I Am With You Always

A lot can happen in the span of seven months, especially when you partake in a beautiful sacrament of the Catholic Church. Yes, on May 21, 2016 I married my wonderful husband Nick Grevas, so now I write for the first time as Mrs. Maggie Grevas. Nick is a FOCUS missionary, Fellowship of Catholic University Students, where for the past three years he has been assigned to a college campus with a team to keep the Catholic faith alive in college. His job as a missionary is to help students to build their relationship with God and the Catholic Church, through one-on-one teaching, and bible studies. (Side note: Nick was a FOCUS missionary on my campus two years ago which is how we met!). I am so excited to say that I will be working for FOCUS as well as an affiliate, working side by side with my husband to share the Gospel and the love of God to students. We have been assigned this upcoming year to the campus of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA with a wonderful team, five of us in total. Hayley is our fearless leader, our team director, a beautiful soul from the good ol' state of Nebraska who is starting her second year in FOCUS at Carnegie Mellon and is ready to lead all of us to Christ throughout the year! Mia is a first year missionary from Illinois, both fun and spunky and has an amazing love for our Lord, as well as for ice cream. Then we have Chris, our other first year missionary from the far out state of California whose personality is just as outgoing as his hair. His courage and fight for the faith is just what we need to round out our team. 

Training is a month long, consisting of classes, fellowship, team-bonding, and of course prayer. Right now we are doing a five-day bible challenge, focusing on a bible verse each day that ties in with our mission. Today was day one, and the verse was Matthew 28: 18-20, the very last verses from the Gospel of Matthew. Here Matthew writes:

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always to the close of the age'"

When I have read this verse in the past, the great commission of "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" has always stuck out to me. This is Jesus telling us to go everywhere and tell the world about Him, about the Father, about the Gospel, all the teachings, making all of us like the Apostles. This is the definition of a missionary, that no matter where we are or what our jobs may be we must teach our faith, we must fearlessly live our faith as examples to all whom we meet. However this time while reading the passage, something else stuck out to me, 

"and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age"

God is with me till the end of the age, but what does that mean?

Lately, I have begun reading "Walking with Mary" by Doctor Edward Sri, where he take the reader into the hidden life of Mary based on the little that we know about her from the Bible. Looking at the Annunciation, the very first mention of Mary, the angel Gabriel says to her in Luke 1:28 "The Lord is with you!" Dr. Sri explains how these words are significant for throughout the Bible this greeting has been used for various men and women who were called by God for a special task, such as Moses, Joshua, and David to name a few. Dr. Sri continues on to say that, "These missions would require much generosity, many sacrifices, and great trust, and that is why they were given the assurance that they would not have to face these trials alone, that God would be with them, guiding, protecting, and strengthening them."

Our call to be missionaries of Christ is not an easy one. We are meant to stand up for our beliefs in Catholic teaching, our faith in God, our love of God in a world today when the meanings of love and faith have been skewed. We may need to change how we live, how we speak, and how we act to fulfill this mission which we were called to directly by Jesus, a sacrifice in the eyes of the world, but a great leap of faith in the eyes of God. We are called to put our trust in Him that we know He is leading us down our path which was made special for us by Him. For such a special task, why wouldn't God be with us till the end of time? The very last words in the Gospel of Matthew are these words, this promise that He will ALWAYS be with us, ALWAYS be there to help us to fulfill our mission sent by His Son. That may be my actual full time job for the next year, but we don't have to be a FOCUS missionary to make disciples of all nations. We need missionaries in the hospitals, in the offices, in the sales rooms, in the restaurants, in the homes, in the schools, in every profession that there is. That is exactly why we have the GREAT commission, because it is meant for everyone. 

Do not be afraid to live our your faith, to live our your love of God in your daily lives. Jesus did it, the Apostles did it, the saints did it, and you can do it too. Just remember, God is with us always, and with God nothing is impossible. 

