The Huskers may have lost...but souls were changed!

Part of what we do as missionaries is put on retreats. This past weekend, however, I found myself in a different situation. I attended a retreat put on by some of the students at UNL. Yeah, this is NOT the norm for missionary life, just in case you're wondering!

The retreat was called "Koininia," the Greek word for "community," and I COULD tell you all about it! But then I'd have to kill you. No, just kidding. But, seriously, as a member of this community now, I really do have to keep some of what happened a secret.

What struck me most about the weekend, however, does not have to be kept a secret. All of the retreat, from the prayer and sacrifice prep, to the talks about our walk of Faith as Catholics, to the logistical nightmare of feeding over 70 people delicious and homecooked meals for an entire weekend, was entirely student-led. And almost all of the students who played the essential roles that made this encounter with Christ for their peers possible were students involved in what we, FOCUS, are doing on campus.

Basically, the weekend was a beautiful example to me of the zeal for the souls of their fellow students that these students have. Even though it involved planning, organizing, and being present for an entire weekend of talks and activities, these students made this sacrifice to have the opportunity to tell their peers how God has worked in their lives. Not quite how the average college student spends a weekend!

Our purpose is to launch college students into lifelong Catholic mission. These weekend was a beautiful testimony to me of how many of the students here are already beginning this lifelong process, and are totally willing and ready to make the sacrifices that this mission requires. There right there with us, striving to win over their brothers and sisters in Christ through radiating the love that He has for us.

Praise God! : )

What's sustains us...

I've devoted a lot of time to sharing what has gone on here on campus. There is plenty more to tell, as well! Each week, there are exciting new activities happening...Thursday was a Eucharistic procession all over UNL's campus, Friday through Sunday was a special conference for Greek fraternity and sorority members where some amazing conversions took place, tonight was an awesome healing Mass that ended with many students spending over an hour in adoration of Our Lord...and all the while we fill our days with meeting with students, putting on Bible studies, and evangelizing strangers. But in the midst of continually putting on events, listening to students, and directing them towards pursuit of what is good and true, how do we as missionaries continue to give of ourselves from 9am to 11pm, as often a day's work requires? Well, put simply, we don't!

What do I mean? Well, if we were giving ourselves, I personally would have used myself up the very first day on campus! The purpose for our being here is to share Christ's love, which is the only reason why we're able to keep pouring ourselves out in the midst of the difficulties that we encounter.

So what does this mean on a practical level? It means that at least one hour of each day is spent in personal prayer with the Lord (three times a week, this happens all together as a team), and that we also participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every day. Twice a week, we say morning prayer together, and every other week we spend a half hour as a team praying for each other's personal intentions. Any add-ons for me personally? At the moment, I'm renewing my Marian Consecration, saying a rosary and reading Scripture daily, and also trying to do more Ignatian prayer. I've also been trying to frequent the sacrament of Reconciliation every other week, although sometimes it is more like once a month. Have to work on that one!

How does this help? We can't give what we don't have. It's only by our filling ourselves with the graces that God is continuously offering to us that we are then able to help the young people on campus encounter the reality of God's awesomeness. The joy that comes from living an authentic Christian life is very attractive! What is at the center of this life? Prayer!

Additionally, one of the most important ways to help students understand the lifelong mission that they are entering into is to help them understand the importance of developing a prayer life. It's pretty difficult to encourage them to do this if we aren't doing it ourselves! We need to instead be at their side praying with them.

So, there you go, the secret is out! FOCUS missionaries are on campus to be instruments of God's love, not because their super-human. Praise God!

Snow and exorcists...

The first order of business: IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!! It's not sticking yet, but it's LEGIT snow! I can't believe it...everyone is laughing at my amazement. ; ) What's really weird is that it was 70 degrees out yesterday...I guess this is just another day in Nebraska!

