A Sweet Farewell

"She's at it again." Uh oh. Kelsey's creative side came out and she decided to compose another poem. 

"Hey everybody, do the Kelsey pose!"

I realized that the three poems I've written most recently have all been dealing with saying goodbye to either a person, place or thing: first, the epic lost brown fleece, second, a poem in Spanish for Mamá as I left Santiago and now a third as the summer in Fargo draws to an end. Truthfully, each day I am more surprised how much I love this city, especially when I get directions somewhere and know that it just takes a couple of right hand turns on a grid street pattern and I can arrive at my destination without a hitch. In fact, the other night Jenne and I just got in the car and drove for an hour and a half and made less than eight necessary turns to get all the way out and around the boondocks and back. I've never experienced such straight and flat roads before! It's kind of a fun change...for a while. 

Itasca State Park

On Sunday my friend Lindsey and I drove to Itasca State Park in Minnesota and it looked just like Wisconsin! I did not realize how much I missed all the green forests, bodies of water and hills until I actually came face to face with them and had forgotten that such amazing topography exists!

Jenne, myself and Katie (UND missinoary) at The Forks!

In other exciting news, I am officially leading three Bible studies: one on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Do you realize how much baking I can do now?! I'm so excited. I'm also in a free class being taught by Msgr. Goering on Johannine Literature (a.k.a. John's Gospel and writings in the New Testament) on Tuesday nights and currently Lucas and I are trying to get the FOCUS missions department to let NDSU have a campus-specific trip--whereas currently anybody from anywhere can apply for a mission and if selected for a trip you don't choose with whom and to where. You could say I'm really getting thrown into the mix of things and am totally okay with that. As long as the Lord's Will be done in all that I do, I certainly could never complain about such an awesome opportunity to serve Him on campus. 

And now if you'll bear with my attempt at being somewhat artistic:

A sweet farewell to thee, dear friend, must I bid,

for the sunny days and warm nights 

were the last things from which I hid.

A farewell most strange defines this good-bye,

for it not be intended for a person

but rather a season, warm and dry.

Yes, "pathetic," you may well think,

but listen closely, hear me out;

the only thing I won't miss is the stink.

The landfill in Fargo is a center-of-the-city mess,

and each time the wind blows just right or we drive ‘round town

our ability to breathe becomes less and less.

Sweet summer in Fargo may have been just a dream,

but to enjoy each day’s sunshine to its fullest

was for some more than others, extreme.

Define extreme, the reader may well demand,

the beach in Detroit Lakes with Student Leaders,

pizza at Zorbaz and burying our friends in the sand. 

Certainly other ways to enjoy such a fine season

in recent weeks have occurred, for example

take Jenne and I—off to Canada we were allured. 

Lovely Winnipeg we saw in merely a day,

bringing up the gifts at the Cathedral’s Sunday’s Mass,

visiting a near-Saint’s shrine and “The Forks” marketplace ‘eh?

It wasn't before long that we returned to the grind,

myself still meeting new students, heading up three Bible studies,

and attempting to fix my planner like clockwork so it's all perfectly timed.

From day one as a missionary at NDSU

I have mentioned it more than once, however

the students keep impressing us anew.

The students we work with lead more than Bible studies,

they are chairs of campus organizations, work multiple jobs

and in all their classes continuously seek new buddies.

I genuinely enjoy spending time at our office

where the team casually jokes, pokes fun at the girls

and Lucas becomes all of ours' accomplice.

An example of this was a most clever and delightful prank

played on Tim, our one-of-a-kind team director, 

who upon seeing his desk we had hoped for a big “thanks.”  

We used our creativity for the extra “Free Buckluck” tickets we had 

and as we were cleaning out the office, what a better way 

to get rid of them than to cover Tim’s desk, computer and mouse pad. 

I’m still not positive that he knew it was us,

but here’s to being bad at pranks, a first-year missionary,
and hopefully not losing all of Tim’s trust.

My first month in Fargo has been a summery breeze,
as the first frost lies just beyond the horizon
I can begin to imagine the upcoming half-year freeze.

Sorry, Tim.

Guilty as charged.

Please keep me in your prayers and know of mine for all of you! 

