Sorry, I Got Caught Up

So…what have you guys been up to?

I’ve been a little busy!

This is the obligatory post bloggers always write when they’ve been away from the blog for a while.

You’ve seen them. They contain an apology for being absent and an explanation of what could possibly have been so important that a simple post could not be produced two months.

Well, I am really sorry, and I do have a good excuse.

I GOT A NEW JOB!

I’m now the Director of the Bishop Helmsing Institute (BHI). It’s a school of faith formation run by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO. Yep! I moved to Kansas City! And I’m the director!

The institute does adult faith formation classes leading to catechetical certification. There’s five staff instructors, and several adjunct instructors, that do 4-5 week courses at remote sites (mostly parishes) around the diocese. This year we’re focusing on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We’ll teach the whole Catechism in 6 courses this year.

This whole thing has been a whirlwind. Here’s the story.

About two years ago, a friend from Franciscan turned me onto a job opening at BHI. I met the department head and the director at the St. John Bosco Conference at Franciscan. They watched me teach and asked me to apply, which I did right away. However, funding for that position got cut.

Then toward the end of last May, they asked me to apply again…but this time it was for the director’s position. The interview process took only a month. I accepted the position at the end of June and a month later, July 28th, I started. Believe me, that was a quick turnaround! I had a month to button up my DRE job so I could turn it over, and get a move organized. On top of that, one week of that was spent at the Bosco Conference.

Needless to say, I didn’t have much extra time, or brain power, to devote to blogging.

I have to say my wife was incredible. She is the moving planner extraordinaire. She’s the one that got everything together and made it happen so quickly. If it wasn’t for her, I’d still be in Champaign waiting to move.

So here I am. Living in Kansas City, drinking through a fire hose at the Bishop Helmsing Institute, and loving every minute of it. I’m mostly learning the ropes but I’m already thinking of what I can improve. What can I say? I can’t help it. Don’t tell my boss.

On the blogging side, I think I’m finally settled enough to get back to it. I have a ton of stuff to write about. Things I learned at the Bosco Conference from Andre Regnier and Sherry Weddell, as well as many other thoughts about evangelization.

It’s been a wild ride. Every once and a while I pull a little disappearing act when life catches up to me, but I really appreciate your reading and support of my writing. Thanks for sticking with me.