Confirmation

During Katie's visit, we had confirmations in the parish for the first time in 3 years. It was a pretty big deal, since youth ministry has grown so much. When we first arrived 3 years ago, only one of four chapels had youth participating and they only had about ten kids. We can now boast about 60 teens from all of our communities. We had 27 youth and 5 adults get confirmed. The next step is keeping them around. As the old joke goes...

"There once was a town plagued by hundreds of pigeons. The kids chased them, the sheriff fired at them, and the firemen sprayed them with water - to no avail. The mayor was getting desperate when the town priest came to his aid. "I'll get rid of those pesky pigeons for you." He baptized them, gave them Holy Eucharist and then brought in the bishop to confirm them. They immediately flew off and were never heard from again."

David with his adult group of catechumens

Both of us with the teen group from our chapel. We worked with them for two years.

The "co-padres". Godparents, as Confirmation Sponsors are referred to here, are very important in Chilean culture. This boy asked David to be his Godfather and since then, his parents have treated us as "co-parents". We're kind of worried we'll have to pay half of his college education.

A bad shot of the whole group.