After literally being blown down the road with winds of about 30 mph, we spent a very interesting two hours meeting with the pilgrims we are going with including Archbishop Nauman and three members of the diocesan office: Lesle Knop, Executive Director of The Catholic Foundation of NE Kansas;  Michael Scherschligt, the Catechist for the Holy Family School of Faith and Michael Podrebarac, Liturgist for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. (I can tell that remembering names, at least for me, will be very easy if everyone is called Michael!) Also with us was Belinda Held our tour guide and fellow pilgrim from Unitours, the touring company assembling all the parts for this pilgrimage;

Ms Knop

Archbishop Nauman

One tidbit that Archbishop Nauman let everyone know is that this will be his first pilgrimage to Fatima! We will be in good hands! He will be providing the Mass coverage and will handle the Confessional while we are traveling. I'm not sure how confessing to a Bishop is handled, but I guess we'll find out. Most of us who live in rural parishes that are served by one priest who are responsible for two or three far-flung parishes rarely have the opportunity to have a long confessorial moment with him. Having at our disposal confessors is unique for us out in the hinterlands. 

Ms. Held as the Unitour representative gave us the preliminary information we needed to prepare ourselves and our belongings for the journey, including a short video describing our journey. The video is  further down the blog

Mr. Scherschligt, there is not a test on the spelling of Michael's name at the end of the pilgrimage!  Michael, this is easy to spell, has a PhD in Marian studies and the diocese is fortunate to have him both as a Catechist and as a Marian specialist. He will also be our "go to" guy on the Marian sites we will be visiting, how lucky is that? Michael gave us some preparatory spiritual activities to do prior to going on the trip, one was to pray the rosary and inform ourselves on the Marian sites we are visiting. Michael too has not visited all of the Marian sites personally so he will also be a newbie with us.

Ms. Held uploaded a YouTube video after the meeting, which describes the trip and its route:

So, here we are: the first day of the journey. Our preparation is ahead of us, by getting in shape for the trip, both physically and spiritually; we are up for the task. Five short months and here's hoping that the Passports come quickly without any mistakes! 

Remember our blog updates will be infrequent from here on out unless something important happens. So stay tuned. I will send out reminders a week before we leave. Depending on WiFi service (it may be far and few in Span and Portugal) I hope to get something on this blog every day. I hope also to be able to turn on the comments after we leave so that may be a way for you to communicate with us while we're "deployed." In the mean time, send us your prayer requests.