googoodolls | Neil D'Aguiar.com

I had a very busy time last weekend, but it was also very enjoyable.

Saturday
On Saturday I led a retreat to the Emmaus Centre in West Wickham for the Confirmation Group of St Matthias Church. Some of the boys go to my school so I was familiar with them, but I knew none of the girls and was not involved with their confirmation programme apart from the retreat day. The main goal of the day was for them to start taking responsibility for their faith.

I had divided the day into three parts to enable them to develop their understanding of:

Who God is
Why does God allow evil and suffering to happen
How, why and when to pray

I prepared different thought tasks, creative tasks and group work for each section and mixed in a few short (5 minute), video clips. We ended the day with prayer and meditation in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel.

The programme was well recieved and I was struck by the enthusiasm and positivity of the candidates. They were engaged, they showed maturity and thought, and they wanted to become adults in the Church. It left me feeling moved by their faith and hopeful for the future of the Church.

Sunday

On Sunday I took a group of pupils from school to the NFL game at Wembley Stadium between the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This was the 4th time I had taken a school trip to one of the games, but the 1st time I had driven them up in the minibus, as we had gone by coach on previous years.

It was a long day. We left at 10am and were back at school at about 11.15pm – however, none of it dragged.

When we arived we went to the pre-game entertainment – the Tailgate Party. This takes up the entire green car park at Wembley – and is filled with skill tests, computer games, exhibitions, merchandise, competitions and shows. The school has built up a tradition on this trip of people winning things.

1st year – Year 8 pupil won/was given a signed Cheerleader Calendar by one of the cheerleaders, – to much jealousy from the older pupils.
2nd year – Year 8 pupil was given a game ball by Tom Brady and Bill Bellicheck
3rd year – Year 11 pupil won a brand new pair of Reebok Trainers – 3 weeks prior to their release
4th year – My turn!

I was one of the volunteers selected to go up on stage (a mock football pitch) to take part in a competition. You stood at the 20 yard line and threw the ball to hit the cross bar of the goal posts. I missed my first throw, (although my pupils said I grazed the bar), and then hit the cross bar on 4 of my next 5 throws. I won! My “mad skills” won me a replica game ball – and I think the respect of the pupils watching. It was an amazing feeling.

After the tailgate party we went into the stadium. Prior to the match we saw the Goo Goo Dolls perform, and Catherine Jenkins sang the National Anthem.

The match itself was slow to get going – Chicago – the away team- built quite a lead by the half. There were some great plays – but the game was overshadowed at times – 2 pitch invasions – 1 human and 1 squirrel!, and a mexican wave. Once the game picked up its momentum the crowd really got into it and the atmosphere was electric.

The atmosphere was made even better as our school group ended up sitting next to the Chicago Bears Drumline (who play at all Bears home games), and as most of us were supporting the Bucs as the “home” team we got quite a banter going. The Drumline were really good sports with the pupils – shown at the end of the game by the pupils high 5ing them and shaking hands despite the Bears win.

Half term so far as helped me enjoy the three sides to my life: