Sorry its been so long!

I've been pathetically awful about updating this.  I'm very sorry everyone.  I still love all of you and you're all still in my prayers constantly.  Things have just been crazy and I've just been lazy!

So with the last post being about the first half of my break, I suppose we can cover the rest of that.  Basically we went to Paris, met up with Annie and Anna, and had the time of our lives.  We were lucky enough to be blessed with a pretty hefty gift of cash, so we were able to do all sorts of fun stuff we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. Like eat really really well!! I had so much duck!!  Anyways, it was wonderful, New Years was epic, the apartment was incredible, and almost 3 months later I still really really miss Paris!!

January was a blur.  I was sick for the first week, a week without retreats, and then it was non-stop retreats for an entire month straight.  We're talking 5-day and 6-day weeks, driving cross country at 8 PM arriving at 2 AM and then waking up the next morning on the floor and rolling out for another retreat at 6.  It honestly was not as scary as I thought it was gonna be! February kind've alternated between crazy and tame, we had a week of basically doing local ministry in Louth while the school's were on break.  We got to live in a big old empty house, and Devan and I ended up getting to play a good 10 holes of golf on the local course, great times.

Retreats are still going great.  We've had a lot of really fun ones lately.  I did my first Harlem shake the other day with a group of second year (14 yr old) girls!  I'm reading like crazy, this Kindle has been absolutely wonderful, and I'm right in the middle of Father Brian McMaster's Totus Tuus consecration, which is phenomenal btw.  Speaking of priests, I've really met so many amazing ones as of late, just the other day I was blessed to  come across this old Dominican Father who'd dedicated his life to preaching the rosary.  He gave me his book, My Life with the Rosary, and it, WoW, lots of rosary's lately!  Mary has really had a hold of me these past few months especially.

It's weird with the finish line almost kinda-sorta in sight.  It's going to be really tough leaving this beautiful place.  I'm trying not to look to far ahead but it's kinda tough.  I'm super excited about coming home but leaving my team here is gonna be so hard.  They really do become like your family.

Anyways, I gotta get going, but I'll try and write more often!  Love you all so much!  Letters/e-mails/facebooks are always so much appreciated!  Know you're all in my prayers!  God Bless!

Break and Stuff

(January 7th) So I'm sick!  Like legitimately, not just seasonal allergies acting up like they always do this time of year,  sick.  I started coughing a week ago, it picked up quite a bit a few days later, and is peaking, like a glorious yellow-green swell, right about now, as today and yesterday have been a fevery, snotty, crusty eyed, 7-Up, LemSip(Irish for Theraflu), blur.  With all that being said, this is the first week back for the Irish kiddos, and nobody schedules retreats the first week back, so the sickness was at least quasi-convenient.  Also I've been blessed to get sick at a really awesome host-home.  Mrs. Beth Jackson is taking Irish Mammy'n to new, unprecedented, heights and I've got my own room, with a big comfy bed, my own bathroom, and as I just discovered, a legit Internet connection (Before this discovery I had groggily been hopping back and forth between playing fever-induced LSD solitaire and trying to sleep. Anyways, I'm sorry for drawing this self-pitying sick rant out far longer than necessary, and now let's jump into some interesting (!hopefully!) material!

How I Spent My Winter Break Part 1: The Fellowship of The Ring

....Probably the Longest Post Yet

We had our last retreat of 2012 on December 14th, it was phenomenal.  After that we popped on up to Newbridge, a decent sized town outside of Dublin and home-base for one of our local teams, and participated in a Youth2000 Retreat.  Basically it was like if Awakening and a Steubenville Conference had a baby.  It was great getting to spend some time with some Irish young-people my own age who were also into their faith.  After that we went on over to our own Christmas retreat a few miles away.  It was pretty wonderful getting to see everyone and just relax, tell stories, and goof around.  The work were doing out here is great, and incredibly rewarding, but it really does take it outta ya.  On the 18th I was officially a free man, no NET obligations until January 1st.  It was a strange feeling being able to just go wherever you wanted to go.  I wish I could pull this outta my head in a better way, the thrill of just taking on a country by yourself with just a little backpack.  I love it.  

I spent my first two days up in Derry, where I spent my first six weeks in "Eire", living with a small community of Capuchin Friars of the Renewal.  Basically an absolutely wonderful order of Franciscans.  Besides being subconsciously inspired to take my beard to previously unheard of levels of hairiness, I also was able to get a ton of amazing prayer and spiritual direction in.

Following that adventure I then hopped on a bus and rendezvoused with my teammate Devan in Letterkenny(big town in Donegal) and we proceeded to spend the rest of the day jumping from bus to bus on our way down to Navan (big town in Meath) where we'd be staying until Christmas.  After a long, tiring, and sometimes stressful, journey we eventually made it in one piece to our host-home.

Relegating the Sheridan family to a couple paragraphs is doing them a grave injustice, and they will be the subject of sooooo many stories when I'm back stateside, but for now here's a brief summary.  Big family with five grown-up kids, everyone plays Gaelic football(the country's national sport) at the highest level, with a couple of the boys being national stars. The house is constantly full of music and activity and Devan and I were constantly getting whisked away on some sort of adventure, whether that was busking on Christmas Eve for St. Vincent De Paul (my song was Feliz Navidad), an all-day shopping extravaganza in Dublin, driving half-way across the country to lead music for a prayer meeting, or going to the local pub on Christmas Eve.  There was never a dull moment.  The Sheridan's really bent-over backwards to welcome us into their home and they seriously succeeded.  We got treated to so many meals, coffees, beers, they even got us Christmas presents!  

(hopefully finishing writing this tonight....2 weeks later)

OK so what'd we do after that...we went to France!! WOoOoOoOO
Devan and I hopped on a plane at about 6 AM on the 26th with our backpacks and a lot of layers of clothing.

(Quick segway...my backpack has been through four years of University...countless retreats, camping-trips, and all around shenanigans, and now it is stalwartly carrying on through international adventures, getting stuffed way beyond capacity, and doing an admirable job.  Way to go Backpack.)

