Airport fun!

Dear readers,

Please forgive the hiatus, as usual. I just returned from the Camino de Santiago in Spain, which I will be debriefing in longer detail in an upcoming post--so stay tuned! However, I'm currently in the process of catching up on emails, writing cards, organizing and sorting out my life, and I noticed an open word document on my desktop titled, BlogPost7/8/13.docx and thought, "Hm, I don't remember what that is." I originally wrote it in hopes of posting it before I left for the big trek across Spain, but as you read it you might realize I was a bit frazzled by the time I actually got back to my parents' house in WI to actually finish the post. So, out of a bit of vanity and desire to not waste a perfectly good post, here's the story of my travel returning from NST in early July...

Hello dear readers, I’m writing to you today from a nice little spot at gate A6 in the ATL airport. It’s 6:18 am, I have a cup of coffee within an arm’s reach, and my shoulders are sore from carrying around my large brown purse and a cloth tote bag filled to the brim since 3 pm yesterday. It’s nice to be seated.

In case you’re wondering what I’m doing in Atlanta, well, let me entreat you with a small tale. And if you didn’t think I was a bit spacey before, you might have a different opinion after hearing my story now. Way back in the beginning of May when I purchased my round-trip flight for NST, the dates for all the deans and leadership positions to leave was July 7^th. In the course of the month and time at NST that quickly changed to be the 6^th, so now I was stuck with this awkward day-after-everybody-moves-out ticket, constantly needing to explain to people why I was leaving later than everyone else—for no particular reason minus my own faithfulness to following the rules. [In case you’re wondering, I did look into moving my flight up a day, but with a cost of nearly $200 to switch it, it really wasn’t worth it.]

Yesterday when I got to the Ft. Myers airport I first had to get my large suitcase down from 60 lbs to 50, with not much room to spare in my “carry on” (which, did I mention, is a plastic tote bag that doesn’t actually close?), and after getting it to 53 the nice man behind the bag-drop counter let it go through without charging me the $100 (PTL!=Praise the Lord). I got to my gate, plopped down with my many belongings, wearing my Pope Francis shirt and a smile, and patiently waited. It wasn’t long before the Delta attendants announced that due to a computer glitch all flights were delayed about a half an hour. Ruh roh! I knew I had about 30 minutes between landing and departure for my next flight in Atlanta, so if the flight really did leave at 5:17 as they said it would, I’d have about 15 minutes to exit plane 1 and get to plane 2.

Honestly, at this point, and actually throughout the entire day, I was excited at the opportunity for adventure! I’ve had some good luck in the past in terms of running from one flight to the next, and I always want to see what the Lord has in store for me. We got off the plane with six minutes to get from B26 to B3. I became one of those people that I’ve never wanted to be in the airport: the one frantically running from one place to another weighed down by many heavy bags, wearing a sweatshirt (avoiding those checked bag fees!) and sweat pouring off of me. Gross.

By the time the other sad passengers and myself got to B3 it was 7:23 and our flight was supposed to leave in two minutes. Sadly, the doors were already closed and all hopes of getting on that plane were out the window. Literally: I looked out the window and saw the plane sitting there, waiting to take-off.

The rest of the night’s flights were all booked, so the nice people at Delta gave me a hotel and two meal vouchers as compensation along with a nice amenities kit with a toothbrush, clean t-shirt, etc.

I made a few friends along the way and made it my personal mission to brighten anyone’s evening I could, starting with the first woman that helped me at the Delta counter. I hardly said anything at all, but she told me I was “such a nice girl” and she hoped I could get on the 10 pm flight, for which I had a stand-by ticket. She also checked to make sure I was over 18 because she thought she was dealing with a minor! What a compliment.

A few other waiting lines later, my last one for the evening was to check on my luggage and make sure it was still getting to O’Hare when I was. The sweet lady behind the counter took great care of me, and then as I was packing up my many bags (it takes me a few minutes to simply pick up and arrange my belongings, fitting them like a puzzle on my body), she stood back, looked at me and said in a great southern accent, “Honey, you such a pretty girl.” Again, what a nice affirmation. After hours in the airport I certainly didn’t feel too pretty, so that was assuring.

I then walked right out the shuttle for my hotel (which happened to just arrive), got to the hotel and had the opportunity to clean up and get a few hours of sleep in a delightfully comfortable queen-sized bed. Now, here I am, listening to Nancy remind us that there is a two-bag limit, one being a personal item. Yikes, let’s see how this goes… 

So, there you have it. I ended up getting back home around 11:00 am and needed to completely unpack, organize my room and repack for the Camino in less than 18 hours! In case you're wondering, I did make it, although probably gained a few gray hairs in the process.

