I am beginning to settle in here in Yakima. I will be here 5 weeks after all.Tuesday morning began at 6:45 AM here at the community. We decided that Tuesday and Wednesday mornings would be mass days and we would travel to a local parish for morning mass. However, this morning we forgot to double check the schedule. We arrived at 7:00 AM to an empty parking lot. It turns out twice a week mass is at 8:00 AM and not 7:00 AM. So, we headed back to the house.
Br. James and I then headed to the school. The classroom I will be teaching in for the summer is room 104, so I began to settle into "my classroom." I have never taught a reading class before, so this is new preparation for me. After looking at the course description and material, I developed sort of a structure for each day. I think it will actually be fun. I think i will convince students that there are many "settings" one could read in. Obviously, the classroom setting, but also a coffee shop, outdoors, home, etc... I will see if we could do some of our own class reading in different settings. Anyway, I spent about 4 hours developing the 4-week course.
La Salle also has various summer day camps going on. On Tuesday, the school was beginning their Soccer plus Science Camp for K - 5th graders. The science teacher, Jeff, is teaching the science class and helping with the soccer camp. Good guy. I was exposed to the science room, which is quite a room. Lots of reptiles in there! Also, two rodents which I can't stand!
Br. James and I headed home at about 3:00 PM. We stopped at Safeway for some quick grocery shopping. It was my cooking day and I decided we would have pasta, salad, and garlic bread.
After dinner and prayer, Br. Dat and I decided how we would cover the U.S. Catholic Catechism. He will be my summer teacher. We then headed to Dairy Queen for some ice cream, followed by a tour of Yakima. It actually does remind me of a very small Tucson.
Today, was also a day where I was able to reconnect with several people from San Miguel High School through email. It was nice to hear how people are doing, man I miss them.
It was also a day where faith and love seemed to stand out for me. Our evening prayer was very much focused on the Spirit of Faith. A selection from the Rule reads, "The life and development of the Institute depend primarily on the mystery of and the power of grace...The Brothers live their faith as a gift to be used for their ministry of Christian education. In faith they contemplate God as the one who chooses them to be workers bringing his salvation to the least and poorest." This was encouraging to read. I must say, as I reflect sometimes, I find myself frusterated by the use of certain resources, frusterated by looking at who we are serving.
Now, I think all the work that is being done by our schools is valuable. I think that there is an incredible Lasallian spirit alive. However, we must be reminded: "especially the poor." We must especially serve low-income families. We must challenge ourselves to have the faith to believe it is possible. We must have the love for the mission to believe it is possible. De La Salle writes, "The spirit of this Institute is first, a spirit of faith, which should induce those who compose it not to look upon anything but with the eyes of faith, not to do anything but in view of God, and attribute all to God..." This serves for me as a personal reminder about looking at the future with faith. The future for me entails shifting to serving "especially the poor." And this must be directly. It cannot be artificial. I find De Marillac Middle School and San Miguel High School as the examples for our future. In a day in age, where, for the survival of the mission, we must focus on working with our lay partners, I think the Brothers have an important role in leading the work towards the roots of our mission, towards "especially the least" of our society. This will be the revitilization of the Institute.