On our way to Lyon we ended up having a 6 hour layover in Barcelona.  Thankfully the Spanish were cool with us just walking out of the airport and exploring for awhile...so we got to have a sorta bonus trip to Barcelona as well.  It was a really beautiful city and HOT.  We were both pretty dang exhausted but we still managed to see a pretty decent portion of downtown Barcelona.  We hung around the Placa Espanyola(yes that's the right spelling) for most of the time, took a bunch of pictures, and did some high quality people watching.  The highlight of this leg of the trip had to be the Sangria and Paella at a street corner restaurant.  It was so relaxing!!

After that adventure we passed-out in the airport for an hour or so and then hopped on our next flight that would take us to Lyon.  Upon arriving in Lyon we realized our hotel was faaaaar away from the airport, and, thanks to a knee jerk reaction, ended up paying entirely way to much for a taxi out there.  Live and learn right?  Not really.  We did the exact same thing the next day on our day-trip to Ars.  EXCEPT THE TAXI DIDN'T EVEN TAKE US TO THE RIGHT TOWN.

Devan and I ended up going on a pretty crazy adventure that day.  Like the above paragraph says, we got dropped off in the wrong town, and after a couple confusing conversations with some locals started walking in the direction we were pretty sure was right.  After about 3 kilometers we were getting pretty discouraged...so like the Catholic missionaries we are we prayed a rosary.  As soon as we started praying the rosary I immediately felt relaxed, I just knew we were going to be fine, and we were.  Like a minute after we finished our rosary we were picked up by a nice, English speaking, young frenchman who took us straight to Ars...and wouldn't you know it....we walked in right as mass was starting.

Time to talk about Ars!  It was beautiful, quiet, peaceful, contemplative, and all sort of other serene adjectives.  Ars was where St. John Vianney, the patron Saint of priests and an all around baller, lived and worked.  We were able to pray right next to his tomb!  Devan has a huge devotion to St. JV and I am pretty convinced he would still be there praying right now if he didn't have missionary obligations.   Anyways, we worked a little bit and were able to find a priest who spoke a little English who, after giving us some food, graciously drove us about 10 km to a nearby train station where we were thankfully able to get a very cheap train back to Lyon, right as the sun was going down.   Since it was our last day in Lyon we decided to see the city...we ended up seeing so much more than we would've ever wanted.

We stepped off on train at about 4:30...we would end up walking for the next six hours.  I absolutely love aimlessly wandering around foreign cities, a love that Devan shares as well.  This particular time it would end up getting us in a tough, painful, annoying, frustrating, and above all else memorable situation.  After we'd seen just about all we wanted to see of downtown Lyon we made the BRILLIANT decision to just walk home to our hotel!  After all it was ONLY a couple kilometers.  Nevermind the fact that we spoke no french and had no navigation/map.  Despite Devan's very good sense of direction we ended up getting very very very lost and wandering around some very rough neighborhoods.  This is where it gets awesome.

Lemme set the scene.  We're in a scary part of town.  We're tired, hungry, and sore. We're frustrated. We pray a rosary.  Literally as the final amen is escaping our lips a man comes out of nowhere and walks up the street towards.  We ask for help.  Turns out he's British, and what'dya know he whips out his Iphone and gives us turn by turn directions back to our hotel!  We make it home about thirty minutes later completely and utterly amazed at the power of the holy rosary.  Not once but twice in one day!!  Utterly exhausted, we passed out.

I'll write more tomorrow!

November And Stuff

TO EVERYONE SUPPORTING ME BACK HOME THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Hey folks!  Haven’t written anything for a while and I am definitely needing to splurge all over this word document, so here we go!

A Lot to Be Thankful For

Right Now

Yesterday was American Thanksgiving, did you guys know there was a Canadian Thanksgiving?? (Me neither!)  And I’ve come to realize I have an awful lot to be thankful for.  Granted, every year, hopefully, most of us can see that,  but these crazy circumstances that I find myself in travelling around Ireland have shown me that I have quite a bit to be thankful for, including commas,,,.  Take today for example, I’m currently sitting in the study of my host home, this time it’s the house of Father Phillip, an awesome young Priest that NET is truly blessed to know.  Father has helped me, and many other missionaries, so much this year and staying at his house is always such an enjoyable experience.  This is my second time staying at Father’s and, like the last time, he treated us to a movie at the cinema (something we never get to do).  The food is always great, he has hundreds of great books, AND there’s a chapel in the house!  

Today (Saturday) our team is having a rare day off, and I have chosen to spend mine staying in this awesome house, writing, reading, guitar’n, business’n, and blogging.   I am so at peace right now, I’m listening to my Rhapsody account (The Weepies), something I hardly ever get to do, and just enjoying some nice relaxation time.  I am DEFINITELY thankful for that.  Being on the Road Team we’re constantly moving and constantly with each other, therefore these moments of peace and silence are treasured.  I seriously cannot stress to yall enough how much I’m loving this right now.

What’s-Up

It’s been about 5 weeks since my last blog post and man have we been busy.  We’re coming up on 40 retreats and OMG I can’t believe I just typed that.  Our encounter days have become something close to breathing for our team at this stage.   We’re getting to the point now where everyone can basically say everyone else’s testimonies and talks, while just about every aspect of retreat has been involved in some sort of inside joke or another.  It’s going to be really weird going back home and nobody knowing the NET Lingo.

Speaking of lingo, I haven’t picked up an Irish accent yet and have, at this point, officially abandoned hope of that happening.  I have, however, noticed myself falling into using some of the particularly Irish patterns of speech in my daily conversations.  For instance, the Irish throw “like” around a lot, kinda like us, however they throw it in at the end of sentences, something that I’ve started doing as well.  And besides it naturally coming out, we’ve all learned enough slang that we’d be able to turn it on at any time.  Here’s a few fun words:

•          Craic (pronounced crack) means a good time      ex. I had some good craic yesterday
•          Your Man- used to refer to someone in a story    ex.  Your man over there running the store
•          Bit-o-Banter-kinda like craic, depends on where you are in the country whether or not it’s used a lot
•          On the Lash-to be drunk  ex. Your man was on the lash last night
•          Deadly, Savage-both mean cool

Everyone also says “you’re very welcome” when welcoming people in.  I’ve always really enjoyed that one.  Anyways, there are quite a few more that aren’t immediately coming to my head right now, but those above are definitely the most fun.  Naturally “craic” caused a lot of confusion when I first got here.

