HEY

Hey...so I figured out my Lifeteen blog!!! WOO HOO I feel so official having something on the national website ha ha...anyway I will probably continue writing in both places but probably not the same things so check them both out!!!

St. Brigid confirmation retreat is coming this weekend so pray for them!!!

Kaitlin


www.lifeteen.com/missions

John Chapter 6! AMAZING!!! Got me through a really difficult talk. The retreat has been going really well so thanks for the prayers. JJ was suppose to give a talk on the Eucharist but little did we all know that God had other plans for me. JJ got sick this morning and has been in bed all day hence I became the replacement through prayer for the talk on the Eucharist. But I could not have felt better about it. I LOVE the Eucharist probably because I love Jesus so much and it is Jesus. So I felt so great about being able to give a talk about something I am so passionate about. So why was it so difficult? Although the eighth grade is from a Catholic school half of the class is not Catholic therefore the talk was made a little bit more difficult. Through prayer though I felt God calling me to just be BOLD and to speak truth and that the Holy Spirit would flow through me so that through His words spoken through me, He would be able to reach the heart of every child. And the response was phenomenal so thanks for your prayers. Majority of my small group is Baptist and they just had such a great response to the talk.

Remember "we are meant to embrace no just accept it"(needtobreathe)...EMBRACE the truth that God has given us do not just accept it!!!! Dive into it each day in prayer and in His Word. That is truly what I have been able to do with the Eucharist. I have never had trouble believing in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist but recently I have been able to EMBRACE that truth and it has made Mass and Adoration that much more beautiful for me. So EMBRACE the truth God has given to each of us in our faith!!!

SHOUT OUT TO CARRIE ON HER 22nd BIRTHDAY!!! I CAN"T BELIEVE IT!!! (I feel like we say that every year, but knowing someone for their whole life is something to be amazed about :)

Holy Family Pray For US!!!

Kaitlin

God is so good!!!

Set Free

We are currently in the middle of running our first retreat as the seven of us. Today was the first day and as of right now I am praying even harder then before for these kids. Our theme is "Set Free" meaning that through a relationship with God we can be set free from the burdens that weigh us down. We really came to the theme all in prayer because originally the theme was Mission Possible but we just felt that things needed to be changed. St. Mary's is only a group of 25 kids so we are in one of the smaller rooms at Covecrest to make it more intimate. The students are all really close and we had so much fun on the high ropes today but in small groups they are tending to be really shy or make things into jokes (which we were warned that they do). If you read this please be praying for their hearts to be opened more fully to hear and receive what God has for them. Also pray for our retreat team that we can continue to minister to them fully through the Holy Spirits direction.

Something really cool that I have been noticing throughout the planning these past few days and today is how much this is a retreat for the seven of us as well. We just got back from traveling to Boston, returning to our fellow brother and sister missionaries not being here, and automatically planning a retreat...needless to say we were barely able to breathe but God is blessing us through it. When I say this is a retreat for us, I mean that the seven of us are getting to know each other a lot better...good and bad...hahaha. We are sharing witness stories in almost every session about our lives and our struggles...things that some people are only opening up about for the first time. My brothers and sisters are being so vulnerable for these kids but also for the seven of us. If we are not able to be open and allow the Spirit to say what He wants then how do we expect the kids to be. I am falling more in love everyday with my missionary family even when we disagree. We are all striving to grow closer to God and are trying to maintain the idea to regard other people as more important then ourselves.

Completely different topic is that I am now a God Mother!!! Little Greg was baptized on Saturday. I feel so honored and special to be his God mother...that now I have a little piece of him forever (that might sound weird but its true). Its almost as if I have been given this shield to protect him from things ha ha ha....I dont know what Im trying to say hahah. But thank you Greg and Alyshia for listening to Gods will for your son and intrusting me with this important part of his life.

Becca is getting really close to having her baby too. She said she almost sent herself into labor while watching the Alabama Tennessee game.

Anyway please keep praying for me as I pray for you everyday.

Kaitlin

HEY!!!

Hey okay so it might take me a little while to post about Boston because I have so much to say but I dont want to be rushed through it! So know a post is coming! God Bless!!!

NEW BLOG

Hey everyone,
Okay so LIFETEEN has decided to give us our own blogs that you can check out right from the website...I feel legit! So I will not be using this blog anymore.

The link to the blog is www.lifeteen.com/missions

You will see EVERY Missionaries blog but if you click on my name (i dont have a picture yet) then it will take you directly to my posts. But its pretty cool that you can check out EVERYONES!

Eventually you will be able to just go to lifeteen.com and click on something that says MISSIONARIES but for now you have to go through the website above!

St. Francis

Sunday we had the day off so went to Mark's (missionary) old church in Blairsville, St. Francis. They have Life Teen mass at 11 in the afternoon and then a "Life Day" instead of night. They have an amazing youth minister, Stephen Smith (father of Matt Smith for those Life Teen people). Stephen is such a loving man who is like a father to all. The whole church was so welcoming and we felt like it had always been our community. We (about 10 missionaries) were able to partake in the choir at mass, bearing of gifts, the chili cook off for life night, and adoration during the Life Night. The community just has the feel of God's hospitality that all churches should have running through it from the minute you walk in the door until you leave. After mass and life night we came back to Covecrest and SURPRISE my dad was here! We spent the rest of the day in prayer, eating, and showing him my house. Thanks dad for coming! I love you!

Pictures!

Carrie and I at the ropes course! Drilling the plywood! We went back the next day to lay the tile! It turned out beautiful and I totally felt like Trading Spaces!

Work Project! We rebuilt Catherine's floor...I measured and Maria cut. I used the powertool once and decided I would rather measure!

The four Covecrest girls

Sara, Paola, Haylee (my roomie) and ME

So a tradition that last years missionaries started was to hide this statue of JP II in funny places! They received it as a white elephant gift. So far the girls started and hid it in the boys shower. Next the boys hid it in Paola's bed (paola is in the pic with me) and they also hid St. Francis in our fridge! He looks kind of creepy in there but we have yet to remove him ha ha ha

Our Kitchen!

Our Living Room

Haylee and I's room...I had yet to decorate yet...

These past two days Queen of Angels has been here so the other retreat team has been working with them while my retreat has been doing random work projects around camp! I LOVE DIGGING!!!! I came to this love because I did not want to organize a pantry and remove mice so In opted to work with the guys and move furniture and dig ditches. We have had to dig this four foot deep hole to build a wall and protect pipes from freezing in the winter! I have gotten to use a chain saw and hammer in these intense nails! I love it! I have had so much fun and everytime we dig something we offer it up for another teen to hear the word of God...my arms are really sore but I am ready to go again tomorrow! Cant wait to show you all the wall when you come to Covecrest!

I have also gotten to push a couch over the side of a balcony and it was perfectly fine so later we took a sledgehammer to it and destroyed it. I have also had to help get a van out of the mud while David, Mark, and Tim were getting very muddy ha ha. Thank God for all the beautiful weather!!! We only have one more week of all of us being together and then we go to BOSTON!!! I am very excited about my teams roadtrip to Boston but asking God to prepare my heart to say goodbye to my fellow missionaries who will go to Mesa and Germany.

KEEP PRAYING PRAYER PARTNERS!!! I am praying for you everyday! Send intentions if you have any :) And I would ask you to pray for my family as we are preparing to welcome a new memberin a month :) !!!!! And just for all of our vocations and discernments that we are going through :) God Guide my family to be an image of your holy family to all those we meet!

Kaitlin