Can't wait to tell you all about the Camino! Here's a little preview of how it went: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyukWchlQ3c&list=UUlXMFffh-_jMqU0fDRxHUxA

NST, Round Three

Whoa! Looking at my last post it was all the way in the end of April--and there's been no shortage of events, activities and new relationships happening. Currently, I write to you from Ave Maria, FL way way down in Southern Florida for FOCUS' annual New Staff Training (NST, for those of you who love all of our fun acronyms). In previous years, the Newman Center in Champaign, IL at the University of Illinois hosted us, but we've officially outgrown the facilities so we're down here, essentially in the middle of a once-swamp and kind of the middle of nowhere.

I've been here for three weeks now and a description I gave to a friend earlier today perfectly sums up my sentiment about the time thus far: it feels like a really busy and overstimulated extra-long retreat. The setting is almost too good to be true (that is, until our feet and legs get eaten alive by fire ants and other creatures) and the town is literally like a little "Catholic Disney Land." FOCUS told us it would be like that and I didn't believe them...but it's true. I mean the town is pretty much built around the university, and it's pretty cute. Bottom line: Kelsey is happy and doing well...and apparently speaking in the third person now. Weird. I'll cut that right out.

I'll begin by introducing our new team for the 2013-2014 school year at NDSU! (drum roll please....)

You might be thinking to yourself, "wow, those people all look extremely familiar." And well, that's correct.

• TJ Beyer, army veteran from Albuquerque, NM and our dashing super-evangelist apologist will be returning for his second year. 
• I, Kelsey Kaufman, graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from Sauk City, WI will yes, be returning for a three-peat at NDSU!
• Jane Voelker, 2011 graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, hailing from Wisconsin Rapids, WI will be joining us for her first year on staff after working as an intern at St. Paul's in Madison.
• Bryan Thiry, formerly known as "BLT" (Beloved Leader of the Team, per Fr. Cheney), graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a diehard Husker, originally from Butte, NE will be re-joining us as the beloved leader of the team, or rather, our team director. (Basically, he's our boss.)

One of the best parts of NST round three is definitely the amazing women in my college. They are all so unique, gifted and a beautiful reflection of femininity and each day that I get to spend with them is a reminder of God's delightful plan for each of us. It's just amazing to think that He set it up so perfectly for us to all be together, for some reason or another, and we are learning a ton from everyone else.

College of St. Agnes!

I would love to relay to you all the cool things I've been learning and re-learning in our classes, but let's just say that when I'm at NST among all of my missionary brothers and sisters, I honestly can't imagine doing anything else. This certainly will fuel my prayer for the next year, that is, how long I want to serve with this incredible organization, but for this year, I know that the Lord is calling me to be a missionary at NDSU. Also, I've been asked many times, "Oh, three years at the same place? Are you the team director?" To clear up any doubts, no, in fact, I am just your average third-year missionary, loving the North Dakota mish (as in missionary) life. There are a few (literally, probably 3) others in the same boat as me, so if I feel self-conscious about that I just have to remember I'm not the only one.

Just an average day at Ave.

To be honest, and this shouldn't surprise you, I've had this blog post open for about two weeks now, thinking I'd finish every single night before going to bed. Well, by the end of the day I can muster up just about enough energy to walk upstairs to the chapel, get a little night-cap with Jesus, and then head to bed. To be honest, I'm writing to you on a day when most missionaries are not on social media, seeing as this weekend is retreat weekend for us. This year there were three different options to choose from (because there's so many of us!!), and right when I decided which one I would choose, Fr. Kevin Dyer, one of the Jesuits that led our 8-day silent retreat last year, asked me if I'd be willing to help spiritually direct the missionaries making one of the silent retreats.

.....insert awkward response by Kelsey here.....

I decided to offer it to the Lord and that if He needed me I'd be more than happy to help. There are three other missionaries helping out, and the reason is because we were all on the 8-day Ignatian Silent retreat last year, and this retreat is a modified version of it. Essentially, we have a semi-recent experience with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius so we can help the newbies with their potentially first encounter with the Exercises.

Perhaps now that I've finally finished my first "NST update" I'll give you a few more before my time here is over. Let me just conclude with a few thoughts:
1) Please keep myself and the other missionaries in your prayers, especially this weekend with the retreats!
2) I love being a missionary, and I also love being here at Ave Maria, FL.
3) Only 18 days until I board an airplane for the Camino de Santiago!!

It's over already?!

Yes, that fateful day has arrived. This year's much-anticipated New Staff Training has officially ended after some intense spiritual and personal formation, many great memories, shared laughs and newly formed friendships. I know that I myself had an amazing time and right when I feel like I'm getting the hang of this, it's all over! I distinctly remember feeling this same way last year, too. (Have I mentioned before that I don't deal well with change and transitions?)

