Stress in Paradise

A friend of mine emailed me and asked me how life was in paradise - well, let me tell you, there is stress even here. Two things have consumed our life over the past week. First, is CCD. They have had no religious training here for four years. Soooo there is a backlog of kids for first communion, all the way up to age 14 - try to invent a first eucharist curriculum that spans ages 7-14.

After several weeks of registration we have over 30 kids, in 3 churches. We have decided they fall into 4 groups, Pre-1st communion, 1st communion, confirmation, and the kids between first communion and confirmation. Over the 3 churches there is a different combination of ages but we think we can do one parish all afternoon on Mon, the Navy base will be Tues afternoon, and our home parish will be Wednesday. We also have 2 adults that want to join the Church so Tues night will be RCIA.

Ginni and I have been wrestling with what to teach, what books to use, how to stucture the classes, etc. - so this is the 1st thing causing stress.

The second has to do with a bulldozer - yep, a bulldozer.
Yesterday, the man who owns the land next door began to clear more of his land. We first heard about this when a bulldozer started ripping away the rock bluff between our church and his lot. It created quite a stir when we began discussing where he thought the border was and where I thought it was. Lets just say the conversation was 'difficult'. Surrounded by 6 large Bahamian construction workers this dialogue was something less than constructive. I ended up on the phone with the Archbishop's office. (All parish land records are in Nassau, but nobody can find them right now). Meanwhile, the neighbor is bulldozing away, and nobody is quite clear as to who is right about where the borders are.

Suffice it to say after several hi stress discussions with the neighbor, phone calls to the Town Administrator (O no Deacon, all those plans are in Nassau), and a growing crowd of residents watching the drama play out, the bulldozer just kept on running - within 9' of our Church at one point. The jury is still out on this one, but my relationship with my nieghbor is not the best right now.

Well, I gotta get back to CCD (Oh I forgot to tell you about the young couple that wants to get married next month - despite the 4 month lead time required for Pre-Cana and the preliminary interviews I should conduct )

See you in Church