A Big Week in My Life

As the title suggests this has been a fun week. Actually the whole month of January has been pretty awesome, but let's start with this week. Most important was the wedding engagement of my son, Kyle (now 26), to his long time girlfriend, Chrystal Martens. The whole family has been hoping for this for several years, so we are all thrilled. So it looks like I may be returning a few weeks early depending on when that wedding date is scheduled. So far I hope to return Nov 5. Last Saturday I attended my first Jazz Festival and it was too much fun. It was free and held at the local Johnson County Community College and was called Winterlude. It was all local talent and was very impressive and in a very comfortable atmosphere. KC is really loaded with lots of Jazz artists, old and young and really encourages it in the youth. My family (brothers and sisters) have been enjoying one group weekly (Fri nights) at our favorite local restaurant, Lucky's Brew Pub nearby; always good food and very nice music to eat and drink by. There are a ton of restaurants, bars, hotels and casino's all over town with great weekly Jazz. Today was our weekly meeting of my contemplative prayer group at Guardian Angel Catholic Church basement and the 1 hour video presentation was great, as always. Today's presentation was the first in a series by James Finley, a former seminarian at Fr Thomas Merton's Abbey in Kentucky in the 1960's, I believe. He is a wonderful speaker and very humorous. Last Friday I called Fr Conard at his mission in Kowak, Tanzania, where I will be returning in 5 short weeks, God willing. He is feeling fine after a 2 week retreat and meeting with fellow Maryknoll priests and Brothers. So I gave him my arrival time and location for pickup (Mar 1). The next day I called (via Skype)to one of our two visiting volunteers (Henry and Jeanne)from Salt Lake who just arrived last week. They are enjoying Kowak already and are anxious to get to work. Jeanne started teaching English to the 150 freshman girls today, so I'm anxious to see how she likes that. Most of them only speak Swahili at this stage, but their classes will all be in English very soon. During my call with Fr Conard I informed him that I met Sr Ruth Baudhuin who is in our weekly prayer group. Her brother was a Maryknoll priest from the Green Bay area, like himself, and was with Fr Conard during their seminary days in the 1950's. I also met her friend Sr Mary Francis Kobets, a former K State grad, who is currently a Maryknoll sister in Zimbabwe. I learned that she was originally in Tanzania her first 10 years in mission, so she knows many of the old time Maryknollers that are still there. That includes her former classmate,Sr Marion, who I see regularly. Last Wednesday a few of the family celebrated our aunt Mary's 99th birthday with a nice Italian dinner at her favorite place near her assisted living high rise. It was a wonderful time and we all enjoyed her great company and being able to share this important day with her. We were all so pleased to see her in very good health. A few days later I saw her again as I took her to her monthly lab tests at the local St Luke's hospital. They noticed that she had just had a birthday so many joined in a nice Happy Birthday song as she checked in. She was very pleased. I also had the pleasure to have dinner with her sister, Francis, and her children at their weekly dinner for her at her home here in KC. I then stayed to have a nice chat with her about my grandparents before her important KU basketball game; she was a gifted athlete (high diver)at KU many years ago. She is now 90 yrs old. I have not yet visited my 96 yrs old aunt Louise, but hope to do so soon. Earlier in the month I made my long awaited presentation on African Spirituality to our prayer group and later that week made my first visit back to Shantivanam Prayer House near Easton, KS after a year of travel. It was wonderful to see the staff again (3 of 4) and to spend a few hours in the wonderful solitude of that beautiful rural site. I felt very much at home, as always, and was the only visitor that day, so was even more blessed. It really has been a Happy New Year!! for me so far.