Blessed.

Student Org Fair: We're over on the right!

The first two weeks of classes at NDSU have certainly made apparent just how blessed I am to be serving these students again this year. At the closing of every single day last week I had the thought, "Man, I should definitely write about today in my blog!" But sadly the exhaustion got to me and the only thing I mustered up enough energy for at the end of the day was haphazardly brushing my teeth, thanking God for the countless blessings of the day, and then waking up to meet Josie for a run and starting a new day all over again. Needless to say, I'm not complaining, life is an absolute peach.

The week pretty much looked like this: discipleships and one-on-ones up the wazoo, a packed Tuesday night 9 pm Mass followed by an ice cream social, bible studies on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, the student organization fair all day on Wednesday, Chi Alpha (a large group weekly Christian outreach event with praise and worship, fellowship, and a speaker) after study on Thursday night and then on Friday afternoon the five of us teammates packed up Bryan's Chevy and headed West.

So. Much. Fun. And I didn't even include some of the best parts! Did I mention the 12-mile solitary bike ride on Wednesday evening on country roads? Or baking cookies and hanging out all day with Zoe? Or spending tons of quality time with Cari and Mikayla and cooking for the first time in our new place? I love my job, yes I do.

Here are some highlights: 

Tuesday Night Mass

Nearly 100 students showed up for mass at 9 pm on Tuesday night! There just so happened to be an ice cream social with root beer floats after, so whether they came for mass or ice cream, they were there regardless, and it was pretty awesome to see a daily mass more full than the 11 am Sunday Mass! (Although I wouldn't mind if that one filled up a little more either...) 

Root beer floats. Yum.

Wednesday Student Org Fair

TJ evangelizing, Cari & Bryan looking cool at our sweet booth.

Rockin' our bC tees for the first bisonCatholic T-day!

There was an expected high of 97 degrees and all of the organizations on campus had their booths outside at the east patio of the union, a mostly unshaded area right in the direct sunlight, from 11-3 pm. Luckily we just happened to have tons of extra freezies from our escapades with surveys the week before, so in a last minute decision we decided to bring the leftovers with us and see if it would bring any more people to the FOCUS booth. Let's just say it was a huge hit. People were coming in droves looking for the freezies and then telling their friends to come get some from the bisonCatholics. When we had the cardboard boat race at the end of NST this year we won a free scholarship to give to a student for this year's conference in Orlando, FL so we also had a raffle at our booth for  "Free trip to Orlando!" At the end of the day we drew a few names and the first guy's name that we pulled, Trevor, wants to come and he's not even Catholic! God is good, and I am so excited for what He's up to this year. Also, people just love these bisonCatholic tees! Brooke, a freshman, came to the booth the end of the day when Cari and I were feeling like it's time to just pack up and leave--we were exhausted and there were hardly any students around anyway. She just casually started chatting with us and started raving about these "cool bisonCatholic t-shirts I'm seeing everywhere! I'm not even Catholic, but I will definitely wear this!" Sounds great, Brooke. Wanna join my bible study? Yes? Okay, sounds good it's tomorrow night at 7:30! Needless to say, I'll agree with myself in my last post, people are thirsting for Jesus, whether they realize it or not.

After the fair I scooted off to discipleship with Miss Josie Breen which consisted of a great conversation over lunch at Erbert and Gerbert's. Both of us hadn't eaten all day and one of us had been outside in the sun since 11 am which meant we were darn hungry. So off we went, back to Mass we came and then I spent some quality Kelsey time going for a bike ride and coming back just in time for bible study at 8. Being the first week, Steph was the only girl who showed up, but it ended up being a total blessing in disguise. We had one of the best conversations about praying for peace, not only for ourselves but others as well, and we both left with a reinvigorated energy, even after a long day for each of us.

Thursday with Zoe

Ghiradelli brownie cookies. YUM!

On Thursday I was excited because the only thing on my planner aside from prayer, mass and bible study was discipleship with Zoe. It turned into going to Mass together at noon, hanging out at Atomic Coffee and chatting for over an hour, and then coming back to bake cookies (...and fold Kelsey's laundry...). We captured the essence of discipleship, which simply means to share life with another person. On her way out, Zoe turned to me and said, "I've never opened up like this or spent such quality time with anybody before! My roommates are great, but I just don't have as much in common with them as I do with you...and we're both single, so that helps." Well praise the good Lord above! This is exactly what discipleship is, it doesn't have to always be the same exact thing every week. If you're gauging that the other person just needs to talk, or you need to bake cookies for bible study, why not have them share that with you? It's real life discipleship!

That's all for now, I'll post about our trip out west as soon as I have a few photos to share!