FATHER JARROD’S RECOUNT OF THE
KANSAS CATHOLIC CHURCH BUS TOUR
To be honest, I was nervous about the trip … that is actually the reason why I didn’t “earnestly” work to promote it. I put it in the bulletin, it was put into the Catholic Advance, and eventually (barely) enough people signed up for the trip to happen. I also didn’t “push” the trip too hard, because I wanted to see if the idea of the trip was motivating enough for people to go… and it was. But now…
I am highly encouraging anyone who can go, to go on our next Kansas Catholic Church Bus Tour. While we do not yet have a date for the next trip, I am looking at a week in the Spring for our second tour. I am telling you now so that you have heads up when it comes. Why? Because I want our next bus tour to be full, full, full!
What an amazing trip we had! Twenty-six people saw twenty-three Churches is six days!
You see, I had this idea for a Kansas Catholic Church Bus Tour ever since I went on a Bus tour of Ireland. I asked myself a simple question, “I am willing to tour Ireland in a week, why wouldn’t I be willing to tour Kansas in a week?” I pitched this idea to Jeff Arensdorf, president of Village Travel, some time ago and he took the idea and ran with it. Under his leadership, Village Travel developed this bus tour which wrapped the entire state of Kansas in six days. It was a wonderful whirlwind of a tour!
My original idea, that Jeff brought to life, was simple: tour Kansas Churches as a parish in order to grow our knowledge and appreciation of several ideas: Kansas history, Catholic history in the state of Kansas, church architecture, liturgical life, and church art appreciation. And, boy howdy!, did we ever get that. In addition to those practical ideas, I hoped that such a bus tour would give me extended time with my parishioners so that I can get to know them, they can get to know me, they can get to know one another, and they can pepper me with question after question after question. And, boy howdy!, did we ever get that too!
But one thing that I did not expect to get out of this trip, which no other bus trip can give like this one, is this: each person on the trip was able to talk about and see their own family history and their own Catholic heritage as we visited so many churches and towns throughout the state. The church buildings, which are spread throughout the Kansas plains, were built with the very blood, sweat, and prayers of our forefathers, so many of whom were our direct blood-line ancestors. So many churches were built by the hands of our own grandparents and parents!
In my opinion, this bus tour was a synthesis of theology, history, liturgy, art, architecture, and devotion rooted in Kansas Catholic family trees.
So now, I am not nervous about promoting this trip! I am one hundred percent sold on this trip! I want to do it again, and I want to do it regularly.
We are the inheritors of a Kansas Catholic faith handed on to us by the blood, sweat, and prayers of our forefathers. Seeing that makes me want to bleed, sweat, and pray for my own community, so that one day, I too will be an ancestor who will have passed on the faith to those yet to be born.
Fr. Jarrod Lies, Pastor