Bible Study and SNOW!!!!

One of my Bible studies has 6 senior girls this semester and meets Tuesday evening every week. We're going through the Gospel of Luke using the book Dawn of the Messiah by Dr. Sri from the Augustine Institute. Since it's on Tuesday, we had Bible study the night of Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday. To celebrate we went to a little bar downtown called The Jager. It was so much fun! We were the only people there so early and they have a fireplace surrounded by couches. We got a drink and talked about life and decided to have Bible study there every week since it was a fun, quiet atmosphere. It's kind of odd to think we have Bible study at the bar, but it's been really great!

We had a really good discussion last week about the roles of men and women. Since Joseph is so quiet in the writings of the Gospels, and during the finding in the temple it seemed like Mary was the "dominant" parent, they wondered about what it was like to be Joseph. To be the head of the family where you are the only imperfect one and are supposed to lead them. We talked about the humility and charity it would take to be Mary, the things we appreciate in men, and how we can allow them/encourage them to "be men".

This past weekend Kelley, Tommy and I went skiing at Copper Mountain!! We stayed with a friend of Kelley's and her family; Chris and Erika and their almost year and a half old daughter Elanor. We got snowed in there with the blizzard Sunday! We stayed and went sledding and painted wine glasses and hung out in Vail Village at the Yeti Grind coffee shop. It was so fun to play in the snow again! Unlike popular belief, not everywhere in Colorado is snowy mountains. Greeley (where I live) is flat and usually brown and smells like cows. If we get some snow, we get about half an inch and it is melted by the next day. We got about half a foot this weekend! and it hasn't melted yet! In the moutains where we were staying there were shoveled sidewalks with two feet of snow on each side - reminded me of home and made me so happy!

On another note: I applied to be a team director for next year and have my interview Friday morning. If you could offer up a prayer for me, I would appreciate it!!!!

TwentyThirteen

I can't believe it's nearing the end of February and this is my first post of the new year! I have a lot to catch you up on...

1. New year's resolutions. I've never really been a goal oriented person, so I've never really loved making a forced resolution. However, I do like the idea of idea of it and usually do it anyway :) This year I decided that I want to work on gratitude. Being grateful for the gift my life is and the will of the Lord in my life. Near the end of her life, St. Therese of Lisieux said, "I do not desire to die more than to live. It is what He does that I love." My resolution is to be more aware of what He is doing everyday and being grateful for it, whatever it is - since He is doing it, and is doing it to bring me to Heaven. I bought a small journal that I am writing in each night before bed. Each night I write one thing that day that I was grateful for.

2. We got a new teammate! Steph is from South Dakota and studied something I can't remember the name of, but it means event planning. She is also into art and music. She is discerning a vocation to the religious life after FOCUS. Super bubbly and joyful! Love her :)

3. SEEK2013! We spent six days in the Florida sun in January with 40 students. The 30 hour bus rides there and back were actually fun! We got a lot of bonding time and made new friends! We had some members of the Community of the Beatitudes come on our bus with us - including two priests! This means we were able to have Mass on the bus while going down the highway. SO LEGIT! There were over 6000 college students there wanting to grow in their relationship with Jesus. We heard talks from so many different theologians and lay Catholics living out their faith in the secular world... on all sorts of things - from prayer to relativism, pro-life to environmentalism, womanhood to discerning the will of God in your life. We had daily Mass and one night there was adoration, during which over 4000 people received the sacrament of reconciliation! wow. Grace everywhere. We had other fun, too! Between disneyworld, concerts, friends, watching the Bison football team win the championship, a 20s themed swing dance, and a great pool we found things to do :)

4. I bought a pass at the student rec center. As great as insanity is, sometimes I get bored with it. Not for lack of it being difficult, just repetitive. I've joined a Zumba and a kickboxing class!! I'm making some new friends, too! Yay for relational evangelization! I'm all signed up for the Rugged Maniac race on May 11th! Kelley is doing it with me :) She couldn't talk me into running a half marathon with her the week before, though. ugh.

5. For Valentine's Day we hosted a free swing dance at the university. L'Angelus, a Catholic Cajun band, played live music for us :) They are from Nashville and are the four oldest siblings in their family. They stayed at our house and we got to know them a little! So fun!!

6. Lent is here!! I've been super convicted this year about sacrifice. Two years ago my good friend at the Bad Catholic blog put it this way:

So, now comes the time when everyone tells you, “Lent isn’t just about giving things up, it’s about taking things on. Think about what you can do, not what you can remove from your life.” Which is all fine and dandy, to be sure, but also stupid. Mortification is important. Mortification is what’s necessary. I want a bumper sticker that says “Put the pain back in Lent!” or “Self-denial is the reason for the season!” Just because it would shake things up. The world can understand us ‘getting more into’ our religion – they may even encourage us, give us a cookie. But what stands in contradiction to the world – and especially to the American world – is the Christian not eating. The Christian not drinking, not because drinking is bad, but because it is good. The Christian in pain.