So what else has been happening on campus for us missionaries, aside from the days filled with awesome interactions with students, Bible studies, and prayer? Well, the most recent noteworthy event was the exorcist coming to campus! Here is an article about it:
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/news/exorcist-visits-unl-to-show-students-realities-of-spiritual-life-1.2660833

Fr. Lampert was his name, and he did an awesome job talking to the 600 students that attended! Most of them came out of curiosity, and it was GREAT to have so many students present who couldn't help but come away affirmed that the battle which exists between good and evil is real. Additionally, Father emphasized the importance of fostering a close relationship with God in order to come out of this battle on the winning side! Fr. Lampert was an extraordinary example to all of us in that he has seen God's power over evil in a unique way that most of us haven't, and his being able to share this reality with the students present was great!

One of the things that Fr. Lampert mentioned was the importance of not dabbling in any practices that could invite evil into your life, even if done totally innocently. I think that this was especially good for students to hear about, since this sort of dabbling is so often marketed to us as "innocent fun." Not so much! Father's point of "why do it if you know it's origin is not from God?" was very well taken.

Overall, Father's confidence and peace was an incredible example. He clearly recognizes that God is in control, and that life is about serving Him. Father was very joyful, despite the fact that he has seen and helped multiple people possessed by demons, and the source of his joy, his closeness to God, was very clear and truly awesome! Keep all the students who had the opportunity to hear Father in your prayers!!!

God bless!!

Tiring, but AWESOME weekend!!

In comparison to all thus far, this past weekend was one of the most exhausting, but one of the BEST yet. We had our student leader retreat at a local camp, and it was FABULOUS. Student leaders are those on campus who lead bible studies and who we mentor on an individual basis. We challenge them continually to grow closer to Christ, and to realize that the love that He has for them must be communicated to those whom they serve. The weekend was meant to allow them to encounter the depths of Christ's love on a deeper level through talks, adoration, Mass, and fun time with each other, ultimately building them up to come back and serve their peers refreshed and full of joy.

 Friday night we arrived, had pizza and hung out, and then had a candle-lit Mass in the gym. The priest that celebrated Mass was a graduate from UNL himself, and was involved in FOCUS as a student leader while still a student. He gave  an awesome talk, and was able to challenge students to reach out to their peers through sharing how the students that reached out to him were instrumental in his conversion and ultimately in pursuing his vocation. Best line of the night from Father: "You have to love the hell out of them...literally!" The purpose of evangelization in a nutshell, right there! : )

After Mass, adoration began, and lasted until Sunday. The students definitely took advantage of Christ's presence throughout the weekend, and it was beautiful to see their devotion and desire to spend time with our Lord! (Example: Saturday at 5am, seven of us in the chapel praying! These students are HARD CORE!!)

On both Friday and Saturday nights, we had a campfire and a capture the flag game going. SO GOOD! The nights were beautiful, which was a great blessing, and the days were WARM!! (Praise God!) Saturday, we did a little missionaries-versus-students (we missionaries totally rigged it...) competition. It was great! We missionaries won, of course, but the students got REALLY into it and had as great time!

We had Mass again on Saturday, followed by lunch and some great game time. Saturday was Blessed John Paul II's first feast day, so we naturally had a party. It was a big success! On Sunday, we ended the retreat with a holy hour followed by Mass.

So what was the highlight of the week for me, aside from lots of Jesus-time? One student shared with us how she has been feeling called to enter the Missionaries of Charity, and how the weekend affirmed this calling for her. She also shared the joy that this calling gave her, and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed.

Was it a lot of work to have such a big role in the longest event that I have ever helped with? YES! Was it worth it to have such awesome time with students and to be able to witness their drawing closer to Christ, as well as grow in their desire and resolve to share their Faith with others? HHEECCKK YYYEEAAHHH!!!! : )

God bless!!

On the not so bright side...

So I realized that I've shared a lot about how awesome everything is, but haven't talked much about what it's actually like on campus. So what is it like here in a great, big, secular setting? Well, let me share!

