Last weekend I had the great opportunity to attend the 7th annual Midwest Catholic Family Conference in Wichita, Kansas. There were several thousand people there, making it one of the largest conferences in the country. Many great speakers from all over the country come. The picture above shows some of these including (right to left) Tim Staples, Steve Ray, Rob Evans (“The Donut Man” on EWTN), Fr. William Wagner, Bob and Penny Lord (20 years on EWTN), Steve Bollman, Janet Smith (“Contraception: Why Not?” author), Jim Burnham (Beginning Apologetics Workbook series), and Fr. Antoine Thomas (French priest who teaches kids about adoration).

I first starting going to this conference in 2003 after returning from World Youth Day in Toronto. It remains one of the highlights of my summer. One of the things that made this year special was some of the friends that I was with. Two years ago I wasn’t able to come to the conference because my best friend, Matt, was getting married. This year Matt, his wonderful wife Olivia, and their son (my Godson) Benedict came along with another great new family, Ryan, Katie, and Joachim Burton. The above picture shows Matt, Ryan, and myself with speaker and author Steve Ray. He is a personal favorite of Matt and I. He is doing a video series on the history of salvation from Abraham to Augustine. Matt and I just love these videos. For more info, go to http://www.catholicconvert.com.

Attending this conference always gets me fired up for the faith. I love hearing the speakers that know the faith so well and know how to proclaim it. Whenever I give a homily or write a bulletin reflection or something, people always ask “where did you learn this stuff?” I have to admit that all these years of listening to great Catholic speakers has taught me countless things about our beautiful faith. I watch these people on TV, buy their CD’s and listen to them in the car, and read their books. John Paul the Great was always writing about the “New Springtime” in the Church and you really get a sense of that at this conference. Not only are the people there in love with Our Lord and fired up for the Church, but they are some of the most beautiful families you could ever hope to meet. There are literally kids running all over this place all weekend. It’s awesome. I’m a little partial to my Godson, so here are a couple pictures of him. If you want to see more of my pictures of the weekend (including more of Benedict follow the link below).

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Olivia prepares Benedict for his first beer while Matt looks on approvingly

Benedict decides that he likes beer. Matt concurs.