In our town of Carthage, MO, we boast a population of around 12-15,000 people. It’s a quiet town, not much goes on here, nothing too out of the ordinary. Also, in our town is a Catholic, Vietnamese monastery and I happen to live down the street from it. I drive by the statue on the right practically every day and that statue is as big as it looks, it’s huge. I would say it’s about 3 stories tall! You really can’t appreciate it until you see it.It just so happens that every year, there’s an event called Marian Days, which is a retreat for a few Vietnamese Catholics. They meet here around the first week of August and they are taught and refreshed and they see family and friends. The event this year was last Thursday through this past Sunday. It started out with a few hundred people back in 1977.
Now, it’s time for a quick refresher, small town, quiet town, roll the sidewalks up at 8 (I’m not joking!), 12-15,000 people. I just wanted to remind you before we go on.
This year was the largest pilgrimage yet and I guess since this is the 30th annual, that may have contributed. The attendance to the pilgrimage this year was 70,000 people! Do you comprehend this? For more perspective, they camp out and do all their meetings on about a 2 block by 2 block piece of land. There are tents and cars everywhere and they are nearly on top of each other.
We are just far enough away to be out of reach, but our neighbors closer to the property rent out their yards to Vietnamese campers and the way things are going, we may have the opportunity to do that next year. Each year, it gets closer. We do hear the loudspeakers nearly 24/7 of Vietnamese teaching and preaching. All streets around the campus are closed, but fortunately, we are right off of an outlying street and just have to alter our way home, not try to go through it.
Now, can you guess what kind of mess these people left behind? Very little, as a matter of fact. By the time we were back after lunch on Sunday, everyone had cleared out and all of the trash was bagged up and lining the streets and no trash was left on the grounds at all. Very impressive. By dark, the city had come through and hauled off all of the trash bags. In fact, the field where a lot of the cars were parked is actually the youth football and cheer practice field and by late afternoon, the entire field was mowed and chalked for football practice, which starts tonight.
One of my daughters and I walked through there Saturday evening and it’s amazing to see all the people and cars and tents. I don’t agree with what they believe exactly, but it’s interesting to be so close to people so devoted to their beliefs. We happened to be discussing salvation as we walked among these people, you know, Jesus being the only way to Heaven, that kind of thing. 
Security steps up during Marian Days Festival
1,600 mile journey to deepen faith
Jim, your mom sent us a copy of the Annual Pilgrimage which you created. Nice to see what really took place there from a local. Great article!
It was very nice visiting with you and your family last May. Your girls have grown up since the last time we saw you all. Glad that you are all doing well. Your dad ran us by your office where you work, a nice place to work.
Thought I would let you know that James is now back to Colorado, they have settled in Palisade, east of Grand Junction. We will get to see them more often.
We are having a home built here in New Castle and should be in it by November. In the mean time, we are living with Emily and Kelly. You may E-mail us here. I hope sometime in the near future, you and your family will visit us.
Your last paragraph states your beliefs. To learn what we believe about salvation, look to catholic.com, click on Pillar of Faith..Pillar of Fire. You may also want to search on other question you may have.
Take care and may God bless you and your family always.
E.C.