Days 78-80: West Virginia (10/31-11/2/20)

Off to traveling again! It’s not too far, though, just to the next state over. We had a chill morning at the Lynch’s house in Alexandria, VA, where we got to talk as a team and cast our votes for the election. Luckily most people got their ballots sent to them, or received their absentee ballot. Unfortunately my absentee ballot did not come in, and I was super bummed about that. Oh well, hopefully next time. Once we finished, we packed up our things and drove 2 hours west to St. Joseph’s parish in Martinsburg, WV. Let me say, not many things are spookier than staying at a big, empty, 3-story convent on halloween. Though, we will definitely take advantage this weekend here with the space provided for us. . . The retreat today started a little bit later than a normal retreat, so after Team Prayer I scheduled a time of Spiritual Readings. Samuel brought this idea up to Grace and I, where we go out and read a spiritual book for an hour, then come back and share a couple things we learned from reading time. It was super fruitful, and people were deeply inspired from what they read. We’ll definitely do it more in the future, but now there is a retreat to run. This is my first time leading a retreat in two weeks, since North Carolina, and I was thriving! I love leading retreats, and the retreatants were incredibly attentive, making everything so easy. That evening, we had a good 15-30 minutes of incredibly loud joy shared with the team in the dining room, talking about the retreat and other great news that we learned, which was awesome. After dinner, we took advantage of the convent by playing sardines (backwards hide & seek), which turned out really well. The team is definitely bonding more and more, and I’m super grateful for it. We are all very committed towards eachother, and it’s so beautiful to watch. Let’s continue that! . . Another Team day today, and this one was for the books. We started the morning with an intense Team Prayer and Men’s/Women’s Session. From there, Fr. Josh Stevens, a NET alum, drove out to St. Joseph’s and gave Mass and took us out to lunch. The mass was unique because it was just for us and the team, and he asked us to personalize the mass parts to what we wanted to do. It was extra special because it was the first mass without masks, and our first sign of peace since it was just us at the mass. After lunch at a greek restaurant, Grace and I took the team out hiking to Harper’s Ferry, where Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. On our hike, we saw the Shenandoah River from a cliffside, and it was GORGEOUS!! With the sun overlooking the river, in the midst of all the trees, it was quite the view. When we returned to the convent, Grace and I had the opportunity to honor the team by washing their feet, the same way Jesus washed his Apostles’ feet at the Last Supper, and we prayed over them. This was an idea I took from last year when my Team Leaders, Sarah and Nels, did this for our team. It’s took weeks to finally do it, but it happened, and it was super special. This concluded our evening plans, as we finished the day with pizza with some visiting friends and family. West Virginia was short and sweet, and we now take the next few days to travel to Missouri. Excited for the journey ahead!