Board of Directors Meeting

The board meetings for the Maryknoll Lay Missioners usually start off on Thursday evenings, continue all day Friday, and finish at lunch time on Saturday. Because of some schedule conflicts this time, we ended early on Saturday, after a short session over breakfast.

During breakfast the board held its executive session, the board members only, without the MKLM executive director and director of mission. Then Dave Cappellari, Frank Johnson, and Mark Wittenberg piled into their rental car and headed for the airport.

To save work for the housekeeping staff and eliminate the need for several housekeepers, all guests at Bethany are asked to strip their beds and leave the sheets in the pillow case out in the hall as they depart.

The board finished its meetings Saturday morning, but Saturday afternoon a new group started arriving. These are the lay missioners who were sent out 3 1/2 years ago and who are now finishing their first contract. They all come back together at Bethany for a Mission Integration Program, to prepare some of them to return to their regular pre-Maryknoll life and to prepare others to return to a further contract in their mission countries.

This year's returning Class of 2008 was unusual in that it contained Susan Sporl (left) who served in Cambodia and her brother Pat Humholtz and his wife Ilona who served in Kenya.