sorry its long

Sorry its a little late!
Great things are happening here at Liberty!!! I am sorry it is s long. I will try to sum it all up:

Monday:
I spent time with Kathleen, Peter and a few of their friends (who where not Catholic). It was very nice because their friends where asking some questions about the Catholic Church and why would I even want to become a priest?

It was also Spiritual Emphases week (Liberty's revival) and many of the students ended up going. While they were there, I was able to take Antonio to Wal-Mart and dinner. There he gave me more information on his grandparents. They are doing good, just getting older. But he said his grandfather has a tumor (or something along those lines) so please keep them in your prayers.

Tuesday:
I had lunch with Antonio and we started to talk a little more about his family. His mother is having a really hard time with Antonio's little brother (13 or 14 years old). He is starting to act very different. I am not sure exactly what that means, but he said it was not the "different" that normal teenagers go through. So please keep him in your prayers! He really looks up to Antonio and wants to do everything Antonio is doing.

"SE" was still going on at Liberty on Tuesday night. This was a very powerful night for the campus! Even though I was unable to go, I knew God was working on campus! All over campus, the administration put out trash cans and just opened it up for people to throw away whatever they have that they are struggling with (Alcohol, drugs, pornography, anything). It was a great experience! Many guys on our hall alone who have been struggling with a lot, just threw it all away and handed it over to the Lord. I myself wrote down on a piece of paper what I have been struggling with and threw it away! It was great for everyone!

Wednesday:
I was supposed to have lunch with Kristi (a Catholic), but she canceled at the last minute. To give you a little background on Kristi, she was born Catholic, but fell into the wrong crowd and has had a very bad and rough past. And she is wanting to change her life! (That is all she has told me about her.)

Then I went to the Knights of Columbus to try to get them on board with the vision and ministry here at LU. They received it well! And I was able to raise some funds from some of the members! It is great to know they are supporting this ministry!

This was also around the time where I have found out (if my calculations are right, I am double checking it this week) that my scholarship from Jerry Falwell has increased by $2,000!!! As I have said many times, now that he has passed away, he is CATHOLIC!!!!

Thursday:
I had lunch with Antonio again and we started talking a little more about what he wants to do after college. He will be graduating in December of 2009. I told him he needs to play in the NFL but he quickly told me that he hates football and he is only playing it so he can go to college.

I had dinner with John (the one who doesn't want to enter RCIA but is interested in the church) and we talked about his wife and him. I am really hoping that they can get back together. In case you forget, she lives in LA and he lives in VA (NOT GOOD!!!!).

Friday:
I found out that the campus ministry retreat was canceled (due to the hurricane) so I tried to sign up for the Lifeteen conference in Richmond (youth ministry training). I didn't have any money to pay for the registration, but we were able to work things out (Thank you Angela).

I also had lunch with Antonio and we were talking about how classes were going. Then I had dinner with Fr. Richard. It was a very good dinner! He also told me that he has already met with the head campus minister here at Liberty about starting a Catholic Club here on campus! They are sending him to Jonathan Falwell for approval. So please keep that in your prayers!!!

Saturday:
WHAT A DAY!!! I woke up at 5:30 AM (who knew that I could set the alarm that early?). I left around 6 to catch a ride with Jim and Josh to go to the conference. I learned so much at Lifeteen it was great! It also hit me really hard, because I realized that I have been trying everything in my power to run away from my vocation, and I just need to stop running!!! I won't go into details about this day, but I will say it was GREAT!!!

On the ride back to school, Jim had a brilliant idea!!! So, I am in the process of doing it! He said to write a letter to Thomas Monaghan (Ave Maria) and let him know about the ministry here at LU and what is happening here. As I said I am in the process of writing him a letter and I am hoping that he will be on board with us and be willing to donate the remaining funds I need! Thanks Jim for the great idea!!!

Sunday:
We had 10 students show up for mass! And about 7 students show up for the church picnic!

BUT!!! The most important thing for me that happened on Sunday was I got to talk with Kristi. And she told me why she couldn't have lunch on Wed. Her mother was in the hospital for chest pains and it was really serious. But they ended up finding out Friday morning that it was food poisoning. Then she told me that on Thursday night she just handed everything to the Lord and wants to start over! She really does want to change her life! And she is doing it!!!

And finally (really quick) I am really excited about this weekend coming up!!! As many of you know I am a BIG NAVY fan (Naval Academy). Navy's women's soccer team is playing here on Friday (GO NAVY)!!! Then on Saturday, Josh, Katie and I are going to the Duke vs. NAVY game (GO NAVY)!!!! BUT, the thing that is going to make this upcoming weekend really cool is that our good friend Brian (former Baptist Minister) is going to be received into FULL COMMUNION WITH ROME!!!!!!

UPDATE!!!

