Three years ago we ended our first family retreat. The cause of our retreat was discernment. At the advice of Mr. Frank Summers we needed to seek the Lord as a family to decide if he indeed was calling us to live as Catholic Lay Missionaries. Our retreat ended with our usual attending of Saturday night mass at our parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Fr. Ryan was gone and we had a missionary priest that evening and he preached a sermon on saying "Yes" to the Lord. This was the first of many signs the Lord has used to lead us and guide us to serve Him in deeper way and in ways we could have never imagined.
Now three years later, we had to attend Saturday night mass because of our involvement in Family Missions Company's annual "Faith Camp." As we sat there at mass and I heard the scriptures again we realized these were the same scriptures the Lord had used to confirm us in our seeking of His will. That evening and the next morning we reflected on the ways that our life had changed in those three years. Before we rarely sang praise and worship together now it is just part of our life, with singing a song before most meals. Our prayer as a family consisted of the Magnificat only (not a lot of personal prayer time) and the kids rarely shared, now they share each morning with our community as part of our community prayer and even the kids have their own prayer time. We had never had a family retreat, now we have had many.(Now we are seeking the Lord about our next mission post.) We had rarely been involved as a family in outreach and Apostolates to build the Kingdom of God, now it is our life. This year we have 2 older girls as staff at Faith Camp and two kids as campers, plus we are working as Faith Camp Mom and Dad. We are involved in many FMC outreaches that come along (Baker for a Day at Great Harvest, Music for Missions) and the kids are constantly helping in the office, stuffing newsletters for other missionaries and FMC updates. When we live as stateside missionaries at the Big Woods Mission we are surrounded by those committed to building God's Kingdom and sharing His Love. Before we worked to live and had little time for giving to others, now since we trying to live out the Gospel, we have very few possessions and worldly concerns, survival is so much easier, family life is easier and community life is easier and the Lord constantly provides work to provide for our daily bread, to help others, and some to save for future missions.
One of our good friends remarked that we have not been updating our blog. This may cause others to wonder what we are doing? How is it working out? Are we really able to lives as missionaries? and possibly many other questions. Well, we have been involved in three short term mission trips since the end of February, right now Faith Camp, we are helping the Summers to make a house they had moved onto the mission base to live in as they sell their Big House to FMC as a community center. We are remodeling the old Dominican Convent that was donated to FMC (the Chapel is getting a face lift with donated Cypress and paint) and the office will be getting a couple of rooms updated this summer as well, and other jobs that come up oftern. Many things are the same in our lives as we seek to garden, homeschool, collecting honey from the occasional Honey bee tree that falls down and try to raise a Holy Family for Jesus.
Please keep us in your prayers and we discern our future mission post!
Now three years later, we had to attend Saturday night mass because of our involvement in Family Missions Company's annual "Faith Camp." As we sat there at mass and I heard the scriptures again we realized these were the same scriptures the Lord had used to confirm us in our seeking of His will. That evening and the next morning we reflected on the ways that our life had changed in those three years. Before we rarely sang praise and worship together now it is just part of our life, with singing a song before most meals. Our prayer as a family consisted of the Magnificat only (not a lot of personal prayer time) and the kids rarely shared, now they share each morning with our community as part of our community prayer and even the kids have their own prayer time. We had never had a family retreat, now we have had many.(Now we are seeking the Lord about our next mission post.) We had rarely been involved as a family in outreach and Apostolates to build the Kingdom of God, now it is our life. This year we have 2 older girls as staff at Faith Camp and two kids as campers, plus we are working as Faith Camp Mom and Dad. We are involved in many FMC outreaches that come along (Baker for a Day at Great Harvest, Music for Missions) and the kids are constantly helping in the office, stuffing newsletters for other missionaries and FMC updates. When we live as stateside missionaries at the Big Woods Mission we are surrounded by those committed to building God's Kingdom and sharing His Love. Before we worked to live and had little time for giving to others, now since we trying to live out the Gospel, we have very few possessions and worldly concerns, survival is so much easier, family life is easier and community life is easier and the Lord constantly provides work to provide for our daily bread, to help others, and some to save for future missions.
 |
| no stairs yet |
 |
| This part was a carport originally |
Please keep us in your prayers and we discern our future mission post!
No comments:
Post a Comment