Teenagers

Teenagers.... I know that a lot of people think that I am crazy for saying this, but I love working with them. They never cease to amaze me. All it takes is someone to invest a little time in them, and the facade of hating adults, being hard heads and just not caring falls away. They actually are beautiful people. They are still naive enough to believe that they can change the world, and they have not yet been corrupted to the point where they are set in their ways. They truly are amazing.

Tonight, we had our Mystery Dinner Theater: The Price is Wrong. Ten teenagers and three adults successfully pulled off a four act play and serving dinner for 90 people in less than two hours. It was a rush. We all worked our butts off, and we all had a blast. We also exposed our Parish, and the Youth Group to a local news caster. He is excited to put together a story on the history of our Parish now!

It is truly amazing how God works through the most unsuspecting suspects:

Angel, she played the lead detective Sgt. Joe Good Friday. Just last year she was a cynical hard head who knew it all. She did not want to be in the Confirmation Class, and frankly I can not blame her. She has been raised in a solidly Catholic family with a solidly Catholic education. What she was being taught in her Confirmation Class was something that she had known since about sixth grade. She could have been teaching it, and the class was an utter waste of her time. Now she has blossomed in to a leader of young people. Our middle schoolers love her, and she returns that unquestioningly. 

Garret, who played Agent 0012 was similar. He came at us more from the logical side of things. He can write things in ASCII code (the code that a computer interprets when you type), binary, hexadecimal and octal. He truly is an amazingly smart young man. His focus is more on the technical side of things, and doing things "correctly". Recently though, he has balanced is need for head knowledge with a faith activated from the heart. He is here to provide a service to the Church that it did not offer when he was younger. He sees the value in what we are trying to do, and bends over backwards to make it happen.

DJay, is a stubborn chap. He reminds me of St. Peter; open mouth and insert foot. His faith is deep though, and he would make several steps farther out of the boat than I would. He has had a harder life than a lot of the kids, losing his mother when he was in his early pre-teens. He has the heart of a servant though, and just wants some positive attention. He likes practical jokes, like locking us out of the kitchen when we need to start serving, but underneath it all he is just a good kid, with a deep faith. I still am not sure why he is here, but I think it has something to do with....

Kate, who just last year was a shy wall flower, disinterested and did not want to do anything. Like Angel, our middle schoolers just love her. She has an outward confidence about her, and she wants to be involved in her Church. Her mother said to me, or my boss, that Katie now wants to be at Church, that something happened to her on retreat with us. She is quickly turning into on of our better leaders. She is willing to make herself look silly as long as it leads someone closer to Christ. 

Becca, is a weirdo... she played Cindy Lou Hoo tonight, and was just a natural. BTW, when I call someone a weirdo, it is a good thing. Christ was a weirdo underneath it all, and fortunately for youth workers it is a name that will always be attached to us. Becca though is really coming out of her shell. She is smiling again, and happy to be involved in something positive. Sure she does the school sports, but there is just something special about doing something for your Church. She knows it, and wants to be there for her peers.

Cassie is the only freshman of the bunch. She is an artist, and loves to draw. She did our fliers and played the power squad with her sister Jessie. The two of them were hilarious together saying that Jesus was their only steroid, and that He could take us all from spiritual zeros to spiritual heroes. What a pair. 

Then, there were our two newbies, Jessica and Henry. Henry played Eminem, and Jessica was a stage hand. They were new to the Parish this year, and just simply happy that someone noticed them and got them involved. Otherwise, they were just faces in their Catechism class. I knew there was something special about the both of them, and they proved me right. Jessica ran our floor and greeted and seated people like she had been doing it for years. Henry was a perfect fit for Eminem and he had those who knew who he was in tears. I am sorry that they were only here for a year. 

Finally there was Logan. I met him tonight. He has been working in Restaurants since he was... well... walking. He is dating one of the girls, but he needed community service hours for school.  He kicked our butts into gear whipping out plates of food and getting them to the tables faster than I have ever seen at a fundraiser. I truly hope that he will stay involved with us. He has a ton of potential.

All in all the night was amazing. They really stepped up, and did what our Knights of Columbus do, but more efficiently and with a Mystery Dinner going on as well. We made about half what we would need to have a decent for the rest of the high schoolers in the fall. Hopefully I can get some young adults I know in Denver to help me facilitate that one. 

