Baby It's Cold Outside

And when I say cold, I mean COLD! This native Floridian is feeling a little out of sorts in the face (literally) of single digit windchill. But God is good and invented indoors and heaters (when people turn them on). So I have not frozen into an icicle, though it was a close call recently, and am still running after souls at SHU.

Bible Studies are starting up this week. The women have added at least 3 new studies this semester and 5 new student leaders! God is so good! In my senior study we are discussing how to evangelize in their classes and workplaces without being the stereotypical preacher-with-a-megaphone, then we'll go through Salvation History, a FOCUS Bible Study that goes through the fundamental stories that lead to Jesus' coming and Ascension. The juniors wanted to pick a book of the Bible to go through, and we've narrowed it down to six choices as of now. (In case you hadn't noticed, there's 73 amazing books to choose from and 6 women that need to agree...could take a while) I have my favorite that I think would be good for them, but I'm trying not to be too biased and let them pick. And in the Greek (Alpha Sigma Tau) study that just started, we're going to be addressing different topics the girls are battling. They'll bring something they want to talk about and I'll research it and the next week we'll talk about it. They want homework, too. I've led SH before, but the other two methods are entirely new to me. Man, I can't wait for this semester!

This past Tuesday was the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. In the past 40 years in America alone, 55 million babies have been murdered. As the president recently said, "If there's even one step we can take to save one child...then surely we have an obligation to try". Every year, hundreds of thousands come from across the country to Washington, D.C. to march peacefully in protest. The old march with the young; Rabbis and nuns walk alongside each other; different ethnic backgrounds can be seen, banners high, joining the March in an effort to end abortion. This year around 400,000 Americans walked to the Supreme Court steps.

Myself and around 25 other SHU students took a bus at 6am to Washington, D.C. Now, the silly side of the march comes into play when you realize that your friends from around the country will also be in Washington, D.C. Hmm. What a great time to meet up! NOT. I am a firm believer in staying with the group you came with and leaving the people I see up to chance. I'm there for the babies, not reunions. Not everyone holds my opinion, I know, and that's ok. However, that provides the background for my prayer prior to the march: that my buddy (from SHU - the buddy system is best when surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people) and I don't get lost, and if it be Your will, let me say hello to a few far away friends. And boy, is God good!

We ended up at the NC Mass at the National Shrine. Having graduated from a North Carolinian school, I knew the bishops and knew I was praying with my friends from Belmont Abbey. Not only that, but one of my favorite priests from NC was a concelebrant at Mass! And a friend who entered the seminary this year was also in the procession! I didn't get to say hello, but even seeing them was such a blessing! THEN when we got to the Supreme Court steps, I saw the BAC banner and got to say hello to a few old friends. THEN I saw the Nashville Dominican banner. To convey the accurate level of excitement this stirred in my heart, you must know that one of the freshman in my Bible Study last year at BAC entered with them this year. And I knew she was going to be at the March. I saw her for maybe 30 seconds, but they were some of the happiest 30 seconds on the March. THEN I also ran into a fellow missionary friend. THEN we saw the Sisters of Life. Another friend from FOCUS entered there last year. I wasn't sure if she was going to be at the March, so I was just walking through the crowd of nuns, and I saw her! Such a blessed reunion! All of these interactions lasted maybe 5 minutes, but they brought such joy to my heart and soul! And kinda made up for the fact that I couldn't feel my toes anymore. 

Two of our fearless leaders at the March

So many people!

Statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton :)

The National Shrine. So beautiful!

And today I went to the swim meet and watched one of the student leaders compete. I love watching swimming, and SHU did such a great job! God is indeed amazing and totally blesses me. Thank you for your amazing prayers and be assured of mine for you!

Continuing to SEEK Him

I can't believe how much I want to share with you all! The missionaries have only been  back at Seton Hall for 2 weeks and the students just finished the first week of the spring semester. But I am still so excited about SEEK! We had a get together for all of the students who went, and a little over half of them showed up! I don't know if you remember trying to plan get together's for students in college, but you invite at least 4 times as many people as you want to show up. It was beautiful to see all of these different men and women mingling like old friends. We shared with them the idea of a gospel presentation, a short explanation of salvation history, and what a great tool it can be in sharing Jesus Christ with Seton Hall's campus. 

