To Rockford!

Driving north from St Louis through the plains of Illinois brought us to the beautiful retreat center in Rockford Illinois. As we left the highway and started further out into the county, the roads became rougher, the trees thicker, and the snow whiter. By the time we arrived at the hidden retreat center, we wanted to stay. The lights from the windows lit up the the thick snow covering the entire landscape, including, rather unfortunately, the sidewalk. With just a few close calls, however we made it into our rooms, dropped off the suitcases that you have heard tell of before, and then followed the bright flashing sign somewhat incongruously proclaiming the whereabouts of the Christmas shows. The large room was set up for dinner, and was decorated tastefully with a peaceful nativity scene, and several bright Christmas trees. It only took a few small touches to ready the stage for the night's performance. We had a large group of people that night, enjoying prime rib (which we partook of following the show) and hopefully our show too. The next night had a more family feel, but was also a dinner theater setting. We were able to leave everything set up from the night before, although we did change the program. Originally we performed Who Killed Christmas and Making Room, the story of the innkeeper's wife on the very first Christmas and how she came to eventually find room for the Holy Family in her life. The second night the St Louis cast performed their version of Who Killed Christmas and we performed not only Making Room but also Sarah's Christmas Secret, our pro life drama with a holiday twist. Both nights went well, and we very much enjoyed our time in Rockford! An added surprise to our weekend of events was an invitation to be interviewed on the Catholic Radio Station - which was so fun! They told us we'd be able to get the interview via the website, so check it out at http://www.1440wrok.com/index.php ...

Christmas Brain: All You Need For Christmas

Our first show of our Christmas tour was a night filled with quotable quotes, but one took the cake. We drove from our home base in St Louis to Gerald, Missouri for St Gerald's parish PSR night. The first act, performed by members of the St Louis cast, is called "Who Killed Christmas" and stars Mrs Scrooge, who throughout the course of the play is taught how to keep Christmas alive in her heart. She gets pretty crabby before her metanoia occurs however. The somewhat rowdy kids present in the audience kept up a lively commentary on the action throughout the play. When they were asked at the end what Mrs Scrooge needed to do in order to learn her lesson, one particularly bright child shouted loudly: "Take her brain out and give her a Christmas Brain!" Ah, the wit of youth. Now just to find a reputable brain surgeon...

"Two Guys"

One response from two Middle School Guys...

Youth Leader: What did you think about the play and the message?

Guy #1: I thought the play was actually pretty good and thought that the acting was you know very good and they really got the message across because everything was very clear and straight-forward and not very hidden…

Guy #2: Yeah, I think they gave us a lot of information about abortion and what it’s like and why you shouldn’t do it and the purpose for the play and all the consequences that happen if you have an abortion or if you have the baby…

Guy #1: And the life of the mother who has the abortion and all the pains they have to go through…

Youth Leader: And what do you think about your role as young men?

Guy #2: Umm… I think we should think twice about people having sex and when we’re ready to have it and what’s the right time…

Youth Leader: Excellent. I want to thank both of you for having the courage to come and talk to me. Thanks a lot, ok?

Resources and Information...

There are a lot of questions Elizabeth and I need to find the answers to: what are more consequences of abortion for the mother? Are there statistics for the number of women who suffer after the abortion? What do they do with the bodies of the babies after surgical abortions? How does abortion affect the father? These and other questions were raised from these kids. I encouraged them to go online and research some good websites to find out the facts. Here were some that I found...

Go to http://www.priestsforlife.org/ for a list of information, including 'abortion alternatives,' 'abortion photos,' 'fetal development,' 'partial birth abotion,' and 'Q&A on Abortion'..... this is a great website with lots of information. You can also check out the American Life League at http://all.org/ ... they also have a lot of great information and give you a lot of ideas to remain active in the pro-life movement in your area... Maybe http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/ could give you more insight... And lastly, if you are interested in going to the March For Life in Washington DC, use your American voice and tell our governing officials that America WANTS TO BE PRO-LIFE! Check it out at http://www.marchforlife.org/ or for the Walk for Life in San Francisco go to http://www.walkforlifewc.com/event.htm ...

Silence is Acceptance. Speak Out! Be Heard! Choose Life!!!

Travel Time!

