Yes, I did not blog last night’s session….  Weariness won out and I opted to attend the session in a rather comatose mode that to type throughout it.   The meatiest past was a preview of statistics of ecclesial lay ministers who attended attended NCCYM (I think… or was it NCYC?) and even that was more stats than implications.

We will be back up after morning prayer sometime after 9am pacific time…  This one should be an intersting session… Are we organizationally built for success?

We will begin live-blogging again after morning prayer… starting around 9am pacific time.

We are live blogging from the Annual Membership Meeting of the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry!

My son, who is a medic in the US Army based in Hawaii, should be returning any minute now to the states after a few brief weeks in India.  While he did not have much time off-base, I hope he had an opportunity to meet a wallah.

Roy Petitfils recently blog about his experiences with wallahs and called for us to become youth wallahs. He graciously gave permission to reprint it here.

About ten years ago I did mission work in Calcutta, India. One day as I was walking to my work site I noticed a man cooking on the sidewalk as a small crowd gathered around him.  

Never one to let ministry get in the way of food, I walked over for a closer look. Behind a steadily growing number of fan-customers stood a thin, dark, shirtless man holding a steaming pot high in the air. He began pouring a three-foot stream of milkish-brown liquid through a sieve into another pot. “What’s this?” I asked a stranger next to me. “Chai!” he said, and pointing to the man, “Chai-Wallah.”    

Sensing that I wasn’t sufficiently impressed he went on, “Chai-wallah is very important to our culture.” I found that hard to believe. Here was a guy who didn’t deem it necessary to get dressed this morning, yet he’s the bedrock of the world’s second largest country?

I would soon learn the importance of this seemingly common vendor. For starters, they are everywhere—train stations, street corners, store fronts—anywhere the people are, there too is the chai-wallah.

Serving chai is more than a job for them, as most feel they are born to brew chai.   Each chai-wallah takes great pride in perfecting  their own unique blend of tea, spice and milk. There are as many different chai-wallahs as there are unique combinations of these three ingredients.

And while each chai-wallah is distinct, what they hold in common is even greater. As a whole they nurture over a billion people with their stimulating caffeinated nectar. They could earn more money by making and selling other products, such as biscuits or clay cups. Instead, they focus on perfecting their chai, and leave the biscuits to the biscuit-wallah and cups to the cup-wallah.   

In their wisdom the Hindus bestow the name wallah upon a person who combines skill, personality and passion  to perform a specific task that nurtures the whole of society. In doing so they anchor them within their culture, honor their unique contribution and insure the longevity of their service.  

Could we do the same for those who work with kids? What difference would it make if those who offer their lives in service to young people were validated like that of an Indian wallah? What if we regarded teachers, youth ministers and volunteers as Youth-Wallahs whose unique gifts, style and passion sustain our younger generations and nurture their growing faith? 

This would be a seismic cultural shift. We would start by no longer regarding the youth worker as a  babysitter who looks after the “future church.” It would mean that we embrace the reality of a youth-wallah who bridges a widening generational crevasse between the Young and Adult Church, making it possible for each to receive the other’s gift.

If a culture can do that for a guy who serves tea, can’t we do that for the one who serves our kids?

Just in case you may have missed noticing, Matt Maher has a new CD available called Alive Again.

You called and you shouted
broke through my deafness
now I’m breathing in
and breathing out
I’m alive again!

You shattered my darkness
washed away my blindness
now I’m breathing in
and breathing out
I’m alive again!

I was excited to hear that Matt is touring with Michael W Smith, with one of the concerts two-and-a-half hours away…  tempting!  Two classy Christians!

Please review the video clip for all the details as to why we are discontinuing the Catholic Youth Ministry blog as of today. 

We hinted at this yesterday on the blog as well as Monday and Sunday so everyday readers should have had a hint something like this might occur.

Please keep our entire blog staff in your thoughts and prayers.  We have suggested that they all try out for their homeland’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire over there in India in hopes that they will find love and/or make a fortune in rupees.

Condolences can be submitted through the comments link in the lower right section of this post.

Thank you for your viewership.

Goodbye, Farewell, Amen.

Facebook has been consuming my time lately.  When I first entered Facebook months ago, Gene sent his deepest regrets and welcomed me to the biggest time-waster ever.  But, Facebook has been time-consuming in that way for me…

A few weeks back, our office opted to initiate a Facebook page for young adults.  With minimal advertising (more like the “word of modem” version of “word of mouth”) the page has gone viral and grown in membership with many on the invite list still possible to join.

We send out a FB e-mail on Wednesday with local activities happening, some of which we become aware because others have placed notices on “our wall.”

Last week, I went to one of the events which featured one of our bishops in anticipation of gathering video of it for the FB group membership.

And, now suddenly, I’m getting calls and referrals regarding Facebook.  Finally, I was left with only one solution…  I updated my Facebook status:

Lincoln on faith:

“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day .”

“In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.”

“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

UPDATE:  Bishop Fran Malooly of Wilmington (formerly of Baltimore) has released a pastoral letter, Mystic Chords of Memory in the 21st Century: Remembering President Lincoln on the Bicentennial of His Birth.

Lansing’s Pat Rinker, in the NFCYM Connections e-newsletter offers a brilliant presentation on the entwined relationship between evangelization and catechesis… between encounter and content.  Here’s a short snip:

Content, separate from effective witness, is at best impotent and at worst counterproductive. The key to our effectiveness in sharing the good news is our own conversion, as we humbly walk the journey of faith, in communion with those with whom we share it. Our dialogue regarding catechesis, from this point on, must never separate methodology and content into separate entities, but realize that one is a natural outgrowth of the other. Insomuch as we are the Body of Christ, and insomuch as, “Christ, the first evangelizer, is himself the Good News who proclaims the kingdom of God…” so must we be the good news as we share the good news with all we encounter.

Read it all here.

Based on my recommendation, my youngest daughter, fell in love with Studio 60 on Sunset Strip.  This was a show that served as a follow-up for many on the creative team of West Wing, a story of a show that was like Saturday Night Live.

In this episode, many Katrina evacuee musicians from New Orleans are being hired as replacements for shows as the regular musicians are staging a sick-out to make space for their own.

The show concludes with a sweet, sweet version of O Holy Night that serves as an under-layer to two professions of love: one with a glance, another with confession.  Any night that involves love is a holy night.