I know a few things for certain: 1) I am so blessed to be a missionary. Recently I was talking with another mish (missionary...abbreviated) and realized that if I wouldn't have answered this call to FOCUS, the number of people I know would be far fewer! As in, over 500 people fewer, with missionaries and NDSU students combined! What the heck?! That's insane. 2) God is good to us, so so good. It's so encouraging to see the amazing things he's doing through all of us all over the country, and hearing other missionaries' stories this summer really pumped me up to go back to Fargo and get back at it! And 3) I'm not just tired, I'm exhausted. I think it's a sign that I really need to start working on saying yes and no to people more prudently. I've improved at recognizing opportunities to say no, and sometimes I feel like taking 20-30 minutes alone each day is enough, but I just don't that that's gonna cut it in high-emotional and high-relational situations like this! And just because I recognize the situation does not mean that I respond as I ought. You could say I'm guilty of not taking the best care of myself all the time. I l-o-v-e quality time with my friends, but when I can't have quality time with Jesus because I'm so tired from expending my energy everywhere else, there's probably an issue there.

Conveniently, pertaining to my self-inflicted truth number three, tonight at 7:30 pm begins an eight-day Ignatian silent retreat. I remember hearing about it last year and thinking to myself, "wow Kelsey, that is exactly what you need." And then when the sign-ups came around near the end of the school-year I chickened out, thinking I didn't have the time for it, until a wonderful Fr. Kevin Dyer sent me a message telling me to really consider giving it a shot. It's as if he read my mind because although I hadn't signed up, I still really wanted to, I just didn't have somebody to say, "DO IT." So, I signed up and have been looking forward to it ever since.

And you know, it's so funny how this whole "FOCUS" situation works out, I'm still asking myself how I feel about it. Wonder what I mean? Here's how one ends up in a current situation similar to mine, along with the other 350 missionaries (and that doesn't even include all of those who came and left staff before us!):

All on the same interview weekend and still great friends! I love these girls!!

1. Answer the call (a.k.a., apply). This is pretty straightforward. Jesus Christ worked his way into the depths of your soul and wrapped himself so intricately around it and has now given you the urge to "go make disciples of all nations." Through prayerful discernment you understand that he's calling you to be a missionary, and you think it might be with FOCUS.
2. Interview weekend. This is really where your adventure as a missionary begins, whether you get hired or not (since we're all called to evangelize, by virtue of our baptism...). You meet other Christ-centered people, hear their stories during their five-minute testimony about how Jesus Christ changed their life and why they want to change others'. Common side-effects of interview weekends include but are not limited to: being filled with joy and/or excitement about a potential call to this ministry, making friends that you actually keep in touch with, and falling more in love with the mission. (It also doesn't hurt that you get to have great meals, stay in a nice hotel and get toted around from place to place without having to really lift a finger. Thanks, FOCUS HQ for picking up the tab.)
3. New Staff Training. After receiving the external call that yes, you should be a missionary with FOCUS, you prepare yourself for five weeks and probably don't know what exactly to expect. You begin gathering names, addresses and phone numbers for potential mission partners, and when the time comes you show up in the heart of the Midwest--Champaign, Illinois. You pull up to the front doors of the St. John's Catholic Newman Center and are greeted by a healthy number of other missionaries who just cannot wait to help you get in and get settled (and for you to move your car so other people arriving can park on the street). You watch as the second-years and above reunite with their friends, many of whom they haven't seen in a year, and ask yourself, "will that be me next year??" You're whizzed through a registration line and confusedly make your way to get your things to your room, probably with the help of one or two other people. If you have roommates you meet and analyze them, knowing that Jesus Christ was the one who brought you both here. After unpacking your few belongings and making a home out of your dorm room you get ready for the next five weeks. You're rushed from place to place, holy hour to class, class to lunch, lunch to MPD and MPD to Mass, Mass to dinner with your colleges, dinner to formation, recreation or more MPD. On the nights you're feeling up to it after all that, you can hit up Murphy's and grab a beer, or another favorite, Cocomero for some frozen yogurt. Throughout the course of the five weeks you're emotionally, spiritually and intellectually filled up, so much so that it begins oozing out of you and after settling in with a few good friends, they're ripped away from you and everybody rushes off to their respective homelands. That's the part with which someone like me, who loves relationships and quality time, has the biggest bone to pick. You meet tons of great people who you literally feel like you've known your whole life, begin sharing life with and loving the crap out of them, and then whoosh! gone. Gone like Elvis and his mom. 
4. MPD (Mission Partner Development). That's right, you get to go home and work, work, work. Phone-calling, meeting up with people and trying to raise a salary that will provide for your needs for the following year! And you have a little over a month to do it. If you don't do this, you can't do #5. There's some motivation.
5. Campus. The time has finally arrived where you can no longer just talk about going all the way to North Dakota, Florida, Arizona or Vermont--you actually go. This could arguably be where the real adventure begins, but take my position as you will with the beginning being the very application process. Being on campus involves too much to put in here, and seeing as I've only experienced one campus I'm a bit biased as to how smoothly it can actually and does go. I'll leave the rest up to the imagination for now, but as a first-year missionary you certainly get pushed, pulled and stretched in ways you didn't know were physically possible. Before long the last weekend of May rolls around and you know you get to go back to NST and start all over again, reuniting with old friends and making new ones. What a roller-coaster.