First of all, there's a lot of immorality. I guess what's saddest is that it's really ENCOURAGED immorality, as if college students are a bunch of animals that are destined to hook up and can't control themselves. At one of the opening campus-wide events back in August, there was a table giving away free condoms. Great, thanks people! Why don't you just tell all these students to go and flush their physical and emotional well-being down the toilet?

At the same time, this forces students to make a choice. I've had a lot of really good conversations with students about chastity and why it's important. We had an entire night for women talking about modesty and why it's important, using letters from guys who loved them as sisters in Christ and wanted to respect and protect them. This allowed many of the women here to understand why they should save themselves for their future spouse, and to really WANT to do this.

Second of all, there is a definite gay-agenda that's continually advocated. At this same beginning of the semester event mentioned above, there was a HUGE stand promoting the legalization of same-sex marriage. This same agenda is promoted in the classroom. One of the students that I'm mentoring had a "man" come and speak to them about how she always "knew" that her body did not reflect what she was in her head, so she had all the necessary surgery done to make herself a male. Traumatizing class? Um, yeah...

At the same time, AWESOME opportunity to have a GREAT conversation about human sexuality and how it is a part of our very essence as human persons, as well as why it is a gift that should not be rejected as if it were instead some sort of a curse.

So even though there are a lot of negative activities promoted here at UNL which are ultimately extremely harmful to the moral, physical, and emotional well-being of the human person, the prominence of these activities forces a lot students to be educated about these realities and come to understand the truth. Ultimately, we are called to love the sinner yet hate the sin. When a "man" comes to talk to your class about how Christians tell her that she's going to hell, there is a good opportunity to put what you preach into practice.

God bless!

So I pretty much love this whole evangelization thing...even with its challenges!

When I first heard about the mission of FOCUS, "To know Christ Jesus, and to fulfill His great commission by first living and then communicating the fullness of life within the family of God, the Church," I got pretty excited. I mean, REALLY excited. I remember "studying" Metaphysics in the library at school while really researching what it was like to be a missionary and wanting to CRY because the idea of doing that for at least the next two years of my life was so radical and incredible! Why? Because sharing God's love through evangelization is AWESOME! 


So I suppose the question becomes, is this all that I was hoping it would be? Is life just dandy and perfect? Well, like many things in God's plan for my life, it's much more than I could EVER hope for, and much more of a struggle than I could have anticipated! But that's ok, because that's all part of God's plan too. I wanted to share some of the surprises that I've experienced since I've gotten here, simply to demonstrate how God's plan is SO MUCH bigger and better than my plan, and that He really takes care of us when He calls us to do certain things. 


First of all, the struggles. I suppose one would be the hours that we keep. Today, I began the day with a run with a student at 7am, and will end the day by locking up after a 9-10pm Bible study and driving a student home around 10:30. Last night, I was watching a movie with students until about midnight. Overall, this sort of lifestyle is pretty average for us as missionaries. While here, we are called to be radically available to the students, and that involves keeping their hours and sharing life with them at all hours. It's tiring, for sure! But the conversations that you have running at 7am and the trials that they are going through which you are able to bear with them over s'mores at midnight TOTALLY make it all worth it! 


Another struggle is one that I was warned about, but still surprised by. When I was interviewed, a missionary told me that often particular difficulties that you've faced dealt with throughout your life can surprise you again, which can be discouraging and difficult. Has this been true? For SURE it has! But, as an awesome priest here in Lincoln pointed out, our weaknesses can help us to recognize our total dependence on God in a much deeper and very needed way, and that's pretty darn awesome. Ultimately, we're nothing without Him, and continually seeking His help in our re-occuring weakness reminds us of this truth. 


