May my life reflect the beauty of the Lord...: God Moments

Vito and I arrived safely back from Bismarck ND and Toledo OH. Now all of the supervisors have the rest of the week off! You will be able to find me watching a few episodes of 24 and sleeping in!

This was taken at the Badlands in ND - We pulled over at a "scenic view" with the team and took pictures. After we "posed" for this photo - our team members came in between us to get a shot with their supes - it was CUTE

I want to share a few "glory stories" from our travels to visit the teams ... being with our teams was wonderful, and a very blessed time, but it was the times of traveling in between and the people we met that amazed me the most.

While we were in Bismarck, I was able to stay in the host family of 3 of the ladies i supervise. I had gotten there late (8:00 pm) and they had already finished dinner and were sitting around chatting. As soon as i walked in, in true host family style - they offered me more food that i could ever eat and sat around the table to get to know me. This family is amazing! They had 4 children ranging from 12 - 20 (Luke, Mary, Virginia, Molly - they wanted to name all of their girls after our Blessed Mother Mary!) and over the last 15 years they have had 52 foster children! If that isn't selfless love, i don't know what is. The host parents (Todd and Deb) shared about how they met and how much they love one another, and said "We have so much love between the 2 of us, it seemed wrong not to share it with children who don't have that." My heart was so overwhelmed with joy after listening to the stories of this family, and all of the trials the Lord has brought them through, that i couldn't help but cry. They have total trust and faith that God will take care of them - because he hasn't let them down yet ..... i pray i can imitate their virtues.

Catherine, Amy, Deb (Host mom), Maria, and myself saying goodbye in the Church parking lot.

Then, to make a long weekend full of stories as short as possible - on the flight back to St. Paul from ND - Vito and i sat next to a nice woman from Denver who was traveling back for her grandmother funeral. She was about 40 years old, and he father had also recently passed away a few months prior. Vito (who is really into Christian rap and spoken word) was trying to teach me how to "flow" when the woman sitting next to him said, "that sounds like music my husband would listen to."

The rap i was learning went like this, "You say that Jesus Christ just ain't your type of flavor - He never claimed to be, He came to be your type of Savior!"

That gave Vito and I an open door to evangelize. She shared a lot with us - and after the trip, as we were landing, Vito leaned over to me and said, "Make sure i pray over her before we land." And with that, he asked if she would liked to be prayed over, she said OF COURSE, and the Lord worked! It was beautiful. She was so grateful for how the Lord worked through her trip home, and i am glad we were there to be able to witness the power of God and be His vessels.

Team 6 sisters at the park across the street from the church - St. Josephs, ND

I am learning so much this year, most importantly, i am learning to not be afraid to share the Gospel always - even when you are weak - God uses you!

I will also post a few pictures below of Team 5 and 6's team building activity. We use "the tent pole" on the 1st Supe visit to help them work as a team and lower the tent pole to the ground. As simple as lowering a tent pole to the ground may sound - it is actually very difficult and i have only seen 1 team ever do it. The tent pole has to rest between the second knuckle and the tip of your pointer finger - if your finger comes off of the pole at all, you have to start over. Because the pole is so light and has no resistance, it magically moves up when you want it to go down. If you ever need a team building activity - i will be glad to give you all the details! Just let me know.