Prayer Requests!

Hey everyone!

I don't think I have ever sent out this many updates in such a short amount of time! This little update has both good news and a very important prayer request in it.

We will start with the good news! Yesterday was the BIGGEST crowd yet from LU to go to mass! Usually, we have about five Catholics from LU that go to mass. Yesterday, we all met at St. Thomas More and we had at least NINE students go to mass! It was GREAT!!! God is really working! We are hoping to get even more next week!

Now for the prayer request: I sent out just before this email a prayer request from Josh and the foreign exchange student staying with his parents. For those of you who didn't get that email, her name is Nico Leons, and she is from Germany. She is Catholic, and is now going to a Evangelical School, and has already fallen in love with the Evangelical Youth groups.

Another prayer request comes from me: There is a student here at LU and she is a freshman. She is Catholic, but is starting to stray away from the Church. She says that she will not leave the Catholic Church, but I can already tell (along with some of the other Catholic students) that her heart has already left the Church. She did go to mass with us yesterday and absolutely LOVED IT! She said that she really enjoyed how Fr. Mooney celebrated the mass, and that she can't wait to go back! But, she is still slowly drifting away. I have spent many hours with her over the past week, and have talked to her about some issues in the church. I know that college is where people start drifting away from their parents and try to figure things out on their own. So we will see what happens.

Please keep both of these prayer requests in your prayers! And thanks again for your support, you guys are AWESOME!!!

End of Week 1

WOW!!! What a very busy but exciting week this has been here at LU!!!

Thank you all for your prayers, and you are in mine! I will warn you that this may be a little long of an email, but its mostly great news!

Jon has not entered RCIA yet, but is getting ready to meet with the new priest in town (Fr. Mooney)! I haven't heard back from Larry yet (but its still early), and I had dinner with John (Freshman) last night.

But, before we get into that, I want you all to know that GOD IS AWESOME!!! The new priest in town (Fr. Mooney) is really excited about starting a Catholic Campus Ministry at LU! He says it is going to happen one way or another. And the best thing we came up with is not by having the ministry here on campus, but over at St. Thomas More Parish! We are going to be kicking this off with a free dinner for ALL Catholic students here at LU. It is the beginning of a great ministry!

Also, he is going to be coming on campus next Wed. We are going to have dinner at the cafeteria and then I am going to show him around campus! WOW! A priest on campus, I wonder what will be next (maybe the Dominican brother's (hint, hint Br. Ignatius and Br. James)).

Also, Fr. Mooney is looking into hiring me part time as a youth minister at St. Thomas More. It is not for sure yet, but it is looking very good! And it could turn into a full time job!

I also have tried getting permission to get out of chapel in order to go to Daily Mass. I am not having any luck in this area, but it is ok. I am continuing to pray about it, and I know it is going to work out somehow!

Then on Wed. night, I went to the Knights of Columbus meeting. I realized that my biggest mistake last year in doing this ministry is not being able to spend time with Antonio, Maria, Jon and others who are or want to be Catholic. This year, I am wanting to not work as much so I can be there for the students. Many times last year I was busy with work, and this is one reason why Antonio didn't get to go to confession sooner. Also, Antonio and I are good friends, but we just didn't have time to get together. This year there are more Catholics that I am in touch with here and I want to build relationships with them. But it is almost impossible with 20 hours of work, 18 credit hours and church activities. So I went to the KoC and asked for a donation. They want me to come back to the next meeting to ask again, but I was able to get $80 from a generous person!

Other than that, on Thursday night, I had dinner with John. He is the freshman that is discerning about the Catholic Church. He is a freshman, but he is in his 20's. He was in the Air Force and has lived all over the world! He is a very smart young man and honestly, I can see him as a Franciscan brother already! Just from how he acts and talks. He wants to go to the poorest of the poor and live among them! He wants to share Christ with everyone! Every time he talks to someone, he always points them to Christ! So please pray for him!

Well, Other than that, not to much is going on here. I am just getting ready for the weekend and doing some homework. Classes are going well, but they have a LOT of work with them! Thanks again for the prayers, and there will be another update next week!!!

Oh, and I also have been applying to some grad school's and also for some youth minister positions (one in Louisville)!!!

Update at Liberty!!!

Hey everyone!!!

I hope everyone is/having a great summer! I am now back at Liberty and have just moved into my dorm. It is a really nice dorm! They moved me to the apartment style dorms at no extra cost!!! They did that to make up for trying to take my scholarship away from last year.

Anyway, I will try to make this as short as possible (because there will be more emails this week). But, once again we have new people added to the email list! If you don't want to get these updates, just reply back to me and I can easily take you off this list.

Well, this year is already becoming one of the best years yet! I have only been here just 2 days and already have been in touch with old friends and met 2 new Catholic freshmen!!! Today started the ministry of driving the Catholic Students to Mass and it was great to catch up with old friends and meet new friends!

Also, my friend Jon is going to be entering RCIA this fall!!! I met him last year and he was very interested in the Catholic Church, so I gave him a Catechism (thanks to New Hope). Well, lets just say that he probably knows more about church doctrine than I do!

Then just tonight at dinner, we were talking about him coming into the church, and this freshman from Nashville (John) overheard us and said to us that he is really thinking about joining the Catholic Church. So Jon and John were talking about it and it was just amazing to see how much they both knew about the church! I now have John's phone # and we are planning on meeting this week to talk more about it. (I know its getting confusing with John and Jon).

Now for the ending, (sorry it's becoming long). The new priest in town at St. Thomas More Church (one of two Catholic Church's in town) wants to help the Catholic Students at Liberty!!! I am going to meet him for dinner on Tuesday night. So more to that will follow.

Ignite Your Torch 2008

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I have posted. I am sorry! Anyway, I am all moved in at Liberty University for my senior year!!! But there will be more about that in the next post. This post I want to tell you about Ignite Your Torch Youth Conference!!!

WOW!!! It was amazing! This was the biggest year they have had yet. They had 200 youth and about 100 adults! We had mass every day, Eucharistic Adoration every night, confession all the time and much more!

Every year we always go to the abortion clinic and pray. This year the Arch-bishop of Louisville was there praying with us (it was AWESOME)! We saw 4 women come out of the clinic that day. It was just great to see our prayers answered that day. We serve an AWESOME God!!! (I think I may be over doing the "!!!" but that's not even enough to tell you how great it was).

There were many different workshops that the youth attended, and free time and much more. On Sunday (the last day of the conference) we had a alter call for ladies that are interested in vocations. There were so many girls (youth) that went up for that alter call. It was great!

Next, it was the guys turn. I think over half of the guys went up for this calling. VOCATIONS ARE ON THE RISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you don't believe me, then check it out for yourself: http://www.igniteyourtorch.org/ There is even a video on that site to show you a little bit of the conference.