our lady of lourdes

Every Story has to have an ending

2008-06-29T00:55:00.000-07:00

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.

Gonzaga, and life in between

2008-05-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-04-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Almost home...looking back

2008-04-06T01:12:00.001-07:00

Looking back on some of the videos of our past couple weeks on this roadtrip. Enjoy!

Jaci was able to guel gas all by herself!

Some bullriding we were able to see in Glascow

The Gauntlet...

When we went to the natural springs in Great Falls, Bryan decided to taste the water

As we were walking around at the natural spring, Colleen and Meghan realized there were some things they needed to sort out...Reach style.

Michelle, Colleen, and Bryan rocking in the van, and moving the van itself

Hope you enjoy these videos as you get a glimpse into our daily lives.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has been raised."
Luke 24: 5-6

Let is rejoice not just in the rising of Jesus Christ today, but the opportunity it has given us to rise to new lives with him. Let us be like Mary Magdalene, hearing the words of the angel, "Go quickly and tell and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead!'" (Matthew 28:7) Let us not be unbelieving at what sounds like nonsense, but believe with full hearts and full spirits. Let us not be like the men on the road to Emmaus, who did not recognize the Lord, but let us recognize Him in all of those around us. "The Lord has risen indeed, Alleluia!" Let us sing that Alleluia with joy as we live our lives anew.

We are celebrating this Easter in Montana, but let us refresh on the trip thus far.
We had the chance to do a retreat in Wyoming, all of which was held in a deacon's house. It was a small retreat, especially when it was followed by the 90+ retreats. We had a bunch of fun over the weekend, and were able to stay at Meghan's grandparents house again, even getting to meet her cousin. We were also able to visit Devil's Tower, and go for a walk around it.

The punishment for Silent Football

Our retreat group

Walking around the Devil's Tower...or as Michelle called it, "El Tower del Diablo!"

As we continued on our trip, we found ourselves in Montana. Our first part of the trip was in Colstrip. We found ourselves doing 4 retreats in four days, some of which overlapped (Thursday and Friday we had elementary schoolers for a couple of hours, Friday evening to Saturday morning we had a high school, Saturday evening to Sunday morning we had middle school). It was an exhausting week, but filled us with much needed fuel. The kids were amazing, and pumped us up to keep doing more. While there we were able to get a tour of the power plant which they had in the town. It was really interesting getting to see how the power plant works, and the privilege of seeing it from the outside.

Meghan, Michelle and Colleen on a walk around the lake there

Collen, Michelle, and Jaci on the walk

Jaci and Michelle sporting the gear necessary for the tour

The tour group on the top

We now find ourselves in Shelby, Montana this Easter season. We have been able to do a couple of fun middle school retreats, and look forward to doing another retreat tomorrow, and leaving Tuesday morning. While here Jake, Collen and Meghan did the music for the Easter Vigil which turned out beautifully. They were definitely a blessing for the church, and had many thanks for their hard works.

Michelle and Jaci after the Easter Vigil mass

Silly Reach girls

Bryan's model pose

Us girls.

May the Good Lord bless you this day, and may you make it the first day for the rest of your life.

I make a habit of never making promises that aren't easy to keep

2008-03-11T19:18:00.000-07:00

As I said before, here are the promised videos...

Colleen and Michelle, move along Reach style

Meghan in the van

Our van trip to Kansas...and what happens when we listen to Jake's music

The ending of Kansas is upon us

2008-03-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

We have just about finished our time spent here in Kansas. We have a few more retreats we have to do before we continue on our journey. We also had the privelage of being able to spend the last week here with Dan. With him we were able to go to Kansas City and visit an art museum, got to meet the Archbishop and pray the Angelus with him, and we were given a tour of Bendictine University (and free dinner in the cafeteria...which was quite an experience, especially with some of the conversations in the line for our food). We also had some great conversation in the hot tub, living room, and around the dinner table, even had people over one night and Bryan cooked another amazing meal. Although there are some videos we have taken, you may have to wait for those to be uploaded. For now though, here's some pictures of our many adventures.