Introducing the Grevas Duo

FOCUS team Carnegie Mellon: Mia, Nick, myself, Chris, Hayley

Citation: Walking with Mary: A Biblical Journey from Nazareth to the Cross by Edward Sri

Tis Always the Season for Giving

Man it has been a long time since I have been on here and for reason, this semester back at school has been insane! (And I thought my summer of traveling was crazy). So just a quick update on my life; finishing up my last semester of my undergraduate at Mary Washington and it is quickly coming to a close here within the next three or so weeks. From writing countless papers to hanging out with friends, to praying at the Catholic Center, my life has been such a whirlwind. I have also had the privilege to do a tiny bit of traveling this fall as well. This weekend was spent in the small town of Mansfield, Ohio where I was blessed to see one of my good friends from school get married yesterday. Such a beautiful ceremony and many blessings and prayers go out to the newly wed couple! Then, about a month ago during my fall break I was lucky to be able to go up to Pittsburgh to visit Nick (my boyfriend) was is currently working at Carnegie Mellon as a FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) Missionary. After being apart from him the entire summer, it was great to be able to spend some much needed time together for a long weekend. And what a beautiful and perfect weekend it was because...WE'RE ENGAGED!!!! Yup, so in a little over six months I will be the new Mrs. Grevas. I have to say, I am so incredibly thankful for where I am at in my life, praise God!

Speaking of being thankful, it is that time of year again... the holidays! We had Halloween and more importantly All Saints and All Souls days a few weeks ago, and now we have thanksgiving to look forward to here and about a week and a half, then starts advent and right around the corner believe it or not is Christmas! So this time of year in our culture tends to be known as the season for giving; we give each other gifts for Christmas, we share food together at thanksgiving, we give food to the local food banks and toys to those children who need them. But why is it that we only focus on giving during this time of the year? What is so important about giving? When we think about giving we typically think about buying gifts for people, or giving food to those who need it, or maybe even just flat out giving money to people, to the poor box in church, or to a specific organization that touches our heart. These are all beautiful ways to give, but there are, believe it or not, more ways that we can give to others. We can give our time, our love, our prayers to others. However, no matter in what form we may give, we as humans tend to hold back just a little. We love, but we don't always love with all of our hearts, leaving a little out because we are afraid of getting hurt. We give our time to help others or to be there and listen to a friend in need, but we may be still looking at our watch or phone to check the time, rushing off to be somewhere else or hoping that something else comes up so that we can leave and not spend all day with that person or at that one event. We love to give, but we don't love to give everything that we have.

Last weekend both the first reading and the gospel were all about giving, but not just giving, fully giving all that we have. The first reading was from 1 King's 17: 10-16; the prophet Eli'jah is sent to a town by God where he meets a widow who is outside gathering sticks. He calls to her and tells her to bring him some bread. The widow responses by saying "As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a curse; and now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and die." However, Eli'jah responses and tells her to not fear, to go and bake the bread and bring some to him and then after to make some for herself and her son, for the Lord says, "The jar of meal shall not be spent and the curse of oil shall not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth." So she went and did as he said, giving him the only bread she thought she had left for herself and her son, and when she returned to her home she found that what Eli'jah had said was true, she and her son did not go hungry. This widow had little to nothing left; she had enough to make enough bread for one last meal for herself and her son and then they would starve to death afterward, but when the prophet Eli'jah came and asked for some bread from her, and told her not to fear for God would take care of her, she literally gave him all she had left, believing that God would in fact take care of her. She gave not just a small amount of bread and kept the rest for herself and her son, she gave it all over, to Eli'jah, to God.

The Gospel reading was Mark 12: 41-44;

    "As Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which makes a penny. And He called His disciples to Him and said to them, 'Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living"

While this passage is talking about giving financially, this is not the point of the teaching. Jesus makes the statement at the very end of the teaching, "but out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living." While the widow put in much money while she was poor, while she gave financially, she gave out of the kindness and love in her heart, not because she was told to, not because she wanted to be revered by others, but because she truly loves God and wants to help others. She didn't give financially, she gave her whole heart, her whole being.

