The Adventures of Yapman: April 2014

As I figure out what I would like to do when I return the states – I have been constantly flipping between college campus minister positions and high school teaching positions. We shall soon see where I end up!

With that being said – YCHS ran its annual junior retreat on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26. Agape II had so much love and so much God. This year – the seniors led the retreat with some guidance and preparation from myself, Mr. Lupo, and Mr. Kelly. Fr. Mulreany handled all that we needed from the parents (I don’t want to spoil any surprises by saying just what that may mean!) Preparing the six senior leaders for the retreat was one of my favorite experiences on Yap – we even spent a day off over Easter choosing a retreat song and making up an absolutely wonderfully ridiculous dance to teach the retreatants. The song was “Hall of Fame” by The Script – and “Be a Champion” was a common retreat theme. We all went out for lunch specials at Oasis Restaurant afterward as a thank-you for all of the students hard work.

The retreat itself was simply God. The love was palpable. There was so much sharing, so much honesty, so much trust. I held myself fairly well together throughout the retreat – but during a moment of shared prayer with the small group I was supervising, they pulled out all of the loving stops to make the tears flow.

Thank-you for all of the prayers and love being sent from back home in the States. We were praying for Search 73 and sending all of our love as well.

Check out the pictures on facebook/ some on the last post!

“Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?”

-The Summons

As my time on Yap is rapidly coming to a close – I am spending more and more time reflecting on how blessed I have been these past two years living on this beautiful island of stone money. I am spending as much time as possible with my local friends and family, and even just the late nights sitting and chatting with my Yapese nina nge waleg ni piin (mom and sister) are meaning more and more to me each day. I am set to fly home on June 4^th – and my mind and body are still in denial of this fact as I am keeping them both as busy as possible right up until that bittersweet date.

The last few months have been especially filled with God’s grace and little wonders. In March, we celebrated Yap Day in Tomil – which involved thuws, so much incredible local food, a tremendous display of Yapese culture – and some of the most fantastic dances I have ever seen. My village, Nimar, did not dance at Yap Day, but they did perform for a cruise ship that brought over 1,000 visitors – this group will be headed to France over the summer to perform as well – I am not supposed to brag because that would be Un-Yapese – but my village’s bamboo dance is by far the best – just saying.

For Easter – I was all set to head off to Ulithi again (you may remember my stories of the “suicide run” boat ride in the middle of the night with dying motors and huge swells for the Easter Vigil) – but those plans changed the week before Easter when I was asked by my Yapese family if I would be the Godfather for Dafrad, my Yapese nephew. I of course immediately canceled my flight reservation to be here for Alfonso Joshua Dafrad’s big baptismal/ first communion day! The Holy Week masses on Yap were simply awe-inspiring. Good Friday included a local tradition that involved funeral wailing, the Holy Saturday Easter Vigil involved a candle light procession into mass and a fantastic local woman’s standing dance. Instead of shaking hands at the vigil mass – everyone was exchanging nunuws/marmars! Mary made all of ours, and I in exchange made one for her – which let’s just say it was a good thing she got to swap it out halfway through mass. Easter Sunday was the big day – and I joined Dafrad’s godmother and his other godfather, my good friend Martin Ruwniyol (I am the American godfather, he is the Yapese godfather – we were a very accepting Godfamily) in welcoming Dafrad into the Catholic Church.

In other exciting news of blessings - one of our seniors, Domclancy, was a winner of a Gates Millenium Scholarship! This scholarship covers the educational expenses to any school that the scholarship winner has been accepted – so Domclancy will be headed to the University of Portland. Check out more info/picture at http://www.ychs.net/apps/blog/entries/show/42164221-tiliwebug-wins-gates-scholarship! As a side note – he was also accepted to the elite University of Scranton, but he is studying engineering so Scranton was not a logical choice. I could not possible be more proud of him and how far he has come. It is moments like these that make me want to stay here and teach at YCHS forever.

“Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live.” - Robert Southwell, S.J.