More from Sea World

Think Katherine likes getting up close and personal with the dolphins?

Greetings from Orlando!

Here we are enjoying a wonderful Christmas in Orlando, FL, compliments of our friends Tony & Cecily Kumor. Their condo is nice, and we have had some great weather to enjoy the season. We also got to stop in Lady Lake, FL, and have a KFC dinner with Aunt Mary Hoge. The first day here, the girls were enjoying the pools and water slides. Yesterday, Melody wanted to learn how to play tennis, so I took her out to the resort's tennis court with a rented racquet. It's clear my daughter Melody has some incredibly good skills as an athlete. She can pick up almost anything and go at it with confidence, too. Her and I will get in a little golf tomorrow, if she's not too tired from spending all day today at Sea World. Then, it'll be back to the pools and another day at Sea World. It's going to be a whole marine theme vacation as we'll stop in Atlanta and go the new Georgia Aquarium, too.

I'll need a vacation from vacation if we keep this pace up. :-)

Cousin Donnie in South Africa

Here's something you don't see everyday. My cousin, Fr. Don Siple OSM, is on a mission trip to South Africa. His sister, Dorothy, forwarded me the e-mail he sent her 11/13/2005. I was very moved by it, so I decided to post it here.
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Dear [Family],

The KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa is just beautiful! There are just no words to describe the beauty of the people and of the landscape.

I arrived Tuesday past after a rather grueling trip from Chicago. While all the flights departed on time, the long flights and long lay-overs in the airports made the trip almost unbearable. However, I did make it and was met at the final airport by two of my Servite brothers: Fr. Mel Loftus and Fr. Declan Doherty. It was good to see familiar faces after a long trip. Mom and Dad, Fr. Mel sends his greetings.

Upon my arrival into South Africa, I was greeted by cool, but pleasant weather and sunny skies. For the past week I have been residing at our mission of Mtubatuba which is the headquarters of the Servites in this area. There are five friars and one seminarian from the local diocese residing here. They are a great bunch of guys and continue to be very hospitable to me. Staying with my Servite brothers is making the stay here much easier and nicer. They are full of information about the local people and the local church. I am very grateful for their hospitality.

Needless to say, I slept very well on Tuesday evening; make-up time for the sleep that I missed on the fight over. On Wednesday I visited some of our mission out-stations. All throughout the trip to the out-stations I just marveled at the natural beauty of this place. God certainly took his time in creating KwaZulu. All along the way I am finding the Zulu people very friendly. Their smiles alone speak of joy, a deep joy that comes from deep within their souls. Also, on Wednesday, I visited the Indian Ocean and a small nature park where I saw massive crocodiles and hippos in the wild. No Animal Planet documentary can ever capture the raw beauty of these creatures in their own habitats. I took some pictures here.

One of the facts of KwaZulua and indeed, all of Africa, is the AIDS epidemic that is sweeping large parts of the local population. Interestingly, this disease is not only among the young, but also among those in their 50’s and 60’s. The reason for this varies. The South African Catholic Bishops Conference sponsors the AIDS Project where local parishes/missions are given the funds to minister to those fighting the disease. For many, because this is rural area, the greatest difficulty is getting transport to clinic for an exam and their monthly dose of medicine. Our mission here in Mtubatuba operates a service that goes to the people and brings them to clinic. Likewise, they have trained caregivers who make weekly checks of those in the program. These women are full of compassion and faith. On Thursday, I had the opportunity to ride along on one of the transport routes. Also, we made visits to patients in the rural area. Those that we visited were ages 26, 27 and her son who was 7. What struck me the most about these visits was how those families take care of the one who is sick. The love and care that is given is very inspiring. I felt the Lord so very present as we made the visits. The visits gave me a chance to take the facts about the AIDS situation here as reported by the American media and see it first hand. Please pray for this situation.

Friday brought me into a large game park where nature once again unfolded her beauty for me. Along the way I saw elephants, baboons, lots of rhinoceros, giraffe, African buffalo, impala, judos, lions and warthogs. There were no fences or moats separating them from our car. It was so cool! The only tense moment came when one mother rhinoceros with a calf signaled that she was going to charge our car. Needless to say we did stay around to witness what might happen. All in all it was a great day and I took lots of pictures.

