My Dear Parishioners,
                Thank God for the nicer/cooler weather this week, not as hot as the last few weeks.  Please stay cool physically and mentally so that you may live each day to the fullest and always be full of love for God and for each other.  Next weekend, August 3rd and 4th, Father Curtis Hecker will be here to celebrate all weekend Masses and hear confessions prior to every Mass.  Please take this special time to go to confession to a guest priest.  Fr. Curtis is a young chaplain priest at Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School.  He loves education.  He loves to help teenagers grow in their Catholic faith and teach them how to deal with this life.  Please welcome him to our parish and be sure to thank him in person for celebrating the Holy Sacraments for us.  There will be no daily Mass from Wednesday, July 31st to Friday, August 2nd as I will be in Carthage, Missouri for the Marian Days.  On my way, probably I will stop by Pittsburg to visit a priest friend, Fr. Jerome Spexarth, pastor of the parish there.  We used to spend a lot of time together when we were in the seminaries in Minnesota and Ohio.  He is a great, dedicated and holy priest. 
The Carthage Marian Days is an annual pilgrimage where 60-80 thousand people, mostly Vietnamese Catholics, gather together to celebrate their Catholic faith and to give special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Of course, we will honor our ancestors, the Vietnamese Martyrs too.  There are people coming from Vietnam too, especially priests and religious sisters.  Our Bishop Kemme has been joining this special event for years and he will be there again next week.  I have been going every year since 1986.  As a priest, I will be helping with a lot of confessions, both in English and in Vietnamese.  Of course, I will concelebrate at Holy Masses and will be praying for you all.  Please know that you are dear to me and I will pray for you every day, especially at Holy Masses.  My wish is that we will all make it to the kingdom of God.
   School Registration: If you have not registered your children to attend our All Saints Catholic school yet, please do so.  The best gift in life is the gift of God to them and the love for God in their hearts.  Loving God with all one’s heart, mind and soul and loving others as oneself is the way of life for all of us.  Please register your children to attend our school.  Thank You!
   Back to School Get-Together: Everyone is invited to our back to school evening on Sunday, August 11th with much food and fun.  Our teachers will be available to meet everyone and to show our children their classrooms, etc.… You don’t have to have kids in school to support Catholic education and to let our children know that you care for them with your time, talent and treasure.  We are called to do good unto each other, especially our children, for they are the future of our church and families. 
                                                                           Love you all, Fr. Hien

My Dear Parishioners,
   Blessings from our Lord Jesus, His beloved Mother Mary, and from all the angels and saints to you all.  What a weekend God blessed us with -- the beautiful Holy Masses and the celebration we had last weekend.  I was so pleased to see so many people at every Mass and to see everyone so happy.  Happy that we have God and each other in our lives, especially the Bishop.  Happy that we have been loving and serving God together.  Happy that we are blessed with much, including a nice house and the great food we had for everyone.  We thank God and each other.  I want to especially thank the many people who helped with the renovation of the house, those who helped so much with the meals last weekend such as our Knights and our Altar Society ladies, and everyone for coming and making us a church family.  I also noticed that many people enjoyed my buck (Buckeye).  I am so glad that the joy that I had in harvesting and having this special buck mounted were also enjoyed by many of you.  He is a lucky buck, delighting many people.  When I have the time, I will share with you how smart this buck was.  It’s so true that nature knows best.  Finally, as you have seen, the house is not completely done.  I still have some work to be done, mostly painting.  Also, there is no furniture for the living room and bedrooms yet nor window blinds.  I will start looking for good deals.  Pray for me for I don’t like to spend a lot of money.  I also think it’s a sin for priests to live a luxurious lifestyle.  Please know that most of the items in the house were donated or purchased at a discounted price, for example, the original price of the LG refrigerator at Lowes was $1,621, I got it for $382 brand new at Lowes and of course, no sales tax.
   School Registration: Please pray for our parents so that they will give their children the best education for their children’s mind and heart.  There is no better education out there for God’s children than a Catholic education.  A Catholic education will transform the minds and hearts of our children to be like Jesus’.  Please know that Jesus invites all children to Him, “Let the children come to me.”  Therefore, I will not reject any children from attending our All Saints Catholic School, unless their parents don’t believe in it and would not support All Saints with their time, talent and treasure.  Please register your children to attend All Saints Catholic School.  Enjoy the last few weeks of summer before our children come back to school, Fr. Hien
 