These two readings are strong, powerful, and beautiful examples of giving; that we are called to give all that we have to God. For some people that is all the money they have where they truly do sell all that they have to follow Christ, such as in a religious order. Orders are called to give all they have by serving others full time such as missionaries whether they be overseas in a poor country or even in the United States. Some are called to give their whole hearts by helping those who are dying in hospice or by helping those who have special needs. No matter how we are called, we are ALL called to give, and not just give but to give with everything that we have to our Lord. Look at the best example that we have, how our Father, God, gave His one and only Son up on the cross so that we can be saved and reform our relationship that had been broken by sin with God once again. Jesus gave absolutely everything that He could, He gave His life. While we are all not called to give our lives for God, we are all called to give to Him. This holiday season as the 'spirit of giving' is in the air, think about how you can give, not just to others, not just this time of year, but to give every single day to God. How can we give everything that we have to Him?

Tis always the season for giving, giving fully to God.

It's Good to Be Back!

Wow it has been a while since my last blog post! I've had so many encounters this summer, so many adventures, and so many stories, yet I've traveled so much that I have had very little time to really explain and let my summer sink in. Just to recap for all you who are new to my blog, at the end of May I spent two weeks working and serving in the remote fishing island of Yakutat, Alaska. During those two weeks my FOCUS mission team of 23 helped the community through home repair projects, vacation bible school for the kids, retreats for the teenagers, and various community events for all ages.After the two weeks in Alaska, I then went to Loveland, Colorado for two weeks were I had training for my job for the summer with Group Mission Trips. I was put on a team of four where we each had a different job in setting up, and running home repair, mission trip experience camps for high schoolers across the country. My position was an office manager, where I would communicate with the facility we were staying in for the camp week, set up the facility and keep it running for over 350 campers each week, and make sure everything was in order and running smoothly. After my two weeks of training in Colorado, my crew and I drove across the country in our Ford Focus and Penske truck to help set up a camp and run our three camps; we set up in North Carolina, and had our three camps in South Carolina, West Virginia, and New York. Each camp was a week long where the high schoolers would come from all over the country (sometimes from all over the world, where we had two groups come from Canada and Japan) and would work on home repair projects while focusing on an overall theme for the week. The theme this year was REFRAME, where the kids were reframing who Jesus is to them, who He is to our world today. They also reframed how they view their relationship with God, both positive and negative. Nine weeks later, after our very last camp in New York, my crew drove back to Colorado to unpack our equipment then turned around 48 hours later to fly home to Virginia. And then.....I slept.

This summer was crazy with travel and lack of sleep, but this summer, I was a missionary. I was able to share God's love, joy, and word with everyone whom I met; from the natives in Alaska, to high schoolers at camp, to my own mission team and crew members on mission and at work. Did that mean I talked strictly about Jesus the entire time? No, while I did have many stimulating and deep conversations about being Catholic, about Jesus, about putting our full trust in God, it wasn't always direct. Some days, it was all about being a presence in someone's life, some days it was about being joyful even when I was running on a couple hours of sleep but still putting the needs of others in front of mine, some days it meant explaining to someone why I go to Mass every Sunday and why I pray every day. Sometimes these encounters were defining moments of my summer, a moment that really stood out to me, but sometimes these encounters were so small I still don't realize that they happened, and I may never realize it.

It is good to be back, it is good to share my experiences with all my family and friends, it is good to take all my experiences and encounters from this summer and bring them back to my life here in Virginia. This summer will stay with me forever, but it can't stop at just a pretty and fun memory, I need to make it live on, I need to continue to pray for that encounter with God every single day, a prayer that we must all have each day. Life is crazy even as I returned; I went to New York with my boyfriend, I am finishing up my college career in Geography, I am involved in my Catholic Campus Ministry on my campus, I'm going on various adventures this semester with friends, I have a blog that I need to keep writing, I am seeking many different opportunities that have been presented to me over the past month, but I need to keep being a missionary, I need to keep sharing God's love!