Have I mentioned how much I love being a FOCUS missionary? It's a lot. And for those of you who don't know me very well, when I love something a lot, I want err'body to love it with me, ergo, blog post. I'm off to my last social meal before the silence falls! I won't be using the internet or my phone for the next week so if you need to contact me leave me a message and I'll call you back on July 8th! Please pray for me and that I can be open to any graces the Lord desires to shower upon me! Thank you, and God bless,
Kelsey Marie

You know it's week 5 of NST when...

• You're asked, "Can you believe it's already the fifth week of training?" several times a day.
• People start showing up right on time or even late to class... (grumble grumble). 
• Second-years and above start doing MPD.
• Pictures from the last month start going up on Facebook.
• You dream that you're opening rec-night in a prayer and wake yourself up when you close the prayer with a vocal "Amen!" (So does a prayer actually count if you're asleep?....)
• The line at Espresso Royale is much longer in the morning before class.
• You, yourself can't actually believe it's the fifth week and begin to wonder where the heck all the time went, and wonder if you'll be back here next year.
• There's no one at breakfast.
• Nametags become optional.
• This is biz-casual right?...at least I'm not wearing jeans.
• You may have visited Cocomero more than once this week.
• MPD can just wait til I get back, right?
• "Bar culture" makes a comeback when people try to make the most of the time left they have with their friends.
• It's easier to find a table in the cafeteria for college dinner night.
• You see glasses on people you had no idea wore them.
• You're coming to terms with the fact that you will leave NST not having met all the other missionaries. So. Many. First-years.
• Cleaning up your room can "just wait until Saturday."
• Girls decide that it's just not gonna happen this year.
• The number of children running around has decreased drastically.
• Girls get creative with two-day-old hair.
• You're sick of the cafeteria food.
• Morning holy hour is much less populated.
• The dating fast becomes difficult for all the first-years.
• The only way to stay awake in class is to take a nap beforehand....and after.
• You sniff your shirts in the morning and convince yourself that, "this is probably clean."
• Afternoon MPD time becomes the perfect time to hit up the pool at the rec center.... Mario. 
• You're really, and I mean really tired. 

We'll miss you, Corinne!

College of St. Cecilia!

The other night, one of the young women in my college, Corinne Riley, suffered a swing-dancing tragedy: while being flipped she was dropped on her shoulder and ended up breaking her collar bone! Sadly, she has to leave and go back home to Virginia today and will be missing out on the last week of NST, and will be greatly inhibited with her MPD efforts due to her inability to drive after having surgery.

It has been such a blessing having Corinne as a bright-eyed and cheery member of our college and we will definitely miss her this last week!

Beatin' the Heat.

The weather in Champaign is nice and toasty warm, and after a long day of classes and MPD (Mission Partner Development) a lot of us were craving something to cool off--both our bodies and minds. On Wednesdays we have dinner with our brother and sister colleges, St. Paul and St. Agnes (we're St. Cecilia!), and tonight after dinner the men of St. Paul blessed us with one way to cool down: an invitation to a water fight.

Tommy, the dean of the guys decided to pull out his chivalry card and even ask us if we would have a water fight with them. They didn't just assume we'd want to! I was really floored by how nice they were about it; they even waited until we were all done eating AND let us go change into different clothes. What gentlemen!

The ammunition consisted of a couple dollar store water guns, some 99-cent squirt bottles, cafeteria cups, a few water balloons we had quite the adventure trying to fill up in the bubbler and Tommy had the weapon of choice: one of the room's recycling bins. We had to be creative due to a lack of a hose and weapons which could mean one thing: great bonding with all the gals 'n guys in the *mist* of a lot of fun.

This reminds me of last year when the college I was in (St. Catherine of Siena--FIYAAHHH!) decided to try to surprise the guys with a water balloon fight and we spent all afternoon taking shifts filling up tons and tons of water balloons and then hiding them in the trash cans and doing a sneak attack after they finished eating. Luckily other people are a lot nicer and more honest than I'm known to have been... :)

I love being a kid. I love water fights. I love bonding with my brothers and sisters at NST. Overall, it's been a good day.

Much love,
Kelsey Marie

Heroic witnesses!

Our FOCUS men made the local Champaign news last night!

There were almost 150 men praying the Rosary in front of a local pornography shop for its closing down and an ending to the use of pornography and its destroying of marriages. What an incredible way to end the feast of Corpus Christi yesterday and storm Heaven with prayers for a much needed conversion in our world!

Check out the news clip here!

God bless,
Kelsey

Quarantined.

quarantine |ˈkwôrənˌtēn| noun
a state, period, or place of isolation in which people or animals that have arrived from elsewhere or been exposed to infectious or contagious disease are placed : many animals die in quarantine.

I've given a hearty attempt to avoiding "The Plague" silently and slowly taking out missionary after missionary at New Staff Training. Sadly, my body succumbed and yesterday I was stricken with this nasty virus floating around and last night I was rocking a pretty wicked fever. I had been sort of preparing myself to get sick because being in such tight spaces with nearly 300 people, let's be realistic: it's more likely that one will contract this pleasant bug than that they won't. When my roommate Jess was taken out earlier this week I knew it wouldn't be long before I, too, would give in. One of my friends was telling me it was all about "mind over matter," but I don't think it worked.

