it's about to get going

I haven't really kept you all up to date on my life - not that it is vital, but it is kind of the point of this blog, at least in part.

So let's see ... in this post I quickly listed what had gone on and that's the most recent one.

The vocation camp was very cool. There were nine 7th-8th grade boys who got together for three days of prayer, discussion and non-stop craziness. Their energy never went away, but I enjoyed it. Like last year, one highlight was getting to spend some time with a few of my fellow DioSteub seminarians. Also, I got to lead all the morning/evening prayers and serve as deacon at all of the Masses.

After the camp was over, I went home for a day and a half off. My sister and I saw Toy Story and loved it. Besides being funny and well-made, it had what all great stories have: the heroes bonded together in the face of certain death and came through it to a new life. It may sound like I'm reading into it, but there were great, epic elements in TS3.

The next day we went back to the theater and saw The Last Airbender. Oh, M. Night Shyamalan ... why do you betray me. I'll put it this way: they took a show that had amazing character development and a powerful story that played out over three seasons ... and dropped everything that made you like the characters (or hate the bad ones) and just crammed the bare bones of the first season into one movie. This was the movie I was looking forward to this summer ...

Anyway, I came back to St. Ambrose. Then, on Friday, my friend Craigr came to town. We went out to eat and bought some snacks. On Friday morning, our friend Joe came in and, after a tour of the church, we headed up to Marietta where we went to lunch, took pictures, got ice cream, walked around, and checked out St. Mary.

We headed back to Little Hocking for the 5PM Mass and then had an excellent dinner with my pastor. Finally, I took Craigr and Joe back up to Marietta where they were spending the night. Before heading back to the parish, I stopped at the home of some family friends where my brother and another friend was spending the night.

The next day, all those people - Craigr, Joe, my brother, etc. - all came to the 11AM Mass and we went to lunch afterwards. My brother, Joe and ... the other Joe hung out for a while. We played some music and talked until everyone left.

Whew.

Later that evening - did I mention it was Independence Day? - my pastor and I went to a party where we shot guns and watched fireworks. There's America, right there.

Last week is kind of a blur.

At some point, one of the parishioners took me on a tour of some of the more rural areas around St. Ambrose. I met some alpacas, walked across a natural stone bridge, checked out a covered bridge and saw a lot of the area.

On Wednesday, I met up with some people from the Parkersburg Teen Bible School a few weeks ago and played music and ate hot dogs. On Thursday my pastor and I went down to Athens for lunch with the priests living there. On Friday we saw Predators. It was exactly what it advertised itself to be and was pretty enjoyable.

I preached this weekend. It's something I've grown to really enjoy doing though I still need lots of practice and more experience.

The parish's vacation Bible school started on Sunday evening. My role is mostly playing guitar on the western-themed songs that come with the VBS package ("I want you all to meet my friend, ranger ... Deacon Mike."). I also help out wherever I can.

We had VBS again on Monday. Today I attended a "senior citizens day of reflection" at the parish's retreat house and then went to VBS again tonight.

That is what has happened.

Right now I'm working on 5 short meditations that I will record for a radio station in Athens tomorrow morning. It will be cool to be in a radio studio again - it's been a while since The Gabe and Mike Show. I'm a bad procrastinator, though, so doing these tonight isn't any fun. Say a prayer, please.

We'll have another night of VBS tomorrow. That one will be interesting because, instead of relying on the DVD of Jeff Slaughter (no, really) leading the songs, we'll be doing it "unplugged" with me and the MC leading the songs by ourselves. It should be fun. Kids are crazy.

Thursday is the last night of VBS. Afterwards, I'll head home. Why go then? Well ...

On Friday, I need to do some packing and preparing for a trip [woah, a song from VBS just came up on iTunes ...] that I'll be taking next week (more below). Anyway, I'll pack and prepare, and then head to Minerva to be the deacon at the marriage of my friends Greg and Amanda. It will be my first time preaching at a wedding (a real one, anyway) and I'm really looking forward to seeing some friends there.

After the reception, I'll spend the night in Minerva. On Saturday I'll head to a diocesan education conference and then back down to St. Ambrose for Mass on Saturday evening and Sunday morning (where I'm preaching again).

That is the end of the summer portion of my assignment because, on Monday, I'll drive down to Ironton to go to PERU. We have a sister diocese in Cusco that we are going to visit. I've never flown and I've never been out of the country before, so I'm really looking forward to this experience. Cusco is up in the mountains of Peru. It looks like a very cool area.

We'll be there for 9 days. I'll tell you about what we will do there after I come back.

After the retreat I'll head to our annual seminarian summer retreat which is at our parish's retreat house. Then, I'll begin the "break" portion of my summer at home.

I hope to blog between now and then, but it is getting kind of hectic. Don't worry, lots of pictures will be taken.

Pax.