I'm just a little missionary, and it's good to be back!

Separate But Not Far

So this past week I had almost no contact with the outside world.

My job of working with Group Mission Trips as a red shirt summer staff has taken me many cool places; Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, a cross country journey across 9 states, the arch in St. Louis, the Carolinas, and even Niagara Falls yesterday, but it has also taken me places that are just a blip on the map. Last week my crew and I were running a camp in a small town of Seth, West Virginia, about an hour west of the captial of Charleston. We were deep in the Appalachian Mountains where we soon found out that there was absolutely no cell service or internet, all we had was one landline that worked part of the time and spotty wifi for our email for work that would kick us off every 20 minutes. Now you're probably thinking, how did I ever survive without my social media, without my texting, without calling anyone.....well I did, and this isn't the first time I have lived in isolation from the  world. I actually survived for longer this summer without everything, when I was in Alaska for two weeks. It may be hard, but I recommend it to everyone to try!

Whether we know it or not, we are all connected by our phones or by technology in general; we talk with everyone instantly through email, phone call, or texting, we can share our photos of our experiences in a blink of an eye with Facebook and Instagram, and we can look up absolutely anything that we want to with easy access to the internet. So how is it that if we are all so connected with the use of the internet, that we aren't actually connected at all? I've seen people be on their phones while their friends are sitting right next to them, and instead of holding a conversation with each other, they are playing a game, checking facebook, or texting someone who isn't even there. We are all guilty , my self included, or turning to our phone or plugging into our music when the silence makes us feel awkward, or makes us feel like we need to be doing something. We need to constantly be doing something, but not always the right thing.

When I was in Alaska for two weeks, Sean, one of the FOCUS missionaries on the trip said this, "We are afraid of silence, but why? We are afraid of silence because we are afraid of what we are going to hear" God didn't always speak in the big events in life, 1 Kings 19:11-12 where God tells Elijah to go and stand on the mountain and the Lord will pass by.
"There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord--but the Lord was not in the wind, after the wind an earthquake---but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, fire--but the Lord was not in the fire, after the fire, a light silent sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in the cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of a cave"
We need silence in our lives, and the best way to start is by not being surrounded by technology, not being surrounded by our phones and by social media, and by texting people all the time. While it isn't all bad, it is good to get away, and when we get away, we may find ourselves in some of the  coolest places, or meet some of the coolest people.

In Alaska I was incredibly blessed to be surrounded by the locals and to have them show our group their land, their state. While we were there for them, to bring love, joy, and God into their lives, they were there for us. They shared their food with us; fish, claims, seaweed, and they shared their land with us; hiking, fishing, canoeing, boating, surfing, and exploring. We shared our lives with each other, fully submerging into the culture of the true native Alaskan and native Klinght people.
In West Virginia I was able to not only serve the community but also meet and talk with many of my staff and the campers as well. I met a girl named Emily who went to a rival high school or mine, plays goalie in lacrosse, and is going to CNU, a rival college of mine where she will be playing lacrosse there. At the end of camp she wrote me a note which said that throughout the week she really enjoyed talking with me and although she has been on multiple camps, this is the first one where she has really connected with a staff memeber and now really wants to become a staff herself in the next year or so. I was also able to connect with one of the residents that the campers served named Kimberly. Kimberly lives with her husband in Seth and is Deaf. I found out from one of the campers that she speaks American Sign Language so I was happy that I would be able to go and visit and communicate with her. I was blessed to go on Thursday where I stood and signed with her for about an hour. I then got to see her again on Friday night at our program, where all the locals are invited to join in and celebrate what God has done througout the week in the community. I again got to talk with her and found out that her husband doesn't know ASL and there really isn't anyone else in the  town who does, so she has to lip read most of the time when talking with someone, which is really hard for her. She was excited to finally be able to sign with someone for the first time in several years.