What else has come as a surprise? God has been equipping me for this for the past 8 years!!! I was reflecting on this, and blown away by it! First of all, God was good enough to teach me some tough but important lessons during high-school that have been really instrumental in allowing me to relate to many of the girls here, which has been such a gift! Additionally, many of the students are THIRSTY for the philosophical and theological insights that I was so blest to learn while at Ave Maria, and it's been such a blessing to pass these on and help their minds to be blown away by some of the same things I was when I encountered the depth and rationality of the Truth for the first time!!


Most of all, the JOY that has come with missionary life has blown me away! So many students involved in what we're doing have the same zeal for souls that God placed on my heart, and I've learned so much from them!! They are having meaningful conversations with other students, just like us missionaries are, and we're truly sharing Christ's love together. Hearing how FOCUS has been instrumental in bringing them to this point has been really great, and their examples really attest to how God is working here at UNL.


Pray for me and the other missionaries, PLEASE!!


God bless! : )

So I realized that I'm doing absolutely everything that I love right now...and drawing closer to God in the process!

Well, it's still not winter here! God is good!

And what I've titled this post is actually accurate! Isn't that crazy-awesome? I wanted to give you more specifics about how this is true, so I've decided to name a couple of the things I love the best about what I'm doing right now:

1. Making absolutely awesome friends. So much of what we do as missionaries is relation-building, and it's so good! Because of the friendships that I've formed with students, we've been able to talk about really important topics. The young people who are involved in what FOCUS is doing here have such a thirst for the truth, and are willing to make sacrifices to do what's right and help their peers to do the same. It's such a gift to have this time with them! I think that in a lot of ways, they've taught me just as much as I've taught them. It's humbling, but so good!

2. Learning more about the beauty and total awesomeness of the Faith. One of the most important things that we're doing is instructing the students in their Faith, helping them to learn more about what the Church teaches and why it teaches what it does. Doing this has also entailed learning a LOT myself! It's been sweet. Being Catholic rocks my socks.

3. Working on my prayer life. One of the most important philosophical principles that I learned at school is that you can't give what you don't have. SO basic, but so important on so many levels! This is actually how Aquinas proves the existence of God...so yeah, it's an important point alright! But I digress. This principle applies to Christ's love just like it applies to everything else. Making a daily holy hour a priority has been SUCH an essential part of living order, and that time with Christ in prayer and in Mass are by far the most important parts of my days here. Ultimately, we're striving to help students prepare for eternal life with God in Heaven, and what better way to help them reach this goal than to come before God and ask for His aid in guiding His children here at UNL?

4. Working for a purpose that transcends me and my wants and whims. In my experience, living in a way that is purely me-centered is when I am by far the most unhappy. Seeing as how we're made to be God-centered and not self-centered, this is really no surprise. Right now, a pretty good majority of the time in my day is spent focusing on others and striving to help them grow closer to God. I LOVE it.

Don't get me wrong, life is exhausting and at times discouraging. Most days, we begin with a holy hour at 9am and are lucky if we're done with what we need to do for the day by 11pm...but much of what we're doing is much more friendship-oriented than work-oriented (or I suppose it just overlaps...), and when you think about the fact that each person we're serving is Christ in disguise, having long days is really a great privilege.

Well, there we go. That's why I love what I do!

God bless! : )

God bless!

A day in the life of...ME! : )

Ok, so this is a bit of a challenge, simply because part of what we strive for as missionaries is radical availability to meet the needs of students. This makes an average day sort of hard to describe...but I'll do my best. : )

Here's what my day looks like tomorrow (as of right now, at least. ; ). It could change...but the unpredictability means that we're open to what the Holy Spirit has in store!

I'll wake up in the morning and we'll have Mass as a missionary team with all of the Newman Center staff at 9am. Usually, this time is for Holy Hour, but tomorrow is an exception. At 10:30, we'll have a team meeting where we will discuss event and retreat planning, bring up concerns, and designate tasks. Each week, we'll be doing FOCUS nights (Holy Hours, Men and Women's nights, ongoing leadership training, etc.), and this will be one thing that we'll be discussing tomorrow. Also, we'll be organizing a C.S. Lewis reading group...all these are just examples of what's brought up during this time.