Back to the overarching topic at hand, I’m thankful for the wonderful opportunity this year has presented to get away from a lot of the distractions I had back home.  Being separated from constant internet and TV has really allowed me to pursue the things I always wanted to give more time to, namely reading, writing, and music. I’ve read close to 15 books in the past three months and it has been absolutely wonderful.  So far I think my two favourites are “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis and “He Leadeth Me” By Walter Ciszick.  I’ve found myself reading a ton of apologetics, partly due to the fact that I want to be able to answer any questions I might be asked by angsty Irish teens, but I also just really love learning more and more about my faith.  When people think of missionaries they generally think of all the sacrifices that go into it, and while that is very true, I’ve also found that the things I’ve gained(while certainly more abstract) far outweigh the things I’ve had to give up. 

Nothing about this year is “normal”, nothing has been and nothing will be, and it’s through that separation that I’ve been able to shine lights on all the areas of my life that, because of the conditions I was living in back home, never really got light shined on them.  Out-here I’ve been able to work out parts of my life that I never would’ve had the chance to back in Texas.  I’ve been able to pursue the things that truly give me peace, and through that, praise God, I’ve found it.  I cannot type enough on the amazing impact personal prayer has had on my life, and I would encourage all of you to set aside that time in your day for it.  I am doing things out here that I never thought in a million years I would be able to do, and it is entirely due to the daily grace I receive through prayer.  Its not like things have been perfect, there were a number of things this past month that were tough, hard to take, etc.  But being out here, I’ve learned to trust in Gods providence to a much greater extent.  Through clinging to Him I have the strength to let go of everything else, and man the joy that comes from that is something else.

Practical Snippets From The Past Few Weeks

We’ve had so many wonderful retreats lately it’s really hard for me to pick out any individual stories.  There have definitely been kids this past month that have made leaving so very hard.  I keep a log of all of my small-groups and try and pray for them everyday, but man, somedays you just wanna give em all hugs!

Music stuff is still going great, I had a blast the other day singing “Never Getting Back Together” with about 100 15 year old girls.  I’ve gotten the chance to jam with a lot of host-families as well, and that’s just been great.  I’m writing a lot of songs and stuff out here, all these emotions and exciting new things make for a lot of good material!

It’s getting cold!!  I still love the weather but I did have to buy another heavy coat to supplement my already heavy coat.  The kids are always astonished at our weather back home.  They can’t believe how little it rains, and they crack up when they hear how happy we are in Texas when it does.

I’m being considered for a job in Dripping Springs (outside Austin) that would be starting in June!  It’s as the Director of RE and High School Youth Minister for St. Martin de Porres!  I sent my resume and spoke to the priest (Father Ed K) on the phone already and now I’m just waiting for a response.  Prayers would be seriously appreciated!

My camera broke but I just got a new one(A thousand thanks to Dad)!  Sadly I missed out on a lot of great pictures.  We stayed in Dublin 3 different times and did a lot of cool stuff, in addition to going to flippin beautiful monastery’s and castles in Co Wicklow and Meath.  Nevertheless, everything here is beautiful and I’m sure there’ll be plenty more awesome things to take pictures of.

Things I Will Never Take For Granted Again

•          Fires
•          Hot showers
•          Beds
•          Fast food
•          Free refills
•          Sleeping in til 8
•          Internet
•          Time to relax
•          Sacraments

When did that happen…

We had a NET Thanksgiving this past Sunday (18^th) and it was such an awesome time.  I was excited going in but I didn’t think it was going to be as wonderful as it was.  We arrived in Co Cavan on Saturday night and stayed with the local team there at their house.  The next day the two other teams and our staff arrived and we spent the day together eating and having a great time.  Right before everyone went their separate ways we all went to the small chapel next door for adoration and worship, in the middle of it I looked around at everyone and really came to realize that these people aren’t new friends anymore, they’re just friends.  That this crazy trip has become something closer to just everyday life, and these wonderful people around me are a lot more like family than I ever thought they would be.

That night we moved on to our next destination, Derry, where we stayed, for the next few days, in the exact same place we had training.  It was so good being back.  It felt like a lifetime ago that I was last there.  Being back in Derry, coupled with seeing everyone at Thanksgiving, just really made me realize what an amazing, wonderful, life-changing experience this has been and just how truly truly profoundly thankful I am for this great blessing of service.  If you’re even somewhat thinking about doing NET or any sort of missionary work, I encourage you to keep discerning!!  I had no idea what to expect going in, but like everything in my life since God, with a little trust and cooperation on my part, its worked out amazing.

I love you guys so much.  Praying for yall.

Peace and God Bless.

P.S.  If anyone has any connections in Paris/Lyon, my buddy and I are looking for a place to stay around New Years

Here We Go!!!

FIRST MONTH ON THE ROAD!!!! WOOOOoOOOoOO

First off....THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED ME FINANCIALLY AND SPIRITUALLY ALL THIS TIME.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

So I think the last blog left off around two-thirds of the way through training. Since then quite a lot has happened. I've(started) writing this on October 12^th and we've been on the road for about 3 weeks now and things have been super busy. It's Friday evening and I'm sitting in the living room of our host home for the night. We're staying at the empty house of one of the local teams, they're off on a trip to Knock for the weekend so we're crashing at their place for the night. We just wrapped up our 13^th retreat this afternoon.