Being disconnected and living in social silence can be very rough, but pulling away and just listening to God and submerging ourselves in the surrounding culture can be a very eye opening and life changing experience. Without even knowing, we can not only have our lives influenced, but also influence lives of others around us. Silence is one of the best ways we can improve our relationship with God. It is easy when you don't have an option to be connected, but even though we can be on our phones 24/7, try going without for at least 30mins a day. Turn off your phone, turn off theTV, turn off the computer, turn off your  music, and just sit in silence. Also, turn off your mind as well, don't spend the time planning out your next day, or thinking about what needs to be done around the house, or who you need to call next time your phone is on...take that time to completely clear your mind and give all that you need to do to God. You are spending time with him, he will make sure that everything that needs to be done will get done in time.

Connect with God, disconnect from the world.

Seth, West Virginia deep in the Appalachian mountains

Me and Kimberly after Friday night program

Yakutat, Alaska

RefraME

Society today needs to reframe how we view Jesus.

When I was out in Colorado for my two weeks of training to become a red shirt, we watched one video that a guy had created where he went across the US asking the one question, "Who is Jesus Christ?" The most common answer was, "He's a nice guy." So you want to tell me that the Son of God who was humbly sent down to this earth, who was born into poverty, had 12 devouted followers, performed miracles, taught thousands, then died on a cross for us was just a "nice guy?"

This summer the theme for the workcamps that I am setting up and running across the country is REFRAME because we are reframing who Jesus Christ is to us, and who we are to Him. For the past two and a half weeks my crew and I have been working none stop at two different camps to make sure that the youth coming in can really reflect on this theme, and more importantly on who Jesus is to them. After we traveled the country driving from Colorado to North Carolina, we helped another crew set up and volunteer at their camp in Lexington, North Carolina. It was great for both of us; my crew got to have a practice run of what it looks like to set up for a camp, and the other crew got some much needed help from us. We only stayed half way through the camp, but we got to see some of the residents and the kids, and how they loved the camp and the theme. We then left on Wednesday to head down to Greenwood, South Carolina to set up and run our own camp.

In the beginning of the week, it was hard for the campers, and even me to see how this theme was going to work for this camp. The first two days are always more introduction to the camp and what is going to happen, so the theme really hadn't started to come out yet. Then, Tuesday started it all, for everyone.

Tuesday night program we showed a video entitled King of Kings; a simple black and white video without any spoken words, just music and written words on the screen. It talks about how there is a king above all kings, where no earthly king can ever compare to Him. Then another king ascended the throne, sin, and it comes in many forms, especially those that are hard to detect. But then a new king came into this world, and He was born into poverty in a manager. Our society is putting sin on a throne, where we are worshipping it by blindly following and letting it comsume out lives. Matthew did the same thing in the Bible; he was a tax collector who cheated many people out of their money and only thought about himself. Then Jesus came along and told Matthew to follow Him, without hestitating even once. He used to worship sin, but now He follows Jesus. We need to reframe who we are following in our own life.

Wednesday was truly powerful; where we asked the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" This hit hard to many people; one girl in a youth group had just found out that her father was admitted to hospice with only days to live when she heard this theme for the night. It is a hard question to ask, one that many people reflect on a lot. Are these bad things happening becausee of our sin? Think of the sick man in the Bible where the pharasses asked if the one man was sick because of his sin or his parents sin? Jesus said neither reason, but becasue He will be able to truly see the face of God through his sickness. We are all given crosses to bear, some will be harder than others, but that doesn't mean that we are being punished for things that we have done. God doesn't give a someone a cross that is too much for them to bear, for He knows what we can and can't handle. This night, this one night is  what changed the pace of the camp for the rest of the week.

