Breaky Break

The week before Spring Break we had dinner for our Bible Study. 

Followed by a game of UNO, complete with house rules, which resulted in a game that lasted almost two hours. 

During Spring Break I was blessed to be able to do a variety of activities. Our parish secretary had my roommate Helen, our friend Katie, and me out for dinner one night. 

I went home with Helen and got to spend some time visiting with her family and friends. It was a great opportunity to spend some time out in the country and read books to little kids. 

I had a haircut and ran to Savannah.

And then I went to North Carolina to visit Granny. This is what NC looks like.

North Carolina looks like the mountains and seeing the town below. North Carolina looks like woodpeckers and bluebirds. North Carolina looks like reading and watching Jeopardy. 

North Carolina means time with family.

North Carolina means I get to hear stories of when I was born. And even though I've heard them so much, I still like hearing them again. 

Even though I only lived in North Carolina for three weeks after I was born, I think I still have a piece of my heart there. And visiting the house that I was brought to when leaving the hospital as a newborn still feels like coming home. 

Granny and me, right before I left. 

Uncle John and me, right before I hit the road back to Georgia. 

Thank you for your yes.

Yesterday was the Feast of the Annunciation.

Here were some of my thoughts:

For the last 33 days, I have been preparing to give myself more fully to Jesus.

Today we remember and celebrate that scene so beautifully shown in Luke's Gospel. An angel appears to a young woman, she is presented with a choice. She says yes, and the Infinite One steps into time, as the Holy Spirit overshadows Mary and she conceives.

Yes.

Mary didn't have to say yes, but she did. And everything, eternity, changed.

Mary's yes didn't just affect her. It didn't just affect Jesus. It affected (and still does) me. And you.

Mary knew when the angel appeared to her that he was asking something difficult of her. She knew it would be challenging, but she was courageous and gave God everything.

I am amazed by what the Lord has done in my life though my yes.

And I am amazed by what the Lord has done in my life through others' yes.

My life would be different if my friend Pam didn't say yes to Jesus and become a missionary.
My life would be different if the inspiring people who support me through prayer and financial support in the mission didn't say yes.
My life would be different if my teammates didn't say yes to Jesus to serve Him in the mission at Georgia Southern.
My life would be different if my roommates didn't say yes to Jesus in following Him to Statesboro.
My life would be different if my students didn't say yes to serving Jesus.
My life would be different in the women in my Bible Study didn't say yes to learning more.

I am in awe. My life is so different because people said yes. If they didn't, I wouldn't know that the Christian life is possible, or even though it is difficult, it is relevant and fulfilling. I wouldn't know of God's great love for me and willingness to provide for me in incredible ways. I wouldn't know how to talk to new people on campus, I wouldn't know how to be joyful, I wouldn't value my characteristics that make me a "gem". I wouldn't know the joy of living in community, I wouldn't be inspired to grow in virtue in the small things, I wouldn't be so encouraged to follow Jesus anywhere. I wouldn't be humbled by these women's love to follow Jesus and share Him with those who desperately need Him. I wouldn't be so excited to see how the Holy Spirit is working in lives.

This year my team has many goofy phrases we use all the time.

One of them is "thank you for coming" (usually used for mandatory fundatory meetings and fun lunch dates). Another is "thank you for your yes". Which is used in a #jokingnotjoking fashion. My life would be so different if these people didn't say yes. But not only my life, everyone's lives would be different. Our yes to Jesus has huge repercussions, and we will probably never know them all in this life.

But meditating on my yes, on others' yes, has shown me that I am so incredibly blessed. I am so thankful.

I hope that, like Mary, I can continue saying yes to Jesus.

Crafternoons and Such.

This weekend the weather finally got back to normal. It's in the sixties/seventies.

Last week we saw the thirties again. It was awful, but I know I'm wimpy compared to everyone in the North and in the Midwest.

