Random Thoughts

We feel like we have lucked out this winter. Iowa usually gets more snow than we've gotten so far...and I know it's only the end of February so we have more winter ahead of us, but so far we are thankful it hasn't been too bad of a winter.

Here is a picture from the snow last week. It didn't last long (most of it melted the next day) but it was BEAUTIFUL! Large wet flakes that fell softly to the ground and totally showed off God's beauty in His creation!

My new favorite hobby is making fresh pasta! I remember my parents making pasta when I was little.

It must have been going to Italy in October that made me want to try making it, even though in Italy I got tired of eating pasta every night. For Christmas we got a pasta cookbook and an attachment for our mixer that makes different types of pasta so I've been enjoying trying it out. Last week I made my first stuffed pasta, ravioli! It was a TON more work than I thought...but definitely worth it! I also made a homemade tomato sauce that was super easy, just a can of plum tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and basil (which I forgot to add and will try next time.)


And for my last random thought, here is my friend Kelly (junior at Loras) and look how cute we are! I have to say, she had her coat before I did. Ashley gave me this coat over Christmas and now every time Kelly and I see each other wearing the same coat we have to smile.

Frannie and her Friends

We often wonder what Frannie is thinking. Tyler and I both talk for her from time to time, but haven't decided what she is thinking in this picture. Isn't she adorable? She's just looking out the window...probably wishing she was out there...watching the world go by.

We have learned several things about her these past four months:

1. She is an extrovert.

She loves to be with people. Whenever we have students over (like last Friday night after Upper Room) she is so excited and runs up and down the hallway and goes from person to person to get love.

2. Her love language is physical touch.

She always wants to be cuddling and whenever students are over she is the happiest because they never stop touching her and always let her get up on their lap to cuddle. We don't know who likes it more, Frannie or the students.

3. She has emotions and is a girl.

See her leg...enough said. Whenever Tyler and I aren't paying enough attention to her, she'll look to the ground, put her tail down, and slowly sulk into the den...stopping halfway to look back at us to see if we still love her...

4. She is becoming more like a dog everyday.

When we first got her, she never played with the toys we had. Now, she is chewing on her bone and two times we have found one of Tyler's tennis shoes in a random spot. Kind of cute.

5. We still don't know how to train her not to get on the furniture at night.

We have to put things to block the furniture or else in the morning we wake up to a wet spot with a ton of Frannie hairs. It never smells bad, so we think she drools or licks...but still it's gross.

We love our girl and we are so thankful for her!

Upper Room Pictures

Here are pictures of the Upper Room last Friday night. We met in the Campus Ministry room on campus and all ate our fill of pizza.

Fr. Joensen gave a talk about Mary and prayer. We were challenged to think of how our relationship with the Mother of God has developed and grown throughout the years. He shared how Mary is present with us throghout our lives, and especially at Mass when we remember Christ's passion.

Here are some pictures of the student leaders. Not all were able to come, and it's exciting how many new leaders there are!

Fr. Joensen has a deep and beautiful love for Mary which was evident when he talked about her!

We then had the students over to our apartment to hang out.

We played a few games, shared a lot of a laughs, and had a great night.

"Sowing Broadly"

Once a month we have an Upper Room with all the FOCUS student leaders. We use the time to come together as a group and recast the vision of what we are doing, as well as time to meditate and learn more about a specific topic.

Jason and Tyler recast the vision for the semester. Jason talked about "sowing broadly" and trying to share the person of Jesus Christ with as many people as we can!

Tyler explained how we are going to do this, and the FOCUS term is "bare-handed evangelization." This is where two student leaders will ask the Holy Spirit to guide them, and then go up to a fellow student and ask them a general question about faith, such as, "Why do you think some college students don't take their faith seriously?" Then as the conversation progresses, hopefully there will be a chance to narrow it down and ask them about their personal faith journey.

The goal of each conversation is to present the gospel message and to help each student, at least think about, a relationship with Jesus Christ. Tyler and his teammates have been going around with their disciples doing this for the past few weeks and so far they have had great responses (a few students are going to come to Bible studies because they were invited during the conversations.) We are all so excited about this and know God is going to continue to bless our efforts of evangelization!

Jason gave an amazing thought: if all the student leaders talk to two new students a week, by the end of the semester they will all have talked to 800 students, which is half the student-body population. Only God knows how He is going to touch the student's lives on campus, and we are privileged to be a part of His work!