What will convince the world, and – infinitely more importantly – what will convince us of the validity of our faith and all the truth she professes is not comfort, not the statement that “this will make me happy”, but the witness of those being happy when they have nothing but their faith. The rich, old, country club preacher saying grace is not much to rally around. But what hope there is in finding out that there is tremendous grace after a day without eating! What affirmation it is to learn that no, we do not believe because we are comfortable, we believe because it is true! To have the grace to praise God in our suffering!

Amen. What a witness it is to the truth of our faith if we can rejoice in our suffering! How countercultural!

I've also been reading another book by Francine Rivers called A Voice in the Wind. It is about a woman who becomes a slave to a rich, selfish girl. She says something along the lines of "We were created to serve. We all serve something or someone, but we get to choose what or who that is." Do I serve Christ by serving the least of these? by serving His body here on Earth? Do I anticipate the needs of those God has placed in my life and show them mercy? Do I do it joyfully, as an unprofitable servant?

This is what I feel Jesus is trying to teach me this lenten season... that His heart is one of mercy and service and I was created to reveal His heart to the world.

Airport

Hello!!!

Just sitting here at the airport in Grand Forks. There are about 20 people at the gate and I'm sitting next to the window - staring out at the flat, white tundra. I already miss my kitty, the perpetual snow, and the bone-chilling cold. As strange as it sounds, the cold and the openness feel like home.

It was so good to see so many familiar faces at home, but there is no time to be sad -- In 40 hours I get on a bus from Greeley to ORLANDO!! I'm so excited for SEEK2013!!!!! Please throw up a prayer for all of the students coming. (and my team as this is a crazy time for us!)

Thanks! Can't wait to update you about the conference!!

Happy (almost) New Year!

Highlights of Home

I have been blessed to be back in North Dakota for a week and a half now.

It all started the evening of Friday the 14th. Kel and Tommy dropped me off at the airport. I walked in, checked a bag, and headed for security. No lines! The place was almost empty. Buzzed through security and got to my gate... Had an extra hour to read my book - Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, a story set in 1850 CA gold rush that is based on the biblical character of Hosea. I finished it about half way through the flight home and then turned my reading light off, lay my head back, and glanced out the window. In the dark night above all of the clouds I had a front row seat to the METEOR SHOWER going on!

I LOVE this state and it was so refreshing to be back!!! Here are a few things I didn't realize I missed until I got to re-experience them the past two weeks:

Inch thick frost on the trees (see pic below!)
Roads that are snowpacked
The "chance of snow" telling you how much snow we'll get instead of if we'll get any maybe
Snow in general
Food made with flour, eggs, and butter :)
Movies with my mama - Les Miserables was AWESOME.
Photobooth - with the number of people we had, we did it chinese firedrill style (pics below!)
Baking and shopping with my sister
Visiting Melissa Pung at the Bethlehem Community in Bathgate (pic below!)
Plays/Musicals at New Rockford
Late night Christmas Board Games
Early Morning Christmas card games (Hand and Foot, Nertz, Speed, Tripoly, etc)
The familiarity of a small town
Caroling at the nursing homes
Seeing my Newman people :)
Catching up with my friends from High School!!!!!
Seeing all my cousins - I didn't realize how much I missed all my friends and family - or how awesome they are :) I really, really love them all and don't appreciate them nearly enough.

All in all, it has been a joy and blessing to be back here! I'm almost rejuvinated and ready to head back to Colorado.

Bacon-wrapped water chestnuts!

The Melissa Anns!

Sleepy's House

I chose this name in honor of Kelley who calls bedtime "going to Sleepy's House".  Last Tuesday morning at 8:26 I followed her into her room and kicked off my slippers and lay down on the her bedroom floor as she crawled back into bed. We stayed like that in silent disbelief for a moment until I began laughing like a crazy person at the irony of the preceeding events.

Sunday - I'll begin here. It was the last day for students to sign up to go to our National Conference (SEEK) in Orlando in January. This is a place where students can meet thousands of other Catholic students from around the country and learn about why we believe what we do, and be built up in the faith - all of them will be given an opportunity to encounter the person of Jesus Christ and the hand of God in their life. This is the day that we had about 15 more students finally sign up to go! One of these is a new friend of mine who hasn't been baptized and could count on one hand the number of times she's been in a church. I'm soooo excited she's coming!