On Friday we had a priest come visit our campus! He can breakdance and beatbox, so naturally students think he is awesome. Friday night we had a get-together at the guys' house and Fr. Jewel performed some songs for us and then preached on God's mercy and the power of Confession.

It was a great night of fellowship.

Justin and Fr. Jewel are pretty much besties (my words, not theirs)

Saturday we got lunch with Fr. Jewel before he left.

Edgar's great Panera experience:

I spent my Sunday doing crafts.
Like making magnets.

I don't know why, but all of a sudden our fridge drove me crazy because all of the magnets were from people who don't live in our house. I think I just wanted it to feel more like home.

I also finished this goofy string art.

 (which I learned from this blog: http://delightfuldeets.com/2013/07/diy-string-art-deer-head/)

And I worked on my t-shirt rug... It's slow-going.

Hoping to enjoy the weather with students this week. Spending time on campus and in my eno!

Late Photos...

This is what my life looked like two weeks ago...

the end.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

A couple weeks ago there was a big storm and we lost power... Last week as I was walking to campus I saw this. Yikes! There were lots of trees down all over, which meant power was out all over.

Last week was awesome. The weather was finally what I was hoping it'd be. It feels like late spring! It even got up to 80 one day last week. Last night I slept with my window open, and as I woke to the sounds of trucks working. I was like, "Wow, it feels like spring!" I can't believe it's still February and feeling this great. Thank you, Jesus for Georgia.

Since the weather was awesome, I spent a lot of time on campus hanging out this week. One day we saw a guy set up a slackline... and we were intrigued. We tried it...

Jess jumped on it first. She's very adventurous.

Amanda gave it her best.

Brittany was the best out of all of us.

I could barely get a leg on it, much less stand up!

On Saturday I went to Dance Marathon, a fundraiser for Children's Miracle Network, and I got to hang out with these ladies. 

And, to top it all off, the sunsets here are beautiful.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's also the feast day of St. Cyril and St. Methodius. They were Greeks who went to Czechoslovkia. They were missionaries, priests, and what's even cooler? They were brothers. They truly became "all things to all people" by learning the Slovak language.

This week has been a weird one. Southern had two "snow" days. There was no snow, but we did lose power (rain turns into ice on the pine trees, turns into pine trees falling).

---------

I've been working on this post since Friday (it's now Monday).

Where did the week and weekend go?

It went to working on our newsletters in the dining hall on Valentine's Day. I rocked out to Carly Simon and addressed envelopes for two hours (and ate dining hall food). It was great.

Friday morning we woke up to extra decorations outside. And some presents including a notes about how a parishioner was praying that we would experience God's love in a deeper way this Valentine's Day.

Friday night my group of friends had dinner at our house. We have some good cooks in our midst, so dinner in is always great. And our table looked beautiful.

Saturday I had lunch with a student and then my roommate, Jess, had friends come in town! Her 8 awesome friends came for someone's birthday. We went to Savannah for mass, dinner, and ice cream. (They stayed for dancing, but I came home with Helen and the guys). It was great!

I had plenty of photos, but my internet is being wonky, so I'll upload them later.

Melancholic Monday

It's Monday. 

Sometimes on Mondays while I'm trying to get into the groove of the week, I have that same feeling I get when I'm a hard time getting out of bed. I'm thinking, "I don't want to talk. I don't want anyone to talk to me."

So I spent my morning (after Holy Hour) drinking tea and listening to "Indie Singers/Songwriters" on Pandora while addressing envelopes. Hence, Melancholic Monday.

And my roommate (Helen) sent me funny snapchats to make me laugh.

Over the weekend I made some fun paper stars. And hung them in my room and in the kitchen. I think homemade crafty stuff makes the apartment feel more like home. 

See those sweet Gone With the Wind figurines on my dresser? My sweet staff mentor (we're actually friends, not just mentor/mentee) got me those because I was reading Gone With the Wind last semester. 

