Missions is a great life

Today I was reading another missionary's blog, she lives in the Philippines, her name is Susanna. Some of you may know this but some of you may not, after I graduate from High School I want to go to the Philippines and train to be a midwife. Every time I read about what Susanna and her mission partner are doing, or any of the other missionary blogs for that matter, I feel a burning desire to be with them in the Philippines. I am so happy for being in missions. Life in St. Lucia is amazing, I am so blessed, and it feels like home. But I want to be there so bad.

Thinking about this I thought about missions. What a blessed life it is. It made me think about this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. 2/3 of the world has not been evangelized! And by right of baptism we are called to spread the Word of God! Why aren't we doing it? This is what I want to do with the rest of my life, if I get marrried or not, I want to serve God by bringing others to him.

Here is a link to an article I wrote in our missionary news letter SERVE about missions.

http://fmcmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SERVE-Winter-2010.pdf Its on page 6

May all of you have a blessed Easter!

Holy Week

I just found out that I am going to have wake up at 3:30 in the MORNING tomorrow for the Way of the Cross. As exciting as that sounds I am not very happy about waking up at that outlandish time. I'm pretty sure that I am going to be brain dead all day tomorrow. Then Saturday we have mass at 10 pm which lasts at least three hours. :P One more reason to look forward to easter: More sleep! Anyway, I shouldn't be complaining. This is going to be on very interesting adventure!!

People of St. Lucia

In one of my posts I shared some things we do here in St. Lucia. Today I'm going to talk about some people we know.

At this point in our life we have three boys that come over at night, sometimes up to five. Their ages range from 12 to 17. They come and spend some time, eat supper and then say our night prayers with us. Its a lot of fun having them over, they play with the little kids, do some school and just kind of hang out.

We also have some girls that come over on Sundays and others days durring the week. Their names are Jessica and Ericka, and are 21 and 23. Jessica is praying about being a nun in Italy, we are all very excited about that. Ericka is the older sister, right now she is in the hospital because she has sickle cell. Please pray for her! They are both a lot of fun, and I know that I am very glad for their friendship as I know very few girls my age. :D

On Sundays we have something of a Sunday School in which over 50 kids come. One boy, age 9 is the son of Jessica and Erick's friend. He is very funny and has an adorable smile. When I went to a Karaoke night at our parish I learned that he can't raise his eyebrows one at a time. So now when ever I see him I'll raise one eyebrow and smile, he will grin back and try to raise his eyebrow too. When he finally gives up we will burst into a fit of laughter.

Here at our house we live underneath 5 nuns. All of them are wonderful women of God, but my favorite has to be Sister Rosemary. She is training to be a doctor and has come to St. Lucia from Tanzania. She loves Issac!! Its so cute to see her playing with him. Now that he is walking she bought him some shoes. :D

These are just a few of the friends we have here. God has blessed us so much!

Perfect Through Suffering

Today in our morning prayers the reading was from Hebrews 2: 9-10. And the last three words in the reading said,

"Perfect through suffering." Those three words really stuck out to me, and I just kept thinking about that. It is so ironic, everything about those words go against modern thought. Which says that suffering is bad, it means something is wrong in your life, you don't want to suffer. But Christ says that if we suffer for him then we are gaining treasure in heaven, that suffering can be a good thing.

This got me thinking about suffering in my life, I have a wonderful life. I have a great family, three meals a day, nice bed and clothes. What are my sufferings? Sometimes suffering isn't big things, like having a cancer, or being blind, sometimes suffering is just little things that humble us.

Like going up to read at morning mass and finding out you have white powder on your shirt. (Don't ask me what it was I have no idea.)

Or not being able to understand everything that people say to you and having to ask them to repeat it over and over again.

Sometimes sufferings can be not having little comforts, or not having many friends. But what ever it is, know that if you offer it up for God's glory or for someone else than you are gaining treasure in heaven

Blessings,

Abi

Some stories and pics!

