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!

WAREHAM, MA — Last month, nine students from St. Patrick Parish traveled to Union Springs, Ala., to oversee a weeklong Vacation Bible School. After fundraising and accepting donations from members of the parish into a special fund, the group traveled down South. The first night saw them housed by two well-to-do local families before heading to a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood trailer park that would be the group’s base of operations. thier first impression of the park was a wake-up call.

“It was not like a trailer park around here. I mean, it’s set up that way with the streets and how the trailers are, but the trailers themselves were not the same,” she said. “They were very, very old and rundown and should have been decommissioned a long time ago. And within that trailer park there was a trailer that they called the Catholic Center. The Catholic Church owns their own trailer in the Hispanic community.  Read more here.

BRISBANE, AUS — Archbishop John Bathersby launched “Come, Walk in the Light” on Pentecost Sunday. This is an initiative designed to support and grow the faith of young people throughout Brisbane archdiocese.  He included a video message where he expressed his desire to “strengthen my relationship with you who are the Church of the present and the future”.  Read more here.

In the ‘burbs of DC, we find the Starbucks league…

SILVER SPRING, MD — Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy knows of a pulsating “mad house” just off New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring. But McCarthy has no plans of breaking up this youth hangout. In fact he’s a regular there during basketball season.
In an intramural youth basketball league at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, youngsters have a place to work on their burgeoning basketball skills while parents work on their social skills. Affectionately called the “Starbucks League” after the game day coffee sold by eighth-grade students from the church’s school, the league celebrated its 40th anniversary this month. “Usually, parents drop off their kids and leave. … Here, they stay.” Read more here.

Have you started your promos for NCYC like they have in Minnesota???

ST. PAUL, MN — Steve Grass, director of youth social and outreach ministries at St. John Neumann in Eagan, said he will be taking about 10 parish youth. St. John Neumann views it as leadership training and covers about 90 percent of the trip cost. Youth come back and take on more leadership roles, he said. One shy teen who went to the 2007 NCYC in Columbus, Ohio, “became one of our most active youth and a go-to leader,” Grass said.
But more important, he said, “Their faith has grown by leaps and bounds.” The conference includes a variety of workshops and prayer experiences, liturgies, adoration, reconciliation, music, entertainment and opportunities to connect with other youth.
Bill Casey, a member of the archdiocesan Parish Services Team, who focuses on youth ministry, said another draw is that some of the best Catholic musicians from across the country will be at the conference. “Young people who are not used to listening to Catholic contemporary  music are amazed at the good music and the good message some of this music has,” Casey said  Read more here.

As they graduate,our responsibilities and service to young people need not stop…

CHICAGO, IL — SerraUSA’s College Connection Program is designed to connect incoming college freshmen with the Catholic presence on or near their campus with the goal of helping them stay active in their faith into young adulthood and be open to hearing God’s call to serve the Church. Over 50 Serra Clubs across the nation are participating in the program this year. The clubs’ members coordinate with their local Catholic high schools and parishes to obtain the names of graduating seniors and provide them with information about the Catholic presence at their college of choice. Read more here.

In the news are heroes local …
FORT MORGAN, CO — Some people don’t know the value of teenagers, but St. Helena Catholic Church youth minister Lance Hochanadel is not one of them. “They’re pretty marvelous people,” he said. “The next generation is in pretty good hands.” Hochanadel has run the youth group for the past three years, with the essential help of his wife, Carolyn, Michelle Hogan and Amy Beltran, as well as many chaperones and other volunteers who bring a lot energy and dedication to the effort, he said. Read more here.

and heroes national …
WASHINGTON, DC — The Catholic Youth Foundation USA declares that raising money in this economy is like climbing Mount Everest. This spring, they intend to not only climb mountains, but move mountains, in the service of our Catholic youth. For years, Bob and Maggie McCarty have shared a dream of going to Mount Everest. The trip is one of their life’s goals—they have been saving for it for a long time—and it is one hundred percent funded by them. Their love of rock climbing and ministry are crossing paths as their trip will now be used to raise funds for CYFUSA. Learn more about a this special campaign.

and heroes the world over …
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Bishop Thomas Chung An-zu in Taiwan has called on Catholics at home and abroad to support the local Church’s work among young people as it officially dedicated Palm Sunday to them. Bishop Chung, who chairs the Catholic bishops’ youth desk in Taiwan, said in a letter that this annual dedication, starting this year, is to encourage “friends in and outside the Church” to donate generously toward formation work for youth. Read more here

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: