Days 235-239: Sally, SNL, and SO MANY RETREATS! (4/28-5/2/210

We have done 8 retreats in a row, all of them at least 6 hours long. Fortunately, today's retreat is only 4 hours long, and it doesn't start until 4:30pm, hence we opted to sleep in and not meet at the parish until 10am. Very smart decision, everyone loved that. Today is my last day off of the year too, so I really took advantage of the rest. It was weird, I did not want to rest originally, but I could not get myself out of bed until lunch time. I came back to the team in the afternoon after spending the whole morning at my host house, and I was grateful I did. At around 2:00pm, Sally got an unexpected call saying her mom only had a few hours to live. This hurt all of us. We have been praying for Sally's mom, Rhonda, and her health all year, as she has been fighting cancer on and off for 14 years, and her health had been declining especially over the past few weeks. We went to the church at 3pm, where she hopped on a call with her family around her death bed as we prayed a Divine Mercy Chaplet together. At 3:30, most of the team had to leave her to prepare for the retreat. We all experienced some type of pain and sorrow, and it was very difficult to move forward. I took care of the team, making sure they could go on with the retreat, while Grace took care of Sally. Rhonda passed away at 4:11pm. Sally found a ticket back to Minnesota for early tomorrow morning, graciously paid for by her host grandma. I informed the parish we were at, St. Joseph's in Prattville, AL, about our situation, and they took good care for us. Once the team was good to put on the retreat, they dismissed me since it was still my day off. Grace and Sally also skipped the retreat, coping with the loss. On my retreat off, I found a park and hammocked for a couple hours, processing and blogging. It was hard to think we did our last retreat together as a full team the day before at Archbishop Shaw, and we had no clue. A painful thought, but it certainly was the best for last. Once the retreat ended at 8:30, we went to host homes. The guys said goodbye to Sally, since we would not see her in the morning. It was a long day for all of us, but we made it. Let's see how the rest of this week goes. . . We reconvened early next morning for our normal Team Prayer. The girls dropped off Sally for her 6:30am flight, as the Zweber family was definitely on all of our hearts today. We had a productive morning, including a jam session, skit practice, and lunch with Fr. Dean at a Chinese Buffet. After lunch, we drove 3 hours to Mobile, AL for another evening retreat at St. Vincent de Paul parish for a Confirmation retreat. I gave the talk, and it would be the last time I would give a talk on NET. I used no notes, it was all Holy Spirit-driven, and it was awesome. Despite it being just 3 hours, it was an impactful retreat according to the youth, which was great. We were split in different host homes again-- I love how much more often this has been happening-- with the guys and girls being split into different homes. Due location logistics, we dropped off the guys first, then I took the girls to their home (which took FOREVER!), so I can bring our van back to our house. Our host family, a Host Father and Son, were watching the NFL Draft that night, and it was the first major sports family in a while, which warmed my heart for sure. . . We got up really early for our school retreat across the Mobile Bay at Christ the King School in Daphne, AL. It was a Men's/Women's retreat, one final split retreat. The guys were super hype, and they loved talking about sports. Apparently the new football coach at their feeder high school is future-Hall of Fame NFL Quarterback Philip Rivers, which was a main talking point with the boys who hoped to play for him someday. Praise God for their engagement in retreat, because apparently the school has had lots of trouble with these guys. After retreat, we had our own team Men's/Women's Session, our final one too. Brenden took us to eat at Sonic, find gators (a successful mission), and shop at a massive Bass Pro Shops. To give you an idea on what Alabama COVID restrictions are, only the employees wore masks. So obviously, we took ours off to fit in with the crowd, which was liberating. That evening, the ladies honored us with their own version of SNL: Saluting Noble Lads! They performed several skits that related and honored each guy on our team, and they were INCREDIBLE!! They also ended the night with a musical performance, just like the normal Saturday Night Live, singing an original parody of "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis, a brotherhood song, explaining how much they loved us. It was an extremely special night, and my heart was full. Even Sally got to call in and do a couple bits! Praise God for an incredible day. . . Heading into the weekend, we did an all-day retreat down the road at St. Lawrence in Fairhope, AL. We actually stayed the night here a month and a half ago on the way from Birmingham to Lafayette. This is one of this year's NET missionaries' home parish, Marie Sylvester's, and her older brother is the youth minister here. There were 16 middle school youth on retreat, who were all very strong in their faith, and learning how to have a relationship with Jesus. They were a lot of fun, especially my small group, who hyped the heck out of each other. Even funnier, the only people wearing masks on retreat were the NET Team, and that was because we called our supervisor to double check. It was awesome! That evening, Grace and I went out to the beach and walked in front of a ton of fancy beach houses, catching up and processing everything that has happened recently. It was a beautiful night, with even more beautiful conversation. I will miss these types of conversations with Grace, part business and part fun to help one another keep our sanity. I'm grateful for my co-leader and our friendship, always have been and always will be. . . We have one final retreat to finish a 13-day streak of retreats, unprecedented for any of us. We drove to the other side of the state to Dothan, where we have stayed a couple times before in 2020. Mike Sutton, the guy who kept us while passing through the state twice, got us to put on a retreat for the high school youth group at his parish, St. Columba. The youth were of wide variety in terms of culture, age, and participation, but they were still all really great. I also got a waterfall of Sprite from a retreatant, the strangest thing to have happened on retreat for me personally. It was not planned, we were doing a small group competition, and it kind of just happened. It was funny, and the guy who poured it down my throat was very proud. After finishing the retreat at 8pm, we celebrated 13 retreats in 13 days with Team Prayer and catching up with Mike at his place, who we have not seen since November. . . It's been a whirlwind of a week, and this was quite a blog. But here we are, and there is one more blog before we return to the NET Center for wrap-up week. Let's wrap this thing up then!