On Monday, to celebrate registration closing, we went to dinner in Denver at our regional director's home. They cooked for us, let us play with their little boy, invited us to pray with the family after dinner, and PLAY MAFIA! This is a card game simulating a town. The "mafia" kill people and the townspeople have to try to figure out who they are before they kill the whole town. Hm - writing it down like that makes it sound kind of cruel and not holy... I promise it is a fun, not-awful game. He talked us into staying late and gave us permission to take the next morning off. We played until midnight and finally were home in bed about 1:30am. We NEVER move prayer - usually at 9 - and this was a big deal. like really. It felt weird, but nice, to not set an alarm.

These past two days have been soooo good!

Tuesday morning. Not quite 8. and there is pounding on the door. I'm the only one who can here it since my room is closest. I roll over, still half asleep and it stops. Once again, pounding. At this point, I'm a little annoyed wondering who could be so desperate to get in the chapel so early that doesn't know the code to the door?? In my annoyance I firmly decide not to answer it. Pounding - for the third time. At this point I angrily jump out of bed to peer out my window and see who it is: a group of middleaged men I've never seen before. I throw on my robe and try to blink my contacts back to normal while I answer the door. SURPRISE! The roofers are here to do our roof. They need us to move all of our cars. I wake up my roommates and step into my slippers before heading out to put my car on the street. Then I realize we live on campus. 8 am class had started now. There is nowhere to park. I finally find a place a few blocks down and walk back down the busy street to my house in my pajamas. While I'm still a couple houses away, another group of guys that arrived later scrambled up onto the roof. One had the nerve to whistle at me! I would have liked to see his face when he realized it was MY roof he was on.

Then, 8:26... staring at the ceiling in Kelley's room... and the pounding on our roof began.

I'd like to inform you that Kelley and I haven't been sleeping well for the last couple months as it is. I think it's a mini attack from satan. When we don't sleep well we are tired and more crabby and have headaches and are less charitable with those around us and less able to focus on our mission.

ie This morning's surprise awakening and pounding became a moment of unleashing over a month of pent-up anger and lack of virtue. I was so mad.

All week, little things kept going wrong and making things worse and worse. It was like I was stuck in this anger and couldn't let it go. The girls in my bible study a week later were also stressed with final tests and projects. We decided to do something called deliverance prayer. This is a form of prayer that has five key points:
1. repentence
2. forgiveness
3. renouncing spirits by name
4. taking authority in the name of Jesus
5. receiving the Father's blessing

In our baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus Christ, can name spirits influencing us and cast them away from us to bind themselves to the foot of the cross. I wouldn't recommend doing this on your own until you've done it with someone who knows what they are doing. We were taught this at training this summer and so I led the group in this type of prayer for bible study. Afterward, we all felt lighter and joyful and peaceful...

AND I was able to sleep well for the first time in a long while!! Yay!
(That's right - Behind me, satan!)

Not Your Typical Tuesday

Reason number one: Julie, one of the girls I disciple, came with me on campus for a form of "bare handed evangelization". We decided to get lunch and sit with someone who was sitting alone. We grabbed food at the UC (their student union of sorts) and headed to the dining area. There she was - the girl we were going to sit with - at the first table. Her name was Brittney. We got to know her a little and then one of her friends joined us, too. Meet Kayla. 

[Aside: Being a missionary, it's super easy to nonchalantly turn the conversation to Christ. All I have to do is ask what year they are or what they are studying and they turn it right back and ask me. I get to say something along the lines of, "Actually, I'm a missionary here!" Works every time. :)]

Brittney wasn't very interested in this piece of news, but Kayla was. She kept bringing the random conversation back to it by asking little questions. She was very interested in what I did and told me that she was Catholic and sometimes went to church at another parish in town. I invited them both to our ugly sweater/Christmas karaoke/gingerbread house making/white elephant party at the Catholic Campus Center on Thursday. Brittney works, but Kayla wants to come! She didn't want to show up alone, so we exchanged numbers and talked about meeting up sometime for coffee, too. Yay!

Reason numero dos: A girl randomly came up to me and a few students and asked if we were with BearCatholic. She said she wanted to get involved, but didn't know how. One of our students, Natalie, immediately started talking to her about our events and Bible studies and grabbed her contact info so they could stay in touch! The Holy Spirit truly is working in people all around us and they are searching for Him!

Reason three: No ballroom class. sad face.

This was the first Tuesday that I didn't spent two hours dancing! I don't know if I can explain how much I love this class or how much I've grown in my relationship with God through it. It's also been a great way for me to make contacts with students in the music/theater department. I need to be clear - I'm not actually IN the class. They were short 4 girls and two of my students are in the class, so they invited me! I showed up and the teacher was glad to have another girl and let me come every week even though I wasn't registered. That brings me to why I wasn't there this week. They have started testing. Two of the boys were injured over the course of the semester and dropped so they didn't need another girl for testing - especially since I didn't need to test for the class I wasn't actually in. ie the class is over for me.

