| This weekend I spoke at two parishes in southern Missouri, just across the Mississippi River. I borrowed a car from my cousin and really enjoyed the drive both ways, playing with a GPS, which we don't have in Cambodia. When I returned to Louisville on Saturday evening, we had an impromptu gathering of the Dittmeier brothers and sisters. |
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| I drove first to St. Maurus Church in the small community of Biehle, Missouri. I had the 5:30 mass there on Saturday evening and then returned on Sunday morning for a liturgy at 9:30 AM. The church was established 140 years ago in a very German community. |
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| Mary Jane, Pat, and Russell are three of the pillars of the church at Biehle. After the Saturday evening mass, they took me to supper, and then they helped set up everything for me at St. Joseph Church the next morning. |
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| St. Joseph Church in Apple Creek, Missouri is five or six miles away from St. Maurus, and one priest serves both parishes. The weekend mass at St. Joseph is on Saturday morning at 7:30 AM. I stayed overnight in the rectory at Apple Creek. |
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| St. Joseph's is another old, historical church. The inside has been beautifully restored in a way that preserved the old quilted metal inside ceilings. |
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| When I got back to Louisville on Sunday evening, the brothers and sisters in Louisville got together for a final gathering while I was in town. The next day I left for New York City to begin the trip back to Cambodia. |
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