It's funny, all at once it feels like it's been ages since we left training, but at the same time it seems like we just left. Our time out here has, of course, like everything in life, been filled with plenty of struggles and joys. We've gone out in pairs and stayed in various host homes, as well as swanky B&Bs and awesome guest houses. I've slept on everything from allergy crazy floors to super cozy double beds. I've stayed with devoutly orthodox Priests as well as good-hearted agnostics, and learned a ton from both. I've met a boxer dog, bigger than some friends, named Tigger who loved nothing more than standing up on his hind legs and wrapping his paws around your neck for a hug. I've seen breathtaking vistas basically every time I've looked out our van window, and gotten a closer look, through various expeditions, a lot more often than I would've thought. I've drank a Guiness (SO MUCH BETTER HERE) in a local country pub while a live band played some reels, all while enjoying the best onion rings I've ever had. But most importantly I've been streched and pulled by grace in so so so many ways, some expected, others definitely not, and its truly been amazing.

Each retreat, while basically the same, has a character all its own thanks to one pretty important variable, the retreatants themselves. Our particular team operates exclusively through the schools here, which, for the most part, are run through the Church. Our average day involves waking up somewhere between 5:30-7:00, followed by 20-45 minutes of personal prayer, breakfast, a quick run-down of the day, and then arrival. We've pretty much got our set-up routine down to a science, with each member having specific roles and functions throughout every stage of the day. It really is awesome to see us running at top form, looking like a well oiled evangelization machine. The retreat (Encounter Day) starts around 9 AM and consists of a series of games, sketches, music, dramas, fillers (my purple rose story etc.), talks, small groups, and prayers. With the whole day peaking in the afternoon with a powerful prayer service. The only thing I just about always do on a retreat is lead music. We do one praise and worship song in the first half of the day, and then later on I play a meditation song on my own. Other than that what I'm doing changes day to day. I would say about 90% of the time I have a SG(small group), and the few times I don't are tough because it's hard getting to know the kids without one of those. We do various dramas, think like “Everything Skit”, throughout the day, with an elaborate one towards the end of the retreat, some goofy ones (I get lots of shaving screamed splattered on me pretty frequently), and, depending on the day, I might be performing in several or none at all. We take turns leading games, doing fillers, giving talks, testimonies, allllll sorts of stuff. This format inevitably results in days where I'll be doing toooons of stuff, or days where all I might be doing is leading a small group and singing a song. I honestly thought this whole not doing a lot thing was gonna be a lot tougher, but it really hasn't been nearly the struggle I was expecting, whatdy'know, prayer works.

The culmination of a NET Encounter day is the Prayer Ministry, a time when each retreatant has the opportunity to talk and pray, individually, with their small group leader. I can honestly say that this has been the absolute best part of my time here. It's amazing how much these kids open up, and how willing they are to allow God's grace. Already I've met so many incredible young men and women of all different ages and backgrounds. Each age group and gender has their own set of challenges, but they've all been such a joy for me in their own way. We just wrapped up a retreat with a bunch of 6^th year (senior girls) and AH! They were so fun! My first all-girls retreat( a couple weeks ago in Sligo) was a little scary at first, but once we started talking about chocolate we were good to go and I never looked back. I would say the toughest retreat so far has been a group of third years boys at a rougher school in Galway. They just could not stop punching and screaming, ALL DAY LONG. The greatest joy so far was one of the first retreats we did in County Kerry. We were at the same school, a mixed school, for 3 days, and by the end of our stay we knew half the school. Sandwiched in between our first years on tuesday, and our third years on thursday, was a fantastic group of 6^th years. We had an absolutely amazing time with these kids and were lucky enough to run into a few of them the next day in town. I was walking around taking pictures while my teammates Devan and Gannon were inside a watch shop and I ran into a group of them. We took some pictures and talked for awhile and it was just amazing to see just how much of an impact this 7 hour retreat had made on them. Everytime I'm getting down or discouraged I think about that encounter with those kids and I'm instantly reinvigorated.

Anyways! The lifestyle has been so intense, I'm very grateful for the 6 weeks we spent in Derry training, and the way that was able to sorta ease me into the whole getting up early, staying organized, being responsible and disciplined thing. Not that it's not still a struggle, but it's much more manageable than I thought it would be.

Some Lows

-Hardly any free time has been tough some days

-We don't really know where were going to be beyond a couple of day

-I'm prone to car sickness sometimes in the van

-I've gone through an obscene amount of socks

-my camera mysteriously stopped working yesterday and I have no idea what could've caused it

-my laptop battery is seriously limited and, when away from outlets, like we often are using internet in McDonalds, I can't use it

-I miss playing basketball!!

-I miss my family and friends!

-I miss cats

-We eat pretty light when we're all together

Honestly these lows, are really relatively minor things, I would say honestly home sickness is the toughest thing, you guys are all just so great and I miss yas. While God's seriously blessed me with a wonderful NET family I can't help but miss you guys back home.

Some Highs!!

-SO MANY AWESOME RETREAT STORIES!

-SO MANY INCREDIBLY STUPIDLY WONDERFUL INSIDE JOKES!

-A LOT of dancing

-I've gotten to read a lot of awesome books on the road

-Everywhere is beautiful

-I've met some seriously awesome priests

-I've been able to witness some seriously incredible spiritual growth in myself and my team

-I haven't broken a guitar string in a few weeks!

-I've learned a lot of fun Irish lingo

-A host mom at a house I wasn't even staying at gave me a haircut and I loved it!

-I've had a ton of fantastic, gigantic, Irish breakfasts

-PENNYS

-I still love the weather, in all its muggy, cold, rainy, glory!

-The Irish are hilarious

OK so before I go and proofread this thing and post it up online, here's a little rundown of where we've been in 3 weeks.

• Derry to Donegal
• Donegal to Kerry
• Kerry to Sligo
• Sligo to Galway
• Galway to Donegal
• Donegal to Meath
• Meath to Cavan
• Cavan to Louth
• Louth to Kildare

Love you guys so much

Another post in another 3 weeks or so probably!

The First Monthish!

