bulldogCatholic week

Last week was awesome. crazy. exhausting. inspiring. busy. grace-filled. Many adjectives would work to describe how the first bulldogCatholic week was... it was just that incredible. It will be hard to do the week justice in a post, but I'm going to try to just share some of my experience from a missionary standpoint.

First of all, I did not realize how much work goes into planning a Catholic week. When I was a student at NDSU, I helped with our first bisonCatholic week - but I owe the missionaries a big thank you because wow is there a lot to juggle. Thankfully, my amazing teammate Mat and a group of 4 students did all the promotion. Plus, I had a great group of 4 students to help with the many logistics of room reservations, set up, tear down, and everything in between.

The excitement began the Thursday before it all started when Shannon and I went barehanding. Essentially, barehanding is all about just walking up to someone you don't know and talking to them about faith. With the upcoming week, our opening line was easier than usual: "hey, have you heard about bulldogCatholic week and the debate?" After a few invitations that weren't super welcomed, we tried another students. Let's call her "L". L seemed very interested in what we had to say, and shared that she was Christian and striving to have a relationship with Jesus, but not really involved in formal campus ministry events. Shannon instantly knew what to do and invited her to join her bible study! The girls exchanged numbers and we went on our way. The next week, Shannon came up to me on Monday after her bible study. "L came to study! And she's coming to the debate tonight!" Sure enough, L was there at the debate with Shannon and her friends that evening. I can't wait to see what the semester has in store for her.

Speaking of the debate, we hosted one! Last Monday, we invited a Catholic philosopher and an atheist philosopher to discuss the rationality of Christianity and take some Q&A. I was really nervous about what kind of attendance we would have..... and then the lecture hall started to fill. and fill. and fill. until about 330 people filled Boh90! Needless to say, I'm learning not to worry so much about how things will turn out.

We also had Australian native Matt Fradd come to Duluth. I had the honor of being his chauffeur while he was here and it was so fun to talk with him about his ministry and share the state of our campus ministry with him. About 175 students came to his talk on Tuesday, which was awesome. It was great to see so many people there, including quite a few members of my athletes' bible study!!

Overall, what was most inspiring to me was how much ownership of the week the student missionaries took! They really rose to the challenge of filling the events and promoting them, taking shifts at our booth on campus and helping hang posters throughout the week. It was great to see them being bold as Catholic leaders on the campus. Below is a picture of one of my disciples, Kayla, and I at the Ask a Catholic booth:

I'm excited to continue to ride the momentum created by all the events last week and really dive in to bible study and discipleship more. My Thursday bible study is going to begin a new series about Who Jesus Is. I'm excited to put the study together just for them and hopefully help them grow in their ability to pray and know Christ!

Until my next blog...