0o0o0o0o0ohhhhhh the power of a day off! Today I had a day off and it was wonderful. Of course, I am still working but I do not have my regular schedule and it is nice to be able to catch up on e-mails and relax. I woke up at 9am (it was just too hot to sleep any later) and wrote letters for ten of my teen girls who are going on a retreat in the capital this weekend. Retreats are absolutely amazing and I hope that they get a lot out of it! They headed out at noon so I delivered the letter and headed to lunch with Fr. O'Hare and the group (Cal - an older American volunteer who is retired and lives an hour away and is out handy man, Tom - an American who runs The Center for groups who come through Banica on service trips and the USAID soup program, Levis - who is pretty much our Deacon haha, and yours truly). After lunch I baked chocolatechip cookies which were sent to me in a mix in September from Max and The Bennetts. I am the luckiest girl in the world to have such an amazing boyfriend (and his family)! I told myself that I would save the cookies for a rough day and Thanksgiving was that day haha. So after lunch I baked the cookies for "Black Friday" and then walked to The Center to deliver some to Tom and Cal as well as to Fr. O'Hare at his office.
While at the center I was able to walk around and remember ALL of the amazing memories from 3 years of ASB trips. The sea containers we climbed up on while playing flashlight tag, the big blue bus that picked us up at the airport, where the old tree house was, the dorm rooms I had stayed in, the outdoor dining room, everything. It was great to reflect back on that time and send up prayers for the amazing people who served with me. Hopefully one day I will be able to come back and visit with a youth group one day...how crazy would that be? Now I am back working on details for the trip I am taking with my teenage girls youth group - Magdalenas. On Saturday Dec. 3rd we are going to San Juan to have mass at the beautiful cathedral there, to have a "charla" with a sister coming in from the Capital, to have lunch together, and to tour the beautiful university (and to understand the importance of education). I am putting rosaries together for the girls as well as necklaces that they will each get. There are about 50 girls going on the trip! After I will be working on cards I am leaving for each group of girls for when I leave which leads me to important point #2.
Many of you probably already know by the time you read this BUT I have no been speaking about it on my blog. First, God is absolutely amazing and has taught me more here than I have been taught about my faith and trust in Him in 22 years of life haha! Banica is an important part of my life but I am going to be coming home in December of 2011 instead of June of 2012. God calls us each to new and beautiful things and Banica was part of that journey for me. I have been SO blessed to have a great spiritual director and friend here in Fr. O'Hare and coming back in December really is the right choice for me. The people here are absolutely amazing and so full of love but because of my health and personal reasons I will be coming home in December and am so proud of the work I have been given the opportunity to do here. Some of you may know that I am diabetic and my medicine here has been a real struggle. For over a month now I have been off of my medicine because of the problems it was causing me each day and the long-term risks of that is just too much to sacrifice. I know that with the help of my doctors back home I will get everything back in line come December but it was a choice I needed to make. Thanks be to God, all of my programs are going to be continued with the help of wonderful Dominican college students even after I leave. That is the way it is supposed to be too! Dominicans helping Dominicans with the help of a little "hot sauce" called American volunteers! Everyone knows here and wonderful goodbye dinners and parties have been planned and I look forward to seeing my loved ones back home in December! I know the God's got a great plan for me when I get home :) and I know and trust that everything will work out! I cannot thank you all enough for your support and love :) and I will forever hold Banica in a VERY special place in my heart. My dream is to come back one day with a youth group and visit the people who so beautifully opened their hearts to me. And even from home I will be working for the people of Banica through fundraising efforts or service projects. For example, I am already looking into different ways to get shoes down to Banica for all of the children here who go without. I cannot wait to see what comes from it :)!
No comments:
Post a Comment