I'll then meet with one of the student leaders who I'm mentoring for lunch. She is leading a Bible study this semester, and we'll discuss the struggles that she's encountered, as well as any other issues that she wants clarification on. One thing that we'll tackle tomorrow is the issue of gay marriage and why the Church is opposed to it.

I'll then spend an hour with the Lord, and work on preparing for my Bible study in the evening (this week, I'm beginning the two that I'll be leading this semester!). The study that I'll lead tomorrow will be a FOCUS-written study on Scripture, while the study that I'm leading on Thursday nights will be exploring the lives of the saints.

I'll then meet with another student leader who I'm mentoring. We'll read Scripture together, and then talk about how her prayer life and her Bible study are going. We'll also talk about outreach, and what we can do together in this area.

I'll then come home and make some cookies for the girls coming over for Bible study. At 9pm, we'll begin! The study will go for about an hour, and then we'll hang out and chat about whatever the girls want to talk about for awhile. Hopefully, I'll be in bed by midnight, but if some students are feeling especially social, this might not happen...often the late night conversations are the best!

Some days I do more with students who aren't student leaders, while other days I work more on preparing for larger events that we organize...it really all depends!

Because there are so many student leaders involved in what we're doing at Lincoln, they are the ones doing a lot of the outreach to those students who aren't involved. It's our role to prepare them for this, and to challenge them to think about which students they know who they can reach out to and introduce us to. We often meet these other students through the student leaders that we are mentoring, and work on providing events to which students can invite their friends who have fallen away from the Faith. For example, last Friday we hosted the "Big Party," and about 400ish students came through. They all hopefully found FOCUS to be a welcoming bunch of people, and will be returning for more events that we host. Through the personal interaction that we have with them at these events, some will then become more involved and receive more instruction through ongoing interaction.

This is a very rough outline, and each day is different...but hopefully this gives you somewhat of an idea of what I'm doing out here! PLEASE keep praying for all of us missionaries and all of the students!

God bless!!!

Good life=good description!

WOW!

This week was the first week of classes for the students here at UNL. What does that mean when you're a FOCUS missionary? It means FALL OUTREACH! Here's a little rundown of what this has entailed:

Thursday and Friday of the week before last we put on evangelization workshops. This was for the student leaders who have been in the bible studies of missionaries or other student leaders in years past, and who are now leading their own studies. Us missionaries gave them some talks and got them off on the right foot for another evangelization-filled year on campus! They also had a lot of prayer time, and ended these sessions really enthused for the year!

Friday night we had all these student leaders over to our house for a cook out. There were about 50 of them...it was intense and awesome! Friday and Saturday night, orientation events hosted by UNL took place. Us missionaries and the student leaders went to these to meet some of the freshmen. Some really great conversations took place, and it will be awesome to see what God has in store for the students that we met there!

Sunday was BIG RED WELCOME! This is when pretty much every organization you can think of tries to get on the radar of all the students at UNL by giving them free stuff (everything from tootsie rolls to condoms...there was a lot of diversity, to put in nicely!). Our philosophy: why should the Catholics miss out on this opportunity? All of us missionaries, as well as the 50+ student leaders, wore t-shirts that said "husker catholic" on them and went around meeting students, giving them icy-pops, and having them fill out raffle tickets that had boxes at the bottom which indicated if you were Catholic and/or interested in getting involved in bible study. After this was over, we plugged all of those who were either of these options into a database and followed up with them by knocking on their door and inviting them to Primetime! Over all, there were probably about 500 students invited. It was quite the operation.

What is Primetime? Well, it is a pretty sweet event that involved some fun videos promoting a party sponsored by FOCUS, as well as some great testimonies from a student and a missionary. And ice cream! About 300 students came, and a lot of them got a lot out of it!

