SUMMER 2004

Since returning home after completing my Junior year of college I've been spending my time in a variety of functions including but in no way limited to:

• Sleeping (I know its hard to imagine but I do this on occasion)
• Reading so far I've read lots of periodicals and books including Crossing the Threshold of Hope by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, and The Quiet Light and The Restless Flame by Louis De Wohl, Legend, Quest for Lost Heroes, and The King Beyond the Gate all by David Gemmel, The Road to Damietta by Scott O'Dell, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling and The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks.
• Yardwork
• making this webpage
• general family time
• Umpiring Baseball games - I've been an umpire for the Herndon Optimist Youth Baseball program since I was a little baseball player myself - I estimate its 9 yrs or so. This year I've been asked to not only be an umpire, but also to train the younger guys in how they can improve their game calling/managing skills.
• eating delicious, authentic, home-cooking

From June 2 to July 13 I went AROUND THE WORLD to the Philippines!! There I volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity sisters who run a home for children in Tondo, Manila called HOUSE OF JOY.
It was such a positive experience I cannot put it into words just yet. I was living in a totally different culture and right in the middle of a society that is incredibly poorer then everything I've ever seen in the United States. Yet there was an outpooring of love and generousity. The people were friendly and helped eachother.
Working with the children was absolutely a joy. They mostly had Tuberculosis and were either orphens or the children of parent(s) who could not afford to take care of the child anymore. When I arrived there were 48 children but when I left they had moved two houses together so construction could fix the other and there was more then 70 children running around and crying for attention in the small complex. I was instantly loved and accepted by them and they called me "Kuya" which means "Big Brother".
Leaving the children definitly was not easy and I've left some of me back there in the Philippines as I was a little father of so many of them. But it is also very good to be back home with my family and friends in Virginia. Hope you'lls summers are going excellent and are filled with blessings like mine has been thus far.