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.

Two Weeks with Aunt Katie

AEDM - Nov.4 to Nov. 11

I won't lie to you. I haven't quite met the "every day" part of the challenge. I could call it the Art *Almost* Every Day challenge though. I took my small sketchbook with me to Peru. It travels easily and isn't so intimidating, since the page is much easier to fill. Here are the images that have emerged over the last week:

It looks like the mandala obsession is giving over to a value scale/weaving obsession.

P.S.

We're heading to Peru tomorrow to pick up my sister for a visit. I won't be able to post for a few days. But, be assured that I will do my best to continue the challenge! We're super excited about having my sister here for a couple of weeks. See you soon Katie!!

AEDM - Nov. 3

To do... to do... to do... to do...

Yesterday, whenever I thought about sitting down to tackle the AEDM challenge, an endless list of things to do kept running through my head. So, instead of giving in to the chore monster, I got creative with a to-do list:

Scary, isn't it? It made me realize why I often feel guilty for sitting down to draw or paint. The final product visualized the craziness and pressure I felt (and often feel) inside my head. I didn't want to leave my mind there, so I decided to go a little further:

Since I had used watercolor pencils, I decided to brush over the whole thing with water. It was therapeutic to just wash over all of those mundane tasks that kept nagging at me, getting in the way of my creativity. And in the end, a mandala appeared (surprise, surprise!). Mandalas are so calming for me and this one showed me that I am still balanced, despite the busyness. It was like a little message from God telling me, "Take some time to yourself, and I'll take care of the rest." Thanks God! I needed a break.

AEDM - Nov. 2

I did another mandala, because I feel very free to create with them and I am always surprised by what I end up with. Honestly, I don't really like how this one turned out, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

Art Every Day Month - Nov. 1

I (Anna) just discovered a fun online challenge and decided to participate. You can find an explanation here, but the basic idea is that you create a new work of art each day during the month of November and then post it on your blog to share with other participating artists. I doubt all the art will be pretty, but it should be a lot of fun to create. I started out with a mandala: