We survived the drives & ferryboat rides through middle earth (northern Donegal)

Even though we are the road team, our team got a taste of the life of a parish team last Sunday when we got to run a lifenite in Sligo! It was fun to see another side of ministry and also to see where last years (2008-2009) parish team spent their year. The night went well, there were 5 teens there, so our team actually doubled the number of them, but it isn't always about the quanity its about the quality. Even from just being there one night we could tell that these teens were really committed to trying to keep the youth program alive in Sligo, so we had a great night with them and are praying for their parish.

On Monday morning we moved to Letterkenny, Donegal and did one retreat in Letterkenny, but most of our retreats last week were in northern Donegal, so each morning bright and early we piled into the van to make the drive through the mountains to the northern coastal towns of Fallcarragh and Dungloe. Since we had to leave so early is was too dark to really see the scenery in the morning, but on our return trips our eyes were fixed on the windows as we tried to take it all in. The road was long and winding through the rugged mountains and segmented fields which were, of course, dotted with sheep and cattle. We even had to stop once to let a bunch of sheep cross the road and had to pause our rosary to laugh about it. The latest trend on our team is to read either the Lord of the Rings Trilogy of the Chronicles of Narnia, and I'd say this would have been the perfect week to start since as we drove on those remote winding roads it was easy to imagine we were in Middle Earth or Narnia itself. I kept expecting to be chased down by orcs, but luckily we made it to and from all our retreats without the van coming under siege.

On NET I've learned that every day has it's own small excitements, but this past Friday was especially exciting for our team because we got to do a retreat on the small island of Arranmore of the coast of Donegal. We were all excited to take the ferry there and back (and some of us were secretly hoping that we'd get stuck there overnight). Fortunately we were all sea-worthy and no one got sick. The island is only about 3 miles in diameter so it is a very small community, but as I said before it's not about quantity, but quality. Our retreat, which was for the entire secondary school, was about 54 students, but they were such a great group and we found it easy to get along with them and to chat with them. We were so well looked after too, some of the students even made us homemade bread and soup for our lunch. The generosity of people continually amazes me. Say what you want about society being egocentric, but there are good people too and it's important not to forget them.

On Saturday we made the 8 hour drive down to Killarney, Co. Kerry which was our longest drive yet, but we were well prepared with snacks and a Mo-Town soundtrack made by Patrick so we all made it through in one piece.
So far in Kerry we've been enjoying good weather and beautiful scenery and look forward to more great retreats! Until next time God bless!

Kels & Team 1

(The first photo is us fighting the wind on the ferryboat to Arranmore. The second is all the sisters enjoying a bit of sunshine in Killarney National Park. The third is more of us enjoying the ferry ride.)