So here we are beginning yet another week at UNL! Aside from the above, I've been spending a lot of time with students, making them pizza and cookies, and talking to them about all sorts of awesome topics! I'll be starting my own bible studies, as will the other missionaries, and I have a group of 7 student leaders that I'll be working closely with for the year as we all seek to spread Christ's love on campus and draw closer to Him through daily prayer and frequenting the sacraments.

This doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of all that's happened this first week! It's been busy, but SO GOOD! There have been so many times when I'm hanging out with students that my mind has been totally blown away by the fact that God has called me to this and given me this opportunity to spread His love.

Sorry that this is such a shallow and brief description of all that has taken place, but please continue to pray for all of us and I will be more committed to posting on a weekly basis.

God bless!! : )

Lots and lots of corn...

Well, it's official! Nebraska actually exists...who knew?

So far, I've been to a "super" county fair (that's what it was called!) that had a duck race AND a pig race, I've played midwest yard-games, and I've seen multiple signs for "designated snow routes"...I'm definitely not in Hilton Head anymore. And did I mention corn? There's LOTS of corn, too.

But there's definitely much more than the standard stereotypes. UNL is overall a pretty phenomenal place. The Newman Center on campus is awesome and the priests here to serve the students are absolutely incredible. I feel so blest to be where there is such rock-solid spiritual leadership!

The freshmen will be arriving this weekend, and we are doing a lot of prep for their coming to campus! We'll be hosting several events for them, and will also be present at numerous events held by the university. All of our outreaches will be put on with the help of upper classmen who have already become involved with FOCUS in years past and have the desire to pass what they have learned about their Faith onto their peers.

We've also had a lot of time as a team this past week, which has been really great. Without a doubt, I'm serving here with some truly outstanding missionaries, and I know I will be learning SO MUCH from them. God knew that I needed good teachers to help me in this ministry, and in His incredible generosity He has definitely given me some of the best.

Well, there will be a lot more to talk about after this first week of Fall Outreach. PLEASE be praying that God will prepare the hearts of the students we will be meeting!

So....where is Nebraska?

I've never really considered having a blog before because I've never done anything worth blogging about. However, now there's actually something happening in my life that's worth sharing with the world. I'm going to *drum roll please* NEBRASKA!!!!

Don't get too excited all at once, now. You may be thinking "So...you're leaving Hilton Head, one of the primary tourist destinations in the country, to go to Nebraska...for the fall and winter. Smart." I know, right? I'm crazy, what can I say? (For all who know me well, this statement comes as no surprise... ; )

But it's true, I have no experience living in cold weather. Heck, I don't even know what you DO with all those random articles of clothing that supposedly keep you warm. But the truth of the matter is, this next year isn't about me, and that's one of the reasons why I consider going to Nebraska a great blessing.

When I made the decision to become a FOCUS missionary, I did so because I knew that God was calling me to take a leap of faith and to put the next two years of my life totally in His hands. My initial reaction to being sent to serve at University of Nebraska is exactly what this title states: "Where IS Nebraska???" (I had to google maps it, no joke! Geography was never my strength...) So as I begin this blog, I feel as though my placement is somewhat significant. I didn't know what the University of Nebraska was like or where it was, but I found out later that it's an amazing place with an awesome team of fellow missionaries who are going to help me learn the ropes of this whole missionary-thing and grow closer to Christ while doing it. It's cold, and that will be a challenge, but the winter does eventually pass and spring arrives.

To compare this to my next year as a missionary, I have no idea what's in store, but do know that God has brought me this far and has done it for a reason. There will be challenges and struggles (just like there will be cold weather), but in the end I'm sure that God will give me the grace I need to overcome them and to draw closer to Him in the process.

I feel as though this post is rather long, so I'll stop now. I do feel like I need to give all the necessary info for those who have further questions, though. To learn about FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students), go to www.focusonline.org. To talk to me directly, email mgriswold@focusonline.org.

Thus ends my first ever blog post. Woot!

God bless! : )