My Dear Parishioners,
   Are you ready for some fun and fellowship?  This weekend, July 13th & 14th, everyone is invited to the parish picnic and tour of the priest’s residence.  Food and drinks will be served in the Fischer Center, dine-in only, no carry-out please.  We want to make sure that we have enough food for everyone, and Bishop Kemme plus all priests of the diocese are invited too.  Bishop will celebrate our 11am Mass and join us for lunch.  What a blessing.  Please enjoy each other’s company and enjoy our food.  You are welcome to bring any dish to share if you would like, but if you can’t, it’s ok, for we will have steak, smoked chicken and potatoes for everyone.  Let us thank God for each other, those who practice faithful stewardship of their time, talent and treasure, and those who have helped us tirelessly with the renovation of the new house.
   Priest’s Residence: I wish I could tell you that everything inside and outside the house is perfectly finished.  We are blessed to have this house as a nice addition for our church; however, the house was built in 1937 and was vacant for a long time before we got possession of it.  Because of this, there were many problems inside and out with leaks and mold.  Upstairs: New sheetrock, paint, plumbing, electrical and remodeling all bathrooms with floor tile and one handicap accessible bedroom.  We re-sanded and stained all the wood floors.  The formal dining room is now the kitchen with a new door to the patio.  The kitchen has granite and quartz countertops, cabinets are re-sanded and painted, crown molding added, and of course new appliances.  The light fixtures in the kitchen area and the great room are original with LED bulbs.  To save money, I kept the original glass wall.  All the windows are new.  The stain glass window was originally in the kitchen and I moved it to the great room.  Downstairs: About 75% done with new framing, sheet rock, electrical, plumbing, paint, and new LED lights throughout the house.  All leaks fixed, including in the sun room.  Outside: It took a lot of concrete to pave the garage, driveway and around the house in the flower beds, which I did to keep water away from the house and for bugs and weed control.  To save money, I placed the old concrete pieces south of the house to keep water away from the house and to create a garden area.  I also moved all the extra dirt to the west and created a berm to keep the traffic noise down and pedestrians from crossing easily onto our property.  We washed, scraped, primed and painted the outside.  We planted about 200 bushes of golden privet hedge and forsythias, roses and fruit trees, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc.  My vegetables are coming along.  My favorite part of this house is the pond, where I can swim on hot summer days to save the church’s water for I need two to three showers a day.  Anyone want to join me?  Just kidding, the pond is for koi fish.  This is my first time raising koi.  I don’t have any fish in it yet, sorry.  FYI the pond is my personal hobby, so I personally paid for it. 
   Q.A.: Many people have asked me - which room is my bedroom.  Truthfully, it doesn’t matter to me which one, more likely the one near my fish pond and mounted buck.  Donations: Thanks everyone for your generous donations toward our building fund.  If you wish to donate money toward new items in the house such as furniture, beds, window blinds, washer & dryer, etc.…please let Sandy/office know.  Everything you donate will stay with the church forever.  I would take a used washer & dryer if it is still working.  Finally, I can’t wait to be with everyone and our Bishop for Holy Mass, to enjoy some great food and fellowship.  Love you all, Fr. Hien
 

​My Dear Parishioners,

    God bless America!  God bless everyone too as we celebrate the 4th of July weekend.  I hope everyone is enjoying the 4th of July celebration.  Next weekend, July 13th and 14th, our church family will celebrate our annual parish picnic and blessing of the new priest’s residence.  Open house starts on Saturday, July 13th after 4pm Mass.  Sunday July 14th, open house after 8am Mass with coffee and donuts available.  Food of steaks, smoked chicken and baked potatoes will be available for everyone on Saturday and on Sunday after 9:30am and 11am Mass.  You are welcome to bring any dish that you would like to share, including desserts, vegetables, fruits, ice cream for the hot weather?  Due to the hot weather in mid-July, we will have our meals in the Fischer Center, but you are free to eat outside if you feel like it.  Please give us a hand to clean up after each meal so that the hall and the tables are clean and ready for the next crowd.  Bishop Kemme will celebrate the 11am Mass, followed by a blessing of the priest’s residence and luncheon with us all.  Everyone is invited to our Masses and meals on both days.  Feel free to bring your family and friends, too, regardless if they are parishioners or not.  It will be more fun with more people.  We are blessed to have each other, let us celebrate our faith together and enjoy good food together.  Please keep in mind that our church family is like our country of America, we are blessed with people from many different backgrounds, cultures and languages.  We must learn to live in peace and appreciate each other.  God loves us when we love each other.
    Vietnamese Food Sales:  Congratulations to our parish for we raised $13,000 from the Vietnamese food sales.  What a success and a blessing from God and from so many generous people, parishioners and non-parishioners alike, with their time, talent and treasure.  Thank you everyone and please join our church family for our special picnic and appreciation next weekend - July 13th and 14th.  We truly appreciate your sacrifice and love for our parish.  

God bless everyone, Fr. Hien