Greetings from Gumbo! It has been a roller coaster couple of weeks here. I recently started teaching the 5 pre-novices, and we have finished testing and interviewing all of the incoming students for our secondary school, which starts tomorrow! The incoming students will have 2 weeks of classes in the morning to make sure everyone is on the same level, since they come from a variety of primary schools, before classes start full time May 1. The students I taught last year moving from S1 to S2 (basically freshman to sophomores) begin May 1. It has been a nice balance of teaching and administrative work getting everything ready for Opening Day. Amid all of this, I found out last Thursday that my saintly grandmother passed away, which is where I'll start.
Before I left in September, I had mentally prepared that my grandma probably would pass away during my year on mission and that I would not come back for the funeral if it were to happen. It was a great blessing to see her and visit with her in the living room on Trexler while both of my grandparents sat in their famous chairs one last time and a moment that will never leave my heart. While I had hoped I would be able to do it again at the time, in reality, it was a true goodbye. Being away from family during this time made it extremely difficult, but again, I was blessed to play such a big part of everything thanks to technology. I skyped all of my cousins the morning of the wake, and skyped again during the wake to be able to "see" everyone, including my grandpa and grandma. The greatest moment out of all of this was being able to pray the rosary with everyone at the wake through skype. Just awesome. For the funeral, we weren't able to skype, but my uncle gave the eulogy and included some thoughts I had emailed him and the video was posted to YouTube so I could watch it. Again, it was so helpful to be able to be "present", despite being tens of thousands of miles away. It was and continues to be a very difficult process and time, but I have grown a lot from it and I can't help but smile from ear to ear when I picture my grandma in Heaven.
Throughout the interview process for the secondary school, there is one story I would like to share. The day after the exam date, there was a girl that came in all by herself that suffers from cerebral palsy. We had her take the entrance exam and she did pretty well. We discovered she lives here in Gumbo and had studied at our primary school. Then a part of the interview went like this:
"Do you live with your parents?"
"No, I live with my siblings."
"Where do your parents live?"
"My father passed away and my mother is mad"
"Who supports you?"
"My uncle sometimes gives us some money and we work (cultivate)"
Then there was a moment of brief silence as she could sense our concern, before she said.
"I just want to learn."
This was yet another moment that made me appreciate all that I have and how these wonderful people have been such a motivation to me and how I think about life. She has no parents. I have two absolutely fantastic parents (the best parents in the world in my slightly biased opinion). She has extremely little support, nobody to really look up to, cerebral palsy, and all she wants to do is learn and improve herself. Side note- we will be paying her school fees this year.
I have really been thinking about the two of these experiences and I really think about my grandma and how she was always praying, and always praying for others. More than anything, she prayed for her family. She prayed that her family would be protected, get the most out of this life, make a difference in this world, and essentially become saints, just like she was. Like the girl, I have been thinking and planning ways to step my game up and learn and live life to the fullest. That's the easy part. Now for the hard part in making it happen. St. Anne Marie Ebener from Oglesby, pray for us.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
Easter!!
After a trip back to the United States for my brother Nick's wedding, I am finally settled back in here in South Sudan. The trip was a blast and it was such a humbling experience to be reminded of how blessed I am to have such a large and absolutely amazing group of family and friends. I thank you all for taking the time to make it such a great memory. You all rock.
Oh yea, HAPPY EASTER! The past three days has been the most unique and amazing Easter Triddium experience for me to date. It is definitely #1 out of 25! Here's the daily breakdown:
Friday afternoon into evening we had a reenactment of the Way of the Cross that went all throughout the village. The pre-novices and parishoners did an out of this world job and we had around 500 people (we started with around 30-40) that joined us as we processed throughout Gumbo. We ended at the church and had a service after that. What really stood out to me and made it special was that the stations really came to life for me. After visiting the Holy Land in December and doing the Stations of the Cross there, I was able to visualize and combine the two and really feel like we turned the clock back 2000 years. As we walked on dirt and not paved roads, as we walked up hills, as people knelt down with their arms and hearts open as we passed by, as the soldiers continued to yell and beat Jesus, as Jesus continued to suffer and pain filled his face, it all felt so real and was really powerful.