I'm actually reading it again. Because it's just so awesome. 

This morning I walked out the door to go to Holy Hour and saw this:

We have some amazing parishioners (members of our local church community (parish)) who make me feel like Georgia is my home. Before this was a Valentine's Day themed scene, it was a scarecrow with pumpkins (again, a surprise one morning). 

The best way to deal with Melancholic Monday?

A list of things I'm thankful for.

1. I'm thankful for the opportunity to pray in front of Jesus in the Eucharist (more in a later post)
2. I'm thankful to pray with my friends, teammates, and roommates 5 days a week
3. I'm thankful for funny snapchats
4. I'm thankful for my fun roommates who constantly inspire me
5. I'm thankful for surprise decorations. 

Springy Saturday

This week I got to do some fun things!

Like take Brittany out for her birthday lunch

We went to 40 East, which my roommate had been suggesting for a long time. I had a crab cake sandwich, sweet tea, and some sweet potato fries. I love southern food!!

The other night I came home to my roommate, Helen watching a move (Helen loves movies). There was a part where someone jumped out and I jumped and screamed. I was holding my laptop, too, so I wish I could've seen myself. 

Today I spent the day cleaning. The team had been out of town the last two weekends, so I am so happy to get to stay at home today. And with 50 degree days, I was ready for some spring cleaning. I worked on the kitchen (even wiped down some walls), dining room, living room, and my bedroom. My roommate, Jess took care of the bathrooms, laundry room, and vacuuming. Then we worked out.

My friend Stephanie (one of the women I mentor/disciple) came over and gave me a guitar lesson! (I got a guitar for Christmas). Now I have something to practice. 

Jess and I grocery shopped. 

It's been a great day. 

Update Update.

Last week I did something crazy.

I deleted my Facebook. And my Twitter.

And I'm not telling you to brag (...maybe I am). I'm just putting that out there so I'm more accountable to not jumping back on the Facebook train. I love(d) Facebook because of its simplicity in posting short updates, pictures, and letting me keep track of my family. I don't love Facebook because I find myself comparing my life to everyone else's and being dissatisfied with all the gifts God has given me. I realize that's not actually Facebook's fault. It's actually mostly mine, but in prayer it became clear that I was only fooling my self in attempts of moderation in terms of Facebook.


Which brings me here. I still want to update people, and hopefully post some pictures/stories, mostly about the mission.

I'm hoping to update this blog more frequently with my thoughts on life, being an intentional disciple of Jesus, missionary work, and basically whatever I want.

Welcome! :)


And here is a story:

At the beginning of the year I met a student named Margaret. She is a senior and she swims for Georgia Southern. She leads a Bible Study with her swim team. We've become good friends by sharing common interests like baking and pursuing a relationship with Jesus. Every Wednesday we wear wolf shirts. Here is us last week:

Every day last semester Margaret and one of her girls prayed together in the chapel. LIKE EVERYDAY. This girl is legit!

It's a new year, yo.

Once upon a time I had a blog.

Once upon a time I was really bad at updating it.

SO maybe I'll catch you up to speed in a later post.

But here are some thoughts on the new year.

I really like making goals. And I like the idea of change. At the same time, I usually feel pretty overwhelmed when I need to make changes in my life. I think I always get scared of failure--I'm a perfectionist, so sometimes I just tend to avoid tasks instead of doing them and getting less-than-perfect results.

I debated as to whether or not I should make some goals for 2014... I feel like I have the same goals every year...because every year I don't accomplish them. If I'm realistic with myself, though, I can see some areas where it's time for a change. So, here they are!

[2014]

1. Fight for prayer. [this year my teammate, Jess, challenged the rest of the team to fight for prayer while we were home over Thanksgiving. Basically, prayer can be difficult! The last place the evil spirit wants us to be is in communication with God, and sometimes we really have to fight our schedules and even good desires to spend time with people in order to be refreshed by God's grace and equipped to do the work He is asking of us that day]

• pray Holy Hour and Rosary everyday.
• pray in morning if it's a busy day
• do an examination of conscience every night before bed.

