Well
the first few weeks of being in the Village and complaining about not being
very busy, have brought us to this week. We had three youth nights, went and
visited two schools and spent hours planning and preparing for each one. Our
ministry is different than the road team in the way we don’t put on retreats
every day, but we are doing just as much work but in different ways. All of our
youth nights so far have been pretty much our idea, meaning we had to come up
with all the resources we used and such. Lots of work but so worth seeing the
effect it has on the youth and those we encounter.
This
week started nice and early on a beautiful Irish Sunday, we woke up had a nice
breakfast, and then headed to Clonmellon. This weekend we were speaking at the
masses in Clonmellon about the youth nights we were going to have over the
month of November in their town. We had Saturday mass down but still had the
two Sunday masses. Before mass Tim, Amy, and Becca downed a cup of tea, while I
sat back and smiled, I hate tea. It was a good morning but after we got back we
were all feeling pretty tired. That afternoon we were asked to go to a Soccer
Awards ceremony in the Village. We were told that a bunch of youth from
Clonmellon would be there and it would be a good chance to meet them and get
them to come to the youth group. Amy and Marie were not feeling very good or up
to the adventure so Tim, Becca, and I went to it. We walked in and it was very
awkward, it was at a pub and there was a bunch of parents drinking with a ton
of youth and other people we had never met. The person we were supposed to meet
was not in sight so we went and stood in the corner for like 10 minutes. After
a bit she came over and directed us to the youth she wanted us to meet. We had
some good craic after that, and we got excited to start the youth group on
Wednesday. To finish off the evening we went to Olive Powers for dinner to
watch the Eucharistic Congress final mass, she had recorded it from last year.
Since Amy still wasn’t feeling up to it she stayed home and Olive came to pick
us up. The evening consisted of watching American T.V. shows, The X-Factor,
Friends, America’s Got Talent, Pizza, Pop, and even a glass of wine. We began
to watch the Eucharistic Congress the last hour we were there and we
fast-forwarded a lot of it. It was really nice to relax and spend time hanging
out with Olive, she has become like a grandma to us all.
The
next day was our day off like always and it was very nice to just relax, and
catch up on our families and everything back home. Tim and Becca were supposed
to be picked up to go to a prayer meeting with some older ladies from the
parish but they never came. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful day.
Tuesday was another early morning but we are slowly getting more used to it.
Joe Tynan the Chaplin for Athboy secondary school stopped by our house with Fr.
Seamus. He wanted to meet us and talk about setting up a time for us to go to
his school. We really enjoyed meeting him and we are looking forward to getting
in to his school. To end the day we had a Jam Session with the musical youth of
our youth group, that basically means most of them so many are talented. We had
a good night and got to get to know Shannon and Zach a lot better, Zach stayed till
10 teaching Amy and Tim Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons. Over all a great
night!
Wednesday
was a nice morning with Team Sport, which consisted of walking around town
exploring areas we hadn’t gone before. The rest of the day consisted of
planning for the Village youth group, and last minute prepping for Clonmellon
youth group. We also had guy and girl hang out time, the girls watch Black Hawk
Down, and the boys watch the Matrix, Tim had never seen it!!!! After dinner we
left for Clonmellon, and set up for our first youth night with them. We really
had no idea of who would come or how many would show up, we just prayed for Fr.
Garland’s sake someone would, Fr. Garland the priest of Clonmellon was so
excited and looking forward to the youth group. Twelve youth showed up and the
night was full of craic, as the Irish would say, “It was pure class.” We played
the NET version of Jeopardy and they were much better at the song lyric
category then the Village youth group. We all left super excited for next week’s
youth group.
Thursday
was a good day busy but went very well. We went to a school on Thursday and
talked to the 4th, 5th, and 6th class about
who we are and what NET is. We played games and had a lot of craic, we will be
doing some sessions with them like religion classes. Sadly we could only invite
the 6th class to come to our youth group, we felt bad for the other
classes having to hear about it even though they couldn’t come. That evening we had a Youth Night about
Genesis and the first three covenants God made with his people. It went ok but
was definitely a harder night. But we got to build boats out of foil for the
Noah station that was fun. On Friday we were down Amy, she was sick and not
feeling up to going to mass or to the school. But the day went on and we really
enjoyed going to another school and meet with all the 6th class
kids. The rest of the day was fairly chill preparing for next week and letting
Amy rest so she could get better.
Saturday we were supposed to go to Galway but Amy was not feeling good
still, so we cancelled and had a nice sleep-in. We spent the day at home hung
out and played our new favorite game Bohnanza, which is about bean farming, may
sound dumb but we had a lot of craic. Rebecca won the game by two cards, her and
Tim tied for points. After the game Becca and I went for a walk to the local
diner called Netties for some lunch. Shockingly it was closed down! Netti is an
awesome lady and we will really miss getting to eat her food and talk to her at
the diner. She is renting the space out to a Roma’s Italian restaurant. For
dinner we made homemade pizzas and spent part of the evening looking at each
other’s photos. The night ended with an episode of Chuck and craic was had by
all.
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