In Him,

Kelsey Marie

The end of Outreach Week is only the beginning!

Filled pews for the first Sunday morning Mass!

Ahhhh. This may be perhaps my first Saturday of college (or at least living the college lifestyle) where I have not needed to either study, work, meet up with someone for coffee or spend time preparing for one thing or another. WOW. My day began as follows: woke up nice and early, went to the church to get to morning Mass only to find out that this week's is canceled due to a wedding and then coming back to have a delicious breakfast with Jenne and Sarah and hang out with them. You could say that for me, this is bliss.

The epic team "jump photo"

This past week was a whirlwind and a total blast. I had no idea how tired I was until Thursday night when I went to bed at 10 pm and woke up at 8, still needing more sleep! I suppose that means we were working pretty hard all week, 'eh? Working hard entails the following (and basically, these are all of the things I always wanted to do in Madison but did not have enough time to do them all): handing out freezie pops to students and asking them to take surveys-luckily all of the days we did this were really hot and sunny so more people were likely to take the survey, playing volleyball, ultimate frisbee and capture the flag at night, enjoying a barbeque after Sunday evening mass, having an ice cream social and then the culminating event on Friday--the 90's night. It was so different to have absolutely no excuse not to be completely bold and "out there" when grabbing students on their way to class and pestering them on their way out of the memorial union to take our surveys. I mean heck, this is my actual job! I still cannot believe it. Every single day due to either something that Jenne says, a joke that Fr. Cheney makes or a snide comment uttered by Tim I am made more and more aware that I was seriously born to come to NDSU as a missionary. It's a bit ridiculous.

Jenne with some of our rockstar leaders

On Wednesday night I re-learned how much I absolutely love ultimate frisbee! I haven't played since the good old days of SPHS and man have I been missing out! It delights me to know that I still have all sorts of opportunities to do these kinds of things with other young people who want to do them as well! As all of us missionaries have been around the Newman Center (or as Fr. Cheney likes to call it, "The Center for the Revitalization of the Divine Indwelling") seemingly 24/7, I have also been introduced to and have gotten to know most of the wonderful student leaders! They have incredible courage and zeal for souls and truly make me want to become a better missionary. Most of them have been involved with FOCUS and in discipleship much longer than I have personally, so it is even more clear that I need to be here not to teach but to learn. Watching the students be fearless in inviting strangers to events, asking their peers to take surveys and inviting freshmen to Mass has been very inspirational and such a blessing. I'm excited for them to be student missionaries reaching out to people in their classes, dorms, sororities, fraternities and friend groups!

Aerial view of Detroit Lakes

As an aside, yesterday was a wonderful day. After heading home to take a nap around 1:30 I received a phone call just as I was pulling into our lot from none other than Fr. Cheney himself. He called to inquire if I would like to go for an airplane ride! He actually has an airplane and his pilot's license, which is AWESOME! I instantly regained all of the strength I thought I needed a nap to obtain, and Jenne and I got to go up in Father's Bonanza for a ride to Detroit Lakes and back! Flat Fargo looks much prettier from up above when you can actually see the patchwork quilt of the landscape and all of the lakes in Minnesota. Later, and after the packed 5:15 daily Mass, he treated the female missionaries to dinner at Applebee's with a side of laughs. Tonight we're having Lucas and Becca (our teammate and his wife) over to treat them to dinner and we will see what next week has in store for us!

Much love and many prayers,
Kelsey Marie

Jenne and I holding our two youngest team members! Dominic and Caleb

North Dakota: Discover the Spirit!

South entrance to campus. So pretty!

