Belizean Children

Last Sunday we returned to find our house safe and dry after the close call with Hurricane Wilma. I am truly in awe at how wondrously this island is in the Merciful hands of God!

Visiting 900 hundred students to talk about saints this week was quite a wonderful task. They give us responses like…"I want to be St. Michael…I want to be Mary and I have a baby!" or "Miss, I love you" or One day I was praying in the Church during the kids lunch hour when they are aloud to run home if they wish and a boy stopped by and tried to get my attention in the door way. I motioned for him to come and see me. When he walked toward me, he said, "Miss, my mom said if I come she is going to lash me." I asked him what he was talking about and he proceeded to tell me that his mom told him he could not dress up and go to the carnival but he really wants to. Oh…this just broke my heart. I honestly grieve for the parent who chooses to hold their child back from coming to Jesus…big mistake!

So I have learned this past week that it is impossible to out-do the Belizeans in their generosity. The girls and I decided to bake chocolate-chip cookies for all of the people who have gone above and beyond to help us, such as donating bikes, baskets, giving us free food, and watching out for our safety and needs like helping us wash our laundry, etc. Unfortunately our very simple attempt was not successful because the day we passed out the first 3 batches of cookies, each person came back the same day with a gift in return. One poorer man brought us a bag of grapes, which are hard to come by and expensive here. Then our neighbor brought us a loaf of home-made wheat bread, fresh from the oven. The last person made us a whole banana cake! If anyone who reads this blog has better suggestions for us to let these people know how grateful we are…please post a comment!

I Moved...to Belize

I know I have posted time and time again about my extreme lack of consistency in writing this blog but I will attempt to redeem myself today.

Peace in Christ from Belize! I packed up my bags in Europe and quickly moved to my new home on the island of San Pedro, Belize (with a few stops in between). I am so happy to be here! I am technically not on the island at the moment due to Hurricane Wilma, but I pray that God picks her bad-self up off the Atlantic so I can go home as quickly as possible! For the time being I am staying on the mainland of Belize until the weather dies down.

So, what am I doing in Belize you ask? Well, I am serving Jesus by serving the parish of San Pedro. I am living here with 3 other women who I went to school with. We have divided-up the work and are happy to have such wonderful community to work and pray. I am helping with the instruction of all the children who are to recieve their First Communion with the Catholic Church, teaching music lessons at the primary school (starting soon...), teaching the children and helping them to lead a Children's Mass every Sunday, and I will help to arrange retreats for the local teachers, teenagers, etc. I love what I do! I feel like God swept me off my feet from Europe and lovingly brought me to my first love. Thank you Jesus!

Although my time in Europe was a great learning experience, I am overjoyed to be back on this side of the world again! I also realize that I have made no updates since the mission to Albania and another mission in Germany in August. I am do apologize for this. The time in Albania was so eye-opening for me and the rest of our mission team. We were priveleged to work and live with the Missionaries of Charity (Religious Order of Mother Theresa). I have never in my life seen a group of people who work with such Joy in the most difficult and tiring circumstances. God's promises of Joy in Suffering was evident and embraced in their lives. I mainly helped to coordinate our kids camps in the poorer areas of Tirana. I learned how to make something out of nothing while putting on our first camp in a run-down Communist factory building where families have made their homes. We used old sheets and ropes to shade us from the hot sun and found ample opportunities to soak the children with water as often as possible! One day even involved taking these fiesty children to the beach...thank God no one drowned! What an experience! Thank you for your prayers.

As I conclude with today's blog, I ask that you please pray for the sweet children of San Pedro, for the protection of all who are in Hurrican alley, and for the Love of God to be in our minds and hearts! Thank you!

