Kenyan Independence Day!

Monday,
December 14:
Today we REALLY celebrated Kenyan Independence Day (which was officially on December 12). Emily and Sylwia decorated our dining room with Kenyan artifacts and helped Jackie prepare the Kenyan dishes. Our fete began at our afternoon merenda (snack break) where we enjoyed “mandazi”(fried donuts) and Kenyan tea. In the evening, we continued our “trip” to Kenya as we savored a variety of Kenyan cuisine and enjoyed some Kenyan music. Our menu consisted of fried plantain, githeri (stewed beans and corn), chapati (fried tortilla), kale in peanut sauce, nyama choma (baked pork) and papaya (tropical fruit) for desert! It was Sylwia’s first time to fry and eat the plantain :-) After dinner, Jackie gave a presentation on Kenya and shared many pictures with the community. We concluded our evening by dressing up in Kenyan clothing – we even learned how to tie the head gear! We had so much fun and thoroughly enjoyed our cultural “visit.”
P.S. Where will you be traveling this year?

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!

Saturday,
December 12:
We had our annual birthday party for Baby Jesus! In our chapel, we prepared a back-drop with a stable scene, and a manger with Baby Jesus. The children (and the adults, too!) dressed up as Mary, Joseph, shepherds, and angels, and we took their picture with Baby Jesus. Jackie and Emily helped with the picture-taking and printing (it was Jackie's first Baby Jesus Party!). In the conference room, we had many activities: birthday cake for Baby Jesus, coloring, and the children's favorite -- face-painting. Sylwia had a lot of fun face-painting, along with some of our volunteers. Many people volunteered to help us: some people from our parish, some of our other friends, and even a Catholic Chinese man and his friend from Sylwia's English school. Three Polish families also brought their children to the party. In the bookcenter, two clowns from the Knights of Columbus entertained the children by telling jokes and making balloons. This year, many families came who had never been to the party before. It was beautiful to see everyone enjoying themselves and celebrating Jesus' birthday!
P.S. See you at next year's party!

You Are Invited to Baby Jesus' Party!

You are invited...to our annual Birthday Party for Baby Jesus! It will be on Saturday, December 12 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at our bookcenter on Watson Road in St. Louis. We will have picture-taking with Baby Jesus, birthday cake, face-painting, coloring, and more! For more information, please call us at 314-965-3512.
P.S. We hope to see you there!

Vocation Day "Marathon"!

Tuesday,
December 8:
Jackie, Emily, and Sr. Emi went to give a vocation talk at St. Clare of Assisi School in Ellisville, Missouri. The school had a retreat day for the students in honor of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and part of the retreat was a session on vocations. At the beginning of the day, Sr. Emi was interviewed on the school's live internal television broadcast! Then we gave four 40-minute vocation talks to students from ages 5 to 14! We used clips from the movie Evan Almighty, and a YouTube video of our sisters who are singing in the Christmas concert tour. We spoke about vocation in general and also about the charism of the Daughters of St. Paul. (It was Jackie's first vocation talk as a postulant!) When we came home, we were tired but happy to have shared with so many children about our life and vocation.

Postulants' Meetings

Monday,

December 7:

When do you plan for the kinds of things you will do each week? The postulants get together to plan for the week ahead on Mondays. We get our calendars out to pencil in any meetings with our formator, lectio, recreation, apostolic projects, book center-related events, community activities with the professed sisters, and any other appointments. Of course, there is always room to tweak our schedules to embrace new things that come up during the week. Our meetings certainly help us make sure that everyone is on the same page on all that's happening in the community :-)

Postulants Stopped by Police

Sunday,
December 6:
At 8:10 a.m., Jackie, Sylwia, and Emily came downstairs to go to Mass. We got into the car, but as we backed the car out of the garage, we were surprised to see a police car in our backyard! The officer motioned to us to wait. What was happening?! He got out of his car and walked toward us...with a book in his hand! He wanted to ask us if we had in our bookcenter any more books similar to the one he had. We very happily said yes and went on our way to Mass. It was a good reminder to us that God is always working and sending people to us, and we must always be ready to share the Gospel with them!
P.S. Do you have a similar story?

Christmas Party

Friday,

December 4:
Sylwia, Emily, and Jackie went to help Sylwia's teacher Sr. Carolyn at a Christmas party for poor and homeless people. We brought costumes, equipment, and everything we needed to take their pictures with Baby Jesus. Sylwia also did face-painting for the children. Both children and adults enjoyed getting dressed up as Mary, Joseph, shepherds, and angels and having their picture taken. One couple told us that they hadn't had their picture taken together in thirty years. It was wonderful to help them celebrate Christmas in this way, and beautiful and inspiring to see how much they enjoyed it. And, it was good practice for our Baby Jesus Party next Saturday!
P.S. How are you preparing for Christmas?