Saturday morning we started the day with a penance service. I was one of the first ones to go and left the church and returned to my room shortly afterwards. With 6 priests hearing confessions, the service was still almost 3 hours long! The priests commented that a good number of the parishioners were going to reconciliation for the first time in many years. What a wonderful sign and reminder of God's love and mercy at work! At night, we started the outdoor Easter Vigil mass. We began with a bonfire on the soccer field and had a very short candlelit procession from the field to the front of the church. I loved that the people were surrounded by darkness, yet were being guided by a small flicker of light in front of them. The four hour Vigil mass was attended by roughly 1500 people (kinda tough to estimate, but let's just say there was a lot). We used every light, speaker, and watt of power we had to make it work and it was incredible to see everything come together and all work so well. We also had 120 children baptized that night in what I called a "drive-thru baptism". They were in a semi-circle around the church and the priest would say the prayer, and the 6 priests would disperse throughout and perform the correct ritual with water or oil (which, side note, was transported and stored in an empty water bottle from the Chrism mass and administered by putting it on a small cloth...so South Sudan) as the parents would tell the priest the name of the baptized. 120 new members of the Catholic Church in about 45 minutes....not too shabby! It is inspiring and energizing to see the Church continue to grow! I hope to have some video soon, but it will take some time.
Then there was Easter Sunday! After a needed early morning monsoon, the first of 2 masses finally began, although it was a bit tardy. I opted to go to the English mass instead of Bari, and Fr. John, an American Maryknoll priest did a fantastic job. The place was packed and rockin with the Spirit like it only can and always is in Africa as we celebrated the Risen Lord.
It is amazing how God continues to challenge me and help me grow in a number of ways, especially during this Easter time, a time to be made anew. May He continue to bless you all.
Oh yea, HAPPY EASTER! The past three days has been the most unique and amazing Easter Triddium experience for me to date. It is definitely #1 out of 25! Here's the daily breakdown:
Friday afternoon into evening we had a reenactment of the Way of the Cross that went all throughout the village. The pre-novices and parishoners did an out of this world job and we had around 500 people (we started with around 30-40) that joined us as we processed throughout Gumbo. We ended at the church and had a service after that. What really stood out to me and made it special was that the stations really came to life for me. After visiting the Holy Land in December and doing the Stations of the Cross there, I was able to visualize and combine the two and really feel like we turned the clock back 2000 years. As we walked on dirt and not paved roads, as we walked up hills, as people knelt down with their arms and hearts open as we passed by, as the soldiers continued to yell and beat Jesus, as Jesus continued to suffer and pain filled his face, it all felt so real and was really powerful.
Saturday morning we started the day with a penance service. I was one of the first ones to go and left the church and returned to my room shortly afterwards. With 6 priests hearing confessions, the service was still almost 3 hours long! The priests commented that a good number of the parishioners were going to reconciliation for the first time in many years. What a wonderful sign and reminder of God's love and mercy at work! At night, we started the outdoor Easter Vigil mass. We began with a bonfire on the soccer field and had a very short candlelit procession from the field to the front of the church. I loved that the people were surrounded by darkness, yet were being guided by a small flicker of light in front of them. The four hour Vigil mass was attended by roughly 1500 people (kinda tough to estimate, but let's just say there was a lot). We used every light, speaker, and watt of power we had to make it work and it was incredible to see everything come together and all work so well. We also had 120 children baptized that night in what I called a "drive-thru baptism". They were in a semi-circle around the church and the priest would say the prayer, and the 6 priests would disperse throughout and perform the correct ritual with water or oil (which, side note, was transported and stored in an empty water bottle from the Chrism mass and administered by putting it on a small cloth...so South Sudan) as the parents would tell the priest the name of the baptized. 120 new members of the Catholic Church in about 45 minutes....not too shabby! It is inspiring and energizing to see the Church continue to grow! I hope to have some video soon, but it will take some time.
Then there was Easter Sunday! After a needed early morning monsoon, the first of 2 masses finally began, although it was a bit tardy. I opted to go to the English mass instead of Bari, and Fr. John, an American Maryknoll priest did a fantastic job. The place was packed and rockin with the Spirit like it only can and always is in Africa as we celebrated the Risen Lord.
It is amazing how God continues to challenge me and help me grow in a number of ways, especially during this Easter time, a time to be made anew. May He continue to bless you all.
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