The Journey Continues

I've been home since June. All the family are happy to have me back. Dad probably the most since he has someone to talk to now.
Last year seems almost like a dream or an extended vacation that I'm finally recovering from.
For the next few months, until June at least, I'll be working as a Youth Minister and Campus Minister. "Middle school to Grad School" ministry as I like to say. There are plenty of challenges to keep me busy, challenges that I expected. But there are also challenges that I did not foresee which are making thinking about the future difficult.
Basically I am a Band-Aid for two different programs this parish is trying to figure out just what to do with. Very few youth are engaged and the numbers of engaged university students is not great either. The parish has an identity crisis as I see it. The church building itself was built in order to be a place to help foster ministry to the nearby university. It is in the middle of a neighborhood with only on-street parking. There is no parking lot whatsoever. Over the years though it has become a hodge-podge parish of families from all over the area to the point that it is the second biggest parish in town.
Basically I'm working for a parish that was never meant to be a parish but is trying desperately to continue to be a parish while sort of trying to stay true to its original purpose. And the kicker to all of this is there is another parish, one actually meant to be a parish with significantly better facilities, only 6 blocks away.
No one else seems to get the internal conflict that I feel in trying to do my job well. Focusing on the university might mean dropping youth programs while on the other hand focusing on youth programs and general parish life might be hurting the campus ministry program.
This issue is also a symptom of a larger problem here in my hometown of a very disconnected Catholic community. And since this is my hometown I feel somewhat obligated to try to help this community go in the right direction.

I'm here to stay, or at least I hope and believe I am. So I'll do what I think God is calling me to. Thankfully, after my experiences from my last year away from home, I'm not afraid any longer of upsetting people.

From one oven to an even hotter one...