I hope that this was little more interesting for you than some of my more recent posts. I have gone away from my candid commentary, but will be getting back into it soon...

Prayers,

Pisio

Amazed

For those of you who have not signed up for, and made your entrecard, you should as soon as possible. It is essentially a blogging business card that allows you to leave your card on other entrecard sites, and others leave theirs on yours. You get to advertise for credits, and people can advertise on your blog by paying you credits. It is a really neat way to publicize your blog. Since joining, my site traffic has exponentially grown. 

Today I had the good fortune of advertising on a site called Bitter Sweet Collide. Alexis and her blog Aiden have a great insight in to life. I truly enjoy her posts. At times, like when she posted about the rain, she and I see eye to eye. She provides insight into  world I will never know, but get to see on a day to day basis. But, advertising on her site has brought me almost 200 visitors alone. 

Any way, I am just amazed to watch my site traffic grow. Yesterday, I broke 200 visitors... Funny to think that just about two weeks ago, my blog was drawing only 10 -20 visitors a day. Now I am averaging 200 page impressions a day.  Entrecard has truly has done wonders for my blog traffic... I am actually making a penny a day on adsense since joining.

Good Luck, and God Bless,

Prayers,

Pisio

Fund Raising

Of all the things I have to do in ministry, fundraising is my least favorite. I am a firm believer in tithing time, talent and treasure. If a church or a parish can not afford a ministry from its Sunday collection and can not afford to fund it at reasonable level within its means, the ministry head should not be expected to raise the funds to do everything else that needs to be done. 

My peer ministry and I are working on a Mystery Dinner Theater in order to raise money for  our Youth Ministry. Currently my Parish gives me no money (aside from my salary) for youth ministry. Now, I am not sure how familiar any of you are with ministry with youth, but it is not cheap. A decent retreat center for a weekend costs around $100 per person for night. Obviously we can not ask families to pay for everything that comes along that is that costly, and families can not expect this expense to be 100% funded by the parish. There has to be some compromise.

In most cases, this means fundraising. For me, as a ministry head that spends about 1/5 of my annual income on ministry expenses, this sucks. I am horrible at fundraising. I just feel like we are begging whenever we ask for things. This year we have the mystery dinner theater to bring the community together a little bit. Unfortunately that means that all other ministry has ceased since we can not expect much more out of the teenagers helping us time wise. They are already giving 1-2 nights a week to the ministry.

This means that all our retreat planning, and issue night planning has ceased while we put on the fundraiser. This is neither healthy for the teenagers who come to pray and share their faith with each other, or for the ministry which is there for their benefit. The focus becomes the money we are making, not our relationships with Christ. I think, for what I have read anyway, that this would be of concern to Him whom we love. 

Christ operated out of Faith. He knew His Father would take care of him no matter what. My theory is that is still true. God, no matter how dark the day, is always there. Is this hard to grasp? That God loves you, and is always there should not be a shock to any of us. I just believe that the Catholic Church needs to return to what made it so great... Christ. In a lot of ways the laity (non-ordained) need to take the Church rather than use it as an excuse for losing their faith. 

Anyway, as I am sitting here typing this I am slowly typing with my eyes shut. I REALLY need to get to sleep.

Prayers,

Pisio

Abraham Lincoln

I was watching South Park tonight, and one of the special guest stars was Abraham Lincoln. Now, Abraham Lincoln happens to be one of my favorite Presidents. I admire his courage and resolve to do not what was popular, but what was right. I really wonder how things would have been different had a spineless goober been in charge during the Civil War. 

There was something different that caught my attention though. Lincoln was talking to Kyle, one of the characters in the cartoon, and he began to talk about character. It was hilarious, and yet profound. It was talking about the resolve ugly people have to have to make it in the world. The pretty people get life handed to them, and as a result fail in life, but those who are ugly have to work through everything. This got me thinking about character more though.

I look at the three remaining candidates for the most powerful position in the world, and realize that none of them has any real character. They are characters, that is for sure, but the stand for nothing. Each one of them panders to who ever is crying the loudest at the moment. McCain is apologizing for things he can not control, and frankly are not even that offensive (see using Barak Obama's middle name (Hussein)). Not much needs to be said about the Clinton's. They change their political positions faster than weather changes in Colorado. You can tell a lot about Obama by who he allows to buy his home. 

