. We left Tennessee at high noon for Wetumpka, Alabama, staying the night at another lake house. There was still daylight when we arrived, so some of us went swimming, jumping off the dock and taking a slide down into the cold lake. The evening was chill, watching a VCR movie and restringing the new guitar. . . Our Sunday retreat in Wetumpka was an interesting one. The Our Lady of Guadalupe parish was not fully developed, as the parish hall was right next to the sanctuary with no dividing wall. It worked out, as there were only 10 high-schoolers on retreat, including 7 guys. Brenden and I co-led the small group, and it was a great group to lead. We now look forward to our Team Oasis retreat, a time to recollect and rest as a team in a prayerful manner. Our retreat will be led by the one and only Austin Doty, whom we stayed with back in February, and I am super stoked for him to be leading us.