2. Get healthy. [this year, Jesus has really placed it on my heart that I need to take my health more seriously. From having multiple trips to the doctor's office to realizing how out of shape I'm in, I've been convicted that I need to take my health more seriously!]

• gym 3x week
• lots of water
• brush teeth 2x daily

3. Keep it simple. [This past semester I've seen myself get really distracted and stressed out over everyday life. This is a goal to help me focus on what's really important and to live a more simple, intentional life]

• clean room before bed
• no electronics after 10:30p
• schedule Sacred Time (work less)
• use cash when possible

So, that's it! That's what I'm aiming for this year!

Life Lessons

Living in SWFL (that's Southwest Florida) wasn't necessarily my favorite thing. Can I just be real? The mission was really.hard.

But it was really good.

I thought I was going to LOVE living in Florida, but it turns out that I really love the people I grew up around-small town, down-to-earth, hard-working, good people. Not that there aren't any nice people in Florida--I just think they get more focused on what's going on in their own lives. Plus living in retirement/tourist land is just different.

Anyway. Here are lessons and things I learned about myself living in SWFL:

-I LOVE SAYING Y'ALL.
-Some people love the South more than they love the United States
-I really like having at least 2 beach towels when I go to the beach.
-It's really nice not having to scrape your windshield all year long.
-I'm interested in all-natural, organic, paleo, etc stuff. And I never, ever thought I would be.
-Sometimes I crave anonymity.
-I NEED to take time off, even when I don't feel like it
-we always get to choose to follow the Lord's plans. He never forces me to do anything. 
-Sunglasses are just so necessary and I don't know how I ever lived without them.
-Crafts are really good for my sanity.
-I like to learn.
-I really don't need to drink coffee to function.
-I like cooking for people.
-I really really love my job.
-Goodbyes are always hard. Sometimes I think they get easier. I don't think they do, though. They're easier in the sense that I know I'll see people again. I know that God is so good that He just lets me bump into amazing people, so it's not that that is hard. But when I say goodbye to my friends, I mourn all the beautiful things I'll be missing over the next weeks/months in their lives. And that is always hard.
-Jesus takes care of me, and usually in ways I never thought He would.
-I would love to have all my friends in the same place... but I'm pretty sure that's called Heaven, so I'm just going to be patient for that.

Preaching to... Myself

One of the weird things about the missionary life is that life is such a work in progress. While I'm trying to grow in my relationship with Jesus, I definitely don't always succeed at the Christian life. Yet, as a missionary, I'm working with my students to help them grow in their relationship with Jesus and strategizing how they can order their lives to love Him better.

And sometimes, I have to ask them to do things I'm not good at!

Today, my student and I decided to commit to following schedules this week. This is something I've been working on for, literally, years, and I've been failing at for a couple months! I've been wanting to work on my diligence in living order, and I've always desired to live a life of structure, where I call the shots, instead of the sleep-deprived me that so often decides to change my schedule as I get up 30 minutes after my alarm goes off.

So this morning as I gave my student a pump-up talk about living order, I pumped up myself in the process!! So frequently in the process of telling others about how beautiful the Christian life is, I remind myself of how beautiful it is, and I desire it more.

And these are cool things about my life in SWFL.

getting ready to be back.

I have loved loved loved some quality time with my family and friends over this break.

But I am finding myself missing my students and looking forward to getting settled back in FL, living by myself with a new team dynamic.

It's encouraging to me because over this break I've really seen the beauty of living "normal" life--not being nomadic, living in one place for a month, another for 4 months, one place for a month, another for 5 weeks, and then another for 5 weeks, and then another for 4 months (this is what my next year looks like)--and have been attracted to it, but I feel that call on my heart to go back.

