Friday, September 11, 2009

Holy Archangels and St. Peter the Aleut Summer Camp

I was at Holy Archangels Monastery in Kendalia two Saturdays ago visiting little Jamie's resting place with his family. I loved being there and feeling the peace at his graveside. It was palpable, quiet, and still.

It was not so peaceful on the way back when I hit a deer. Thankfully no one but the deer was hurt, except for my car which is still in the shop. The rental car is a Kia Rondo, which has a bigger hatchback area than my Matrix. Monday, I and a few of the kids will return to the Monastery in the Rondo with our dear blog friend, Maxim, who's coming down for a visit. Please pray that he'll have a peaceful time with no traumatic run-ins with the wildlife.

On another note, our two eligible kids had a very fun time at the annual St. Peter the Aleut Camp at the YMCA facility at near-by Possum Kingdom Lake last week. I went ahead and had Jordan drive my damaged Matrix to camp two Mondays ago since there wasn't time to get the damage assessed before then, while I drove his car. My door wouldn't open and he is sprier than me at crawling over the middle console. When we picked the kids up from camp last Friday I had a Mitsubishi Galant (due to last week's limited availability of cars in our price range), which was nice, but too low to the ground. The cheaper Rondo's seats are much higher and easier to get into.

Jamie's Priest, Father John from the new mission in Tyler (he gave the homily, "The Kingdom of Heaven Belongs to Such as These" on the header above), and his two kids came to camp this year, as did Father Seraphim with his son from the ROCOR Church in Dallas, and the two returning Priests, Father John with his Matushka Lydia from Dallas, and Fr. Antonio from Pharr. Matushka Patricia, Father John Whiteford's wife, also brought a carload of kids from Houston and was one of the counselors, as were a few other parents, Fr. Antonio's older daughters, and another friend of my boys. The kids love getting together with other Orthodox from around mostly Texas every year for services, talks, and the many fun activities. It's rare for them to have 50 Orthodox peers. We also enjoyed having a house full of campers as well as Fr. Antonio the weekends before and after camp.

No comments:

Post a Comment