Seven Quick Takes, Vol. 9

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Spring Break starts today and I've got a full week ahead of me! First up is Nottingham, PN for a FOCUS "Spiritual Bootcamp" retreat. I'm excited to participate, and to see many of the east coast missionaries that I haven't seen in awhile. Next stop is Virginia Beach for the annual CCM Beach Retreat! Finally, I'll be flying back home to WI to see my parents!

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Although it will be a lot of travelling, I'm looking forward to it all. Spring break seems really early this year, but even so, I'm looking forward to a change of pace. I always enjoyed retreats in college, and the same goes for being a missionary. I've heard so many good things about the FOCUS Spiritual Bootcamp, and I'm excited to attend a retreat that will deal specifically with some of the issues that can occur in missionary life, like over-working, team life, and how to maintain zeal for the mission.

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I'm excited to spend a few days at the beach as well. I have seen the ocean before, but it was when I was two years old, so I'm not sure it counts. For the retreat, the CCM rents a beach house for a few days. One of the rec rooms will be turned into a chapel where Father will celebrate Mass every day. Although it won't be quite as warm as it will be in the summer, we're hoping for nice weather. If it is chilly though, our polar plunge will be that much more exciting!

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Going from the beach to Wisconsin will definitely be a change in scenery, but I do hope there's still snow on the ground when I get back home. We had a bit of a heat wave hit in Virginia this January, and it was so strange to be walking around in shorts and flip flops right after New Years. I don't think native Virginians realize how cold it is back home on a daily basis. Sure, it has gotten chilly here, and some days have even been downright cold, but the day-in-and-day-out experience is much more temperate. I brought back a bunch of my sweaters with me over Christmas in anticipation of some colder weather, but so far they've mostly just stayed in my closet.

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Although I am looking forward to spring break, life on campus is going well! I am leading three small group Bible studies and mentoring six women. When we get back from break, four of them will be starting their own small groups! It's been so exciting to see the growth this semester. It's amazing to see the courage and dedication these women have had in pursuing Christ, and desiring His joy and peace for those in their lives.

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Of the six women that I mentor, three of them attended SEEK2013 over Winter break. Two of them are starting small group Bible studies in a few weeks, and the third, Danielle, is hoping to lead a freshman small group next fall. It's so uplifting to know that she found small group important enough to desire to lead next year's freshmen closer to Christ through a small group Bible study.

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Please pray for all the women I disciple, as they start their Bible studies!  It's easy to become discouraged when people turn down their invitations to join a small group, so pray that God gives them the perseverance to continue despite any set backs!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

The Top Five Things of Being a FOCUS Missionary!

I wrote a guest post for my friend Molly's blog! You can read it here: Tuesday Five: Being a FOCUS Missionary. Enjoy!

Flat Tire

I walked out of the CCM today, and found that my car had a flat tire. It had been going a little flat a few weeks ago, but a teammate used his bike pump to fill it up, and there didn't seem to be too many problems after that. Until now; when it was very noticeably flat. I even tried to drive on it, to see if I could make it over to the shop, but as soon as I started backing out of my parking spot, I knew there was no way I would make it with my tire in the shape that it was.

Before leaving for Virginia, my dad, with great foresight, taught me how to put on the spare tire. Fortunately for me, however, another teammate was around who actually knew what he was doing! (I probably could have gotten the tire off eventually, but Rob was able to do in easily half the time it would have taken me.) Unfortunately for Rob, however, the tire was stuck to the car, like really stuck. It was not coming off! He tried, and then a student tried, we sprayed WD-40 on it, but it just wouldn't budge.

So we left the flat tire on, and just filled it up with air so that I could bring it in. We found a bike pump in the shed, my teammate filled it up again, and I drove it over to Sears. Which is where I am now, catching up on some work and waiting for them to return my car! So far, it's been a great opportunity to practice patience...

Meet the Team at Mary Washington!

The University of Mary Washington has four full-time missionaries: Anthony, Rob, Susie, and me. Anthony is our Team Director, which means he is in charge of setting our schedules, and helping the rest of to be the best and most effective missionaries that we can be. Anthony, Rob, and I are all from the Midwest-- Anthony is from South Dakota, and Rob's from North Dakota. Susie is from Fairfax, VA, which is right outside Washington, DC, about an hour north of Fredericksburg.

I absolutely love my team. We have so much fun working together, that most of the time it doesn't feel like work! For example, on the first day of class, we went out on to campus to hand out flyers. I don't remember who, but one of the guys came up with the idea to dress up as a gorilla and the other decided to dress up as a banana. I also don't remember when we started to take that idea seriously...

The team, with Fr. Edlefsen, right before heading out onto campus. From left to right: me, Father Edlefsen, Rob dressed as a gorilla, Anthony dressed as a banana, and Susie.

The new students got a huge kick out of it, and many of them took a picture with the monkey and banana. It was also effective for getting new faces into the CCM (the Catholic Campus Ministry). Father absolutely loved that we were willing to do the ridiculous, but I think some of the returning students were wondering what they were in for this year!

Jogging

Before moving to Virginia, I had decided I wanted to try to go running more regularly. When I first arrived, however, I went into a little bit of "climate-shock." Every time I stepped out of our air conditioned apartment, I immediately felt short of breath. I was confronted by this weird, thick, heavy air that seemed to make it impossible to breath fully. And then I came down with a cold and/or allergies that put my nose out of commission for a good week. So my whole ambitious plan of jogging on a schedule totally flew out the window.

