A Weekend Home

with friends before the game

This past weekend I was blessed to be able to take some time to be home in Fargo. It was a pretty packed weekend, full of seeing friends, spending time on campus, and cheering the Bison football team to victory over Southern Illinois. The weekend flew by so fast that it wasn't until I was back in my car for the 4 1/2 hour drive to Duluth on Sunday that I realized how much more I wish I could have done.

Perhaps the best part about the weekend was just being home. There is just something about being in my hometown and at the university where Christ pursued my heart that I really needed. It is incredible for me to think of how far I have come in my personal relationship with Jesus, and all of the incredible people He has brought into my life since I first began my time at NDSU over four years ago. I realized that as much as I love being here in Duluth and being a FOCUS missionary, Fargo is still home, it's still where my faith really became real for me. And the friends I have there are some that I will have for the rest of my life. What a great gift from God the weekend was.

with some girls from my NDSU bible study

It was super hard to leave on Sunday, but as I crossed that state line and merged onto Hwy 10, I realized something really beautiful about my Catholic faith: it truly gives me hope! Goodbyes (or "see you laters") are hard. But, God promises that if we are faithful to Him, then someday we will no longer need to say goodbye. We will be with those we love forever in Heaven. And not only will those goodbyes be no more, but also all the pain, suffering, sickness, and sadness. Wow. What an incredible promise... and what hope it gives those of us who are God's children. And that is because Heaven is our true home.

So until God decides it's time for me to go home to Him, I am incredibly honored to serve Him here on earth as a missionary. Not only do I get to love Him and draw close to Him myself, but hopefully I can help others to discover His love and His invitation to them as well. Then someday we can all be home in Heaven. That Pintrest pin is so true when it gives the following definition:

missionary: someone who leaves their family for a short time

so that others can be with their family for eternity.

Grace Like Rain

Today's wet, dreary weather has me wanting to be at home, curled up with hot chocolate and the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. But, I guess I must love being a missionary, because here I am on-campus anyway! Here are some quick stories from my day so far:

Last week, we gave away some scholarships for students to SEEK2013. This morning, I was able to get the information to Joanna, who won the full scholarship, and told her to let me know when she registered. Within 30 minutes I had a text saying "Ok I just registered! I was too excited to wait :)"

Just a bit ago, I met with Paulin, an international student who heard about SEEK at Mass 2 weeks ago. She was so excited about the opportunity to attend SEEK and couldn't stop smiling while we talked about it.  Paulin also won a scholarship to reduce her registration. As we were getting her registered, I shared that I am not a student, that I am here as a missionary. She stops, looks at me, and so sincerely says "thank you!" Wow. It's not very often that I receive that genuine thanks from students for being here on campus to share Christ with them!

As I thought about these stories, the song about grace falling like rain comes to mind. And the graces God has given me today are just like the rain outside, not in a huge, heavy downpour, but more a gentle shower. As I leave this post for discipleship with Kelly, my prayer is that each of you may also experience some sort of gentle grace today. Thanks for reading!

The Blessing of Family

This weekend was such a blessing. My mom, dad, and sisters came up to Duluth to visit! While my three college sisters couldn't make it, it was still so nice to spend quality time with the rest of my family. I hadn't seen them in over 2 months! That's been one of the big sacrifices and challenges of my first year as a missionary: not living in my hometown with my family just a 15 minute drive away. So when they arrived in Duluth Friday afternoon, I did my best to soak up every moment. Here's a snapshot of our weekend:

Canal Park

Friday: after piling Lauren, Andrea, and Julia's stuff into my room (we had a weekend-long sleepover!) we all headed down to Canal Park. After showing them Lake Superior and the lift bridge, we spent time checking out the shops that line downtown. Claire (age 7) of course believed that the birds were her best friends. Andrea (age 14), Lauren (age 17), and Julia (age 13) about cried when a life-size cutout of their favorite 1D member was bought before they could get to it, and Olivia (age 8) had lots of stories to share. For dinner, we went to Pizza Luce, where you can watch them make pizzas. It was so fun to just enjoy a family meal again. Afterwards, Lauren, Andrea, and I attempted the Haunted Ship, but changed plans due to the long line (and my fear of stuff like that). Instead, we joined up with Julia and enjoyed a night at Adventure Zone until crashing back at my place for the night.