But what I really wanted to share with you today is the FOCUS blog. I'm not sure if any of you follow it, but they did an amazing recap of SEEK, complete with videos! Please go check it out!

SEEK 2013

I pray you all have had a blessed holiday season and are ready to jump back into a new year! I had a wonderfully relaxing time in Tampa for a month!

A few highlights:
I was able to head up to visit my grandparents before Christmas. It was so good to see them! I was able to go to daily Mass with my grandma and meet her coffee group. We celebrated my grandpa and my sister's birthday with dinner at Red Lobster and cake. My aunt and uncle from NC also came down with their little boys for the night to celebrate. I grew very close to them when I was at Belmont, so it was a joy to be able to see them, even if only for a little bit.
I got my sister a sonic screwdriver for her birthday. It is also a pen. That writes secret messages. It's pretty awesome.
One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was from my parents. They made a photo scavenger hunt for my sister and I. We spend so much time together, but hardly have any pictures together. So we spent the better part of the day together driving from one location to another.

Our Present!

At Inkwood Books - a cute little bookstore in Tampa

On Bayshore, a beautiful stretch of road along the bay

At Wright's - a delicious cafe on Dale Mabry 

The cake. Yummy!

We snuck into the athletic side of the high school we both attended! Go Crusaders!!

Theresa's new best friend

Megan's new best friend

 My second favorite was that our family all got tickets to go see Les Miserables on Christmas. It was INCREDIBLE. If you haven't seen it, please go see it! Anne Hathaway steals the show!

We celebrated New Year's at our cousins' house, a yearly tradition. It was good to see them! It had been a long time since we had gotten together. Then on January 2nd, we headed to Orlando for FOCUS's National Conference: SEEK. I have mentioned this conference a few times on my blog and I was so excited that it was finally here! For those of you who know the story of when Jesus Christ won my heart, you know it centers around the FOCUS Conference I went to in 2010. I just knew that God was going to do amazing things there.

Theresa came with me, and that was such a blessing! She chose the talks that we both went to, and after we would go out for dinner and discuss what we had just heard. It was so awesome to be able to experience the conference with her. She also has the amazing ability to ground me when I start spinning off on what-if's and maybe's that could go wrong.

Due to a miscommunication between the hotel and FOCUS, some of the missionaries had to be moved to another resort for the conference. I was one of those missionaries. We stayed at the Coronado, which was just as nice. It also forced me to get a good amount of sleep, because the shuttles ran from 8-9am and then again from 10:30pm-1am. So no getting up early or staying out late. Our day started off with Mass at 9, men's and women's break out sessions at 11, lunch until 2, 2 break out sessions from 2:30-4:30 (basically there was a list of 6 sessions during each time slot that you could choose from. The topics and speakers changed every day), dinner until 7, a keynote speaker at 7, then entertainment each night (Wed: comedian Johnnie W; Thurs: swing dance; Fri: Adoration and Confession; Sat: Matt Maher!).

Each missionary has a job during conference, and I was chosen to be on prayer team. For those of you who are not familiar with prayer teams, basically what happens is if you would like to get prayed over, you can go to the team of 2-3 people and ask for prayer. The leader of the team then asks "What would you like Jesus to do for you today?" It could be anything! A lot of people pray for healing from a past wound, for a release of the Holy Spirit into their lives, or for confirmation in discernment. I was privileged to hear some amazing stories. Every time someone would come to my group to be prayed over, I just had this overwhelming sense of joy. Like Jesus was so happy that His children were coming to Him to be healed. Praying with these men and women was one of the best things that I experienced at SEEK. Jesus just wants us to come to Him and ask. The theme from the conference kept coming to my mind: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" ~Matthew 7:7

SHU Students at SEEK!