Welcome Week Detox and NFFs

Welcome week was incredible! Such a flurry of events and new faces and excitement! I was so proud of our student missionaries - getting out of their comfort zones and meeting people, being welcoming and getting to know the new freshmen who want to get involved, being excited to volunteer and help with events... they ROCK! They've got the zeal and love and energy of 20 year olds with ice pops and energy drinks who love Jesus!!! AND IT'S AWESOME! (and by-golly they ARE 20 year olds with ice pops and energy drinks who love Jesus!)

What did we do that was so fun and exciting?? Well, let me tell you! We had ultimate frisbee, game nights, bonfires, broomball, adoration & Mass on campus, a Rockies game, BearCatholic Olympics, flag football, dancing, praise and worship, and lots of free food! Don't forget helping freshmen move in, dorm storming, the student organization fair and did I say dorm storming? This is where we infiltrate the dorms and knock on all of the doors, introduce ourselves, invite them to some fun event, hang out and be friends, and start Bible studies. YES, we are starting a freshmen Bible study in EVERY dorm this year. And by the end of this week, everyone in those dorms know our faces pretty well. I've got a couple pics from a few of the events for your viewing pleasure!

 

On the left is Maggie. She is our campus coordinator :)

 Here she's telling a freshman girl about all of our fun events!

Kelley giving out otter pops during the bazaar!

Allie giving out otter pops - they were a hit since it was about 100 degrees that afternoon!

You can see Fr. Matt in the background :)

 

We had adoration, praise and worship, and Mass on the grass in the middle of campus!

Broomball!! This is such a fun and well attended event - so many new faces.

More Broomball!

WHOO!

You'll notice in the title I wrote welcome week detox... and may be a little confused after my excitement in the opening paragraphs. I'd like to clarify that when I say welcome week, I really mean eleven straight days of all day outreach and events when I haven't even unpacked from our pre-welcome week camping trip. So, yes, detox. While it is so good, after all of that, I need a little recuperation. Don't get me wrong, I have the greatest job in the world, but even jobs we love exhaust us. This is where the NFFs come in. Non-FOCUS Friends. These are people who are my age, usually also graduated, who I don't have a "work" relationship with. These are people I'm not in Bible study with, I'm not mentoring, I'm not purposefully trying to get to know them so I can share Jesus with them... they are normal friends. For Labor Day, some of us had a BBQ and talked and played silly games. Later we sat in the hot tub, ate oreos, and played minute to win it! We laughed and ate and had fun - It was so rejuvenating!! Now I'm ready for another week of outreach! Oh yeah.