I have been in Dolores at our retreat center for three weeks.  When I left Minneapolis we still lived in an apartment/center but since I have been gone, three new novices moved to Minneapolis and our Center moved from our apartment to a brand new novice house. While my center was transforming I have been in the time warp of constant retreats. We started with the children’s retreat, which was a funny, hard, and amazing mess. It began with the news that we could not stay in one of the houses we planned to have the kids in. We set up tents, moved kids around and moved forward. Next was the great plague of the lice. As it turns out two separate families brought lice to the retreat and we spend hours upon hours checking children’s heads, treating kids with lice, and washing every piece of linen in both houses. In a particularly epic episode one of our teen helpers spent four straight hours picking nits from one of the kids. Rev Rachel was so patient and loving as the hours went on and on. Then the drama spread into the adult retreat as parents of the infected kids showed up for checks. After all was said and done, the whole retreat center was washed, sprayed, and de-liced.  Next, as the children were happily rafting a hail storm swept through the area and pounded them with little pieces of ice. Pandemonium broke loose, screaming children, stunned rafting staff met calm priests. The ministers calmly lead he kids in prayer and songs as the staff brought the boats to shore. When I arrived to pick them up children were proudly telling their war stories and showing the red marks on their legs and arms. Rev Rachel and I had a lot of great plans for the kid retreat but God had bigger plans. We prayed and laughed our way through the changes and found that the kids were more blessed than we could have planned. They relaxed into the changes, found faith and strength in turmoil and felt our love for them and God’s love for them all through the weekend. And that was just the first of three weeks. Tune in for weeks two and three in my next entries.