During the program there is what is called, 'God Sightings' where some of the campers will come up and share how they saw God working today. The last girl to go on this night was a small timid girl who looked like she was a deer in the headlights. When she got up to speak, she spoke softly and shared of how when she was 4 years old her mother left her, and then when she was 8 years old shse realized that her mother was never coming back for her. Over the next few years, most of her family had left her, and when she would try to talk to someone about the situtation, everyone wouldn't listen and would just leave. This is the second workcamp that she has been on, last year her first and she wasn't too sure about it. But now, after having had two years of being surrounded by people who are loving and caring and willing to listen without leaving, she decided, on this night, to follow Jesus, to accept Him, and to love Him. This girl is 14 years old.

This is why I do what I do, this is why I am a missionary. We need to reframe how people view Jesus, that He isn't just something we can pick up and throw away on a whim, or something that is just a small part of our lives, or something that we experience on a week/two week mission trip and then go back into our world of ourselves, a world of sin. We need to actively choose Jesus, make Him not just a part of our life, but the center of it. We need to reframe how we view our relationship with God, we need to reframe ourselves.

RefraME

When Things Don't Go as Planned

I love to plan; I plan what I'm going to wear the night before, where I'm going to go and what I will do most days, how I want my room to look, and even what I am going to do in the future. I will also plan out an event in my mind and how I want it to go.

I really didn't have any idea of what was going to happen when I got to Yakutat, but I knew that we were there to touch lives by sharing God's love, and for that I was truly excited. We got our daily schedule on Monday (May 18), where we would start each day with Holy Hour, then daily Mass, then be divided up into groups to go out and do our work projects. I was paired up with Justine and Janae and we went over to Mr. Gene Reily's house to help him out with work around the home. His wife passed away from cancer back in 2000 and he just hasn't had any motivation to clean his house. He has three children; two daughters and one son, whom is named Dene and lives with his father. It was such an honor to work with Gene and learn about his past; where he grew up, how he met Carol his wife, and different stories he had from living in Yakutat. We would all stay on our work sites until lunch time, then we would go back to St. Annes, eat lunch, have some relaxation time, then we were going to split in half where one gropu would run a VBS for the young kids, and the other half would go on a hike with the high schoolers. I love working with high schoolers, so I jumped at the chance to go on the hike. My group was getting excited to go on the hike and do trail maintance, where we would clip back branches, clear the path, and pick up trash so other people could enjoy hiking as well.

As 3pm rolled around and all the kids got out of school, the young kids began to show up for VBS, but there were no high schoolers in sight. We waited around for a little, then had to finally leave because it was getting late, and we waned to be back in time for dinner. We still cleaned the trail, but it wasn't as fun or rewarding as it would have been had there been high schoolers there.

Later that night, at 7pm, is when we would have our community get togethers, where we would go to one of the many local beaches, have a bonfire, play some sports, and then just sit and chat with the town. This night, we went to Sandy Beach, one of the beaches that is on the Bay instead of the Pacific ocean, so there aren't any waves. We got there, made a great fire, set up the volleyball and got some games going, but no one showed up.

Currently, for my job as a Red Shirt with GroupMission Trips, my crew doesn't start our own camp until next week, so in the mean time we are helping another crew set up and volunteer at their camp until it's time for us to go to our own. It's tough because while I am here and helping them do little jobs here and there to make the camp run smoothly, I keep feeling like I'm not doing very much, which kills me since I am a person who loves to always be active, always helping, and always doing, but here for the last two days, I'm not feeling myself, I'm not feeling like much help. Then on top of all that, I found out this morning that I have an eye infection in my right eye, so I can't really open mine up all the way. THEN.....on top of all of that while the school has Wifi, I can't access all my photos from my Alaska trip to post on here.....

I'm sorry if all this is coming across as complaining, but it really isn't me complaining. This is all something that just didn't go according to plan, whether in Alaska or at work. It's good to plan, in fact we should make plans to do things otherwise not much would get done, but the key is to be open to God's plan, because God has a plan for each and every one of us, and while we don't know what it is right now, or we may never know what it is, His plan is
better for us, because He truly knows us, and knows what we need, and when we need it. I didn't get to go on that hike with high schoolers, but I got to know people on my mission better. We didn't have people a lot of people come to our community event, but the three people who came ended up coming back many more times. I may not have much to do here at this camp, but this isn't about me, and I let that slip my mind for a while.