The way this flu has usually manifested itself has been with vomiting or diarrhea and headaches for a day or two, and then a day where you feel better so you think you're better and start hanging around people again, but you're actually still contagious and you just infected all of your friends. It started in the married staff wing and when people became aware of the outbreak we tried to quarantine them so that it wouldn't get out to all the other missionaries, since we are in such close quarters. I remember when we found out that it got into some of the other missionary wings and Jenne and I were mildly freaking out, as though it was a deadly disease. Perhaps we overreacted. Although after feeling the way I did last night I sure wouldn't have mind crawling up and dying, no joke.

I woke up this morning and was feeling a bit better so I put on a nice dress, went to Mass and even walked in the Eucharistic procession we had out onto the campus for Corpus Christi. I saw Jenne after and she pulled out her nurse card (because she actually is one) and sent me to my room to be quarantined. Dangit. So now here I am, in a dorm room on a beautiful Sunday while all my friends are floating on the Kickapoo River. God is good though, this could have happened during the week and I'd have to miss classes, Lord knows I don't want to do that! Any prayers that I'm better by tomorrow would be great! Thanks a ton!

God bless,
Kelsey Marie

NST, Round 2!

Well, this dream has officially become a reality and I'm here in Champaign, Illinois for another round of New Staff Training (NST)!

We completed two full days of classes and so far I've successfully taken one nap, gone for two runs, and have been spending ample time catching up with all of my beautiful friends that I have missed so dearly over the past year!

I'm surprised by some things:

1) How quickly I can forget people's names, even those that I was quite familiar with last year and have been staring at all year on a missionary map on our fridge! A bit humiliating, I'll admit, but also kind of hysterical when I find myself actually pulling out the "Oh HEY you!" card that I joke about far too often.

2) People remember that I wasn't at the Student Leadership Summit out in Baltimore in January when the NDSU team stayed in Fargo for bisonCatholic Week. I know this isn't what it's about, but I feel loved and truly cherished by so many of these friends, some of whom I hardly got a chance to know last summer!

3) I'm a different person this year than I was last year, and I'm okay with it. Prior to coming I was mildly freaking out about how much growth and purification has gone on in my life and my heart this year and I just wasn't ready to open up about some things. Turns out, it's actually not so bad!

4) I don't feel pressured to go and stay out late and have been getting to bed earlier than I have almost all year, it's a beautiful thing.

5) How many of my 2nd year friends are going to be team directors. It's an awesome testimony to the caliber of leadership FOCUS is blessed with and I'm so excited for all of them! Truly inspiring.

6) Lastly, my phone is pooping out on me and not that any time is a convenient time for your phone to stop working, but I was just at home for a solid week and could have moseyed into US Cellular to make an exchange had I known. Darnski.

All in all I'm really excited about this year's NST! I've got a lot to learn about what it means being a second-year missionary here and setting examples for the first-year missionaries, but the Lord is leading me, and I'm in the college of St. Cecilia! She's got a ballin' story and is an amazing example of purity of heart, mind and body and I have a feeling she'll be teaching me a thing or two this summer as well!

I'll write more later, God bless!
Kelsey Marie

Well that was fast!

A true understatement for NST 2011 would be to say that it really "flew by." In all reality, what appeared to be FOCUS summer training flashed before our eyes and was then taken away, just like that. I'm sorry to not have updated more frequently while in Champaign but I honestly don't know where the time went!

The people, places, events, classes, settings, etc were all absolutely incredible but even more profound was what I was learning every day in our holy hour at 8 am. I will state with conviction that although FOCUS missionaries have incredible formation, teachers, mentors and fellow FOCI (a friend of mine's abbreviation for the plural version of FOCUS missionaries, oh Scott Sroda how I miss you!), the true learning and heart revealing happens either during prayer with the Blessed Sacrament each day or because of it. If it weren't for the hour of adoration every morning the classes simply wouldn't have the same meaning, the conversations with fellow missionaries would lose their depth and we would be much less effective in our ministry. Needless to say, I am extremely pleased that this is part of our itinerary as missionaries and will be glad to allow Jesus Christ himself actually do the teaching, so long as I keep my ears open to listening!