Gooseberry

Saturday: We all piled in the car and drove North! It was pretty foggy, but we still got to tour Split Rock Lighthouse, enjoy lunch (and pie) at Betty's Pies, and explore Gooseberry Falls. As we climbed over rocks and logs to get to the falls, Olivia informed me that it was "the funnest day" of her life. Awesome. After taking some pictures by the falls, we drove back to Duluth, did a little shopping, then enjoyed dinner at Valentini's (a recommendation from my teammate Nicole). It was delicious and so fun! Not to mention the so-needed text updates from Jen and Beau as the Bison football team crushed USD! After dinner, it was true sleepover night. While mom and dad supervised Olivia and Claire's swimming at their hotel, the rest of us enjoyed a movie and snacks with lots of giggles before going to bed close to 1am!

Sunday: The last few hours of their trip went so fast. We all went to Mass on-campus and then to lunch at Little Angie's down at Canal Park. Then it was back to my place to load up the car and off they went, the only reminders of their visit being the wonderful leftovers and homemade goods in my fridge. 

What I realized more than anything during this weekend was how incredibly blessed I am. People often hear that I'm the oldest of us 9 girls and somewhat freak out. But I love it so much. How many other people have 8 built-in best friends? Without my sisters, I don't know who I would be. And to also have such wonderful Catholic parents... wow, thanks God! My family is a blessing He gave me before I even knew what it meant to ask Him for things. Yet He knew exactly the loving, supportive family I would need - especially as a missionary. Although it has been since August that all 11 of us have been together, and will be until Christmas that we're all back home again, I know one thing is for sure. I love my family, they love me, and no amount of distance or time can weaken that.

Seeking Answers

This year is an exciting year for FOCUS. Not only have we expanded to 74 campuses, but we also have an exciting opportunity to offer students over their winter break: SEEK2013. SEEK is the national conference sponsored by FOCUS January 2-6, 2013 in ORLANDO!! (that's pretty exciting for a girl who lives in states with winter). The goal of the conference is to help students find ways to answer some of life's bigger questions, like "What is the meaning of my life? Who am I? Does God matter?" Check it out at http://seek2013.com/.

our event on campus to promote SEEK

Here at UMD, we've just started our registration push to get students to sign-up to take that step and go to SEEK. We've had announcements at Mass, a table in the Kirby Center on-campus, and most importantly, a "Are you Going?" night on-campus this week. I've been assigned as our campus liaison for the conference, so this has added some extra excitement to my first year as a missionary. In addition to bible studies, discipleship, hanging out with students, and team life with my fantastic team, I also have been planning these promotion activities, brainstorming fundraising, and organizing efforts to get students signed up!

At times the added responsibility is a little crazy - I mean, I like to be busy, but wow is a national conference lots of work. But, at our event Tuesday I was reminded why I absolutely LOVE conferences like this - they have the potential to change lives! I cannot wait for these students to experience conference. Speakers from around the world, fantastic entertainment, and Mass, Confessions, and prayer with 6,000 of their peers! Plus, it'll be a great time to catch up with my fellow missionary friends and just be inspired in my role as a missionary. Not to mention that it's 5 days of just experiencing the joy that only God can bring into people's lives. 75 days to go...


I've been praying a lot lately about why I'm a missionary, trying to answer some of those "why" questions that SEEK will try to answer for the students. You can read my story with FOCUS under the "How I Got Here" tab, but this week has given me a really great insight into the plan God has. I realized that He created me to be a missionary. As His daughter, I was made to share His love with others. And, at this particular moment in my life, that means being a missionary with FOCUS. It is the best way that I can set the world on fire for Him and fulfill that desire He has placed in my heart. Being a missionary isn't just my job, it's my identity and my way of living out my love for God.

So, as I return to my "to do" list here at Caribou, I'm so thankful for the grace last February to recognize God's plan and say "yes!" I can't imagine doing anything else with these 2 years of my life... what a privilege to have this role in the New Evangelization!

Let the Year of Faith Begin!

Well, it's been over a week since I've updated on where life is at. Just goes to show how crazy the past week has been. After a fun weekend attempting to surprise my college sisters in the Twin Cities, I've been running around Duluth like crazy. Why you ask? Well, it's time to send out newsletters (which I finally got in the mail today!), plan some fun events to promote SEEK2013 (our national conference, check it out seek2013.com), prepare a talk for tonight's night with the student missionaries on campus, fill out my missions application, and do all my usual missionary fun!

But, I figured before heading over to campus to hang out with our student missionaries, I just had to write about some new graces God has blessed me with in the past week. It's been really amazing.