Some cuties from the preschool. :)

Ocean view

The Cathedral

Issac being cute on the front porch

This is the basketball court we have in our back yard.

View from the court

(I'm not sure where this is.)

This past week has been busy! Our missionary friend James left us, to the sorrow of all. My little sisters even suggested that he ''give up going to Big Woods for lent." :) I can't remember if I told y'all yet, but one of the many things that happens over here is two young boys come over and we help them with school. At ages 15 and 14 they are a mixture of fun and trouble. The little kids like having two more older siblings, and Peter is enjoying more boys.

Another thing that we do here is give away food. The parish priest has been very generous and has helped us out with food. Giving us huge bags of rice, boxes of beans and such stuff. Seeing so much food, and so much need around us we came to the conclusion that God must want us to share! Right now we are preparing a couple for marriage, and the woman is about 8 1/2 months pregnant with a old year old. (Stuff like this happens a lot) She often stands all day in line at a government program to get some extra food, and often returns home empty handed. We have been overjoyed to help her out.

On Mondays, Wendsay and Fridays we go to the Parish Office to offer counseling, from 9:00 to 12:00. A lot of the times no one comes until the last hour. It is sometimes frustrating, to have people come within the last hour and not being able to spend more time with them. But God is calling us to be faithful not always successful. Something that has been on the hearts of my parents is to help start a Crisis Pregnancy Center. So many young women are left with little children with no help at all! It really is sad.

We are so blessed to have a chaple right on premise. One of the things we prayed for durring out Intake was for a chaple or church to be near by. God has blessed us SO much, and we get to have mass every morning. Life could not be better here.

Crusades and Youth Group

Last night we were invited to the first night of a crusade. For those of you who don't know what that is, its basically were you get together with a group of people and preach, this crusade is going on for 4 weeks. As some of the other family members had already committed to other stuff, in the end only James (a missionary friend who had come down to check things out for a mission school we want to host) and I went. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a great night. It started out with some singing, after that they had two speakers say a prayer and welcome everyone. Then they had the main speaker talk on what it means to be Catholic. It was really inspiring, the speaker was on fire, and I could really feel the Holy Spirit there with us. They ended with a little Adoration time, and I think that was what blessed me the most. I could feel God giving me peace and love, and my mother can tell you I was all smiles when I got home. James was very excited about it, and I'm pretty sure our mission team will do one of our own when his group comes down.

On Sunday the Youth Group at the parish we attend was having a movie night, we watched The Passion. The last time I was that movie I remember thinking it was a really gory movie that I never wanted to watch again. This time it was really powerful. Most of you know that I attended a summer camp that changed my life. I knew this time that all of Jesus' suffering was really and truly for me. I cried most of the movie.

Its hard to believe that I've only been in San Lucia for for two months come the 19th!

Wanted

There's a song with words that go something like this:
"When all you wanted is to be wanted."
Today I was thinking about this and how true it is. Every girl has that desire, to be wanted. Sure we have our families, and wonderful friends and some of us even have a boyfriend, but that desire is still there. Sometimes this desire gets so strong it makes us search in all the wrong places. I'm certainly not an exception to this desire, I think about it a lot. And every time I do I always come to the same conclusion. There is only one person who can fully meet this need. Actually he really isn't a somebody, he's God. How awesome is that?
I can be lazy and not pray every day, I can be mean and yell at my siblings for nothing, I can do everything all wrong. And yet God is still there, he waiting for me at every corner begging me to pay attention to him again. To come and talk to him. To just spend time with him. To say I'm sorry and try again. Writing this makes me think of another song, its called A little Longer. I love the part when God says,
"You don't have to do a thing for me, just simply be with me, and let those things go. Just wait another minute wait this moment is too sweet please stay here here with me. And love on me a little longer, Cause I’m in love with you. "
God is ten times better than every single person who loves us, because he will always give us another chance, he will always be there for us, he will always forgive us.