As for the fun things that we were able to do in Champaign, I could have written a post every two days with fun and exciting new updates so I'll just give you a brief overview of the ones that stand out the most:

• Climbing trees. This is something I've never had the opportunity to do or was just too afraid but finally, with a couple of the previous Madison missionaries I successfully climbed a few trees! Here's a picture of one of them: Although this branch looks low, it's hard to actually get up and around there! With a little koala/sloth style shimmying up from the low point in the branch, accompanied by a lot of testing my upper body strength, Jimmy Becker was waiting up at the top to help pull me up and over. It was a great time and actually provided a great analogy for me for the future when relating our lives to how much we rely on God to pull us up the branch when we simply just can't do it!
• Karaoke. I think I already wrote about this, but it was just so fun I wanted to reiterate how much I really loved it.
• Brother college. They took us mini golfing, escorted us to the etiquette dinner, and each week when we had dinner with them they prepared mini homilies with good, succinct life lessons for us. One night for dinner the eight of us women prepared and sang Whoopi Goldberg's version of the Salve Regina for them and then on the last night was the grand finale: a water balloon fight. During our lunch we filled up buckets of water balloons and surprised the men after dinner with an attack (even though they were suspicious of criminal activity...). It may have been the most fun I had the entire time. 
• Murphy's! A bar just two blocks from the Newman center which was packed with FOCI any ol' night of the week. I went there a number of times for fellowship and great conversation, but one of my favorites was the night we went and played cards. Nothing like coming back and winning a game of ERS (Egyptian RatScrew). 
• My personal balcony. This is actually the fact that there was a nice extended ledge beyond my window (aka not a balcony...) over the front door of the building and I was able to retreat there on Saturdays for a little sun, alone time and reflection. All very necessary things when you're inside all week long and around a couple hundred other young people!
• L'Angelus. A young family music group that performed at a local bar and we all packed in and danced the night away. This night actually trumped the water balloon fight in terms of good, clean fun and their music is absolutely incredible. I highly recommend!
• Sporadic dancing. This happened every morning, most afternoons and definitely every evening either before or after dinner. My suite mate Molly loves to dance and in a particularly outgoing and crazy way so you could say we jived pretty well. She also introduced me to the pumpkin dance which we spent a lot of time attempting to imitate, Love Like Woe, and others. It was overall just really great and especially necessary to break up lots of intense learning and over stimulation.
• Jeff Cavins. The creator of the Great Adventure Catholic Bible study series, speaker and host on EWTN and Relevant Radio as well as an outstanding orator. He was *extremely* warmly welcomed to NST by the FOCUS missionaries who all dressed like him with blue shirts and yellow ties (apparently last year instead of having him come they watched his video series and in every vid he's sporting said attire). Check out his facebook page and see the pictures of how much my fellow nerds love a good Catholic speaker! 
•  The Holy Mass. Try to imagine celebrating the Mass every day with at least three rockstar priests (usually more) and over 200 young Catholics, ending with the St. Michael prayer and singing the Salve Regina. This was definitely the best way to wrap up a day's work and keep us all in line! 
• Battle wounds. Well, I simply fell while running and trying parkour with Ash, another of the missionaries at Madison. Let's just say it's not my strong suit.
• The Talent Show. If you'd like to watch all or part of it it was actually streamed live and you can now click on that link to watch it! It was awesome to see all of the different and unique talents that each of the missionaries had (at least those that participated... I did not this year but next year I'll be sure to think of something now that I'm in the loop!!) and shared with us. There was choreographed dancing, (cheesy) joke-telling, singing, poem recitation, and even a storybook reading! The show lasted a mere three hours and afterwards the dancing at Brothers commenced and before long FOCUS missionaries had taken over the place and everyone there was having a ball! Question: What happened when 50 FOCUS missionaries walked into a bar? Answer: The entire place was transformed, other bar-goers joined in their good, clean fun and dancing, and their outward respect toward one another was noted by everyone (including the bar tenders!)
• Etiquette dinner. An excuse to get all dressed up and learn formal table etiquette and for those of us that didn't know... how to properly hold a fork and knife! AMEN! Also, at the tables whenever a lady would stand up, all of the men at the table were required to stand up when she left and when she got back to honor her presence. I made sure to stand up at least three times to 1) keep all the men on their feet and 2) be the center of attention (which I always love...). It was followed by a dance which is always a favorite, let's be real.
• Scavenger hunt. For women's recreation one night we did a scavenger hunt with 16 different clues to locations all around campus and after all was said and done we ended up running over 2.5 miles to complete it! We came in 4th place but it was some of the best college bonding we had all summer. Oh, and we decided to wear red so most of us ended up borrowing Badger t-shirts from yours truly. Spread that Wisco lovin'!
• Cereal. The cafeteria at St. John's was awesome and they had a wonderful cereal selection. The line-up included: Special K Red berries, Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Reeses Puffs, Cocoa Puffs, Apple Jacks, Cap'n Crunch with berries, granola, and regular Chex (which were never my choice). I love cereal. A LOT. So let's just say breakfast was great and if I had dessert it was usually a bowl of Cap'n Crunch. Yum.
• Accents. Everybody present possessed an accent of some sort, regardless of what they would say. Whether it was a New Jersey accent, Southern Alabaman, Northern, North Dakotan (no, they are not the same), or Coloradan there were accents galore and I gained a new appreciation for the way we Wisconsinites pronounce our o's and other words such as bag, flag, magazine, etc. I just love it.
• The Dating Fast. The part that I liked about this was not it in essence but rather poking fun at it and realizing how much harder it will be then I originally planned!
• New friends. If you haven't already guessed I met some incredible people and there really are no words that could express how much I love them and will miss walking to class, running, eating and playing with them every day. 

