Fr. Wee stops by to pray

Like every other Friday, some of our parishioners were praying for an end to abortion outside the abortion site in Bellevue.

Today it was nice that Fr. Wee was able

 to drive down from Hooper and pray.

Discipleship Weekend: Kids Against Hunger

During Discipleship Weekend six teams gathered Saturday at Kids Against Hunger to pack 2,000 meals for those in need. Typically much of the meals packed would go overseas, but in this case the food was sent to pantries in Omaha and Fremont that were running low on food.

Disciples would funnel together a mixture

of vegetables, vitamins, soy and rice.

The recipients can boil the contents in water

 to provide a nutritious family meal.

The food bags are sealed, boxed

 together and ready for use.

Thank you to everyone who helped Saturday!

There were a number of projects during Discipleship Weekend. If you have pictures from another project, please email them to Deacon David.

Getting that Engineering Badge

Parishioner Jesse Long, who works for Boyd Jones, was recently able to give some of our scouts a sense of what construction/engineering/surveying is all about. First they looked at some of the blueprints for our church and how to read them.

They were also able to use some surveying equipment.

They learned how this equipment

 can be used to measure precisely.

This gives them a better sense of all of the work involved in building the chapel and renovating our church.

A Bake Sale Discipleship Weekend

One of the events during Discipleship Weekend was a Gigantic Bake Sale. We sold out of all the goods Sunday morning and raised $1,779 in sales and donations, well beyond the goal of $1,000. The money will help renovate a building in downtown Omaha to serve the needs of the community.

Building Campfires

School may have begun, but the students at St. Columbkille Catholic School may still be in summer mode. Some are building campfires at recess.

Celebrating some deacons

Archbishops George Lucas and Eldon Curtiss were on hand as the diaconate community of the Omaha Archdiocese celebrated deacons who had hit milestone years of service to the diocese. The picture above is of those who were ordained 10 years ago, including Deacon Mike Leick who was ordained in our parish.

 Also honored for 10 years were two couples still serving

 our parish, Deacon John Zurek and his wife Connie ...

... as well as Deacon Bill Hill and his wife Kathy.

Congratulations and

thank you for your service

Pouring Cement

Thursday cement was poured for the walls of the storage room which will be under the chapel. It took three trucks to haul all the cement.

 

 The cement was pumped by pipe to the proper spots.

 

 

As the cement was being poured an independent tester was on hand to gather samples and analyze them to make certain the cement meets all specifications.

Friday morning they began taking off the forms.

One of the next steps will be building

 new steps leading to the kitchen.

Preschool Begins

Monday night the families gathered to hear about Sacred Heart Preschool and what their children would be doing in classes.

Wednesday was a chance for students

 to visit their new school and explore.

 

 

 

Yesterday was the first day for students attending Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today is the first day for those attending on Monday-Wednesday-Friday.

 We got right to work in class..

... and made new friends.

It looks like Preschool will be fun!

Scouts & Wildlife

Tuesday night part of the initial Cub Scout meeting

 was a chance to see some wildlife up close.

 

 

 He doesn't seem as excited by this guest...

 ... at least not as much as she is.

 There was also a visit from a cat ...

... who can jump.

Tuesday night the Wildlife Encounter was just one of the fun things that happened as the Cub Scouts gathered to begin a new, exciting year.

Happy 135th Birthday St. Columbkille Parish

It was on August 22, 1877 that St. Columbkille Parish was established. The thirteen Papillion, Catholic families built the church and rectory as shown above. Today you can see that the former rectory is still there and a brick house stands where the wood frame church once sat.

As those 13 families were simply delighted to have a church and borrowed $650 at 10% interest for the $1500 construction cost, they may never have imagined the parish today at over 2900 families.

The second church was built in 1923 and could seat 250 people. The first event in the "new" church was the Christmas Cantata" performed by the students of Sacred Heart Academy on Friday, December 21. The first Masses were said on Sunday, December 23rd.

The third (and current) church was dedicated in 1982. It was designed so as not to disturb the big beautiful tree in front of it. Unfortunately that tree died a few years later.

Since then a bell tower and courtyard have been built in front.

But besides the physical changes, the parish continues to grow and thrive in our mission to "go and Make Disciples."

For more on the parish history, click here.

Swimming Pool Construction

"Fr. Damian, why's there that big hole behind the church?"

"We're building a swimming pool," he sometimes joked.

Of course it's actualy the foundation for the new

chapel. And the work is coming along well.

 

 

There's progress every day.