The sign points the way to the faith formation drive-thru pickup party. (Photo courtesy of St. Michael Parish, Kailua-Kona)
By Jayne Ragasa-Mondoy
Special to the Herald
In recent articles, I’ve shared examples of the wonderfully creative ways our parishes have risen to the challenge of evangelizing and catechizing during the coronavirus pandemic. From their careful in-person preparation for the sacraments to creating virtual lessons that engage parent and child, parish catechetical leaders operate on the belief that the Holy Spirit is never on “lockdown.” Rather, the Spirit unleashes God’s love for us in surprising new ways.
St. Michael Church in Kailua-Kona’s “Pick-Up Party” was another fine example of this.
After weeks of planning, Darlene Gawlik, the parish’s new coordinator of religious education, decided that once a month on a Sunday, she and the parish catechists would host a drive-thru event that would allow them to greet families and distribute faith formation resource packets. Although an unexpected shipment delay of resources led to some last-minute scrambling for the inaugural event on Sept. 20 (Catechetical Sunday), she heroically managed to prepare all the family packets, in English and Spanish, in time for distribution.
Darlene explained the process:
“We used our church rear parking lot, and set up our traffic flow to make sure traffic was limited to the church grounds and not the main street. We also chose a time with the largest gap in between Masses to minimize the number of cars accessing the parking lot.
“My husband directed traffic and thanked those who were at the church for other reasons for being understanding about parking limits. He had masks available to distribute to the families if necessary but said everyone had followed our instructions and all persons in the cars had on masks.
“The cheerful families were patient as they waited in line and were understanding when they received resource packets dotted with raindrops. (Oh my, of course, it had to rain!)
“We set up three drive-up stations (the families stayed in their cars): 1) to complete registration forms; 2) to pick up catechetical materials and a craft for the family to make at home; 3) to collect canned goods for our food pantry. The families were very generous!
“At our pastor Father Lio Faletoi’s suggestion, at each station we asked the child to practice a prayer with us — it was a great way to help parents to teach their children to pray! Noe Acosta Perez was available to help our Spanish-speaking families.
“As expected, a few families were unable to pick up their packets. I will follow up with them. But our parish faith formation team agreed that the day was a big success. The catechists had fun and it appeared that families did as well. And we could tell by their eyes that great big smiles were behind their face coverings. I’m looking forward to our next drive-through day.”
While the pandemic has presented hardships for so many families, St. Michael Church found a way to share Christ’s promise of hope in a spirit of joy. Home-based, family-centered resources give parents opportunities to strengthen the domestic church through reading and reflecting upon Sacred Scripture, speaking the language of the faith, and to grow together in faith and Christian discipleship.
It’s the kind of Christ-centered “pick-up” that we all need during a lockdown.
