Day: 25 - 27 The River

Part of living in a UCO men's household includes morning prayer for 4 mornings every week (Mon - Thur).  Usually we have a diffrent person lead a meditation, sing 3 - 4 songs, and have a time of intercession and thanksgiving. Today we went outside for prayer on a whim, and we had it beside this river. It was colder as it was 8am in the morning, but what was cool was just being on this cold park bench with 8 other guys near a river with the sole purpose of saying prayer. It was inspirational to my thought of prayer only when it is comfortable to myself, as there is nothing comfortable about being outside at 8 in the colder weather, but it was one of the more fruitful and peaceful prayer times i've had. You're in my prayers

God Bless

Aaron

Day: 23 - 24 Brotherly Bonding

Today was just a normal day in the life of a Gapper, I went to the office and helped out with some financials, went home made some bacon sandwiches, then went back to the office helped with some grocery shopping then had dinner at a men's house in Ypsilanti. Overall the day was busy with obviously more details involve. Although one detail resonated more through my mind. The living room in our house of 9 guys is this room with four couches and a t.v, and every night the majority of us who were available would just hang out in this room. By the end of the night it would usually end with someone saying that they should have gone to sleep earlier, and this is something that has and is still going through my mind every night since I have arrived. So I thought it was this nice living room that we had that attracts us all there to spend the last hour of the night where we could be getting early rest, although the room has nothing to do with it.... The people inside the room is what makes it worth the sacrifice of rest, and creates an enjoyable and relaxing atmosphere. This kinda of brotherly bonding is something that I thought I would be used to, considering I have 3 brothers, but the feeling is brand new to me. one of the reasons I think the Lord has brought me here is to experience this community life, and I hope to indulge in this experience as the days go on. You're in my prayers.

God Bless

Day: 20 - 22 Some Building Climbing

Part of the night entertainment that takes place here in Ann Arbor is some late night building climbing. So Thursday night we found an abonded construction site near our house and climbed it.  Here are some pictures from the top of the construction site.

God Bless

St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

This is the parish I  regularly attend every Sunday, it provides 24 hr adoration on Fridya's, daily mass at 7 am  and confession alot :) Here are some pictures...

Day: 13 - 19 Busy Bee

Over the last few days i've been un able to blog as much due to the fact that because the school year has started, so has the majority of my activities. I'm going to try and blog every day and try to put a bible verse or quote that really strikes me as important and relavent to this year. This last few days i've been forming my schedule. Some of the event that have been going on is the first UCO prayer meeting, the first meeting of our men's house, and house cleanup. There will be many pictures coming!!!!!

Day: 10 - 12 Office

The GAP year training has begun!!! This week has started of with training in the UCO/ Word of Life office. It is very similar to my job at the church with some big differences. My service at the office includes; cleaning the bathroom, kitchen, handling parts of the email, phone and mail systems, some financials and that's all I know for now.

Through this training I've learned that cleaning the floor on my hands and knees is much more humbling than using a mop, and I was humbled to learn from my supervisor Ermin that obeying for the sake of obeying though respectful can be improved by obeying in a way by learning the desire of a leader, supervisor, teacher, or parent's heart. Obeying while still keeping aware of one's desires for that command. Which can be taken to my own obedience to God therefore praying not only out of obedience but out of wanting to fulfill the desire of God's will in my life.

The verse this message came from is
2 Samuel 18.

Lastly happy St. Monica's feast day.

You're in my prayers.

God Bless

Aaron

Day 9: Church and a Picnic

Today it started of with mass at the church which will become my home parish for the next year, the church is St. Thomas the Apostale. I will soon be putting pctures of the chuch up, the church has 24 hour confessions on Friday's, daily mass at 7am and a very active youth group so I am very excited.

The second part of the day consisted of attending the Word of Life Community Picnic at a park area. The picnic was very similar to our community picnic's in Toronto and had a Hawaiian theme to it. There was volleyball and lawn chair volleyball (sit-down lazy volleyball, but much harder). We played soccer, had the best hawaiina shirt concert, tossed around the frisbie and foot ball and had a BBQ/ Potluck. Finally during lunch we took a walk near a creek and with a couple of the community boys, started jumping across this creek. Overall a very fun and full day. You're in my prayers

God Bless