After only six days of unofficial residence in Fargo, North Dakota, I absolutely love it! From the first time I saw a North Dakota license plate proudly proclaiming "Discover the Spirit" and that it is the "Peace Garden State" due to the fact that the International Peace Garden shares territory in both North Dakota and Manitoba, I knew I would love this place. It is true that I was ready to move out of Madison and on to a different path of my life, so I think this is exactly that.
As I have spent personal time with many of the readers in this audience over the post-training summer, I think a few simple words will sum it all up nicely: family time, beautiful weddings and much joy, and as always busy, busy, busy. It seems as there just may never be a dull moment in the life of Kelsey Kaufman! And in all honestly, that is exactly how I seem to thrive. After being in Fargo for only six days my teammate Jenne and I have been running around from one place to the next--running trips back and forth from the store to pick up essentials, purchasing a table and putting it together (although we've currently only got the four chairs assembled), sitting in team meetings with Tim and Lucas (our team director and other male missionary), spending a couple short days out in Hope at our friend's farm for a team retreat, getting new tires put on the Taurus, meeting Lee Ann at OfficeMax and having outreach materials printed, hanging out with Fr. Cheney and getting accustomed to his sense of humor as well as the Newman Center at NDSU, moving major furniture, kitchenware and other goodies from the old female missionary house to our new apartment and of course today's 8-hour evangelization workshop for the returning student leaders!

Jenne and I enjoying the evening in Hope, ND.

Whew! Deep breath! Looking back on the week I will rate it at ten out of ten. I absolutely adore Fargo and the people here, and as Jenne has noticed and been reminded by me often, it is pretty obvious. For those of you who know me well, I enjoy traveling and being new places, trying new things and the whole bit. Well, this entire experience with FOCUS will be exactly that for however long I choose to do this, I just get to talk to students about Christ! After meeting a healthy helping of the student leaders (a.k.a. students that lead the FOCUS Bible studies on campus) and having full energy from 7 am until past 10 pm, I am even more convinced that FOCUS truly is my calling for the next few years.

NDSU Newman Center Chapel

To sum up my feelings about my current state of life as of now, I'd have to say everything is totally great. To be exactly where God wants you to be and have that align with where you want to be feels absolutely incredible. I will admit, however, this peace and comfort still feels new and unusual. After spending all four years of college wondering just what the heck I would do after graduation took such a toll on me, and now to experience this calm, relaxed joy with no anxiety whatsoever is such a blessing! Another cool thing that I have slowly been realizing throughout my young FOCUS life: I have not been nervous at all. Not once! From the application to the interview and from being at summer training and coming back home to fully fund raise my salary, never once have I been anxious or felt uneasy about this. From the moment I decided to do FOCUS it was very clear that this is the path that God chose for me and that He will provide! He would not call me do to something I could not handle or was not ready for, and I am so grateful. I firmly believe this is a testament to God's faithfulness and ability to know what all of His children need and when they need it.

The real country roads.

I was reminded of this lesson as I sat down to eat lunch today with the student leaders and was talking with one of the seniors. He asked me if I was a first year missionary and I was honored! To think that I might actually be compared to the level of the Carrie Wagner's and Gina Zaccagnini's (two wonderful missionaries I knew well at Madison) was such a compliment! What struck me the most was his surprise at my lack of nervousness when speaking in front of the group, which is something that usually causes me great anxiety! This was just another example that I truly am meant to be here in Fargo as a FOCUS missionary in 2011.

Pumping a stranger's gas

Wearing a stranger's ha

Bright and early tomorrow morning will come the day I've been waiting for since day one: freshman move-in at the dorms! The missionaries as well as the student leaders are able to help the freshmen move in, meet them and talk with their families, hopefully revealing to them a better part of campus and getting to know them. After hearing an entire day's worth of talks from our students about the dire necessity of outreach during the first two weeks of school really got me re-jived up to go and meet some students! Along with that was the photo scavenger hunt that we did as an activity today in the afternoon. We had to go ask strangers to do the most random things! And I never even had a problem with it! Hugging fast food employees, tackling NDSU football players, running with joggers, shaking a police officer's hand, helping strangers pump gas, making sand angels at the volleyball courts with strangers (5 points!), and wearing stranger's hats were just a few examples, among sitting with families at a restaurant and weeding strangers' gardens! If that didn't get you out of your comfort zone I'm not sure what would, but let's just say that after today I have no problem going up to students on campus and asking them to play volleyball with us or to join a Bible study, and I don't think the students do either. 

Getting an entire tour group to salute while standing on one leg

Drinking a giant cup of coffee, with a stranger

Kubischta farm, location of our retreat! L-O-V-E.

I'm so excited for the coming few weeks of outreach and meeting students! I will do my best to stay up-to-date but will definitely keep you all in my prayers. If you ever have any intentions I'm only an email away. God bless you!

With love,
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