Retreat

I have been putting off writing this cause I was gonna upload pictures. Still haven't, so I guess that'll come later.

This weekend we had our Social Justice retreat at Waitts Lake Camp in Washington, north of Spokane. It was facilitated by a couple, Carol and Vicki, who work/teach at Portland State University. The community from Hays stayed the night with us the night before, but left early the next morning. We left around mid-day, just as the gray skies were starting to clear in Missoula. It's been dark and dreary here for about the past week, so we were pretty bummed that we missed seeing blue here for once.

It was only a five hour drive, but we took our time to get there. First we stopped at St. Regis, a travel center that features a real-live-free trout aquarium! It really doesn't get any better than that. I, personally, love St. Regis. It has the most ridiculous, giant collection of moose-themed, cowboy-themed, fly-fishing-themed kitsch collection. Wonderful.

Next we stopped at Cataldo, a Jesuit mission church in Idaho. (Picture, upper right, not my own). It's a beautiful church built back in the 1800s. The contrast between the Jesuit cathedral and the mountains which had long been the cathedral of the Coeur d'Alene can't be ignored. It's good to remember the history of the Jesuits in the Northwest, many wonderful things, and many things that were done inappropriately and insensitively. I hope (and think) it's improving though.

Last we stopped in Spokane at my old house. It was good to see it again, and to show my housemates where I used to live. We had forgotten about the time difference and had time to spare.

The retreat itself was wonderful and relaxing. We did an exercise on the stations of the cross, and had the opportunity to reflect on the individual stations with a few people from different areas, and talk about how our work and community life were related. All in all, it was a great chance to get away, refocus, and see other JVs.