THE TRIP SO FAR

So it's about 10:15 PM my time, which means it's about 3 in the afternoon for most of yall, on September 2^nd, and I'm in my bedroom writing out this blog on Word. The next time I'm in town (which should hopefully be tomorrow) I'll post it online.

I've officially been in Ireland for three weeks now! It's felt like 3 years! So since I really haven't had ANY time to really get in touch with any of yall, or go into any depth about anything since I got here, I'm going to attempt to summarize everything that's gone on up to this point. Please excuse my grammar and punctuation, its never been something I've particularly excelled at anyways and we just wrapped up a ridiculously busy week and I'm exhausted. With that said here goes....

So the plane ride....

The original plan was for me to take United from San Antonio to Houston, 3 hour layover in Houston, then fly to Boston on United as well. After that I'd switch to Aer Lingus and fly to Dublin. Well once I got to Houston my flight to Boston got super delayed and United switched me over to a flight to Newark. At the time I was pretty stoked because this also meant that I'd be flying to Dublin on United as well...less chance of losing bags right......

(also I was flying through the same airports I went through 10 years ago when I went to Ireland OooOo)

Anyways I was stoked when I got on the flight to Dublin because, unlike my flight to Chile, we had TVs in our seats with touchscreen monitors and at least 30 movies to choose from, including the Avengers!!! Unfortunately, as I quickly found out, the audio on them, regardless of my headphone choice, was ridiculously scratchy and unintelligible. So I read and read and read...it really wasn't too bad. Ernest Hemingway!

I got to Dublin fine, unfortunately my bags didn't. In fact I didn't end up getting them for another 4 days. All I had was my backpack, which had my computer, some books, my camera, and some journals and such, and a phone number to call to let my contact here, Morgan, know I was alive. Shortly thereafter I was running around outside the Dublin airport looking for a bus to Derry, a city right on the border with Northern Ireland and my home for the next 6 weeks, and after a couple mixups due to unintelligible accents I found myself sitting at the bus station, in my bright red(I'M AMERICAN) pants, chatting it up with the delightful Irish folk. After correcting a couple errors in there perceptions of Texans, the bus arrived and I promptly passed out for the next three hours, waking up just in time to get off in Derry.

Like I said before Derry is in Northern Ireland, right on the border, and is the second largest, I believe, city in NI right behind Belfast. The population is right around 100,000. It straddles a beautiful river and it's full of really awesome old Cathedrals.

Anyways yeah I hopped off the bus with no luggage besides my backpack, and I wasn't getting picked up til about 1, as it was only about 10 AM I had some time to kill. As Harry and John can tell you, I really enjoy wandering aimlessly around foreign cities, so I did just that for hours! I had lunch at a lovely sandwich shop and spent a solid 30 minutes trying to figure out a payphone before finally asking someone for help, the damn country code was seriously confusing. I had quite the moment when I was greeted by two charming, extremely drunk, bums named Paul and Sean. Sean was too drunk to talk to me but man was he singing, which Paul got into as well before they started reciting poetry and then fighting. It was straight outta Joyce. Well eventually my ride came and got me, around 3 or so, and I met my fellow musicians! Exciting! After showing us around town for awhile, the three staff members that had come to get us drove us to where we'd be staying for the next 6 weeks: the Carmelite monastery and retreat center in Termonbacca, an area literally like 30 seconds out of Derry.

Termonbacca, which is what I'll be referring to the monastery as, is just beautiful. It overlooks the beautiful river valley, and wow. There are flowers everywhere here! There are horses. There is a wonderful black lab named Tessa and we're great friends. It's really just an incredible place to spend 6 weeks.

So my first week here was music training. Basically what that consisted of was the 8 or so of us here just playing and playing and playing a TON of music. It took me a few days to fully recover from my jet lag. Like at night I'd be tired and I'd fall asleep fine...but I'd consistently wake up in the middle of the night and stay awake for hours...it was really lame. About halfway through the weeks my luggage, including my guitar, came and I was finally able to play on my own instrument, and not the old rusty one I'd been borrowing from the staff!! Our days were long, and still are, we'd wake up every morning around 7, have mass with the friars here, have the same breakfast day after day, cornflakes and toast with butter, then spend an hour in personal prayer. After that we'd sit down and learn song after song after song until tea at about 11, then more songs, lunch at 12 30, more songs with a few quick talks sprinkled in, and then glorious sport!

Every day, that first week at least, we'd go out for about an hour and play soccer or ultimate frisbee, it was and is definitely one of my favorite parts of the day, and reigning in my competitive craziness has been a really awesome challenge. After sport we'd have showers then dinner, then we'd get to chill, watch movies, etc. We'd all pass out around 9:30 or so.

By the time Friday rolled around I had already run through a whole gamut of emotions. I was completely in love with Ireland, the people, the weather, the green; I was really enjoying training as well, it's a really great group of people we've got out here and we were all getting along great. However there were still plenty of moments where I was sad, frustrated, confused, lonely, etc. I would often find myself thinking, wow, none of these people really know me. It was a far cry from being back in Austin, where I'm constantly surrounded by an amazing group of friends, or back in San Antonio with my family. Thankfully me and the other guys really bonded. Pretty early on, three of us would go down to the dining hall right before bed and all get toast and talk, this became a nightly ritual and it SERIOUSLY helped calm me down. It was just so comforting to know that these guys were going through the same things I was dealing with as well.

On Friday we went into town for a free day and it was WONDERFUL. It was so nice just getting out into the city and exploring. Our first stop was the mall for Internet and supplies, which, surprisingly, I didn't really need due to the fact that I'd packed well for a change. Anyways, after my buds had stocked up we went exploring. Derry really is a beautiful town with a lot of history, unfortunately a lot of that history recently is all caught up in “The Troubles”. A tough time in Irish history where the IRA rebelled against British rule in Northern Ireland. While there's been an official peace for something like 20 years now, things are a lot worse than I was expecting. The city is still very much divided amongst Catholics and Protestants, an IRA graffiti is pretty common. Things are so rough that we were told not to tell people in Derry we were Catholic missionaries. Which me, being the brilliant guy I am, totally did when introducing myself in a Protestant bar...I totally thought we were on the Catholic side of town. The guy was fine though and we both laughed about it and drank to our differences. Guinness in Ireland is SO MUCH BETTER than Guinness in the US! WOW! And the pub atmosphere is great! We had a great time talking with the locals on topics ranging from the Alamo to Michael Jackson to cow tipping, twas wonderful.