Hey guys!

I know this update is a little early, but there will be another one on Sunday. (I will try to do them on Sunday's but if there is something important, I will get it to you right away).

First the important stuff:

There is a young boy I am mentoring (with the Coming Home Network) and his name is Spencer. He is 16 years old and interested in joining the Catholic Church. He is Baptist and his girlfriend is very Charismatic Evangelical. They both want to join the Catholic Church (and I was surprised when I found out they were 16, I thought they were in their 20's with how mature and how much they know).

Well, to sum it up, I copied part of his email to me, so I am sharing it with you so that you can pray for him and his girlfriend. His parent's said he can do what he wants when he turns 18, but until then, he must stay Baptist.

Also, a little update on finances. If you remember from the last email, I need about $4,200 for the entire school year. Well, I had to cut a trip or two out so now its down to $4,107 for the school year. But, if my calculations are right, then my scholarship has increased to the FULL $2,000!!! This means I won't need $2,000 for school in the spring! I am having this checked out by Financial Aid next week. So please keep that in your prayers!

If the scholarship has increased, then I need $2,107, but I have already raised $650 from personal donations! I am still hoping to raise more funds to cover the rest for this ministry! Great things are happening at LU this year!

There is more I could tell you, but I will wait until Sunday. Have a great weekend!!!
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From Spencer:

Let's just start with the bad news. Apparently Melissa's parents either hacked her email or checked her search history in depth. They found out that she is studying the faith, and they absolutely lost it. Her Internet is for now completely gone, and she can't see me much for a while because they think I'm brainwashing her to believe what I do about the Church. This is of course completely untrue, as she and I have talked many times about how while we share a faith journey, it's still our own personal decisions that started it. Her parents (especially her mom) have come down on her hard. They're treating her study of the Catholic church like a sin in itself. Her mom actually told her this morning that she had better confess this to God and before the church, and that they no longer trust her. They're also making her attend all these extra services and studies out of nowhere to try to push themselves on her. It's a really bad situation, and I'm at a loss for what to do. I know she shares our faith, but as long as they pay her bills, she's quite literally under their thumb. She needs all the prayers she can get right now. I don't believe she'll lose her faith and love of the Church, but i know the next few weeks and months are just going to get harder and harder.

I'll keep you guys informed.

-Spencer

Its that time again!

Time for another update!

This week has been rough but very good! And it ended today with just a great day! Nothing much happened this week until Wed. (other than school work).

On Wed, I went to noon mass and met Fr. Richard there. After mass we came to Liberty and had lunch. At lunch we started to brain-storm some great ideas for the LU Catholics! After lunch I gave Fr. Richard a small tour of our campus.

I also have ran into some problems this week. I have asked to be able to go to chapel late on Monday and Friday's so I can attend daily mass at Holy Cross. They aloud me to do this last year, but for some reason they said no this year. But, I talked to my RA yesterday and he said that he would allow me to be 15 min. late to chapel so I can go to mass!!!

Other than that, some of the things that have happened this week are having lunch and dinner with Antonio, Kathleen, Peter, John, Jon and other students who are Catholic or want to be Catholic. John is still ready to enter RCIA this fall, so I am going to get him in touch with Fr. Richard.

And for the weekend and the end of the week, there was no better way to end it! On Friday Liberty had the all night of prayer. My dorm had to pray from 2-3 am on Saturday morning. So we decided to have some fun and create a tennis court in the common area. So we had a big tournament going on (we never finished it). I have attached a few pictures so you can see it (if you don't believe me).

Then on Saturday we had the football game. We WON!!! 48-10 or something like that. And then today at mass, another great turn out!

St. Thomas More was very generous and cooked us Liberty students a very nice home-made breakfast after mass. We had 10 students show up there for mass, but only 8 stayed for the breakfast. The other 2 had their family in town and it was very nice to meet their parents! Also, I met a grad student named Tiffany and she is not confirmed yet, but it looks like she will be by the end of this school year. So keep her in your prayers! It would be great to see her and Antonio be confirmed this year!

After mass, I ended up taking Antonio and John to mass later on at Lynchburg College, and had a really nice dinner after that mass (I like free food ha-ha).

I do have 3 prayer requests:

Antonio's grandparents (Elsa and Raul) they are in bad health and getting older.

Jon and his wife. It is a long story but she has been living in LA for the past 5 years, and Jon hasn't been with her due to the Air Force and now here at school. It's not looking good.

For my finances. I have gone to the Knights of Columbus and asked for a donation. I have came up with a budget for the entire year. It is for $4,200 for the entire year to keep this ministry going at full force. If I am not able to raise that, then this ministry won't reach its full potential.

Other than that, things are great! I am keeping you all in my prayers, and if you have any prayer requests, please let me know!

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.