Gosh its hot

We have had a day or two in the mid80's with a great sea breeze so it has been wonderful - then a front came thru yesterday morning with lightning and thunder and about 20 minutes of driving monsoon-like rain. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but when the sun came out all that water went right into the air so now its low 90's with 80% humidity - talk about oppressive!

Then, to add to the heat, one of the many abandoned homes we have here mysteriously came ablaze and burned to the ground. The AUTEC fire department sent their pumper but it was a woodframe house that had been sitting in the sun for several years so it went up like straw. Nobody was living in it so nobody was hurt, but now we have this smoldering source of smoke that is filling the air, and will continue to for another day or so.

With the heat, tempers get hot and we have more occurances of domestic violence here. I have been asked to intervene in two different family situations, which can be a bit dangerous. Most recently our local alcoholic friend who visits us daily for a drink and a sandwich appeared with a bandage on his arm. It seems he was helping a local man feed his pigs and, when they returned late, the man's wife asked him why they were so late. He told her they had to stop in a particular town for gas and she went balistic - it seems her hubby has a sweetheart in that town and she turned on her hubby with a vengence. It was then that that hubby started beating our alcoholic friend with a broom for telling his wife where they went. The wire wrapping of the straw at the end of the broom sliced his forearm open as he was defending himself - thus the bandage. I'll need to pay that family a visit later in the week too.

With the heat growing we know summer is near. I announced that our CCD classes will end at the end of the month, which will give us a bit of a break (Amen), but we will be working with a local conservation group this summer to teach some of the children conservation activities they can do to help preserve the pristine environment we have here. We did this last year and it was great fun for the kids, and for us. We also learned alot about the eco-system here and we look forward to learning more this year.

As we continue to reach out to new people we have had success with a few families who had been practicing Catholics, but haven't come for the last 4-5 years. What we are finding is a whole group of 2-3 year old children that have never been baptized. Speaking with these folks it is clear they all consider themselves Catholics and they want their children baptized - especially if the child is a handful. More than once I have heard the mother say, "Oh Faddah, des chillun need da water Faddah, dey be bahd Faddah", and the child is sitting there looking up at me with these big brown eyes, as cute and innocent as you can imagine. So we talk, they get to know me and we get to know them, and eventually they show up on a Sunday. We talk some more and eventually they come to me with God-parents who are Catholics that received Confirmation and we plan a little Baptism prep class. It doesn't sound like much, but this type of evanglistic outreach has resulted in quite a few baptisms.

One thing I am noticing is that unless we go to the home and seek out these 'unchurched Catholics', they would stay at home and we'd never know they were there. Once we know where they are, AND we go to them and sit on the porch and talk - THEN there's progress. One step at a time.

Finally, one last bit of news is that Saturday is our church picnic. A Pentecostal minister has a small fishing lodge that he is letting us use Saturday afternoon so we should have some fun in the sun, people showing up with food and drinks and, like scripture says "Everyone shared what they had in common". We did this a year ago and it was a big hit - hopefully this year will be the same.

Till next time.