"There are many in the world dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love." -Bl. Mother Teresa
GXP Smolenice, Slovakia

Albania Mission: June 19 - July 16, 2005

On June 19th, myself and my friend Tomas will be driving 7 people to Albania. Round trip from Vienna this is about 3,280 km or 44 hours travel. We will first stop in Medjugorje before traveling on through the rest of Bosnia, Montenegro, and through Albania. There we will meet up with about 13 other people who are flying to this mission. Working with the humanitarian aid organization HopeXchange and the Missionaries of Charity, we will work toward the integral development of people and the fostering of charity and justice in the world. We are committed to the advancement of marginalized people, to reduce poverty, and empower the weak and oppressed to become agents of change by:

• Building a road 7km long to the mountain villagers about 2 hours from Tirana city. The existing road is long, winding, muddy, and full of pot holes. It is dangerous to travel on and nearly impossible to take by car. Villagers often travel by donkey or on foot for hours a day.
• Distributing clothes, medication, and food items like corn, sugar, oil, flour, etc. to various villages.
• Doing evangelistic work for the youth. There is an elementary school which needs painting,english lessons, etc. As well as host a free health clinic.

Please pray for us! Pray that we will truly bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people we meet. Pray for our safety while driving through these East European countries and for good health for the team. Thank you everyone who has so generously given to help make this mission possible! More to come when we arrive back in Austria.

Blessed are they...

'Jesus looked at them and said, 'For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.' Peter began to say to him, 'We have given up everything and followed you.' Jesus said, 'Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.' -Mark 10:27-31

This gospel reading from Mark was the theme of my life last week and continues to be in this life as a missionary. Last weekend I was in Zagreb, Croatia working with our friends at the Good Shepherd community. We had a great weekend about evangelization. On Saturday afternoon, we challenged the community to go and evangelize in the city streets of Zagreb. There was a lot of fear and anxiousness about this because many had not pursued the idea of talking to strangers and telling them about Jesus. God broke through with His peace and the day of evangelizing turned out to be a great eye-opening experience. There was persecution but also an openess from some to receive the love of God.

After our time in Zagreg, our team was looking for a place to stay for a couple of days until some of the team had to drive on toward Romania for a YWAM central European conference. A woman from the community found out our need and said that she would like to have us come to her villa on the coast of Croatia for a few days. This woman who I never got to meet, was miraculously healed from some illness years ago and since has devoted her life to giving to those in need. So...this wonderful woman gave us a beautiful place to stay, exquisite food to eat prepared by our own cook, and a spectacular view of the Adriatic Sea for 3 days. The passage form Mark was the Gospel reading on our second day at the Sea.

After 2 days at the Sea, I had to travel back to Austria by myself to continue fundraising for Albania and help with the Alpha Course we are running in our town. I had an adventure traveling back by ferry and then an overnight bus from Split island to Vienna. At 5 a.m. I met a Jewish man from Israel who in 10 minutes, bought me a cup of coffee, listened to why I was a Catholic missionary in Europe, and gave me his telephone number while inviting me to come stay with his family in Jerusalem for a couple of days. Oddly enough, this non-practicing Jew was just attending the funeral of his mothers best friend who was a devout Catholic. We both agreed that it wasn't a mistake that we bumped into each other for even that small amount of time. God is so generous!

Ciovo, Croatia on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
GXP Smolenice, Slovakia

from Ukraine

Please, allow me to introduce you to Maria Kryzhanivska. Maria is from Lviv, Ukraine and works as a campus minister at the Ukrainian Catholic University. I bumped into Maria at an Evangelization conference in the Czech Republic. She quickly captured my attention by her bright-eyes and joyful smile. Right away I knew that this girl could easily become a good friend. The day after meeting Maria, the Lord put us at the same breakfast table and she asked me a random question, “Have you ever talked to a Jew who wants to know Jesus?” I was shocked to hear this after the many ways that God has put our Jewish brothers and sisters on my heart since living in Europe. Little did I know that Ukraine has the largest Messianic-Jewish community in existence. Maria knows a professor at her University who wants to be a Christian but struggles with his desires because he is Jewish. The two of us spent hours discussing Judaism and about the miracles God is performing in Ukraine. Maria and 4 other people single-handedly arranged an ecumenical Prayer meeting at the Danylo Halytsky square during their past presidential election. Thousands joined Maria to pray for peace, unity, and justice in the freezing ice and snow. President Yushchenko, a justice man, was elected in a re-vote in December after the country's Supreme Court threw out flawed November elections. Many know Yushchenko because of his disfigured face, which is the result of someone’s attempt to kill him by dioxin poisoning. God Bless Maria, a servant of God who will stop at nothing to see God’s people come to know that He is Merciful and King of all Nations.