What ever happened to good upstanding public servants like Lincoln? Where did they go? It used to be that you would get into office and put your country before your self. Now all these Yahoos are just pandering for votes. When someone honestly and openly examines their, or their opponent's record, wolf is cried and the pressure goes away. I have lost all respect for our country's leaders in the House and Senate. It is like they have no spines, souls or well... balls. 

Conservative talk radio hosts, like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity take a lot of crap for standing up to these weenies. That I can admire. With Rush, the Great One, and Hannity you know what you are going to get. The same is actually true for those on the left as well like Alan Colmes. Regardless of what your stance on the issues are, you know you are going to get open, honest dialogue with these guys. Why won't any of them run for office?

I guess they are just too honest for modern politics. Sad but true. It seems modern politics attracts the dredge of society rather than our best and brightest. Oh well... maybe someday, hopefully soon we will get another Reagan. I hope so, for the sake of little Michael.

God help this country.

Prayers,

Pisio

Hillary Wins!!!

I never thought I would say this, but thank you to all the voters who voted for Hillary. The next seven weeks that lead up to the Pennsylvania primary are going to be fun. Who knows what the Clinton machine is going to dig up on Obama, and how the Senator from Illinois is going to open mouth and insert foot... Woo Hoo! This is going to be so fun!

Thank you for those who voted Huckabuck out. As much as I disagree with McCain on the issues, Huckbuck's presence in the primary was just lame. He should have bowed out gracefully shortly after Romney. Stay in long enough to remind McCain who the base of the party is by taking a primary or two in the South, then bow out. 

Oh... this is going to be so fun... Lets watch the Dems run their campaigns dry. Hopefully Billary will win the nomination, and be too bankrupt to even run a viable campaign... Man that would be nice...

Sorry... I am as giddy as school girl tonight... The best case scenario (provide the circumstances) for those of my political persuasions just happened... I know the the posts today have been quite shallow, but I am exhausted. I am going to get some sleep.

Prayers,

Pision

Site Hoppin

Tonight, I just had to try it. After I dropped cards on everyone in my inbox, I logged in and tried Site Hoppin. I must say it was a blast! It made dropping card so easy. I had to up the timer to about 20 seconds because the default of 5 seconds is just too quick for my old butt on this touchpad mouse, but even at 20 seconds it made dropping the last 20 cards or so really easy. 

I do not think that I will use it for the initial dropping, there is just something addictive about doing it manually. Since I use Netscape most of the time dropping for me is a lot easier than if I had to use IE. By default everything opens in a new tab, so I can do multiple things at once. I also use a Mac, so I never have to worry about the system resources being overloaded.

However when it comes down to the last few drops, and I can not remember who I have visited and who I have not, Site Hoppin will be the way I go from now on.

Prayers,

Pisio

P.S.: I wonder if this qualifies me to get added to their blog roll??

Yesterday

Yesterday really wore on me, but it was a fun day. I started out shoveling snow off the driveway. That took most of the morning since underneath it all was ice. I love Colorado weather.

After shoveling snow, I got to take Michael to the doctor's office. The poor little dude thought he was gonna get poked with needles again. He cried almost the whole time. We then came home, and took a nap together while waiting for his mom to come home.

I went to UCCS and taught my evening class. It was small seems that everyone has this stomach bug that is going around. It was me, five girls and a guy on the roof. I was home by 10:30.

I then sat down to do my nightly blogging things, and promptly fell asleep on the couch, lap top on lap. I have not been that tired since basic training. I did get some good sleep though.

I hate to say it, but I think that I am getting older. everyday I wake up more and more tired. I have a new ache or a pop in a joint I never knew I had. It takes longer to get going every morning and I have decided that I will never give up coffee for Lent again. As sad as it may sound I need that morning jolt to just get going.

Forgive me for not posting something with more substance than this today. I will post something else later after I have had time to listen to news and reflect on my day. Maybe Hillary will win and stay viable in the Democratic race. I would LOVE to see that happen, and watch the Democratic party slowly fall apart. Plus, she could destroy Obama politically and use "Republican" smear tactics to personally destroy him... HEHEHE... I really am evil underneath it all.

