Joy

Yesterday we were on a boat in the lake on site here and I fell in.....
I ended up wrestling the gator that came at me and.. I won.
So let's just say we had quite a feast last night.

......That would make a great story; if it were true.

For those that were wondering, I landed in Tampa safely on September 16th.

The next day was my birthday. People found out rather quickly and I was both delighted and surprised when the Mary Help staff members sang me happy birthday and brought out a cake. I also received a cupcake, birthday card and a phone call or two. How awesome is that! It was my first day and they already made me feel like family!

The past week or so I've just getting acquainted with the site and my jobs. (I'm geographically challenged, so this will take me longer than most) I've almost got a regular weekly routine set up except for the Boys and Girls Club.  I'm waiting to do a volunteer orientation type thing with them before I can start over there. The Boys and Girls Club will be my main "mission field" so I'm excited to finally get started later this week.

I realized that there is a larger Hispanic population here than I realized so I'm hoping to learn Espanol again. There is also a large Korean community here, so you know, maybe I can learn some Korean. But we'll see. Actually, I already learned how to say hello in Korean. Today is one of the days the Koreans celebrate their Thanksgiving and so I tried some Korean food as well. The Koreans and the various Hispanic populations have all sorts of festivals, parties and retreats here at Mary Help so I'm taking these small opportunities to expand my multiculturalism. It was pretty good. So this is my feeble attempt to be more multicultural since, ya know, I'm still in Florida, instead of another country.

In the meantime I've done a whole slew of things. (You know, to add things on my resume(you'll see why that's a joke in a minute) I have power washed things, sold hot dogs, cleaned a bus, drove the bus, set up chairs and other stuff for parish events, set up for retreats, drove some of the older Salesian priests to doctor's appointments as well as to run errands.

It's been exciting to do all of these random jobs, but more of the joy comes in when I interact with the people on site here. I've helped out at the youth group on Thursday nights and have taught CCD two Sundays now. I also went through altar server training so that I can both altar serve with the kids and be their mentor/teacher when the Deacon isn't around. (which makes me laugh because I just learned how to altar serve on Friday) But some of these kids have already inspired me through their devotion and desire to serve and know our Lord at such a young age. There's one 7th grade boy in particular who seems to come to everything and he always tries to find ways to serve. And he is always treating people with great charity because he is always thinking of other people.

Last Sunday was a ministry fair. We had to set up at 8am. I looked out my window at 6am and I saw people standing out there with candles. I thought I got the time wrong. But I found out that they had gotten there early to pray for the success of the ministry fair and all those who would come!

The Salesian priests and brothers here are delightful and I enjoy their company and conversation at meal times.  I wake up and go to daily Mass with them and pray Morning and Evening prayer with them as well. (We pray with the Psalms for those prayers) It's a great way to keep myself close to God throughout the entire day.

So anyway, Happy Sunday! Christ has risen! Enjoy this wonderful day of rest!