That is just a brief summary of all the amazing things I was able to do while in FOCUSland so I'll leave you with a few pictures that more accurately express all of our authentic joy and happiness.

The young men (and even women!) who dressed up to impress and welcome wonderful Jeff Cavins!

 All of the students at daily Mass in the beautiful chapel at St. John's.

All four of us were on the same interview weekend back in February in Indianapolis and as soon as we arrived in Champaign we were reunited and all knew that we would be lifelong friends.  Needless to say, these girls are wonderful.

 Sabrina, Mary Kate, Fr. Justin, Katie Joy and myself at Murphy's after Fr. Justin wowed us with his original card tricks!

Myself, Jane, Laura, Carrie and Lisa (a.k.a. Wisconsin women!!) together after the etiquette dinner when Jane came to visit!

 All of the Wisconsin-born missionaries together sporting some of the greatest sports teams' gear in the country!

College of St. Catherine of Siena... FIYAHH!!! These seven other young women were a HUGE part of the reason I had such an impacting and incredible time at NST. I will miss you all! (The young woman in the middle, Stacy, is holding a relic of Jesus' true cross! I was fortunate enough to pray a holy hour one morning with it by me. Talk about entering into Christ's passion...)

And that wraps up my amazing summer in Champaign, Illinois! I already can't wait to see all of these wonderful people again and now I'm back in lovely Sauk Prairie until mid-August when I'll be heading out to Fargo, North Dakota! Can't wait!

God bless you all! Please keep me in your prayers as you are in mine,
Love,
Kelsey Marie

My new FOCUS family!

Introducing to you the 2011-2012 FOCUS missionaries!! Good luck finding yours truly!! (Helpful tip: click on the picture to see a bigger version. I'm in the left middle in the fourth-ish row and you can find me with one of my defining features... none other but the famous side pony).

Answered prayers left and right!

"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord."
                                 Jeremiah 29:11-14

Well if this passage doesn't sum up my first week (or even just today) at NST I honestly don't know what could do a better job. Did you read it closely? Read it again. God will provide exactly what I need, so long as I pray to Him and ask for His help. Always, from the beginning of time, God has had this in His plans for me, Kelsey Marie Kaufman! Talk about hope and having trust in God's promise!

The week has been an absolute whirlwind. And it is exactly the whirlwind I am meant to be in. There are over 300 missionaries for the upcoming year (not all of them are first- and second-years therefore not needing to be present at training the entire time) and literally, probably about 98% of them are material for becoming lifelong friends. No joke. Even among all of the conferences and retreats I have been on in the past I have never been to something particularly aimed at the best leaders and best leaders only.

We are divided up into colleges named after different saints and I am in the college of St. Catherine of Siena... wooo doggie. She's definitely been interceding for us because crazy "coincidences" continue happening around every corner and it's almost freaking me out a little (but actually not at all). All of the colleges have a brother or sister college (depending on whichever is opposite, for example we have a brother college) and apparently one of the rules is that the brother colleges have to ask their sister colleges if we will be their sister college (even though it's assigned anyway). Tonight our brother college surprised us by having some tables set up after mass and brought down pizza bagel bites with mac n cheese while dressed up in throwback 80's attire and whatever else they could scrounge up at the nearest thrift store. In the middle of dinner they stood up in the middle of the cafeteria and just BELTED out their own FOCUS rendition of The Lion King's, "The Circle of Life". Not only did they have the attention of all 250+ people in the cafeteria, but the three guys who chanted the background part were saying, "pink pajamas penguins on the bottom" because one of them used to mistakenly think those were the actual words! It was hilarious, and after listening to the song again I can totally see how he'd be confused!

 All the guys here are total gems and it's so freeing to know that the relationships formed with them have one common root: striving to live out the Gospel while learning to love Jesus more every day. It also helps to know that as first-years none of us can date because we signed a contract prohibiting ourselves from any romantic activity for the first year on staff, known as the legendary "dating fast." So guys, I guess that's to say the cat's out of the bag, and try to contain your disappointment: I will be single and not dating for the next year. Bring. it. ON. In all seriousness though, the first-years have enough on their plate in terms of personal growth that will take place this year, and throwing a budding relationship with another first-year missionary on top would probably be a recipe for disaster.

In other news, and the news that many of you have been waiting for... I got my placement tonight for next year!!!!! And better yet, I'm genuinely excited about a place that gets even more snow than Wisconsin--North Dakota! I'll be serving a missionary at North Dakota State University (NDSU.. I have a feeling this acronym will be a little too difficult for me, I've already called it UWNS-obviously it would be in the UW system, UNSD...etc) in Fargo, ND! I already checked and apparently there are at least 10 nearby Culver's locations so all in all, I'll be set!

