Weakness is Strength

Wow, this has been a crazy week. Here's a snapshot of what life was like for this FOCUS missionary:

Monday: Holy hour, time with the team, mentorship with the wonderful Kelsey Kaufman, freshmen bible study, athletes bible study, movie night at home

Tuesday: Holy hour, time with the team, lunch with a student I met during outreach, Mass, Old Chicago outting with some new Duluth friends

Wednesday: Holy hour, errands, Mass, time on campus, discipleship with Kelly, dinner with Nicole (a student in my athlete's study who went on the retreat), and opening night of RCIA

Thursday: Holy hour, team time, lunch with my discipleship chain, time on campus, DQ and a walk by the lake with Teia (a bible study member), Mass & Meal (plus birth of my teammates Andy and Laura's son Gabriel!), bowling with retreat group

Friday: Holy hour, discipleship with Shannon, Mass, run, go meet baby Gabriel, catch up with Britni (a former disciple at NDSU), go to Abby Johnson's pro-life talk with Kayla (a bible study member), and outting with the team

Saturday: Holy hour, lunch with a student I met last week, laundry, speedball, UMD volleyball victory over Mankato, Bison football victory @ UNI

As we say in North Dakota, oofda! But typing those lists I realized the common theme: beginning each day with prayer. Towards the end of the week, I was getting tired and it was so hard to get out of bed and get going for the day. But, God gave me all sorts of little graces throughout the week to help remind me of why I do get out of bed each morning: for Him! I'm so thankful that my life as a missionary gets to be rooted in prayer and that each day begins with an hour of just spending time with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

God really used this week to show me how much I need Him and how much He is willing to help me. I think one of the biggest lessons I have learned so far this year has been that sometimes God sends us trials because He wants us to have opportunities to truly trust Him and realize that we really can't do anything on our own. Without His help this week, it would have been so easy to just give up when I was tired and hide out at home. But instead, God gave me the little signs I needed to know that He wants me at UMD and that He wants me on campus to share Him with the students here.

It was those times when I felt the weakest that God brought forth some amazing conversations and experiences. I think 2 Corinthians 12:10 makes a lot more sense to me now. When we are weak, then we really are strong. Because it is then that we can truly let Jesus take over. And He is definitely stronger than any of us ever could be.

with my disciples Kelly and Shannon after Holy hour on Thursday