Greetings from Kansas City! I think this blog is a great idea, thanks for starting it up. Well I'll do a brief update of my life. I'm back in Kansas City, MO starting my second year as a Lasallian Volunteer after a great summer break of traveling the midwest and taking a trip down to Guatemala. I live and work at Holy Family Catholic Worker House and also "work" part-time at St. James Parish. There I coordinate Youth Ministry for Middle School/High School students, organize volunteers and do the Confirmation program. St. James is a unique and wonderful parish that i feel very at home in. There are only about 175 families yet we have 23 different first generational countries represented, 15 different languages spoken! There's a lot of lay empowerment and focus on the midtown commnity we live in.

I have a lot of anxiety about what to do after this year. I'm looking to move back to Chicago, but have no idea what to do in terms of work, schools, community, etc. (besides miss Bily!) So if anyone has a life for me in Chicago please let me know! Seriously though, any contacts, job opportunities, or things you think I'd like would be greatly appreciated.

On a side note I was asked to give a talk at a suburban parish a few weeks ago about my work at Holy Family. The evening was set up similar to a hunger banquet, but totally different I guess. We were all treated as "guests", exactly how things are done at our house. We waited outside, got meal tickets, people served us our food, etc. They had some great materials, quizes, statistics about poverty and Kansas City poverty. So, in my typical style afterwards I got all the resources I could so that I could resuse the materials. I was very happy to find out it came out of the USCCB! Here's a link: http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/ There are age appropriate activities, lesson plans, suggestions, etc. If you're interested.

Great hearing what other alums are up to!
Peace
Kendall