24 Students from both the Sunday and Wednesday classes piled into the church van and 3 other cars Sat. Dec. 8th to travel to Burnett, Texas to spend the weekend on retreat. The awesome adult chaperones were the 7^th & 8^th grade Sunday teachers, David Karr (and his wife Janet & son David), Rene Rodreguez and Kurt Hentchel along with parents Kathy Pappenfort and Tricia St. Amour. The caravan of kids arrived in Burnett in time to get a bite to eat and to wait in line for the experience of Main Street Bethlehem. Main Street Bethlehem gave us an opportunity to walk around a recreation of the streets of Bethlehem in the time of Jesus’ birth. There were people dressed in authentic – looking clothing walking around the mock village selling vegetables, begging for money, curled up sleeping and selling anything imaginable. There were even Roman soldiers who looked very mean and suspicious of everyone. Inside buildings you saw men in a tavern drinking and talking. Women were in houses weaving cloth, dipping candles and serving their families a meal. In the middle of the town were people in shackles who could not or would not pay their taxes to Caesar. The Tax Collector Matthew was sitting in the street at a table yelling and demanding the people brought before him pay their share of the taxes. Matthew, along with the Roman soldiers, did a very good job of getting the people to pay by threatening to put them in jail or in chains. We walked by boys & men selling camels, sheep and cattle. The people in Main Street Bethlehem were very excited and talkative because news was being passed that a man and a woman with child were in Bethlehem and the woman was to give birth to a baby who was thought to be the Savior. As we made our way through the streets, passing people talking, selling items, working and singing songs, it was very easy to actually feel like we were really in Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus. What was the most powerful moment was when we walked through the crowd and saw Joseph and Mary in a grotto by themselves. Mary was holding her baby, Jesus. We all stopped and took a pause to pray. The teenagers and chaperones each experienced the event in their own way, but you could tell that we all were very moved.

After Main Street Bethlehem, our caravan headed to Eagles Wings Retreat Center, where we settled into the bunkhouses then headed out to do Stations of the Cross. With flashlights in hand, Kurt Hentchel, our 7^th Grade catechist, led us up the hill under a starry Texas sky to the outdoor Stations of the Cross. How awesome it was for the teens to review and pray over the life of Jesus while doing the Stations after having just seen Jesus as a live baby at Main Street Bethlehem!

No retreat, especially an Advent one, would be complete with out singing Christmas songs. Again, we loaded into the trucks. We went to the Nativity at the gate of the retreat center where everyone had a GREAT time singing religious songs and silly Christmas songs under a clear starry sky. After, we piled into the trucks again and headed to the campfire where we roasted marshmallows, made samores and hot chocolate. The teens had had a full day and were ready for bed, HA! HA! HA!

On Sunday we cleaned up, packed up and went to church at Our Lady of Sorrows church. Back at Eagles Wings, it began to rain as we loaded into the van & cars. On the ride back, the kids slept and the rain tapered off as we approached Temple.

Some of the teens shared their experiences of the retreat, Jordi Alfeche said, “the Bethlehem city was really cool”. Giselle Blanchard wrote, “I really enjoyed Bethlehem Live and the retreat was awesome and spiritual!” Philip Cezanne commented, “I really enjoyed Bethlehem Live! It was cool! The people there acted like the outside world did not exist.” Several teens said that they had fun at Main Street Bethlehem and that they enjoyed exploring the grounds at Eagles Wings.

This is not the first time the Sunday 7^th & 8^th grade students have gone on this retreat to Burnett, but, it was the first time students from the Wednesday classes have attended. This retreat was a great opportunity for CCE students from both days to prepare themselves for Advent and Christmas and to get to know more parishioners their own age by doing an activity together. Next year, this new tradition will continue.