Well, I have to get about my day,

Prayers

Pisio

Card Carrying Member of the VWRC

I love Liberals, they are so fun. In my post on change, I got a reply from this nut job. The simple fact that Keanu Reeves is his profile picture should be a clue, but seeing that he is not even in this country, I guess I can give him some slack.

Anyway, I just wanted to take issue and point out where I disagree with his opinion. I will take them point by point, and try to be as fair as I can. Unfortunately since his position is based in a fantasy world, they will be hard to completely refute, but I may be able to point out some of his lack of clear thinking:

"Maybe you should get politics to start getting corporations to pay taxes"

Yes Mr. Clearthinking enlightened liberal... The fact is that if you tax a corporation, they just pass that expense on to me the consumer. That makes great sense for me, since well, corporations produce... well... everything I need to live. Tax them, my cost of living goes up. Kinda goes back to the whole idea of a national sales tax... only tax me on what I choose to consume, not every damn thing under the sun.

"and maybe you should have republican politicians stop giving special treatment and padding their 20,000 laws each year to the advantage of working people not multi-national corporations that send jobs to china or elsewhere."

First of all, Democrats not Republicans are the obstacle to tougher regulations on government pork, and this is coming from that Right Wing Bastion of truth MSNBC. Also, your media darling, Hillary, has secured more money in government earmarks for her district than any other Senator.

Second, if we were not already taxing the corporations at the levels we are perhaps they would keep factories and manufacturing plants here in the United States. Who can blame them for leaving?

Third, if there was fair competition in the workplace, i.e. unions rewarding the laziest members by paying them the same as their most productive workers, perhaps corporations would not want to leave the country. If they knew they could cut the dead weight dragging their production down without being sued by unions, maybe, just maybe they would be more inclined to stay.

I know that personally, I do not stay where I am not welcome. Why should I expect more out of corporations simply because their aim is to make a profit?

"And maybe you should get politicians to stop paying 300 billion a year interest on the national debt"

I am sure that you will disagree with me on this, but the enormous debt this country is facing comes from government overstepping its bounds. Welfare, social security and the nanny state in general were never intended by the founders of the country. Regulation of trade and protection of the country from enemies foreign and domestic were though. Perhaps if we cut out what government was never meant to spend in the first place we could get out of debt.

"THE 45 million that have no health insurance"

Health Insurance is a consumers choice, not a right. If someone chooses to spend their paycheck on x-boxes, games, $100 shoes and designer jeans that is their choice. If that means they forgo health insurance that is their option. Are there people out there who can not afford health insurance? Probably, yet rather than expect a handout, maybe they could get a job at McDonalds 20 hours a week, or find a job that employs them over 20 hours a week. The problem there is that this would then disqualify them from government aid... Free check, or work hard... given that option I know which one I would choose, unfortunately a lot of Americans choose the other option.

"the 600 billion on the military industrial complex"

You can not have it both ways. Republicans get hammered for not adequately equipping the troops for battle, yet we spend too much on defense. Which one is it? Perhaps we should roll over and play dead like the French every time the US is threatened? Like I said in a Freshman level composition class... todays youth are being raised without backbones. Grow a pair.

"maybe get some of those 2 million Americans that just lost their homes because of variable mortgage interest that just cost the banks worldwide to lose 500 billion and shrink down credit"

Maybe those people should have known what they can afford and what a 2% increase in their mortgage payment would do their checkbook. If you can not do Math, you should not be buying a home. The people who got in over their heads learned a valuable lesson and the predatory lending practices of banks got them right where it should have. All parties involved are supposedly responsible adults. Perhaps though Hillary and Obama should come wipe their asses as well?

"... just to mention a few things YOU right WING nut JOB!"

Proud Card Carrying Member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy... Change your name to Euro Yanker and come back when you have a clue. Oh, you are a journalist... that is as disturbing as it is enlightening...

Prayers,

Pisio

Da Little Boy

Hello everybody, sorry for the no post yesterday. The little boy has been sick. He is our first, so we are probably overly worried about him. This week we found out that he is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and egg whites. I am thinking that he caught something when his system was weakened by the allergy test. I guess that we are lucky considering this is the first time he has been sick, other than a double ear infection when he was about three months old. Since I missed yesterday you guys will get a second post a little later tonight after I do my drops and get my link referral reviews done.

Prayers,

Pisio