Rosary Walk

This week the team started a Rosary Walk around campus. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday the team prays a Rosary before the 5:15pm Mass and this week we started walking around campus while praying the Rosary. One student joined us and we are excited to keep adding students and not only claim the campus for Christ as we walk and pray, but also be a witness to students.

March for Life

The leadership summit got over Monday morning and then we walked to a bus stop and after taking a very crowded bus, got on a train that took us to Union Station in Washington D.C. for the March for Life.

The day was dreary and wet. It wasn't too cold and we thought it was appropriate weather to be at the march.

We followed the people walking and found ourselves waiting for quite sometime. We didn't really know when it was going to start, or where it would start, but eventually people started walking so we joined the crowd.

We were near the front (we decided because we finished in less than an hour and a half and on our way back we passed thousands of people who were still walking the other direction towards the end) and lots of cheers and songs were sung and many prayers said.

We ended at the Supreme Court building and stayed around for about a half an hour listening to women share their testimonies about their past abortions and how their hearts have changed. It was very moving, hard to listen to, but beautiful to hear how God has worked in their lives and made good come out of their suffering.

Here is Tyler with the three athletes who came on the trip.

After we finished the march we walked back to Union Station. Here is an awesome story. I knew my friend, Justine Bator and her husband and baby, were going to the March for Life (they currently live in Wisconsin but I met them in Ave Maria when Justine and I worked at the Montessori school together) and I knew there wasn't much of a chance to run into them or meet them somewhere. So I started praying to our Guardian Angels that we would somehow run into each other. And guess what? Right before we boarded the train back to Baltimore to catch our flight, I turned around and there they were. It was amazing to see them! Even though we only had a minute to hug each other and for me to meet their adorable son, it was very special and such a blessing to see them!

After we got back on the train everyone was exhausted. We caught a shuttle from the train station to the airport and then had time to eat dinner and debrief from the weekend. It was good to hear people's experiences and questions or comments they had from the talks at the summit.

Even though we only had a few hours we made the most of our time in D.C. It was such a blessing to be at the March for Life and to stand up the unborn. Dear Lord, we pray for an end to abortion and all that is contrary to life. Please give those in leadership the widsom and grace to protect life and the unborn. Amen!

Illuminate: Student Leadership Summit 2012

Looking back, only by God's grace did we make it to Baltimore. The day we left there was a major snowstorm and because of the wind and snow the driving conditions were horrible. We left at noon on Friday and instead of a three and a half hour drive to the Milwaukee airport, we barely made it in five and a half hours. We literally got to the airport at 5:10pm when our flight left at 5:35pm. We didn't know if everyone was going to get through security but thanks to God we all got on the plane!

And things kept happening all weekend that made us smile and know that God planned for each and every one of us to be there!

Along with the four missionaries, myself, and ten students, we joined about 1,000 other students and FOCUS staff from across the country in Baltimore. We stayed downtown and had a great view of the harbor.

There were talks all day Saturday and Sunday and we got to hear great insights about discipleship, evangelization, prayer, and life-long mission.

Tyler had an awesome opportunity to be involved with the Varsity Catholic discussions in the afternoons. There were about 60 athletes who came to the summit and a few VC missionaries gave talks about how discipleship and evangelization relate to then. Tyler gave a talk about discipleship and how athletes have an amazing opportunity to reach out to their teammates because of the large majority of their time they are with the team.

Tyler also worked the Varsity Catholic booth a few times during the weekend. Here he is with James, a FOCUS missionary at South Dakota State.

We enjoyed being downtown Baltimore and at night ventured outside. We ate at Chipotle one night and at P.F. Chang's the other night.

On Sunday afternoon the missionary wives and newly engaged missionaries met for lunch. There are so many of us now (I don't know the numbers, but here are the ones that were at the conference.) I think in the last few months there have been 18 new engagements.

The last talk on Sunday night was by the founder of FOCUS, Curtis Martin. He was just nominated by Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. Curtis humbly told us he was nominated not because of who he is, but because of who we are (the students and missionaries) and the difference we are making on the college campuses.

Curtis also made the announcement that next year there will be a national conference in Orlando, Florida January 2nd-6th. He said, "There is only enough room for 6,000 people, so register early and bring your friends."

We all had a wonderful time and are excited to take what we learned to the students at Loras, namely to spread the love and message of Jesus Christ and invite students into a personal relationship with Christ and His Church.