And, so how was your weekend?

After a long week, a task was passed down later Friday night. I’ll update the links to it when breaking news breaks.

Saturday involved a very special lunch (more in a sec) and a celebration mass for Harambee, a ministry to African-American youth founded within our offices 25 years ago.  Sunday, I stepped in for the final moments of the Archdiocesan Youth Advisory Council, thanking them for their service, especially the graduating seniors and spent more time on the assigned task.

So… Saturday’s lunch? There is a certain few men for whom I have a deep and abiding admiration.  The ladies in the office refer to these guys as my bromances.  One of these men include Mark Oesteicher, author of Youth Ministry 3.0, former head of Youth Specialties, and founder of a youth ministry coaching program. While Marko and I have had some treasured virtual interactions over the past few years, we have never actually met in real life.

On Saturday, we did! Mark was doing a middle school event this weekend in Harford County and so I drove up and snuck him and his son Max out for a lunch.  What a delight.  There was no deep insights to report, no conspiracies hatched… Just another good guy (and his kid) working his way through life and ministry.  It was a warm and relaxed conversation and I was honored that he took time out to hang with me (and that Max didn’t find the old guys terribly boring.)  After lunch we parted (and I was off to Harambee), and now continue on with virtual communication:  This posting and Mark’s comments on Facebook.