Special Thanks to All World Youth Day Benefactors!

Hello, Coffee Talkers!

It's been a long day, and tomorrow will be full as well, so I'll keep it short tonight. I do want to share about the amazing discounts I was graciously given today at Walmart Apple Valley and Valley Sporting Goods! Both stores gave generous discounts on t-shirts and screen printing set up fees for shirts that we are getting for our pilgrim group and our host families in Toledo, Spain for World Youth Day in August. I was especially impressed by Alisha, a manager at Walmart, who spent a great deal of time arranging for a special discounted rate on 60 shirts, and who went out of her way to open a register just for me to ring up the shirts and get the best discount possible for our church group. Thanks, Alisha!

This also makes me think of the tremendous generosity of all of our group's benefactors, who are too numerous to name here. So many family members, friends, parishioners, and organizations have sponsored us financially and through a variety of donated items, and have supported us through their prayers, and I am truly grateful. Thanks to such generosity, 27 members of our parish will attend World Youth Day, many of them for the first time, and they will experience an amazing global solidarity of faith and fellowship with millions of other young people from around the world (and, of course, with our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI!).

Please pray for us as we prepare, and as we travel to Spain in August. And be assured that I (and our group) will be keeping all of our benefactors in our grateful prayers, as well!

Peace and all good,
Leslie