After walking back to Termonbacca we found we had company! Most of the other missionaries had arrived that day and our numbers had more than doubled. There are about 26 missionaries(mainly Canadians and Americans with a few other countries thrown in), then a staff of around 10, plus anywhere from 2 to 10 random other people NET related people here day to day. The monastery staff is relatively small though and we hardly ever see the Friars (the Carmelites spend most of there time praying) Back to the story...a few days later regular training began and things got crazy. These past two weeks have been so so so busy. I've legitimately forgotten what day of the week it was more than once. I almost forgot my own birthday! Each week we've had a new priest come and stay with us and they've all been awesome. Father Columba, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, spent this past week with us and he was so dang cool. Mean guitar and soccer player. The week before him we got Father Rory and Father Phillip, two great diocesan priests and big NET supporters who had an absolutely hilarious banter going the whole time. I LOVE THE IRISH WIT. A typical day out here starts at about 6:30 and ends with me in bed at about 10:45. It's like I've been on retreat for the past three weeks. It's been so beautiful though. The downs are becoming less and less frequent while the ups are happening more and more. The emphasis NET places on prayer is really amazing and this lifestyle has really been incredible for me in so many ways. I've been super vocal about Schoenstatt especially and I've found myself really loving it, and the Blessed Mother, on a whole new level. Heavenwards has been my constant companion, and the prayer “Accept Oh Lord” has really become my required daily reading.

This past weekend we spent on separate men's and women's retreats. Ours was absolutely amazing. It was led by an amazing man named Shane Bennett, the founder of NET Australia and all around BA Aussie. I can't really divulge too much other than we got really dirty and really close, and ended up swimming in an Atlantic Inlet in ridiculously cold water, then running and screaming on the beach...it was awesome.

We were placed on our teams at the start of this past week. I really wasn't terribly surprised with my assignment, music leader on the Road Team, but I am so stoked about our group! Being on Road Team means I'll be traveling all over the country in a big ol van with 9 other people doing retreats 5-6 days a week, staying at host homes, and basically living on the edge of my seat all year.

Our team is super International: 3 Canadians, 5 Americans (both o'the Texans!), 1 from Ireland, and our team leader Christophe from Trinidad and Tobago! We were all assigned a number of jobs, so in addition to music leader I will also be serving as our team's sacristan this year.

Ever since we got our teams training has obviously taken on a whole new dimension. We've done a ton of stuff with just our team, as well as just our “hoods” (brotherhoods and sisterhoods), basically the guys your gonna be spending the whole year with. So me and 3 other guys have done A LOT of hanging out the past few days.

I'm learning a ton! Everything from salvation history to how to play a good ice-breaker game! We seem to get a new manual everyday and I've taken a ridiculous amount of notes. Also the amount of personal discovery and inner transformation is like woah. Even though its only been 3 weeks I already feel so different. God is just so beautiful.

Some lows...

-I'm getting a bit stir crazy...we get 1 free day a week to go into town...other than that we're on the compound...which is a pretty decent size but still

-I miss junk food :( every morning it's cornflakes and toast...every other meal is mashed potatoes, sausage, fish, or chicken, and soup.

-Its been three weeks and I've already broken 3 guitar strings! Damn humidity!

-we have to keep our little dorm rooms neat...I've been failing at that #shocking

-I have no idea what's going on in the outside world

-Our showers are excruciatingly cold

Some highs!

-The people are so dang nice here...literally everyone you meet is down to have a conversation with you

-It's excruciatingly beautiful...everything

-the girls surprised the guys with a fort, a violent man movie, and junk food last night...it was amazing

-we got dressed up and surprised the girls with a fancy breakfast last week the tables were all done up super nice with flowers and stuff, and we serenaded them...it was so fun. Something that NET really stresses is honoring each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, and it's really really awesome learning and growing more in that.

-I've met some awesomely inspiring people. For example, our director Tony is a father of 7 and his whole family was here with us the past few weeks! The kids range in age from 15 to 3 and they're all so different and awesome. I could write a whole blog on the Foy family. But seriously its been awesome having them all here as an example of the type of family I would like to have one day. Tony has been such a great witness and example to all us guys of authentic fatherhood. There's been more than one occasion where I've really wanted to hug my own parents, and Tony has always been there to fill the void as best he can.

-I got a party on my birthday!!!

-Gaelic football is so fun to watch! Especially in the town square with the locals as the hometown team makes it to the National Final!!!!

-I have no idea what's going on in the outside world.

-A group of Italian missionaries showed up last week and did this hilariously amazing dance for us.  The guys all promptly became obsessed with it and long story short, the road team brotherhood is making t-shirts...

-One of my team brothers has started saying OHHHHH TIGERCAR and OhHHhH

So yeah! I realize this blog was really long so if you've made it this far I'm very impressed! I miss all of yall and I can't wait to hear from you. Like I said, we only get internet when we go in town and that's not very often. I leave for the road in 3 weeks, so hopefully, once that gets going, we'll be able to set-up some skype dates or something. You can also write letters! If you send them to the address I listed on Facebook they'll get em to me wherever I am! I can't guarantee a prompt response but I can guarantee a response! E-mail and Facebook are always good calls as well. Until next time guys I love you! Thank you all so much for all the prayers and know that I am absolutely praying for yall! Love and miss you!

