Mary Our Queen 2017 Honduras Mission: The Block Party in Honor of St. Anthony

Dear Friends, Family and Benefactors,

On our final day of our mission trip we had the Block Party. The weather was perfect! It had rained yesterday evening and brought in a bit of cooler weather so we had sunny skies. We started the day as usual with prayers and Mass. We ate breakfast and at about 9:15 we all went into action to set up for the party.

Fr Herald was the masters of ceremony and we had entertainment all day long. There was a mix of prayer, food, games, and fun. The kids enjoyed the day just being kids playing outside with no electronics or worry of their safety while the adults gathered and ate their meals with neighbors and friends. It was a very moving site full of plain, simple joy.

We served 850 hamburgers, 700 hot dogs, 400 kabobs, 35 gallons of potato salad, macaroni and coleslaw along with a bunch of five gallon tubs of ice cream. It was a great day!

At 4:30 we had a Eucharistic Procession through the street. Fr. Louis blessed each of the buildings on the block with Christ as the people processed with the Christ in the Eucharist. It was amazing.

This evening, Br David cooked chicken on the grill for the men of St. Anthony shelter as well as for us and other volunteers. While he was cooking, we all hung out in the gardens sharing, laughing and living.

We were all blessed. We can't believe that our week is almost over. The twelve of us have grown very close and feel a special bond with each other, the Friars and the men in the shelters. Our lives have been changed. We thank you all so much for supporting us so that we could live the Gospel message of loving each other and loving our neighbor.

Br Crispin giving our marching orders this morning

Patti, Meghan, Lucy, and Walter went to Our Lady of the Holy Angels convent this morning to help with their weekly lunch program for the poor. The sisters have this program down to a science of feeding over 100 meals in one hour