The boys in the hot tub

The girls in the hot tub...as Jake phrased it "Our boss is our supplier"

Dan getting pictures taken with the artwork...by more than just us

Bryan doing his part for the city, graciously holding up the museum until they were able to fix it

Bryan the bear was able to find his long lost cubs

Dan was a little confused as to what happened when Patrick Demsey came into the room

Poor Bryan...it came out of nowhere

Please continue to pray for our safety as our travels continue and as we minister to some more kids accross the midwest.

God Bless

Dorothy may not be in Kansas anymore...but the reach team is!

2008-02-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

Hello again,
As I write this I'm currently sitting in Kansas, staying at the Prarie Star retreat center in Kansas City, Kansas. We've been in Rockford, and seen what happens when Bryan gets angry...

We had a retreat in Ottawa, it was a great one day retreat we had the chance to do for a group of confirmation students, mostly 7th and 8th grade. We have continued to stay at the retreat center, with a brief stay with an amazing host home we have continued to keep in touch with. We have spent our time playing cards, getting ready for retreats, and an occasional hike which unfortunetly found Meghan in more mud than she could handle.

Here's some pictures of what we've been up to so far:

The trip through Illinois continues

2008-02-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

As we continued with our trip we went to Stockton, and put on a retreat for a few hours for a group of confirmation students. After this retreat we had the chance to go bowling with Mary, who Collen and I had the chance to stay with that night. She owned the bowling alley, and opened it for us to have some relaxing bonding time. It was incredible amount of fun...

Here we are with Mary

And all of our bowling shoes

We then continued on our trip to Elgin, where we put on two retreats. Saturday night we had the chance to have an amazing retreat with a group of about 25 kids who were all there because they wanted to be there. It was an amazing retreat for a couple of hours which got us pumped for the retreat the following day for a large group of about 70 high school confirmation students. It was a great experience, but a challenge as well being the largest retreat we have had so far. However, there was a group of kids from the previous night who had come back, some by choice and others because it was mandatory,but all happily. We had a great time getting to know these kids as a team, and who knows, we may see some of them at the DUB in Oregon.

Giants, wizards, and elves

The kids who we got to know through both days. Will you see them at the DUB?

We are now in Rockford IL staying in thr Bishop Lane Retreat Center, spending some time praying and playing.

May God continue to bless you all as He has blessed us throughout our travels,
The Our Lady of Lourdes Team

P.S. Again, more pictures continue to be uploaded onto our photobucket, the pictures you see here are only a few of the many pictures we have. Also, if you're looking for another myspace friend, feel free to add the Our Lady of Lourdes team. You can find us at www.myspace.com/ollteam.

Birthdays and friends in far places

2008-01-30T11:49:00.000-08:00

On January 23, in Wyoming we celebrated Michelle's 19th birthday. Fortunetly the travel we had to do that day was only a couple hours so we were able to celebrate her birthday with the team and banana cream pie. Here's a video of the team singing happy birthday to her in the morning.

From there we went to South Dakota and put on a weekend retreat for 15 high school students getting ready for confirmation. It was an amazing retreat we were able to give in a lodge, and had many fun experiences, from teaching these kids, spending time beating them in Egyptian ratrace (Bryan's highpoint), and playing an unltimate frisbee game which ended in a snowball fight.

We are now spending time win Crystal Lake, Illanois. We were able to spend the day in Chicago yesterday, spending time with Phill. We saw the city on foot, taking the train to and from Crystal Lake, and were able to see the giant silver bean. On Thursday we're getting ready to go to Stockton, IL to put on another retreat. Some pictures of our lives since the last blog post.

Before the train ride

We're in the bean

Chicago and us in the bean

To see more pictures visit our photobucket http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc232/OLL07-08/

Also, while we were in Alaska we were interviewed by James DeCrane for a Catholic newspaper. You can read the article at http://www.catholicanchor.org/local.html, we are the second article down.