The Great Commission

The Great Commission


"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:19


On August 11th I will be getting on a plane to Dublin, Ireland and I won't be coming back for at least nine months.  Over those nine I will be working with a team of ten other passionate, Catholic, young-adults putting on high-impact retreats for high-school youth all over the country.  This sums it up pretty well: http://www.icatholic.ie/videos/net-ministries/  I'll have roughly one-day off a week every week and two weeks of vacation for Christmas, but other than that I'll be running a retreat ultra-marathon.  I'm incredibly excited, nervous, and curious about what this adventure holds and I can't wait to get started.  But first I have to get there, and that requires a lot of support.  


Youth Reaching Youth
During the past six years NET has served many dioceses throughout Ireland, positively impacting the lives of some 30,000 young people.  One of the distinguishing features of a NET team is that it is made up of young (18-30 year old) people.  It is young Catholics who take up the challenge of presenting the Catholic faith to others in a way that is meaningful to them, allowing them to see God’s relevance in their daily lives.

Young people today are becoming complacent, and many young Catholics are leaving the Catholic Church to go to other churches that they find more inviting.  Catholic youth need Good News.  They need to hear it from their Church and they need to see its reality experienced and lived out in the lives of their peers.  The Second Vatican Council states that ‘young people ought to be the first apostles to the young’ which is what NET ministries is all about.  

Following five weeks of training, my team and I will embark on ten months of ministry to the youth of Ireland.  Teams present the Gospel message in a clear manner, challenging young people to place God first in their lives and help them develop concrete ways they can grow in their faith.  Young people need to hear a clear proclamation of the Gospel.  They need to know that God loves them and cares about their lives.  They need to know that the Church needs them and that they need the Church.

As a convert to the faith, my life was dramatically changed when, at age 18, I encountered Christ in adoration for the very first time on a small retreat.  That retreat, in the summer of 2008, changed my life forever. I had no idea this peace, this joy, existed before, and I want to help spread it to other youth.  I’ve spent my four years of college growing dramatically in my faith, attending mass daily, adoration weekly, and learning so much from the strong and loving community I’ve found both at UT and my home parish in San Antonio.  I firmly believe that God has gifted me with the passion, energy, talents, and persistence necessary for this particular mission, but I need your support!

I seek your support in the form of prayer.  I need people praying for me to give me the courage and strength necessary for this demanding ministry.  I also invite you to support me financially.  I am committed to raising 6,000 dollars prior to beginning my work with NET Ministries.  This money will be used to provide me with a personal stipend, training for youth evangelization, formation in Christian character, countless opportunities to share my faith, food, accommodation, medical cover, pastoral supervision, ministry supplies, and over five weeks of training intensives.  Each of my teammates will be raising the same amount.

The sponsorship goal of $6,000 can be achieved if 30 generous people are willing to support me with a monthly donation of $20/month for 10 months or a one-time gift of $200 dollars.  If you were able to support me in this way or at any other level I would greatly appreciate the opportunity you are giving me to have an impact in the lives of so many young people.  On the side of your screen there should be a button that should allow you to donate, safe and secure, through the internet. If you would prefer not to donate this way, but would still like to help, if you send me your address I can mail you a pre-addressed and stamped envelope allowing you to mail your contribution directly. Lastly if you would be so generous as to pledge your monthly support, I would be more than happy to send you a pledge-card.

Thank you so much for your consideration in helping me with this mission.  If you have any questions, want to learn more about NET, or just want to get to know me a little better, please don’t hesitate to call (210-315-4717) or E-mail (lozomike@gmail.com)

Thank you thank you thank you so much for your support and prayers!

The First Single

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3bftUReSc

I think I'm going to name every post after a song title. This one fits pretty well for the first post! I've been rollin down windows to "The First Single" for a few years now and I love it! It has just the right amount of angst, some nice harmonies, and I like the way the drummer drums. If you recognize his voice it's probably because you've heard that sickly catchy "TONNNNiiIGIITHHT WEEEE ARE YOUUUUNNGGG" song. Same guy but a different band.

Anyways. This past year, since switching my major to English, I've realized several pretty important things:

1) To be successful in the NBA your team needs to have a strong defensive presence in the paint.

2) Regardless of how much I ever learn about Catholicism I will still never know how Jesus becomes the Eucharist and therefore who am I to judge anyone's level of Catechesis?

3) After 6+ years of Spanish I really haven't learned much of anything

4) I'm in college! WOW!

5) I'm graduating college very soon! WOW!

6) I like to write

I wish it'd never happened, but somewhere in the maw of hot cheetos, 3 AMs, and stairs that was to be known as my freshman year of college I forgot how much I loved to write stuff down....

Haiku's

Messy Apartment

Paper rains green counter top

Sleeping Bryan G

Stream of consciousness

These allergies are really bothering me today Betsy called I have stuff to do today green is a good color the N64 controller is green I used to want one so bad an N64 I mean at that point in time I probably didn't care what kinda controllers it came with as long as they worked and I still don't these allergies ugh

Lyrics

Bryan

He's my friend

Bryan

Til the end

College Stuff all bottled up

in plaid, and beards, and rent

Bryan Oh Bryan

My friend

Journals

Dear Diary,

Today was good. I woke up and had breakfast on the couch and watched Sportscenter with Harry and John. Then I went to class. It was boring. Then I fell asleep because I'm kind of sick and didn't sleep well last night.

Love,

Mike

Essays

In her essay, “Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the Politics of Color in America”, Susan S. Lanser crafts a unique critique of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, framing the story in several different contexts and then expounding upon them. Throughout the work the author confronts several different interpretations of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, chief among them the feminist perspective, however by framing the text in a historical context Lanser is able OAHDISAHFIOHWIUFHE THIS IS SO BORING

Blogs

So writing a blog kind of scares me. I really think if this blogging thing is to be done right I have to truly commit to writing. It's like a plant, if I want it to live I have to pay attention to it, except my blog isn't going to sit there turning brown on the window sill letting me know it needs my love, it instead will hide out here on the Internet between 84,101,943,080 pictures of cats and 2,000 other distractions.

And...

Not only does a blog require commitment it requires putting yourself out there! I have to express an opinion on things! Writing is so much different from speech in the sense that you are so much more conscious of what you're expressing. When I'm talking, at my standard clip of 6.5^90 words/sec, I miss a lot of the stupid/wrong/misguided/judgemental things I say...whereas on here it's all written out with middling grammar glaring me in the face.

