Welcome home missionaries! Thanks for keeping all of us "in the loop" on your adventure.

Well, we are back home from our first Teen Mission Trip, and my immediate thought is that I want to go back soon! My initial reason for being a chaperone on this trip was to get to know some fellow parishioners a little better and give back to those in need. However, what I experienced this past week was more than I ever expected. I watched our teens show compassion, hard work, fellowship and humility in a way I didn't think possible. I am overwhelmed with pride for our youth group and how they represented St. Catherine's. One of our "jobs" was to find God everyday in the work we did...God was all over the place!! From the beauty of our surroundings, to the Hinton Staff, to those in the community that allowed us into their homes to help them with whatever they needed. Thank you to all of the parishioners who supported this trip - you were all in our daily prayers and we will be forever grateful for the opportunity to take such a large group! We look forward to sharing our stories and photos soon! God Bless!

Team 4: Our family is patiently waiting for the completion of construction to their home. Due to the fact that they are not allowed back inside until our modifications are complete, they eagerly await their reentrance into their safer house and begin life anew. Working the entire day and creating something such as a front porch leaves one with a keen sense of accomplishment. - Colin S

AARP – rules: The youth of the parish decided to challenge the very smart and athletically superior adults (AKA – AARP group) to a volleyball game. The youth’s met their match. The Adults continually scolded the youth until the last game. Their strategy was to wear us down so we would lose. The front power of Deacon Tom and our own Mr. Shirley were forces to be reckoned with. Mr. Entz (AKA -The Dominator) and Mr. Woodworth (AKA – Longhorn) kept the ball in play with their matrix type moves. Chris Tranter (AKA – Oh no, it is Rodney) closed up one of the games with unbelievable serving skills. Sherri Entz’s quick speed and precise shooting skills kept the adults in the game. - Michael Emanuelo

Team 8: Once we arrived at the worksite for Ms. Jessie Smith, we began to unload the truck and get down to business. Most of us started to paint the foundation on the left side of the house, and finished the side of the house as well. Once that was done, we all pitched in to help complete the floor of the porch and continue working on the stairs. We broke for lunch and then when we got done, we put concrete in for the stairs and nailed in the final floorboards. After a hard day of work, Deacon Steven treated us all to McDonald’s for ice cream. WOOOHOOOOOO!!!! “This is the word of God for the people of God.” - Kellie S.

Team 4 - Today is our first day working, and it was spectacular because it is the hardest we’ve ever worked. We cleaned and scrubbed down the bathrooms. We sawed and sawed and sawed. Lastly, we will never forget this homeowner who raises chickens from scratch, and we are really happy that we could to get her moved back into her mobile home. This is the day we will never forget, and was absolutely amazing! - Meghan C. & Rebecca S.

Team 12 & 13, continued: This day was also memorable due to a our site leader, and local legend, Charlie. His stories will last forever on how he once wrestled a bear with his bare hands and WON. He also told us about how he raised an alligator from birth and when it was full grown it bit his left ring finger off. Which was obviously very fun but I can now never look at a potato the same way again! -- Dylan C. & Michael C.

Team 12 & Team 13 - Today we worked in the potato fields. We spent all day pulling out weeds. It took lots of hard work and was a lot harder than I had expected. The best part of the day was eating our lunch at the lake, which is absolutely breathtaking. After a lot more work, we finally finished and got to pull some potatoes to take with us, which the Hinton staff actually baked for us for dinner! In the end, this was a good experience. The potatoes in that garden feed the people at the Hinton Rural Center all summer, and the remaining potatoes are shared with the local food pantry. So, at the end of the day, we had done a great deed. – Amanda C.

Hope all is going well. We have had quite a number of folks "sign up" to follow your story and share in the adventure. God Bless you all.

Today after leaving directly after the 11:30 mass we embarked on our 2 hour journey to the picturesque Hayesville, North Carolina. Once we arrived we unpacked our belongings and found our way to our living accommodations. I am residing in the room in the basement of the chapel named “The Bat Cave”. It is a fantastic place with great chances to enjoy the fellowship of our other team members. We also enjoyed this evening a prayer service with our Methodist friends in spiritual preparation for the week’s work ahead. As the evening continued on, we learned more about what our first day of work will be like tomorrow. I am looking forward to helping to repair and make a double wide trailer livable for a local family just outside the town of Hayesville. – Kyle F WoooHoooo!! We finally started on our journey to serve God after 11:30 mass at St. Catherine’s today. After the 2 hour car ride up to Hayesville, North Carolina, we unpacked and headed down to the lake to dip our feet in the water and socialize. Boy, it sure felt good! We can already tell this trip is going to be amazing and like nothing we have ever experienced before! And our hopes were even more enhanced when we found out what houses we were assigned to, after an extremely delicious dinner. The workers here are so nice and caring. We feel like we can talk to them about anything. Later in the day we attended a Methodist style praying service. It was different, but it was an experience. We are extremeley excited to meet the families of the houses we will be fixing up tomorrow and the rest of his week. Looking forward to blogging about our journey tomorrow! - Becca W and Catherine N Today has been such a great day. We arrived around 3:30 and were welcomed by all of the Hinton staff. We all performed a skit to introduce ourselves and everyone got a good laugh out of it. We all agree that this is going to be a life changing experience for all of us and we look forward to helping all the local families in need. We are hoping that by all of us helping others we will prove our love and be a great witness to God. We realized that through our worship service today that Catholic is a minority in this area, but we believe that we can stand strong in this community and be a shining light for others. We are all looking forward for what lies ahead. We will keep you all posted with further posts. We love you and God Bless. - Amanda C and Shannon R