God Bless,
The Our Lady of Lourdes Reach team

And the real trip begins

2008-01-22T10:20:00.001-08:00

Sunday the Our Lady of Lourdes team began their two month road trip. We began it by going to Couer d'Alene on Sunday and spending the night there. We got there just in time to go to the evening youth mass, and from there went to Fernando's house, a friend of Jake's, with whom we spent the night. We sat around in the kitchen, enjoying a dinner of chicken and potato salad. From there we met up with Chris and Cassie at Gooeys, and got four sundaes to share between the 9 of us, all of which were about the same size as Jaci's head. After going back home, we played some guitar, sang some songs, shared Reach and NET stories (Fernando was on NET Australia for two years) and ended up staying up till about 4 in the morning laughing and reminiscing. The following morning, we once again piled into out Astro van, and headed to Montana. We arrived in Bosman that night, and spent some time with Shane who was on Reach 2001-2002 and 2004-2005. We ate some spaghetti, then met some of his friends together at the movie theatre where we went to go see Cloverfield. After the movie the girls headed back to our host home, while the boys headed back with Shane. We met this morning at Shane's place, had some cereal, had some good conversation with Shane about Reach and life in general, and once again have piled into the Astro van. We are currently on the road once more, this time headed to Gillette Wyoming, where we will be meeting some more of Meghan's family, and spending the night with them before, you guessed it, piling back into the van for our next destination. Please continue to pray for us as this trip continues, for the retreats we will be doing, for our safety on the road, and for the health of our team. It seems with all the close perimeters, and constant moving, we are more prone to sickness, and your prayers in this matter especially are greatly appreciated.

God Bless,
The Our Lady of Lourdes Reach Team

P.S. Pictures are continued to be uploaded to the photobucket. Some pictures will be posted to the blog soon, but for now, here's a video of Jake and Fernando singing and playing Bubbletoes by Jack Johnson

Midwest team goes to Alaska

2008-01-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

As soon as we returned to the center after out Christmas break we were given our next assignment which meant that the next day we found ourselves driving up to Seattle, spending some time there, then, after some slight drama surrounding the keys, boarding a plane taking us to Alaska. That's right, the midwest Our Lady of Lourdes team, because of one domino falling after another, found ourselves boarding a plane to Alaska, to fly first class. You read that correctly, we all got to fly first class, and enjoyed every second of it. We arrived in Alaska, and spent a couple days relaxing, meeting some of Jaci's family, attempting snowboarding, and going to the mall, before putting on our first Alaska retreat this past Monday, the seventh. We have put on retreats for the students of a small Catholic school which goes from middle school to high school. On Monday, we put on a retreat for the 9th and 10th graders, Tuesday and Wednesday was the 11th and 12th graders, and Thursday was the 7th and 8th graders. Friday to Sunday, we get to put on a weekend high school retreat, some of the kids will be from the school, others will be from the youth group. We're looking forward to having a retreat just as exciting as the previous ones.

Other than retreats we have had an amazing time in Alaska. It's amazingly beautiful up here, and the people are all great people who are open and hospitable to some random reach kids. We've been able to meet people up here who have left memories, such as sitting outside making smores in the snow. Here's some pictures of our Alaskan adventures.

Alaska's beauty

Smores making, Alaskan Reach style

If you would like to see more pictures, visit our photobucket, http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc232/OLL07-08/Alaska/

Woah, first long travels...and snow!

2007-12-09T20:42:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

Since I last posted:

We've experienced our first team snowfall. It was also my (Michelle's) first snowfall ever, and was quite exciting. As we were on our way back to the center, it began to snow, and about 2-3 inches of snow came down. I was able to make my first snow angel, and we had a small snowball fight.

We've also met two other team members families, Jaci and Colleen, over the thanksgiving time. We were able to spend time with Jaci's wonderful family and friends for a few days and had some awesome experiences with Praise and Worship. We spent some of Thanksgiving with Jaci's family, and had dinner over with Colleen's family. We then spent some more time with Colleen's family, and had many exciting conversations and fun scrabble games.

We then came American Falls, Idaho to put on two retreats, a youth group night for middle school, and a weekend for the high school. They were both very exciting retreats which both had more people than they orginally thought would come. It was amazing getting to see the small changes in people throughout the retreats, some chaperones came to us saying they were surprised certain retreatants were volunteering, but it was all though the grace of God and not through our own power. We also got to meet a former reacher, Father Justin. We had an awesome time getting to hang out with him and getting to know him. We spent some time going to some hot springs together, staying up late in the rectory playing monopoly, and having many great conversations, about old vans, new vans, and life in general. He is an amazing priest, and an amazing person and we were blessed to be able to spend time with him.