Maria and I at the Czech Republic
GXP Smolenice, Slovakia

Blessings!

Usually when I have not posted for a long time, there is only one explanation these days...there is a PLENTIFUL harvest in the vineyard of the LORD. For the past 2 weeks I was in the U.S.A., but now I am back in Austria and off to Croatia tomorrow morning. Whew...my time-clock is full of grace if I am aloud to say so. There is so much grace in running this race for Jesus! It's great!

My time in the U.S. was full of mixed emotions. I arrived to the shining faces of my Mom and little bro. Andrew. Then I surprised my Brother Bill, sister-in-law Tammy, and niece Kelsi. And the best of all...Tammy and Kelsi were Baptized on Easter! What GLORY! I love to see the Body of Christ grow and become unified, but when it is your own flesh and blood...well, it is just glorious and full of tears of JOY! I also traveled to see my parish family in Fort Scott, Kansas and had a chance to share with them about what God is doing here in Europe. My friends Angela and Chris even came to visit me there, which was quite a treat.

After too short of a visit back home, I traveled to my home-away-from-home at Franciscan University of Steubenville. This was such a spirit-filled journey. I was so blessed to see how the past organization I worked with, Franciscan Missions of Peace, is still growing and making many good moves in the working of the Holy Spirit. The two people who took over my position are doing an AMAZING job at helping to lead their brothers and sisters to discover the life of serving our LORD in the missions. They are really faithful disciples of Christ. The core team for the mission organization and some professors from the University are now writing proposals to have a new missiology program started as a course of study. This program has been a dream of many people from the University and I think that God is leading the way as the plans continue to unfold and contacts are made.

Since the passing of our Holy Father John Paul II, it has become even more evident to me that I truly want to follow and dedicate my ministry to this man. He has inspired me in so many ways and his words of encouragement have formed me to be the woman of God I am today. JPII writes in the post-synodal letter to the Laity, that women are the 'civilizing force' and must assure the moral dimension of culture. I truly pray that I may be a disciple of Christ by bearing witness to the dignity of human life and promote a Civilization of LOVE in this world! Let us all continue to pray for the conclave meeting on Monday and the heart of the next shepherd of the Roman Catholic Church.

Bearing gifts to Cardinal Schoborn

Happy Palm Sunday everyone! I just returned from a beautiful Mass at our local parish St. Othmar on this wonderfully sunny day. Did you know that they do not use palm branches here but pussy willows instead? Quite an interesting cultural difference. I guess they have as hard of a time finding palm branches in Austria as they do in Kansas.

I would like to share about the day I had yesterday. Can I tell you about it? First, my household sister Polly came to visit from Gaming and we had such a great time. She is a faithful, joyful sister. Then, my 2 new friends who are actually from Nicaragua (17 and 20 yrs. old) came over to spend the night. These girls have had a difficult life and yet their faith is just soooo strong. God is good. Then, I went to Stephendom (famous Church in Vienna) for a youth Mass. To my surprise, the Mass was not going to start until after we had Praise and worship and a 2 hour-long procession through the streets of Vienna with a Cross and lots of singing. It was amazing (oh...and this procession was led by Cardinal Schoborn!). We even endured persecution during this walk...no surprise in the secular society. To top it all off, I was honored and unworthy to carry the water and wine during the offertory and place it in the lap of the Cardinal while receiving a blessing. I thought I was bowing before our Holy Father John Paul II. What a day! God never ceases to surprise me with His unconditional love in Austria.