"Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words."  [St. Francis Assisi]

These words served as a powerful guide for the 23 people who participated in Gospel Roads: Birmingham this summer. Participants traveled to St. Theresa's Church in Leeds, AL, via train, plane, bus, and car to take part in the program, which began on Sunday, July 5. They included students and alumni from Immaculata-LaSalle HS in Miami, St. Petersburg Catholic HS in St. Petersburg, the Academy of our Lady and Archbishop Shaw HS in Marerro, Don Bosco Prep HS in Ramsey, Mary Help of Christians Academy in North Haledon, and Mary Help of Christians Parish in New York City. After getting to know one another and being intorduced to the Gospel Roads on Sunday evening, everyone joined the parishioners for Sunday evening Mass in the parish.

The next day, it was off to Shocco Springs where the group took part in a ropes course and several team-building excercises. They left with a new appreciation for the importance of teamwork and trusting in one another. That night, the group went out to go bowling and have dinner with one another. After a prayer service and the traditional good night, it was off to bed.

Tuesday morning was the start of the real work! Most of the group stayed at St. Theresa's where they worked around the parish property doing yardwork, painting lines around parking spaces, and crushing cans. They learned that the cans were collected by the parish to be recycled. The money collected for doing so was then used by the parish to support various parish programs and outreaches. The rest of the group went to Holy Rosary Parish in Gate City, another Salesian parish in the Birmmingham area. There, the girls spent time playing with the kids enrolled in the parish summer camp. They also helped to re-organize a room full of donated clothing that was part of the parish soup kitchen.

On Wednesday, the entire group worked at Holy Rosary. A few members of the GR group went with the kids to swim at the local pool for most of the day. The remainder of the group stayed at the parish. Some repainted the Soup Kitchen building and others did yardwork around the property. Later that evening, back at St. Theresa's, the group participated in a hunger banquet, where they had a chance to experience the disparity that exists in the distribution of wealth and food in the world. The processing of the day's work and the hunger banquet experience showed that everyone was quite moved by what they had done throughout the day.

Thursday was spent working with YouthBuild. YouthBuild helps high school sropouts to earn their GED which ultimately helps them to get jobs. They also offer training for certain jobs and fields. Part of the organization purchases old houses and restores and refurbishes them so that low-income families can move into them and have a home. Some of the houses are actually used by YouthBuild as training sites for construction work. Half of the GR group worked at one of the homes helping to prepare it for a family to move in. The other half worked at a new site that had been acquired by YouthBuild to be used as a learning center. The building had been unoccupied for some time so it needed to be cleaned out pretty desperately.

That evening, one of the families from St. Theresa's invited the entire GR group to their home for pool party and dinner. The group was really moved by the generosity of the Franks family to invite everyone over.

Friday was spent working with LifeLine, a home for young mothers and mothers-to-be. The guys spent the day working around the property doing yardwork and cleaning up. The ladies spent the day inside the house with the young residents of LifeLine. The group had a barbeque with the residents and even offered them some entertainment.

That night, the group went out to dinner at Dreamland BBQ and then attended a Birmingham Barons minor league baseball game, followed by fireworks. After the game, they returned to the parish to process the day. Once again, it was eveident that everyone was visibly moved by what they had encountered that day. They were all inpired by the courage of the young women at LifeLine and their decisions to keep their babies despite the pressure they encountered from so many around them.

After a late night of paying pranks on one another, everyone had the chance to sleep in on Saturday morning. After breakfast, the group traveled down to a local park for some recreation time. They came back to the parish and spent some time reflecting the the past week. In addition to journaling, they took part in a labyrinth. The different stages of the labyrinth encouraged the participants to reflect not just on the past week, but also on various aspects of their lives. The remainder of the day included Emmaus Walks with members of the adult team, during which the participants were encouraged to reflect on how they had grown during the week, and what they planned to do when they returned home and continued to walk the Gospel Roads.

On Sunday morning, the group attended Mass for the last time at St. Theresa's. After going out for breakfast in Leeds, it was back to the Parish to wrap things up. Saying goodbye to one another was tough for everyone. As everyone went their separate ways, it was evident that they had formed a very close family and that everyone had made the most out of this Gospel Roads opportunity!

Written by Nick Magrogan, adult team member