I was sad to not be guaranteed two hours of dancing a week anymore, but also sad that I wasn't sure how I was going to keep in touch at all (and not be TOO creepy!) with the people I met in class.

But PRAISE JESUS! God is bigger than I. I ran into two of the students on campus - and they happened to be two that I had formed more of a relationship with. God grants us divine appointments when we ask for them. (and a lot of times even when we don't.)

Reason four: There was an exorcist in town. Yes, you read that right. Have you seen the movie The Rite? The priest whose life the book and movie were based on, Father Gary Thomas, came to our campus. We ended up getting a crowd of about 1500 people to come hear him talk about exorcism, satan, and Christ's victory over sin and death. He spend about half an hour speaking and then another two answering questions from the crowd.

I was excited that his talk was a similiar format to what we call a "Gospel presentation". Basically, when you are sharing the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with someone there are four main parts:
1. We are made for relationship - specifically relationship with God.
2. Because of sin, this relationship has been broken and the consequence of sin is death.
3. Christ came into the world and died once for all of us so that our relationship with the Father can be restored.
4. Do you want that relationship?

Fr. Thomas did just that - he shared the salvation found in Jesus and then offered all of those in attendance His gift of life through starting a relationship with Him.

Last, but not least... Reason 5: Some friends from out of town came for the talk and we were able to hang out with them afterward!

Now, after a typically long Wednesday, Guten Nacht! Buenas Noches!

Pirate Prayer and Giving Thanks

One of the things I'm doing with the girls I mentor is pray together. Every time we get together, we do something called Lectio Divina. This is latin for Divine Reading. Essentially, it's praying with scripture. We usually pray with the Gospel reading for daily Mass - since it's chosen specifically for that day by the church to speak to the people. I like to use lectio divina in a form I was taught called pirate prayer. :) It's called this because the acronym we use is ARRR. (Get it? ha.)

A. Acknowledge. First, we place ourselves in God's presence and acknowledge to ourselves the things distracting us, the emotions we're feeling, the things on our mind...
R. Relate. Second, we relate all of these things to God. We tell him honestly how we are... the state of our soul and heart, we can thank Him, praise Him, ask Him for help, tell Him our frustrations and joys.
R. Receive. Third, we allow Him to speak to us. This is where the scripture comes in - He speaks to us through His word. We read it and look for things that stick out to us. We take those parts and ask what God is trying to tell us through it.
R. Respond. Lastly, we apply what God spoke to us to our lives. How does it relate to what we told Him in step 2? What was revealed to us about ourselves? Do we need to change something in our lives? Do we need to just be aware/have a perspective change?

Today:
Acknowledging how I was I realized that these past couple of weeks I've struggled with the virtue of charity. I've struggled loving people in their weakness, where they're at, accepting them for who they are and the fact that I can't change them. I've struggled with being generous and patient. I gave this to God, let Him know who and what I was struggling with in particular and then went on:

Today's reading is Luke 17: 11-19

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,
"Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!"
And when he saw them, he said,
"Go show yourselves to the priests."
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
"Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"
Then he said to him, "Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you."

The first thing that stuck out was, "As they were going they were cleansed." Then, "Where are the other nine?" As I was thinking about these I realized that I can really relate to these lepers. They came to Jesus, as they were and asked Him for help. They trusted Him by going to show themselves to the high priest even though He didn't heal them right away - they weren't healed until they took that initial leap of faith to follow His lead. Then the second part... Where are they? They are where He told them to go. They were still doing His will. They are getting their reward for trusting Him. They are rejoicing in being healed, going back into society, to worship at the temple, to their families whom they have been separated from, to their jobs... they are going back to their lives! What a gift from God. But that one leper, the one who thanks Jesus, trusts that this gift will still be there if he takes ten minutes to thank Jesus for it. He (the one who doesn't know God) understands that something incredible has happened to him when the other nine are used to hearing stories of God's power and witnessing it in their own lives. They've grown accustomed to it and expect it. Got me thinking, what is my reward? Do I expect or feel entitled to what God gives me for trusting Him? Do I love Him for being God and creating and loving me or for the things He gives me? Do I stop to thank God for the little things He gives me every day or take them for granted? This brought to mind a quote I saw somewhere and didn't think much of at the time:

What if we woke up tomorrow with only the things we thanked God for today?

When I get frustrated with my teammates or annoyed at a student or upset when things don't go the way I want do I still thank God for them? Given the option, I'd still rather wake up with them in my life tomorrow, so why am I not still thanking God for them? They are His gift to me today. Gratitude feeds charity. Thanks for the kick in perspective, God! Needed that one.

A little insight into my life with students, my prayer, and my heart today. Hope you enjoy :)