Picture of St. Peter's from my 2011 pilgrimage

Yesterday (Oct 11) began the Year of Faith, proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI. It was incredible to kick this off here at Newman with our Thursday Mass & Meal! We had a special musical guest, Danielle Rose, for Mass last night and the chapel was overflowing! As we began Mass with the song "How Great is our God", I could just feel the Holy Spirit present with us. During Mass, I just kept thinking of how incredibly blessed I am to be a part of the Catholic Church at this exciting moment in history. And even more crazy, to be called to be a missionary with FOCUS right now. In a very real and tangible way, God has called me to help others develop a relationship with Him and be equipped to help their peers do the same. Sometimes I seriously wonder if this is really my job.

This week, I was able to witness 2 of my bible study members express their desire to grow closer to God. One even told me that she recently started reading the Bible before bed each night. I have 2 members of my athletes bible study who have officially signed up for SEEK2013, and some other girls who are really thinking about it (please pray for their yes).

God has just really shown me that my role as a missionary is to be the one to provide students with the opportunity to choose Him. What an honor! I had amazing discipleship with both Kelly and Shannon, these two girls are truly living their lives for Jesus and I love being a part of it! I've also realized how much I love being a part of FOCUS and being in Duluth specifically. I'm starting to feel like I really belong here.

At Mass the past couple days, Fr. Mike has talked about what faith entails. Faith means acting on Jesus' promises. It means being all in for love of Him. And I'm slowly realizing how being a missionary provides me with such a concrete way to do this and to see how much God loves me and wants to take care of me. As I write this, my heart is just overflowing in thankfulness for how good God is. He really desires to use my "yes" to FOCUS to help me grow and become a saint!

Which leads to a final comment. Part of the Year of Faith is looking back at Vatican Council II, which was held 50 years ago. It was then that the Church encouraged all the faithful to recognize and embrace the Universal Call to Holiness. What does that mean? Each and every one of us is ultimately called to be a saint! So sometime this weekend, take a moment and think about those ways that God is molding you into a saint, into the best version of yourself. Because even when we fail to realize it, that is what He wants to do for us.

In God's Hands

The past couple weeks I have really been thinking about what a great mission God has called me to. Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing much. My recent prayer and mindset have just been to give it to God and tell Him that it's up to Him to make this ministry effective. In other words, I'm trying to just put myself on campus and then let God handle it from there. After all, He knows what the students of UMD need better than I do. Therefore, it seems to make sense that I would just put my desire to share the Gospel in His hands. So here are some fun stories of how God has responded:

Yesterday, we had RCIA/Catholicism 101 at Newman. This is a class for those who are considering entering the Catholic Church and those who just want to learn more about what the Church teaches. It was our 2nd week and again I was super impressed with the attendance! There are several students who are thinking about getting confirmed this Easter. I'm attending the classes because my disciple Kelly asked me to sponsor her when she is confirmed! I'm super honored.

Anyway, another wonderful girl I know from my athletes bible study went on our First Timers Retreat last weekend and has been coming to the classes as well. She also is going to be confirmed at Easter. Here is a proof of her determination to grow in her relationship with God: she came to class last night on her 21st birthday! I don't know about you, but most students I know would spend their 21st out at the bar. It was such a great witness to see Nicole choosing her faith!

Another story would be in regards to the power of prayer. I have had a couple times where God has very directly answered my prayers. The first was last week. I met a student at the campus coffee shop when she generously shared her table with me (there is only one coffee shop on campus, so tables are a hot commodity). We chatted for a few minutes until she left for work. I prayed the next two days for an opportunity to run into her again (as we had not exchanged numbers). Sure enough, Friday morning she showed up at the off-campus cafe where Shannon and I were for discipleship! Crazy!

Then, this morning, our team spent time doing intercessory prayer. Basically, we took time to be in the chapel and pray outloud for specific students we are meeting with through bible studies and other activities. I spent time specifically asking for the athletes I have been meeting to be willing to make time for bible study. When I left the chapel, I had a text from a girl on the soccer team, asking if we could hang out this weekend. We're getting dinner Sunday! Prayers really do get answered.

I'm not saying I'm perfect at being a missionary. But, I think with time I am learning. For now though, it's time to do some work on SEEK2013 (our upcoming national conference in Orlando!!) However, I am at the coffee shop on campus... so maybe God has other plans for my afternoon. I'll be sure to update if that is the case!