July 11, 2018

My Dear Parishioners,

How was your 4th of July celebration? Mine was great; I celebrated it with my family at one of my sisters’ house. Amazingly that night I slept like a baby in my own bed. The fireworks didn’t bother me. I must have been really tired from playing with my nieces and nephews.

Become a Church’s Family: Becoming a church family is who we are at All Saints and only we can make it possible. We are to be together in Church to pray and to worship God. We are also to be with each other for our parish events. Please help our parish to become a church’s family with your faith, love and lives, for we are God’s family here at All Saints. I am looking forward to this weekend’s special Holy Masses to celebrate our Catholic faith and to be with you after every Mass in the parish hall for fellowship and food. I will be with you on Saturday night, Sunday mornings for breakfast and also for lunch. You are welcome to attend one or all of these events with me. This will be a great opportunity for me to know you and for you to know me and other members of our parish. Here are the details for this weekend: Saturday Potluck: Altar Society will provide chicken; everyone is invited to bring what you would like. Sunday Morning: Knights of Columbus will provide breakfast for everyone. After 9:30am & 11am Masses, the Vietnamese parishioners will provide Vietnamese food for everyone. I can’t wait to be with everyone and to enjoy great food. At 11 am Mass, Mass songs will be sung in Vietnamese.

Church’s South Entrance Doors: For the safety of everyone in church. Beginning August 1st, these doors will be used for leaving only. Please enter through the main entrance. Thank you for your cooperation! Our parish leaders and I apologize for any inconvenience, please know that our goal is to keep everyone as safe as possible while attending Church. Sadly, our world is not a safe as it used to be.

(Continued from last’s week) It was late April that Bishop Kemme asked to meet with me in person. Personally, I was not looking forward to the meeting because I was happy living in McPherson. My parishioners were so good to me. To be honest, St. Joseph of McPherson is one of the best places that a priest can ask for it has newer church, school and rectory. After six years there, I have learned where things were and I had a nice modern rectory to myself. I love to bike my yellow bike every day back and forth to church. I love to see the flowers and plants I personally purchased and planted. I enjoyed them every day and watered them every other day. I also could easily go fishing at Kannapolis, Maxwell Lakes or the Marion Reservoir. I also have hunting spots near McPherson, Lindsborg and Marquette. Moreover, in my conversation with our bishop, I learned that he really needs me to return to Wichita. I asked him, “Why me? The diocese has many wonderful and better qualified priests then me. You know that I would love to be in a country parish so that I don’t have to deal with financial shortage and city rules and regulations of running a school, etc…” Bishop said that he chose me because of my 18 years as a priest and also because of my Vietnamese background. I responded that I was ordained to do God’s will and not mine and if there’s a need of me in Wichita, then I must do God’s will for me. We ended our visit in great spirit for we knew that we were doing God’s will.

​Lord, I love and I will serve you, Fr. Hien