Realizing that my latest newsletter was sent out about five months ago and that my latest blog was written before that, I have to apologize to friends, family and my benefactors for not having kept up-to-date with my mission and sharing the great things that God has been doing! So this is my attempt at filling you in… catching you up!!!
So buckle up and get ready for a seven month postification of my life since August and since having left from the mission in General Cepeda, Mexico!!
Leaving Mexico after the Young Adult group in August, I returned to Big Woods, our stateside mission base to begin preparing for Intake!!!
Intake is our three month training period for new full-time missionaries. I can’t believe it’s been a year since I joined FMC and went through Intake myself.
This was this year’s group of new missionaries. Two families: the Alvarez family (with six children) and the Eckstine family (with ten children). Singles: Sidney Savoie, Sarah Carroll, Susanna de Almeida and Madison Dold.
Why did I come home for Intake?? I came home to help Frank and Genie with the formation of the newest missionaries-to-be!! I cooked three meals a day for the group of about 30, organized our weekly mission formations and community work days, and helped with children’s ministry!
Come November, after two months of formation, I traveled with the Intake missionaries down to my previous mission post in Mexico and led them on a month-long mission to finish their period of formation!!
It seems almost sinful to limit all that happened during Intake to a few quick paragraphs with some pictures attached. This three month period of formation is not only chock-full of activities and events, but it is truly life-changing to all who participate in it.
The Lord comes and moves in powerful ways. It has been to me, these past two years, a chance for me to see what the Lord can do when His children finally give Him their simple and humble ‘yes’. Jesus wills to do so much for us, His sons and daughters! He wishes to provide for us, to speak to us, to answer our prayers, to guide us, to give us incredible lives… to work MIRACLES!!! The only thing that often impedes Him in doing all of this is our unwillingness to allow Him to. We have become so good at providing for ourselves, that we no longer need to rely on Him to provide, to act, to help us. We have become so good at ‘earning’ and ‘working’ that we never stop and ask the Lord for anything apart from times of trial and despair when we finally are made humble enough to realize we cannot do everything on our own, that we need Him and His grace.
In getting to know and work with this incredible group of new missionaries, I was once again blessed to see what the Lord can do when that ‘yes’ is given to Him. When one finally submits, not in a form of slave to his master, but instead as an infant to their Father, they are then blessed beyond anything that could have ever been imagined. So enjoy the pictures in this post, but if you want to hear about the stories, the testimonies of those missionaries who had their lives radically changed… go to their blogs (below), read what the Lord has done, and what he continues to do as they are now in mission!!!
- Weekly Nights of Mission Formation at FMC’s new Youth and Retreat Center, “Our Lady of the Bayous”, affords the missionaries and locals to come together and fellowship, hearing the good works that are being done my missionaries in the field, and to grow in the missionary way of life and spirituality.
- Many weeks we were also blessed to celebrate Mass as a community at our Mission Formation nights together!! Let us sing and praise the Lord, thanking Him for humbling Himself to so low a state as to come to us under the guise of bread and wine!!
- Pioneer day was a fun day of all the local homeschooling families coming together and re-living the days of the early pioneers, learning their skills, ways of life and… MERRY-GO-ROUND!!!
- The Eckstine family (Mark and Lora) with their ten children; Abi, Ellie, Mia, Peter, Esther, Rachel, Anne, Bridget, Becky and Isaac! One of the two families to join FMC and go into foreign missions this year! They are now living and serving in Saint Lucia!!!
- The Alvarez (Odilio and Stacie) and their six children; Madi, Meredith, Abram, Samuel, Vincent and Julian. The second family to join missions with FMC this year. They are now living and serving in the Philippines!!!
- Expanding the lower floor of the St. Michael house was one of the work projects we took on during this year’s Intake. What a blessing it is that the Lord has given us bodies to work in order to bring Him glory!!!
- Many of the children of Intake playing and gathering together around the pila in Mexico. A month of fun and mission together back ‘home’ in General Cepeda!!!
- Missionaries getting ready to sit down and share a meal together. How blessed are we to never have to toil or worry about what we are to eat. We only need depend on our God and our lives shall be filled, pressed down and overflowing with blessings!
- And how could life not be full of smiles when you are surrounded by… BABIES!!!
- Intake 2010 with Frank, Genie and some seasoned missionaries together on Pilgrimage Day outside of the Cathedral in Saltillo, Mexico.
- This year’s Intake was also able to be blessed by the birth of our newest and youngest missionary, Terese Brown!! Here she is at her baptism with her parents (Andrea and Kevin) and her older siblings (Anthony and Maria). We should pray that the Spirit of the Lord moves in a strong and powerful way across the lands, that many who have not yet been brought into God’s family would be reborn through the miraculous waters of Baptism!!!
- Intake 2010 was also blessed to be a part of the wedding of John-Paul Papuzynski and Sheila Agresta, two amazing missionaries and servants of God, pursuing a long life of missions together with the Lord and their future family!!!
- In December, Intake 2010 was sent out during their commissioning Mass, alive and on fire with a zeal for souls, a passion to evangelize, and a yearning to build the Kingdom of God!!!
Like I said, these three months were full of life changing events, miracles and stories of God’s providence. To be filled in more of what exactly the Lord was able to do in the lives of twenty-four of His sons and daughters, coming to Him to be formed in His hands, read their blogs below…
Mark and Lora Eckstine and Family: http://rooftopmissions.blogspot.com/
Abi Eckstine: http://veritasspelndor.blogspot.com/
Odilio and Stacie Alvarez and Family: http://whatsthedealy-o.blogspot.com/
Sidney Savoie: http://cajunmissionary.wordpress.com/
Sarah Carroll: http://www.raininthedessert.blogspot.com/
Madison Dold: http://missionarymadi.blog.com/
Susanna de Almeida: http://suz-missionpossible.blogspot.com/
