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Café youth group will meet on
Wed. August 4th along with TF 141
for paintballing 5:00-10:30. Registration Forms are on the Youth Bulletin Board
Save the date!
August 13 Midnight to Sunrise at
THUNDER ROAD. Forms out soon.
We had so much fun we are going to do it again!
Paintball, Wednesday, August 4th 5:00 to10:30 pm.
Registration Forms are on the Youth Bulletin Board.
Divine Collision-Sept 19th at 5pm at McKennan Park. The Youth Ministers of the SF Area and the Diocesan Vocation Committee are teaming up to put on a great event for youth and families this coming fall! We will start with Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Paul Rutten and concelebrated by priests of the Diocese. Judy McDonald, a great Catholic Comedian will follow at 6:30 pm. The Ike Nidolo Band will be in concert at 7:30 pm. Mass, Food, Fun, Entertainment! Please visit http://divinecollision.com for info, to volunteer or to be a sponsor.
CONFIRMATION STUDENTS 2011-
Broom Tree Retreat Center is offering a Confirmation Retreat on Sat. Sept. 11th. Registration Forms are on the Youth Board!!
Registration forms available on the
youth bulletin board for the following events:
Jr. High Discipleship Camp July 11-14
Sr. High Discipleship Camp July 15-18
Steubenville High School Youth Conference -July 30-Aug. 1**
MISSION TRIP RETURNS!
During the early morning hours on Saturday, May 29th fifty-four St. Michael/St Mary parishioners, young and not so young, departed from St. Michael Parish and headed for the first stop on our journey, Oklahoma City, OK. During our short time there we visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The Memorial staff had arranged for us to hear from a surviving family member whose story of faith and hope will stay with us forever. The memorial is done in a remarkable fashion to memorialize the people who lost their lives in this tragic event, but it also does a spectacular job of demonstrating the goodness of the people who responded and the hope that came from them. The Memorial is a must for your “bucket lists”.
After traveling for about eight hours on Sunday, we realized we would not make the evening mass time in Lake Charles. This being our fifth year, I knew that it was all in God’s plan and we just needed to see what he had in store for us. So the search began for an alternate plan to attend Mass. Our alternate plan took us to St. Anne’s in Beaumont, TX, where Monsignor William Manger graciously invited us to join a celebration for their graduates and for pizza in their newly built youth house (Hurricane Rita had destroyed the other one). It was a great time for us to eat, visit and relax but with one more hour of travel in front of us we said goodbye to our newly found friends in Christ.
Upon our arrival in Lake Charles we unpacked, got settled in and prepared ourselves for the work we would begin on Monday morning. The days in Louisiana were spent traveling right down near the Gulf of Mexico in Cameron Parish a place hit hard by Hurricanes Rita and Ike. Our work included painting and staining of various decks in the area, putting in linoleum flooring, cabinets, and sheetrock in a home, and the cleaning of a couple of lots that had not yet been done. During this time we were able to visit with our old friends, such as Ms. Julie and Ms. Jean and were able to make new ones such as Ms. Mary, Ms. Mildred, Mr. Steven, Mr. Perry and our little pal Paul.
One of the highlights of our trip this year was being able to celebrate a Votive Mass to Avert Storms with the Bishop of Lake Charles, Most Rev. Glen John Provost, on Tuesday, June 1st, (the beginning of Hurricane Season) at Our Lady Star of the Sea in Cameron. Being able to worship with the locals and to unite in prayer with them was a humbling experience, not only because of the way we were dressed (keep in mind the above mentioned jobs) but because the people and the Bishop were so thankful for our presence. On Thursday evening we enjoyed another highlight of our trip, a Louisiana seafood boil. Our host was Mr. John Canik, a local business man. Many of our participants enjoyed their first taste of jambalaya, crawfish and fresh shrimp.
On our return trip home we traveled to Memphis, TN and visited the National Civil Rights Museum. The NCRM is located at the Lorraine Motel, the actual site where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. Standing there, looking out the window at the balcony where this great man’s life was ended because he believed in the dignity of all human life was also a very humbling experience for us as Catholics. The NCRM is also a must for your ‘bucket lists”. After Memphis our journey brought us through Chicago where we visited Navy Pier. We spent our last day before returning home at the Great America Six Flags Theme Park.
With new friendships made, new life experiences under our belt and with having the theme of our trip being on the love and mercy of God we returned home on Monday. We returned to our city, to our parishes, and to our families with a widened sense of who we are as God’s children. We are God’s children who are loved unconditionally through our greatness but also through our weaknesses. We are God’s children, who were made in His image and likeness sent to serve others made in His image and likeness. In the words of one of the mission trip participants, who’s statement mirrors many of the other participants, “On the trip I learned the magnitude of God’s love, the multitude of His mercy and the importance of working together to achieve a common goal.”
I once again am thankful to all the chaperones and participants, to Steve, our bus driver, and to all of you for helping to make this trip possible.
Rhonda Kelsey
Parish Mission Trip Photos
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