7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 1

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The theme this week is SUMMERTIME. And as a warning- I'm not a huge fan of summer. There are definite pluses, but I'm more a fan of a wintertime: snow, warm fires, and hot chocolate with blankets.

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But the best part of summer is the music. I love listening to country music, and country music was made for the summer. Can you imagine listening to this (Rascal Flatts' "Banjo") in the middle of winter? I personally don't want to hear music about the heat and fireworks and pick up trucks when you have to put on 3 layers of clothing to go outside where the roads and sidewalks are covered with ice, and the last thing you want is a nice, cold, refreshing drink!

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I don't handle the heat well. Unfortunately, like many people, my body starts to swell, and I get all uncomfortable in my own skin. My fingers start to get bloated, which makes my hands stiff, and then I realize just how totally necessary your hands are in everyday life.

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You know that feeling when you walk outside and immediately want to go back inside and take a shower? I really like being outside, but in the crazy heat we've been having in Green Bay these past few days, one step outside and you're immediately drenched in sweat. Days like these make me wonder why I ever complained about the cold!

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The Forth of July is in summer! I love the 4th of July! Grilling out is one of my favorite meals, and this year, I grilled corn on the cob for my sisters and I. Simple, easy, and delicious, if I do say so myself.

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With fireworks! I'm a little picky when it comes to fireworks. Growing up, my family has traditionally taken this week off and spent it together at our cottage in northern WI. We were right outside a small town, and would go see their fireworks show over the weekend. As a result, I'm partial to the small fireworks shows that aren't paired with music, and don't last more than 15 minutes, and where most people come in a pick up truck with flannel blankets to sit on.We never had the pick up truck, but we did pull out the flannel blankets to sit on!

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It is hard to beat the view that Madison, WI offers though. Last year I stayed down on campus over the holiday, and that view, with the lake and the capital, is is absolutely spectacular!

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Coming and Going

A Hobbit's Tale.

The near past and the near future involve me staying for extended periods of time in different cities. From Madison to Green Bay, from Champaign, IL to St. Paul, MN, it feels like my life is constantly being uprooted. I crave stability. I love knowing that wherever I am, there is a house, my home, waiting for me. In my imagination, this home looks like a cozy cottage with a fire in the fireplace in the middle of the woods surrounded by foot upon foot of snow.

I love both solitude and security. This constant coming and going and going and coming has me all mixed up and off balance. Unfortunately, it doesn't help my state of mind knowing that this place of stability for the next nine months will be...Virginia. A place to which I've never been. On top of that, we don't currently have an apartment leased. So it's a hypothetical place at the moment. Oh dear.

While I will enjoy finally having a place to stay for longer than five weeks at a time, I have been struggling to look forward to living for a year in a place I have never been and didn't actively choose to go. I wasn't able to sit down and make a list of all the reasons moving to Virginia would be good. I was sent out. I wasn't asked to choose one school from five at which I would like to serve. I was sent out to Virginia. If, for some crazy reason, Virginia is terrible and the worst place in the USA, I'm stuck there for nine months. Not that I'm anticipating this to happen, but I tend to plan for the worst.

I knew that this was what it meant to be a missionary. I knew when I applied to FOCUS that I would be asked to serve wherever the need was greatest. I passively chose Virginia. I had hoped the greatest need for me was in Wisconsin, or even Minnesota, but it wasn't. I am needed in Virginia. So off I go, to the "Great Unknown."

But not today. Today I look to tomorrow. And tomorrow I look to the day after that. Today I'm in Green Bay, Wisconsin. And tomorrow I will be too.

Focus "NST"

A group of women from my NST college prepared to go to the Etiquette Dinner.
(I am the second to the left)

"NST," or New Staff Training, is a five-week long summer training session for all first- and second-year missionaries. The forth week just finished, and so far it has been pretty intense! Training takes place on the campus of the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign at the St. John's Catholic Newman Center. The Newman Center is right in the middle of campus, and has a chapel, cafeteria and dorm rooms all in one building. We are lucky to have a number of priests with us, so we attend mass every day, and pray for an hour in Eucharistic Adoration.

Monday through Friday we attend about five hours of classes, with a long lunch break. So far we've had excellent speakers come in to teach on apologetics (why the Church teaches what she teaches), Salvation History (the story contained within the Old Testament that points to the coming of Jesus Christ), Catholic worldview (how to understand the world around us and why we exist in it), practical mission tools (obstacles facing mission work, including how to fundraise), and many other topics. It's all incredibly interesting, and we are so blessed to have to opportunity to learn from some well-respected scholars.

This is the largest incoming group of missionaries FOCUS has ever had, with over 160 new missionaries! It's impossible to get to know that many people in just a few weeks, so missionaries are divided into colleges named after saints. I'm in the college of St. Mary Magdalene, and it's been great to get to know a small group of 8 women really well. We often have meals together and sit as a college at mass twice a week. One of the other special things that we do is read the passages from the Bible on Mary Magdalene, and then pray and discuss what we can learn from her about loving Christ. I didn't know too much about St. Mary Magdalene before coming to NST, so it has been great to learn more, and to hear the insights of the other women in my college. I love hearing what other people think about in prayer because it's often so different from what I meditate on, and such a beautiful testament to how God works through each individual in such a unique way.

Although Illinois is beautiful and my time here has been exciting, I'm looking forward to heading back to Green Bay in a week. It will be great to see my family again, and to celebrate the 4th with brats and beer in full Wisconsin style!

Welcome!

I started this blog to document my adventures as a FOCUS missionary. FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, began in 1998, and is currently located on 75 campuses across the United States. FOCUS reaches students in their everyday life, building community within small group Bible studies, and mentoring students in order to help them find their identity in Christ.

For more about how FOCUS changed my life, check out my missionary page!