Reach Youth Ministry

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Every Story has to have an ending

You are now reading the blog of a former Reach team. As of June 27, 2008 the reach year has ended. We look upon this year with so many wonderful memories. We went to and through a total of 15 states as a team, we went to the typical states which are gone to in the beginning of the year, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, we went to the typical mid-west trip states, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Kansas and Missouri, and even went to a couple states which are typically part of the northwest and southwest teams, Alaska and California. We’ve had many countless experiences, countless hours in the van(s), countless hours listening to music, countless inside jokes (maybe it is better, how do you say burrito in Spanish?, trying to get to the movies, and so many others which I will spare you from), countless people we have encountered both in and out of retreat, countless calories burned on laughing, and countless calories consumed in host homes (to all of those who contributed to the extra inches in our beltlines, we thank you). We’ve met great priests across the country, and have learned how truly universal the church is. It was amazing coming to Yakima, WA that windy day of August 26, 2007, as we sat together in the team room that evening after the barbeque was over we looked around the room and saw a room full of strangers we were being forced to live a year with. As we go our different ways, we look around and no longer see strangers but a family. We have spent so much of our lives with each other that we’re even closer than siblings to a certain extent. As Jake would always describe it, “We’re like brothers and sisters who always have to go to each other’s baseball games, football games, and such. We’re like siblings who can never get rid of each other.” We may have wanted to leave sometimes, or maybe wanted someone else to leave, but now that the time is up we want to cling to that which has become our home and family. We may all be going back to our original homes, but if home is where the heart is then I guess I have pieces of a home spread across the country. As we leave here with our memories, I leave you all with a profound thank you. Thank you to all who provided the many prayers, and for all of your support throughout the year, without you there would be no Our Lady of Lourdes Reach team. I leave today with a final look on our year past, and the words of Paul, “I have completed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me but to all who have longed for his appearance.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

God Bless for one final time,

The Our Lady of Lourdes Reach Team

P.S. There is of course still the photobucket and YouTube account which will remain for some time with our pictures and memories of this year past. For those of you who may have lost or forgotten the links to those they are http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc232/OLL07-08/ for the photobucket and http://www.youtube.com/oll0708 for our YouTube account. Feel free to browse through and see the many pictures and videos which didn’t make it onto the blog.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Gonzaga, and life in between

Since our last post we have had some fun times hanging out with the other teams, as well as prepping for the Gonzaga Conference. We had many fun times hanging out with some people we knew in Coeur d'Alene getting to hang out with them and spend some times playing games of frisbee and seeing a special performance of a skit titled "veseline"

We also had a great time getting to go to a confirmation mass in St Paul's Cathedral. Of course, all the girls took this as an opportunity to dress up from head to toe as you can see from these pictures.

The pre-picture picture as all the girls got ready to strike a pose

The actual picture as we are all ready. Reach girls sure do clean up well.

Of course, last weekend we had our Gonzaga conference which was a great success. Not only did the Reach teams have fun putting it on, but everyone else who came also had a great experience, listening to the inspirational words of Courtney Brown, and music provided by The Thirsting. It was a wonderful experience all around, and as you can see from these pictures it was a fun place to be over the weekend.

Jake showing off his "man" purse.. ;)

Singing and Dancing to "Every Move I Make"...how many Reach team members can you spot in this picture?

A picture of a bunch of us at the end of the conference...and Dan of course on the bullhorn

Unfortunetly, on the drive back from Gonzaga to the center, the tan Astro van ended up getting a flat tire.

Of course, this meant that we had to put on the spare tire, and since it was a van full of women, Fred took the task of getting the spare tire and the tools upon himself. Thankfully, as we were stranded on the side of the road a police man saw us stranded, and was able to come and lend a helping hand.

The police man and Fred fixing the car back up.

We had great amounts of fun and blessings as we have continued our year. Thank you for all of those who came to the Gonzaga conference, we enjoyed having you there. And for all of those who lend your support both financially and spiritually in your prayers we are all enternally grateful. All of you allow us to do the work that we do.

May the good Lord bless you as we have been blessed,
The Our Lady of Lourdes Reach Team

Monday, April 28, 2008

It was fun flying in a tornado, but landing back home was good too

Hello again,

Sorry for the lack of recent posts. Since the last post we have returned to Yakima. On our first day being back we joined the Guadalupe team on a trip to Seattle to visit WSU's Newman center and participate in their Theology of the Body class. We enjoyed our time up there, and had a fun trip up in the van as you can see in the following pictures.

The following day we returned to our travels, and visited Oregon to do a retreat there. Unfortunetly I do not have any pictures at this time of the time we spent there but will post pictures later when they are made available. The retreat we did there was a great amount of fun, and being one of the first times in a while we had sunshine, we were able to make great use of it by spending time outside playing games, such as glow in the dark baseball and ultimate frisbee.

Upon our returning to Yakima after this trip we have enjoyed being able to spend time with the community once again. We were able to celebrate birthday's, have praise and worship at the Haven, and have even been able to have a picnic, of which there are pictures following. We also, more recently, put on the Reach Benfit Dinner which was a great amount of fun for us, as well as a great success for the Reach program.

Of course, beyond the picnics and parties, we've also had fun with some sprite we had at the center.

This past weekend we put on our last retreat as a team in Levenworth, WA. Although we will are now gearing up for work on the Gonzaga conference and the DUB, our indivual team retreats are now over. It's bitersweet knowing that they're over but they were a great amount of fun for us, and we hope the all the retreatants we have encountered enjoyed having us there as much as we enjoyed being there.