Free event.  Class B uniforms.

Our yearly service day at the monastery.  For those who are not familiar with Thien Tam, they have been very supportive of us and host our yearly Advent Retreat.  They hosted our Family Camp last March.  TSG31 often camps on their premises.  They joined us last year and were planning on helping again this year.

Father Dominique is expecting us.  Their event is HUGE!  It goes from Thursday evening to Sunday night.  We will be helping all day Saturday.  I told him we will arrive at 0930 and stay as long as we are needed.  He encourages us to stay for their night procession (ending at 2200), which is a sight to behold.  They again offered to share their meals with us.  If you are a fan of traditional Vietnamese food, it will be a delight!  He recommended that we came in uniforms so people would know who we are.  They can use us for trash, parking assistance, cleaning, serving meals, and anything else we can be of help with.  They typically host around 3,000 people for the event!!! It is quite impressive.

This would be an incredible experience, great charitable work,  and a wonderful way to express our gratitude to the monks for their hospitality.  With such large numbers, this is definitely an opportunity for us to earn our “apostolate” title.  Who knows, we could inspire someone to start a Vietnamese TSG troop! We made many great contacts in the previous years.  In between others, this is how we met Bill Mureiko of the Restoration Homestead and I was invited to sit and visit with their guest of honor, visiting Bishop Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan while he was having lunch.  He shared that he was very impressed with us, encouraged our apostolate and assured us of his prayers.

It is a long day of hard, hot, sticky, messy work.  But the appreciation and the admiration our organization receives for it are priceless.  I truly believe just seeing the boys serve so hard brings a additional ray of sunshine to the attendees.  The responses are always strong and touching.  We seem to give people hope that not all of the next generation is lost.  Our impact is big there, and the prayers and resulting graces we receive are without a doubt numerous.

Here is the monastery page: https://www.thientamosb.org/welcome