And last, but not least, we came to Idaho Falls to put on another high school weekend retreat, however this one was all day Saturday, and Sunday going to Mass at 5:30, and then the confirmation class afterwards which went to 8:30. It was an amazing retreat, and the people we have gotten to know here are great and amazing people that make lives as we are away from home much easier to handle. We got to go ice skating on Friday, and had a blast getting to know people, and then going and looking at Christmas lights afterwards. I have never seen such amazing Christmas, we saw one that was similar to this one, but better, and with more lights throughout the front of the house. There were literally people parked in front of the house to watch.

Next, we are going back to Yakima, and the center, and will be spending some time there, rejoining with the other teams, until Dec. 14, as we go off for our Christmas break. Thank you for all the love and support of everybody. Please contine to pray for us as we continue our mission.

God Bless,

The Our Lady of Lourdes Reach Team

Not so scary travels

2007-11-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

Since the last post we have celebrated Halloween. We went to the Haven along with the other two teams, and participated in a Foosball tournament, with the Peter and Jake pair winning all the glory. All of our costumes showed a different side of our personalities, and abilities to use what we had on hand. Meghan was a newsie, Jaci was an Asian princess, Colleen was a gypsy, Jake was a pirate, Bryan was Yoshi, and I was a cowgirl.

From left to right, Meghan, Jaci, and Colleen

To see more pictures you can go to our photobucket, http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc232/OLL07-08/

More recently we went to Spokane, WA and put on another retreat for the 50 or so 7th and 8th grade students from St. Patrick's school. It was a two part retreat, with the first part being during the school day, and the second part being for 15-20 of the students who returned for the middle school youth group. The retreat went wonderfully, although Jake had to work extra hard to make up for the fact that Bryan was unable to come with us due to becoming sick the day we were to leave, causing us to have to leave him in Yakima. We again spent time with Meghan's family, who kindly did all they could to keep us healthy, as many of our team members began to get sick.

Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated, as we continue on our travels, to Oregon, Idaho, and eventually the Midwest.

God Bless

Our Travels thus far

2007-10-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

So far, we haven't had many insane travels - all of our work has been close to home here in Yakima, WA. We've put on 6 retreats to date, helped out at the John Paul II conference, and have changed vans with another team. When we became stranded in Spokane for a couple of days due to van problems, we made up time when a priest came to our aid and put us back on schedule.

We've enjoyed meeting the family members of two of our team members and hope to meet the family members of all of our teams in the future. We've stayed in three host homes, and have had good experiences in each.

Our last retreat included approximately 50 middle schoolers in Spokane and was an amazing experience. It was our first overnight retreat and included reconciliation on Saturday. The turnout of kids for reconciliation was fantastic. We also went to Coeur d'Alene, ID on Wednesday, went on a team hike and were introduced to Skater tacos by Jake. They were pretty good.

We arrived back at the Reach center yesterday, and were greeted by the Guadalupe team. We're all taking a breather and relaxing today in anticipation of going back out on the road for another retreat in a couple of weeks.

In closing, we once again want to thank you for both your financial and prayer support that make this vital ministry a reality. Without your help, this ministry would not be possible.

Michelle C. Barton

Our Lady of Lourdes Reach Team

Introductions

2007-10-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody,

I am currently a member of the Reach Youth Ministries' Our Lady of Lourdes team. Our team members are Jake, Bryan, Meghan, Colleen, Jaci, and me - Michelle. We've all come from different places and different backgrounds but we are all here for one reason, to spread the love of Christ to others and help bring people back to the faith.

As I may have mentioned in prior correspondence, throughout the year we'll be traveling around the United States sponsoring retreats for many different ages of youth concerning many different spiritual topics however our mission is the same; to . . . "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved" . . . (Mark 16:15-16) and make clear the churches teachings because the ". . . church of the living God, [is] the pillar and bulwark of the truth." (I Timothy 3:15).

Throughout the year you'll be able to read about our travels, laughter, tears, and all the insanities that come with this mission. All I ask is that you keep me and the work of my team, in your prayers. For " . . . The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. . . ." (James 5:16).

Until I write again,

Michelle C. Barton-Bareño

Our Lady of Lourdes Reach Team