When I did recover from my cold, I was warned to have a little more care around people than I might be used to in Wisconsin. Unlike Wisconsin, there seems to be a lack of friendliness between strangers in Virginia. When jogging or biking at the UW, it's routine to smile, wave, and give a nice "Hey there!" or "Good morning!" to any fellow exercisers you might meet. Here, unfortunately, this behavior is definitely not encouraged. In fact, I was told to not smile or wave with random passers-by while jogging because it might give the wrong impression, and it just isn't something people do.

Fredericksburg does have a very low crime rate, so I'm not particularly worried when I go out jogging. And one of the students and I have teamed up and becoming jogging buddies! We both seem to lack the self-motivation needed to get up early and go running by ourselves, so we are going to keep each other company! She's familiar with the campus and its surrounding neighborhood, which is a huge help for me, since I don't have a great sense of direction.

One of the ways we work with students as missionaries is called "incarnational evangelization." Essentially, it's the idea that as we share everyday life with students, we can build up a relationship and encourage them in their walk of faith. Jenniffer, my jogging buddy, is a super-solid Catholic who is already involved at the Catholic Student Center at Mary Washington. By jogging with her, we can get to know each other, discuss different things that are happening in life, and learn from each other. I appreciate her help to me, by giving me motivation to wake up and get out of bed to go running in the morning, and I hope I can reciprocate and show my gratitude in the weeks and months to come!

Greetings from Virginia!

Oh my goodness! The past week has been a total whirlwind! I am now in Virginia, and just finished my first official day of work here at the University of Mary Washington. Within the past week, I packed up all my things, traveled halfway across the country, unpacked in my new apartment, fell sick with a cold, and started a new job! It has definitely kept me busy, but a good busy.

The apartment here in Fredericksburg is huge! It's easily twice the size of the place I lived at in Madison, and everything, minus cable and internet, is included in rent, even parking! I'm still a little in awe of how much space we have, and I have to stop myself from trying to fill it with furniture.

The city of Fredericksburg is beautiful! It's different from Wisconsin, but still nice. I've had most difficulty getting used to the humidity here. I thought it was bad back home over the summer, but it was nothing compared to what it's like every day here. I keep waiting for the morning when I open the door and step outside without being surprised by the intense, oppressive heat. So far, it hasn't happened; but there's always tomorrow!

When I get a moment, I'll post some pictures. The campus of Mary Washington is absolutely beautiful, with a lot of green space and brick buildings. So far, I'm really enjoying my time here, and can't wait to explore Fredericksburg more and meet the students!

7 Quick Takes, vol. 2

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Trusting in God is hard. Putting my faith in something, Someone, that I can't see is incredibly difficult. It's so easy to fall into the "what ifs"...What if God doesn't actually exist? What if I'm not supposed to be a missionary and God is trying to tell me that and I'm just not getting it? What if I'm not cut out for mission life? What if nobody likes me in Virginia? What if I can't raise enough to get to Virginia? What if... What if... What if... The list can go on and on in my head.

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I sometimes feel like St. Thomas, aka Doubting Thomas. The missionaries around me have seen the Lord. They know Him- they've heard His voice, they've seen His face. He is not a mystery to them. But I don't believe them. I haven't heard Him or seen His face. How can they have such complete and total trust in this Great Mystery? Why do they seem to get it, and my mind keeps reaching a dead end. Why do I keep walking into a brick wall when it comes to putting complete and total faith in Him?

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I recently found a prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas that seems to summarize my doubts perfectly. It's the Adoro Te Devote, and it speaks about believing in God, particularly in the Eucharist, where both His humanity and divinity is hidden. I love the whole prayer, but especially the line that claims that "hearing suffices firmly to believe." At Mass, during the Eucharistic prayer, all I have is the sound of the priest speaking the Words of Consecration, but those words are enough, they must be enough.

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Other times, trust comes more easily, more naturally. For example, I still don't have an apartment in Virginia. But for some reason, this doesn't bother me at all. I am totally confident that by the time I need to move to Fredericksburg, I will have a place to live.

Preferably not a little shack by the side of the railroad tracks!

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And I know that God is good, that Jesus is Lord. He takes care of me in the little ways- running into an old friend from high school whom I haven't seen in years, hearing about how a mission partner had an incredible encounter with the Holy Spirit, turning on the radio right as my favorite song starts playing. I know He loves me in the little things.

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It's the big things that keep me up at night, tossing and turning. Although, surprisingly, my unconscious doesn't register "finding a place to live" as a big thing. It's the worries about money (will I ever raise enough to be able to go to campus?), about friends (will anyone in Virginia like me and how can I leave all my Wisconsin friends?), about meeting people (why would I ever have volunteered for a job that involves talking to strangers every day?). But mostly it's about money.

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But as my team director has said, "We work for the richest Man in the world." And I do! We only have what God allows us to have, and He won't allow me to live in poverty, alone and friendless, meeting only unpleasant, rude people. I do trust that in the abstract. It's only in the daily grind, where I start thinking that I'm somehow missing something that others have,  that it's difficult.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

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!