God has a beautiful plan for each and every one of us, each one unique. We need to embrace His plan, embrace that there will be moments where we can't plan out what will happen, or how things will happen, so we put our full faith and trust in God.

"Not my will but yours be done" Luke 22:42

Learning to be Fluid

What a crazy past two weeks! I have been out in Loveland, Colorado staying in Lucile Erwin Middle School where I was basically back in school again for job training. We spent all day in a classroom setting learning our different positions, going through driving school, and so on. Now we are finally starting up camp and I am back on the East Coast!!! We spent the last three days driving almost 2,000 miles to come to Lexington, North Carolina where we are helping another crew set up and run their first camp until next week when we will continue our journey down to Greenwood, South Carolina to begin our first camp. In those three days of traveling we have been through 8 different states: Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Let me tell you, our country is truly beautiful! If you ever get the chance to go and travel across the states, do it!! (But more on that later)

So Alaska (sorry folks I promise I'm getting all my stories up more now that I don't have to be in the classroom all day long). Sunday May 17th was our first full day and man did we really experience Alaska! We began the day with Holy Hour and Mass, which if you have the access and ability to do so, I highly recommend it, always begin your day by giving it to God. We also went down to the harbor to do a blessing of the fleet, which was amazing! Yakutat is very much a fishing village, where that is the main income for most people, so for Father Steve to go down and bless the boats was so cool. Then our group went on a hike through a part of the Tongass rainforest, with plenty of views of the mountains and the water. After the hike we went down to one of the many beaches in Yakutat called Graveyard beach. This beach is beautiful, and looks straight out to the mountains, espeically Mount St. Elias, the second largest mountain in the world, since it starts directly at sea level. Not only was the day beautiful with all the nature, but we had some great time to talk with each other as well. One of the things that Devon, our leader, told us was to "be fluid" on this trip, meaning that plans could change at any moment, things will come up, and we have to be able to be flexible and go with whatever changes. I'm not going to lie, I really do struggle with this because I am a very organized person who likes to have lists and schedules. Don't get me wrong, I do "go with the flow" from time to time, but I do like to have somewhat of a plan. It's the control that I like, something huge that keeps me from giving everything to God.

So we hung out at the beach for a while, then it was time go back to dinner at the church. We loaded up our two rental vans, and began to drive out down the sandy road to get back. As we were driving, our first van ended up getting really stuck in the sand. We got out to try and push, pull, anything to get out, but nothing was working, we were only going deeper and deeper into the sand, making it harder and harder to get out. With no cell service, well no technology at all since we were on a technology fast for the entire mission, and dinner waiting for us back at the church, you can probably tell that this was very much not planned at all. As a few of us were looking around the area to find big pieces of drift wood to use to get the van out of the sand, I thought back to what Devon had said eariler in the day to be fluid. Obviously we hadn't planned to get stuck, and we had planned to be back at a certain time, but instead of getting frustrated and start blamming people for things we could have done better, I took this as a time to not only enjoy outside, but also to get to know and talk to my group more. We had laughs, jokes, and worked as a team, till we finally got the van out of the sand and back on the road. I had only known these people for about 24 hours, and yet coming together to overcome that challenge, I felt like I had known them for a lifetime. If we hadn't gotten stuck, I may not have had those moments of bonding with my group. Praise God for vans stuck in the sand!

As I go into my job, planning, setting up, and running 3 different camps with almost 400 campers each, I have many different lists and things that need to get done, but I have to remember that I need to be fluid. Things are not going to go 100% right all the time, and instead of getting hung up on what went wrong, I need to remember why I am here, and I am here to serve my God who graciously gave me this opportunity to serve Him by serving others.

Be Fluid

Yakutat Harbor

Hiking along the coast

Graveyard Beach 

Moving the van