I met three of my four teammates, Jenne, Sarah and Lucas, and they are just great. All I can say is that watch out North Dakota, because Kelsey Kaufman is comin' atcha! I went out with Sarah (left) and Jenne (right) in our matching bison Catholic tee's to a favorite hotspot just down the street: Cocomero. It is an incredible FroYo (frozen yogurt, duh Kelsey...) place where there are multiple flavors of yogurt and lots of toppings and you just help yourself and then pay $.47/oz! It's kind of an ice cream addicts' version of heaven on earth.

Alright, I am up way past my bedtime and have a full day of classes again tomorrow! All of you are you in my prayers and I hope that I am in yours-I definitely need 'em!

Love,
Kelsey Marie

The Time is Here and Now!

Hello friends, family members, and anyone who finds themselves stumbling upon a soon-to-be-missionary's blog! For the first post, although there is (and always will be) so many things I'd love to tell all of you, I first want to share with you what exactly it is I will be doing for the next (at least) two years and why I chose this path.. seeing as I was more than content with working at Metcalfe's Market for the time being and loving every second of it.

First of all, I will be serving as a Catholic missionary for an organization called FOCUS (The Fellowship of Catholic University Students... I do have a knack for acronyms!) and tomorrow officially begins NST (New Staff Training) which is described on their website as "1/3 boot camp, 1/3 grad school and 1/3 retreat." You could say I am pretty stoked. In all honesty I'm not yet 100% positive of all the minor details that my position will entail but I promise to keep you updated as I learn and grow more.

I just finished up a four-year BA (...Bachelor of Arts...) at the University of Wisconsin with a degree in International Studies and I have known for a few years that I wanted to do some type of two-year service as soon as I finished up. I never imagined my life taking this route but now I couldn't be more excited! As for my story in choosing FOCUS (or rather having it chosen for me) here is the long-winded version:

I was totally set on going abroad, preferably to Latin America, speaking Spanish and "really" helping people (working in an orphanage, building shelters, homes, living and working with the homeless, etc). At the time I had been living in Santiago, Chile and realized that the culture and people were some things I desired to carry with me for as long as I could while still being able to serve. I stumbled upon a booklet for the CVN (Christian Volunteer Network) after Alpha Omega at St. Paul's one night and thought it was providential I was there and that this was the one-way ticket I needed to determining my future. Boy was I wrong.

Not long before this I had signed up for the FOCUS conference which would be in January with the intention of getting some good insights, growing spiritually and spending some time over winter break with all of my wonderful friends at St. Paul's in St. Paul, Minnesota. My winter break was set up perfectly: first I went to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl and then went straight to St. Paul to spend some time with a few of my closest friends and would go straight to the three-day conference and come back home. I spent an entire day with Molly reading through all of the organizations, writing down the names, determining what I did and did not desire and got more excited to speak spanish and travel abroad than ever. Then Friday rolled around. I had my monster, color coordinated list in tow and met up with all my friends at the hotel for the conference. People had been asking me if I was considering FOCUS and my response was always this: "Listen, I'll do anything but FOCUS. If God wants me to be a missionary He's going to have to make that pretty clear because that is the last thing I want to do. FOCUS is great and all, but someone else can be the missionary--not me."

And make it clear He did.

The talks throughout the weekend were great; I learned and grew a lot, exactly my desires and intentions for being there. That is, until Sunday rolled around. Curtis Martin, the founder of FOCUS, gave an incredible talk about the importance of sharing faith with college students and the impact it can have on the rest of society. That sentence does not do his talk any justice whatsoever, but let's just say it was quite remarkable and I was deeply impacted. After his talk, all 2,000+ of us transitioned to celebrating the Mass and Fr. Mike Schmitz gave a homily that would forever change my life. I have listened to it many times over (because he streams all of his sermons as Podcasts on iTunes...praise God) and each time I hear what he said I remember the way the Lord was working in my heart the very first time I heard it.

He explained the bystander effect and its history and the more he explained it the more my eyes and heart were being opened and pulled apart. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the bystander effect it received its name after an incident that took place in 1964. A young woman named Kitty Genovese was walking home from work and was stabbed by a man that she knew and even tried escaping multiple times as she cried for help. Despite the 38 witnesses, not one person called the police until 30 minutes later and it was far too late. Many researchers ran psychological and social tests on this and termed it the bystander effect which means that the more people (or witnesses) there are, the less likely any one of them will do something.

You can only guess where my heart went from here.

I knew that I could no longer "stick to my guns" and simply let someone else do what God had secretly been preparing me to do for the last two years. After hearing this I spent an hour in Adoration with the Blessed Sacrament and it was made very clear that I was meant to apply for FOCUS. After applying I was granted the interview, it went better than I could have ever imagined and within two days I received a call-back asking me to join the FOCUS staff! I really have no idea what is in store for my life, both spiritual and physical, my heart or my mind for the next couple of years, but cannot wait for the adventure! I hope to be in touch with all of you and feel free to check this periodically and read about my latest stories. I'll do my best to keep you entertained with photos, anecdotes and life lessons I learn along the way!

Many blessings, prayers and much love,
Kelsey Marie