That evening I was the guest of our Servite Bishop Michael O’Shea and his mission in Hlabisa, some 45 kilometers from Mtubatuba. Our church and priory there is just beautiful and I so enjoyed discussing church affairs with the Bishop.

On Saturday evening I presided and preached at the English Mass in Mtubatuba. Not much different from Mass in the United States. Today, though I concelebrated the Mass at one of the out-stations of Mtubatuba. The Mass in Zulu was an experience of liturgy like I have never had in my 13 plus years of priesthood. The people, gathered for liturgy, sang and sang and sang. The songs seemed to freely come our forth from their souls as they worshipped. The melodies were beautiful and joyous. God knew that we were there. The entire liturgy was a joyous worship of the God whose love is felt deep within. While many of those gathered have very little in comparison to us, their spirit of joy just pervades in all things.

As you can figure from this long letter I am so enjoying my stay in Zululand. My being here is a dream come true. Besides all the experiences I am having, I am enjoying the rest.

I pray that you are well and know that I miss you. Tomorrow I go to our mission near the border of Mozambique and may not be able to e-mail for it is a remote area. I will write next weekend.

I Love You,

Donnie

The Applefest 2005 Effort

Well, another one is in the books, and there is good news and bad news.

The bad news is that we didn't beat last year's record setting performance. The good news is that it was the 2nd biggest ALL-TIME at $403K gross.

That means that we have presided over two festivals that have grossed more than $834K and netted nearly $400K for our parish. Of course, there were over 1,200 volunteers and volunteer leaders that really made it happen. But, what a really cool thing it is to be involved with.

I'm so glad we moved here and got so very involved with St. John. It's an investment that has paid off for our family by making us closer and more involved in our community.

If you want to find out more about what it was we did, check out this local news story.

Melody peeling away for pie baking at Applefest.  

Libby showing off her St. John spirit wear while on a break from peeling apples for pie baking at Applefest.  

Katherine watches a movie while her sisters peel apples for pie baking at Applefest.  

Melody and Libby watch the Ben Spitzer Magic Show on the Midway at Applefest.  

Melody came out from behind the screen for a picture. Rachel's Mom is in the background supervising.  

A closeup of Libby working the Kiddie Games tent.  

Libby working the Fishing Game at the Kiddie Games tent at Applefest (Melody is behind the screen putting prizes on the hooks of kids).  

Katherine working the ball toss in the Kiddie Games tent at Applefest 

Tim reading the name of a raffle winner at Applefest.  

Melody & Libby in the trailer at Applefest, picture taken by Katherine!  

Melody working the kiddie games tent, putting prizes on the kid's fishing poles from behind the screen.  

In Bob Metcalf's travel trailer (which was reserved for him and core committee members), Tim eating a late lunch of Padre's Chili, and Melody showing off her face painting. Picture was taken by Libby!  

Our kids, and a whole bunch of others (most we know, some we don't) in the minivan, one of the raffle prizes, honking the horn when the raffle was over.  

Tim with his Michael Jordan form (notice the tongue sticking out) as he draws the second prize in the raffle.  

Rachel drawing the first prize.  

Rachel selecting the Grand Prize Winner's ticket stub in the Apple pouch. We can't name the winner until the rest of the prizes are drawn.  

Applefest 2005, at the start of the raffle drawing. The kids joined us on the flatbed truck for the introductions. Fr. Harvey is in the foreground.  

Katherine on the day after Applefest, still with her face paint from the Kiddie Games tent. She's having lunch with the Tear Down Crew.  

Applefest 2005 Grand Prize Raffle Winner Kay Watson receives the keys to her new 2005 Pontiac Vibe from Applefest Chair Tim Draeger 

Greetings!

Here we go. Coming into the 21st Century. Mostly, I'll talk about my kids, being a dad, going to church, flying, and talking about what I want to be and do with my life when I grow up. Don't check back too often. You will find that it probably won't get updated very frequently.

Rachel w/ the girls gardening at Mimi's.  

Kit Kat LOVED t-ball.  

Libby after her dance recital with the dozen red roses Daddy gave her. It was the least I could do since I forgot to buy flowers for the last recital and she cried big crocodile tears. The pink bunny was from Mimi and Pa.  

Libby, Katherine, and Melody after Kit Kat's T-ball and Melody's coach pitch baseball games.  

More from Mackinac

On the green in front of Fort Mackinac.

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Sent from my Treo