Blogging involves making yourself somewhat vulnerable, and for that reason it somewhat scares me, but I also thinks this provides an awesome opportunity to learn, grow, and discover.

If you're still reading at this point sweet! Happy to have you here! Let's talk in the comments!

Leggo...

"Thou Mayest"

The summer before my Junior year of high-school I read an incredible book. John Steinbeck's East of Eden wrecked me. It's not as well known as The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men (and its movie is probably nowhere near as good as the former) but about halfway into this 700 page triumph of American Lit, something stirred in my 16 year old soul.

The book itself is a lot of things, but basically it's a modern retelling of Cain and Abel

Boom Wikipedia...

The book explores themes of depravity, beneficence, love, and the struggle for acceptance, greatness, and the capacity for self-destruction and especially of guilt and freedom. It ties these themes together with references to and many parallels with the biblical Book of Genesis (especially Genesis Chapter 4, the story of Cain and Abel).

Steinbeck's inspiration for the novel comes from the fourth chapter of Genesis, verses one through sixteen, which recounts the story of Cain and Abel. The title, East of Eden, was chosen by Steinbeck from Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 16: "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden" (King James Version)

So, like Wiki says, East of Eden places a lot of importance on Genesis 4...and that's evidenced all over the place...character names, themes, etc... I'll spare you the rest of the boring literary analysis. Anyways, the part that just wrecked me , the real central part of the book, happens somewhere in the middle. The main character Adam, his Chinese butler Lee, and all around bad-ass Irishman Samuel Hamilton, are sitting around talking about scripture, specifically Genesis 4. These guys had all talked about this verse about ten years prior and everyone except Lee had just about forgotten about it. Lee on the other hand, became pretty obsessed with this one particular part of the chapter, verse 7 to be precise:

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. -Gen 4: 7 (King James)

The thing that really got Lee about this verse here was the "Thou Shalt" part; he saw it as God promising Cain that he would rule over sin. This promise left him pretty unsatisfied because it obviously didn't really work out...This theory is of course operating under the assumption that we're looking at Cain as our forefather and a symbol for all of us. So under that logic, as his children, we obviously haven't really ruled over sin....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbuaH8P-kG0

^^that monster!

Like I was saying...Lee wasn't so convinced with this translation and neither was I! (Actually I don't really remember what 16 year old me was thinking at this point but 21 year old me IS NOT CONVINCED)

So then Lee goes on and talks about how he then went and got a New American Standard Bible, and he wasn't too satisfied with that translation either:

If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."

He didn't love this one because he thought it was more of an order. While I think this translation is easier to accept than the King James promise, it still doesn't get my heart all aflutter and it didn't really get Lee's going either.

Unsatisfied with all the translations he could get a hold of he decided to go to the source. So with the help of his old, wise, Chinese relatives he found the original Hebrew and the word

Timshel...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNQmIzM7Bh0

which translated means.....

.......

.....

...

..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hGaoyfbrsI

THOU MAYEST!

Not Thou Shalt, not Thou Must, but THOU MAYEST

It's not a promise and it's not an order. It's choice. It wrecked me back then and it wrecks me now, but not quite as much now. Because after a dramatic conversion in the summer of 2008 I know why I'm here, I know I'm loved, and I know I live to love.

But back then things were very different. I was a kid with a broken past and a broker present, trying desperately to not become another statistic but fast running out of alternatives. And then I read this short little passage written half a century ago and I started to cry, and I didn't know why. Because I didn't know I had a choice back then, and deep down it was just then hitting me. Those two words gave me a hope that I didn't know existed.

“’Thou mayest’… makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.”

That's what the book said. This is what I heard.

DON'T GIVE UP

KEEP MOVING FORWARD

YOU'RE NOT A SLAVE

YOU'RE FUTURE IS WIDE OPEN

And it was. And 5 years later my life isn't anything remotely close to what I thought it would be. And I'am so so so thankful for that. It is so much more beautiful than anything I ever could've imagined when I was up late one July night reading some lesser known Steinbeck.

This blog is called "Mayest" because:

1) "Thou Mayest" was already taken

2) Because I think it's important that we as a people never forget that we are always confronted with a choice. That in our relationship with God we remember that we are not slaves:

For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. -Gallatians 5:1

Don't get me wrong. This isn't me saying that God is just like boom, you're on your own do w/e you want, I really don't mean that. I firmly believe that God is constantly reaching out to us, constantly showering us with love, and constantly calling us home, but that doesn't mean we are automatically bound to follow him. And I think that's whats so beautiful about love, it's a choice made freely. We're not puppets and we're not slaves...we're pilgrims on a journey back to the perfect father who loves us. And we need to remember that on that journey we will constantly be subjected to sin, to fear, to love, to courage, to beauty, to depravity, to greed, to anger, to remorse, to loss, to EVERYTHING and that we CAN RISE ABOVE IT...but we have to choose to. God will show you the way, he'll make it crystal clear if you let him, but YOU HAVE TO WALK IT and that's what "Thou Mayest" is all about to me.

I'm about to graduate college and I'm about to go to Ireland for a year to serve as a Catholic missionary, and I'm feeling all sorts of things. If your about to graduate college, if your about to graduate high school, shoot wherever you are in life...I bet you're feeling all sorts of things, and I bet you're staring down all kinds of choices.

This blog's about a lot of stuff. In terms of topics I'm gonna bounce around more than a half dozen five years old strung out on redbull in a bouncy castle. But regardless of what I'm talking about there's always gonna be a choice, there's always gonna be sin and there's always going to be righteousness and it's up to us to decide which one we're going to follow.

God's waiting with arms open wide but we have to choose to run to him, and we have to make that run daily. Let's run it together.

"Let's cause a scene, clap our hands and stomp our feet...or something, yeah something"

Yesssir.

Such is life.

"Been waiting all this time to be something I can't define."