St. Isaac Jogues is a saint I admire in this area. He was a French Jesuit priest who was on mission in Canada, working with Native Americans (Native Canadians?), was captured by Mohawks, and was tortured. They cut off the two fingers necessary to pray the mass--they took away the most important part of his life. He returned to France and received special permission to celebrate the mass, even with his injury.

But eventually he felt it on his heart to return, to go back to Canada, even though it was so difficult. And he did. He went back. He was martyred there on October 18, 1646.

I will be surprised if I am martyred for going back, but the mission is hard, and I'm thankful for that whispering on my heart that I miss it, and that I need to be there.

He Gives and Takes Away

Right when I think I've given Jesus everything I have, and there's nothing left for me to hand over, I'm proven wrong.

Sometimes He doesn't ask me to hand it over--He just takes it. Which I'm sure is good for me. Alas. It's hard.

20 Questions.

One of the things I've noticed about myself since I've become a missionary (formally) is that I ask questions. Lots of questions.

I ask people about

• themselves-their hobbies, their likes, their dislikes. 
• their relationships-family, friends, significant others, God
• everything about their life.

Basically, I feel like I'm a lot nosier now than I used to be. But I like when people ask me questions--they make me think and feel like I am valued. So I'm trying to do that.

And whenever I ask hard questions I always acknowledge that I'm being nosy and that they don't have to answer.

People almost always answer.

The URL

The URL for this blog is "mishkatelyn"

I know that is weird, but I really like to abbreviate words. And the abbreviation for "missionary" is "mish"
At least, that's the one I give it.

So this blog is about mish life. :)

Jesus must know I love these students

**written September 10**

In both high school and in college I had such a passion to share Jesus Christ with all my friends. The Cross, the amazing things He had done in my life, and the miracles I had seen in others were just TOO GREAT for me to keep to myself. I knew that His Love needed to be shared with everyone that I loved. And loving people was pretty easy. Last year at my college I would walk around campus, my heart breaking for the souls who were living like I was during my "bullfighting days" (pre-conversion days). I loved the students so much that it hurt me to see them turning to the "typical college life" for fulfillment.

And I never thought that when I became a missionary that things would be any different.

But they do feel different. I want to love these students so much, like I did at my old school. I thought these students would quickly win my heart, and I would be so excited to introduce them to Jesus. But I feel almost indifferent, despite how much I want to love them.

So I find myself wondering, do I really love them? Do I really have a heart for this mission? Do I really desire to satisfy Jesus' thirst for souls?

Maybe Jesus is teaching me how to love better (I mean, I hope He is). Even though I don't feel it, I find myself doing things that I definitely wouldn't if these students didn't mean something to me. I find myself sacrificing for them. Sometimes little things, sometimes big ones.

Jesus knows I love these students.

He knows I love these students because on Thursday I played tennis. And tennis is my least favorite sport ever (or at least since hitting myself in the head with a tennis racket in grade school).

He knows I love these students because I went bowling Saturday night (my second least favorite sport).

He knows I love these students because I have not skipped one 8:30a daily mass.

He knows I love these students because I haven't seen one of my best friends since May.

He knows I love these students because one of my best friends is getting married Saturday, and I have missed every single one of her wedding showers, as well as her bachelorette party. And it hurts a lot.

He knows I love these students because I haven't found a regular Confessor or Spiritual Director, and I am longing to be understood and affirmed.

He knows I love these students because I live 22 hours from my family, and won't see them until Christmas.

He knows I love these students because I am missing every single one of my brothers' football games this year.

He knows I love these students because although I've thought almost everyday about leaving Florida, I'm still here.



I could have it wrong. These could all just be reasons that I love Jesus (even though I don't particularly feel that either). That whole "love is a choice" thing is coming into play differently than I thought. I'm not choosing to feel like I love these students, but choosing to do the actions that show my love. I'm choosing to will their good.