Do you know anyone who has names for their suitcases? Well, I don't either, which may explain the strange looks we got from people yesterday in the airport baggage claim station. We left Florida yesterday for a twenty day tour through three midwestern states, accompanied by a surprisingly large collection of suitcases. For artistic effect, I would like to decribe the suitcases as being of "all shapes and sizes and colors," but alas, we are not nearly so fortunate as to own the vast kaleidescope of bags that would legitimate such a claim. Maybe in our next lives.
Where was I?
Oh yes. So there we were waiting for our luggage to appear from within the dark mysterious innards of the aiport and be spewn forth onto the long black tongue so unpoetically called the "conveyer belt." We had a running commentary as each successive bag passed us: "OoOo, thats a cute one," "Wow. Now that's what I call purple," "Look at that girly polka dot one. I wonder whose that is... Oh, sorry, sir," and so on. After having loaded up our little cart (for which we paid three dollars, btw. Prices these days.), with five enormous suitcases, there we stood whispering to eachother: "Where's Rachel? We are missing Rachel. I hope she's not lost. We've got the two Sarah's, but that Rachel... OH! There she is!"
And so, our apologies to those poor souls with us in the airport who were perhaps wondering what sort of people packed their children in with their clothes and hairdryers. Not to worry: we just name our suitcases.

Oreos: Double Stuff Inside = Double the Fun

Ah yes. Oreos. With double the white stuff in the middle. How come no one ever thought of that before? Wait, am I off track? Yes... well, we have returned from a 'Rachel: Lost and Found Performance' in Tampa. We traveled the Sunshine Skyway (beautiful!) to get to St Patrick's Church in south Tampa, and arrived with plenty of time to unpack. The stage was a cute little stage, still set up in the Hollywood theme from a school performance a few weeks ago. In fact, from the entire ceiling hung large silver stars, glittering in the light. The stars got to stay, but the faux brick wall backgrounds gave way to a large chalkboard, and a few chairs and tables. We travel lightly with Rachel, so beyond shuffling tables and constructing a makeshift dressing room, we were good to go. There weren't that many people there, but it was a good mix of all ages, from middle school through highschool and adult. A few of the small group leaders afterwards reported some good discussions, although the response wasn't has strong as we had hoped for. Its a humbling experience to realize that all success is in God's hands, no matter how hard we try. At a certain point, only God knows what effects our words may have in the future. And thats what we all have to hold on to: the knowledge that God works all thing unto good. Even if the present circumstances we are in seem dark, there is always something to look forward to. Even if there seems to be no way out of the temptations of peer pressure in our schools - temptations to drugs, alcohol, and unchastity, there is something very worthwhile just out of sight.
Which brings me back to the oreos: if you had a huge ginormous double-stuffed oreo to your right and a bunch of little tiny so-called "fun-size' oreos to your left, which would you choose? Well, the big one is surely better. Why take the little sensual pleasures now, if you can just wait a little more for a greater good? To put it another way, why would a martyr choose a painful death rather than easy life, if all she has to do is throw a little incense to false gods? Why do I or anyone of you care about saying no if we are asked to take a drag or have a drink or sleep with someone? Whats the big deal with just having fun, about worrying about our clothes and friends? We aren't bad people... right? Well, maybe those things are fun-sized (at least, people call them fun-sized, when really we all know that they would be a lot more fun if they were twenty times as big) but they aren't the best we can get. In the Bible, Jesus calls us to be perfect "as the Heavenly Father is perfect." This doesn't mean we've blown our chance at perfection if we fall into sin or give in to those nagging temptations, but it does mean that we are asked to try to imitate Jesus and Mary and the saints and live the way they did. But first we have to know who they are. We have to read the lives of the people we call saints because they lived in the same world we live in and practiced heroic virtue. We have to read the Bible to know what Jesus said we have to do and to know what He promises us in return. We are promised something amazing, an eternity (think about that one: eternity. Forever and ever and ever. No end. On and on and on.) of happiness with a God who loves us unconditionally in exchange for a few short seconds here on earth. No matter how long middle school or highschool lasts, it will end. Will you look back on it and see how many missed opportunities you had to get to know the God you will spend eternity with? How many "fun-sized" oreos did you waste your time with when all you had to do was look around the corner to find that humongous, mammoth, spectacular Double Stuff Oreo?