Tom's at Summer Camp

St John's Parish in Gulfport, MS has been holding a summer day camp for decades. And the Director, Ms Paulette, and some of the staff have been here for most of them. Then there are a couple with three or four years experience and then us shell shocked newbies. The other two volunteers are college sophomores who went to the camp when they were kids.

After all this time it should run like a well oiled machine. But there are two challenges. Since several of the other parishes in the area aren't rebuilt yet, they are not having camp. So St John's facility and staff which has traditionally handled 40 campers is now faced with 79 and counting. Neither the staff or the facilities have been increased.

The second challenge is every morning we go on a field trip. Monday and Thursday is swimming. Tuesday is Fun Factory or Chuck E. Cheese. Wed is Roller Skating and Friday is Bowling. But because of Katrina, the only facility that is the same as past years is the Knight's of Columbus' pool. The skating rink, Chuck E. and Fun Factory are about 30 minutes away. And the Bowling Lanes are close to 45 minutes away. So we're all spending almost as much time on the bus as we are at the activity. Then we've got 6 adults trying to get skates or bowling shoes on 65 kids under 10. While some of the bored 11 and 12 year olds act out.

Oh yeah, and then we have to match them back up with their shoes.

Those of you who know me KNOW that I'm HAVING A BALL !!

In spite of the overcrowded chaos, I'm getting to know the kids. They're getting to be know me.
And in spite of the official "Protect our Children" diocese rules, if a 4 year old comes crying to me and crawls on my lap, I am NOT going to put them on the floor.

One 5 year old boy had to be DRAGGED away yesterday afternoon, screaming, "But Mommy. I can't go with you. I'm supposed to stay with the 'Red Group' and they're playing in here." The ultimate irony would have been if he had been one of the ones we had to peel off his mother that morning. He wasn't, but I'm confident that that will happen before the end of summer.

Just like St Ann's, since I showed up unannounced, I didn't have an assigned job or age group. Turns out it doesn't matter because everybody here does everything with anybody that needs attention at the moment.

The Airstream is about 35 minutes from St John's. When they told me that the buses leave for the field trips at 9:30, I said, "Oh good." Then Ms Paulette said, "But we start accepting the children at 7:00 to accommodate working parents." I said, "Oh, not good." We compromised on my arriving at 8:00.

I leave at 5 or 5:30 and come back to St Ann's to help Karen fix dinner for our volunteers. Then Karen leaves. I eat with the volunteers and stay to make sure the food gets put away. And get back to my trailer around 9:30 or 10:00. The volunteers do the dishes and clean up the kitchen and eating area.

I read and answer emails and fall into bed. I fall to sleep exhausted and excited about getting up to do it all again tomorrow.

My favorite Meister Eckhart quote is:

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice”.

And as the publisher of "Tinkerbell Jerusalem" says, all that is required to develop Belief is "SUPA" - "Show Up and Pay Attention". If you do, you'll see God at work in your life.

I see reasons to say, "Thank You." every day. And the more I say, "Thank You.", the more reasons I see and the stronger my Faith grows.

Life really is good.

Getting settled in Lizana, MS

As many of you know, my plans for the summer included the possibility of working with Katrina survivor children at St Thomas parish in Long Beach, MS. Last Tuesday, May 22nd, I rode my Honda from Irish Bayou to Long Beach to sign release forms for background checks, etc. that the Church requires for anyone working with children.

I also intended to spend the afternoon checking out campgrounds to see if I could find one that I could afford. Most of them are full of FEMA trailers and the govt pays about double the regular rates so most of the campgrounds have drastically raised their rates.

The parish secretary at St Thomas, a wonderful lady named Patsy Bishop, took care of the paper work. I had been there for Mass on Sunday and told her I'd be by early in the week. She had already called another parish about 15 miles away and confirmed that they would have an inexpensive place for me to put the Airstream. So I got back on the Honda and rode to St Ann's parish.

There I met Karen Parker who said that they had one space left but I would have to move into it that day if I wanted it. So I hurried back to Irish Bayou, hooked up the Airstream and hurried back to get set up behind the church's community hall. After I was all set up, Karen said she was really impressed with me and my desire to help the kids. So I could stay as long as I liked. For free. As in "No Charge". Not even for electric.

THEN she told me that this was the weekend of their big Catfish Festival/Carnival and she sure could use some help. The next morning the carny's set up all the rides and blocked me in, so I couldn't have escaped for a week anyway. SO I said, "Sure. What can I do?" Little did I know.

St Ann's is an amazing little parish of about 200 registered families, of which maybe 50 are actually active in even a slight way. So we're talking about roughly 180 people that come to Church. In most parishes about 10% of the people do all the work. Here it might be nearer 20%. But that's still only about 3 dozen workers.

The Festival runs from Thursday through Sunday. Carnival rides and games, a really big softball tournament, church run games for the little kids, bands on Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday, and food - oh, my goodness, the food. Catfish, of course - fried, in Gumbo, PO-Boys, and a special dish prepared by Karen, "Catfish Lizana" which is catfish covered with a sauce made of crabmeat, shrimp, butter, lots of heavy cream, and her secret seasonings. I loved it. I ate it over catfish, over rice, and just plain from the pot. Then there was Seafood Gumbo, Chicken Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Funnel Cake, a Green Bean Casserole to die for (WITHOUT mushroom soup OR French Fried Onions), a crawfish boil with new red potatoes and corn on the cob, and a BIG Budweiser truck.

Karen prepares it ALL, except the crawfish and the funnel cakes, as well as coordinates the entire festival. She is the most hyper person I've ever met. Since I showed up the day before it all got started, I was the only person within her reach that hadn't already been assigned a position. Being her "Sidekick" consisted of daily trips to Sam's, usually punctuated with three or four phone calls adding stuff to my list, chopping, peeling, rinsing, washing, cooking, carrying, mopping, just about everything except selling because those crews were already organized from the previous 5 years.

In these four days, this little parish raises 40% of its annual budget. I've never seen anything like it. And after 4 days of 18 hours each, I hope I don't again, at least not any time soon! But it was wonderfully satisfying to see the incredible results.

Wait - there's more. After Katrina, Karen and a friend formed "Project Hope and Compassion" which provides housing and meals to volunteers and coordinates their work in the area. After we finished cleaning up the kitchen Sunday night we started cooking for the first group to come in after the Festival. This group is 24 college architecture students from many different colleges and universities. And I've got to brag a little - their trip is funded by Penn State!

The day before they arrived, their sleeping and eating areas were set up for Bingo, a live auction and a silent auction. With their help, we got the rooms emptied, and cots and air mattresses set up.

They fix their own breakfast before they leave early in the morning. They return to a big dinner in the evening, prepared by Karen and her husband, and, now, me. Today was especially gratifying for them because they were actually building instead of tearing down things. Several of the leaders have been here 3 or 4 times with different groups of kids. We eat dinner with them. They are an impressive, truly dedicated group doing hot, dirty, backbreaking work.

Today I finally escaped from Karen and went to St John's Summer Camp. I'll tell you all about it in the next entry. For now, I'll just say that I'll be working with 27 kids aged 3 to 5.

Life really is good!