The incredible history you find in London

Last Friday our SPEC Team traveled to London for our Commissioning Mass at the Westminster Cathedral. After a quick tour and some historical briefings, we held our service in one of the side chapels after visiting hours ended.  It was so amazing to have our group of 20(plus some family of team members who live close by) singing and worshiping in such a HUGE church! Mass was led by Bishop John Arnold and after the service, they had a pizza party for us!  I ended up staying in London (with Erin) for the rest of the weekend because Monday was the start of our TFG Conference on Muswell Hill(a part of London, where the offices of TFG actually are).  Since we didn't have to be to the Conference until 4:30 pm, Erin and I decided to explore more of the city.  We went down to the London Bridge and walked along the Thames.  After a quick glance at the Globe Theatre (Shakespeare's theatre), we decided to give in to our coffee craving and grabbed lattes(and sandwiches) from Starbucks and sat on the cement railing along the river to dine.  The sun was glorious, the coffee was delicious, and the people-watching was quite entertaining.
  Realizing we still had about 2 hours to keep exploring, we decided to stop into a cathedral we saw on the way back to the tube stop.  We couldn't have picked a better place to stumble upon.

   It was the Southwark Cathedral, which has only been Cathedral since 1905, but the building dates from the 13th century. 
Cool facts we learned about Southwark:
  There is a chapel named The Harvard Chapel, after John Harvard who started Harvard University. He was baptized in this church in 1607.
  It houses a monument for William Shakespeare as he was a member of the church for some time (Globe Theatre was just down the way from Southwark).
  The Retro-Choir is the oldest complete part of the Cathedral.  They held trials for several Protestant martyrs here in 1553-58.
  The Tomb of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes: he was a scholar, poet and a translator of the King James Version of the Bible.  And...his tomb has the word CONCORDIA engraved on it (no joke).

Erin and I were thrilled we had found such a gem of a place. Of course, being a music major, she was giddy over all the organ pipes everywhere- and she's a 16th century history buff so she was quite content.  Me, I found a sense of comfort seeing the word CONCORDIA again, and a sense of life-fulfillment when I realized I was seeing it in London.

A Wonderful Week!

  For those that are wondering, I, in fact, DID pass my archery assessment so I am now certified with the Grand National Archery Society to teach archery!  It was quite an exciting accomplishment considering I had never shot a bow and arrow before in my life, I'm sure I'll get lots of practice this year.
   This past week I worked a one-day retreat on Tuesday and then a three-day residential on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday-both were a blast!  The group that came on Tuesday was a bit challenging as far as behavior goes (there were 65 16-yr.-olds) but we still had a great time. I got to help Anthony lead the "Languages of Love" session, which is based off the book 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.  It's an incredible session that teaches them how to become better "lovers" (in the appropriate sense of the word).  The five different languages are words, touch, gifts, acts of service, and quality time.  The session focuses on learning what your language is so people around you, in your families and friend groups, can know the best way you receive and express your love.  It's also very useful to learn what others' languages are so you can come to understand them better and how they feel loved. If you haven't read the book before, I highly recommend it.  It's incredible how much you can learn about yourself in such a short amount of time. After leading the session 4 different times, it all makes so much sense to me, and I haven't even read the book yet!
   So Tuesday's retreat was great (exhausting) but it only lasted 4 hours.  I was so excited to have the group of 38 16-yr-olds arrive on Wednesday because I knew we'd get to spend more time with them and actually get to know them.  It was the first time we all lead small groups by ourselves so it was quite an exciting time. The kids were so great- our program leaders that were here last year kept telling us how awesome the kids from St. Mary's always are-and they were right!  The kids in my small group were so down-to-earth and they were all so creative!  On Thursday night we had a "social" and all the small groups had to come up with something for the talent show.  I was a little nervous when my group settled on "Barbie Girl," but they did a great job, kept it appropriate and everything.  It was pretty cool to see the kinds of things kids will come up with when given a little bit of freedom. The showed so much support for everyone that got up on the stage.  It was an entertaining night for sure.
   One of the coolest parts of the retreat was when I got to lead the craft session for the kids that didn't want to take part in the outdoor sessions (ropes course, archery, and swamp game).  Kind of last minute, I decided I would teach a craft I learned way back in the day at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp.  It's called a "God's Eye" and all it takes is 2 sticks and some yarn.  After wrapping the yarn around the sticks in a simple pattern, a cool design appears and in the middle it looks like an eye. I was a little nervous as I wasn't sure how it go over, I thought maybe they'd see it as too "childish". We just on the couches and listen to music as we wrapped the yarn...and they loved it.  They were so excited to show their friends their creations and said they loved how relaxing it was for them. Needless to say, I was quite relieved. 
  Though a 3-day residential is quite exhausting (finishing at 12:30 at night, waking up early to be at 8 am prayer), it is quite fulfilling.  Getting to connect with the kids and spending time getting to know their stories is something that words cannot explain.  I feel so blessed to be here at this time in this place.

Robin Hood & Lil' John, Oo-de-lalley Oo-de-lalley...

  The Robin Hood song has been in my head ALL week because last weekend we started our archery training.  Contrary to popular belief, not all Montanans grow up prowling through the woods with their bows and arrows hunting down their food.  So the answer is no, I had never shot a bow before in my life (except the Nerf gun bow we had when we were little) and no, I haven't hurt myself yet. 

Robin Hood doesn't stand a chance.

  We spent last Saturday and Sunday learning all the basics about shooting and safety.  Today we learned how to make arrows and worked on our sighted and bare bow shooting.  Tomorrow, we're going to learn how to make the string and then we have our big assessment!!!  If we pass, which hopefully we all do as our coach said he's never had anyone fail (he told us if we don't plan on passing, we better be good runners because he holds some county records for fastest and farthest shooting), then we'll be able to teach!  Archery is one of the main outdoor activities we do with the youngins' that come to The Loft and SPEC-so I'll hopefully get quite a bit of practice this year. We only get 4 days of teaching/ learning/practicing teaching and we're certified.  Crazy, huh!?

I better get to studying the manual a little bit more.  Wish me luck!

First Retreat: Unforgettable

(My apologies for the delay of this post)
   Finally!  The long awaited arrival of the youth has come!  Last Wednesday and Thursday, SPEC hosted its first retreat of the year and it was INCREDIBLE!!!  There were 98 16-yr-olds from a school called St. Gregory's, which is just about 45 min. down the road.  With the kids arriving about 10 am on Wednesday, we hit the ground running! The group was split up into 6 "Small Groups" and each group had 2 leaders.  I was partners with Anthony, from Zimbabwe, and our group named themselves "SPEC Savers" which apparently is a name of a popular store here that sells glasses (they thought it was funny when I didn't get it at first).
   Out of each pair of leaders, one person would be responsible for leading a session while the other one went around with the small group to all the different sessions. So while Anthony was leading the ropes course session, I got to spend all day with our group and I loved it!  We had such an awesome group- they were so enthusiastic to participate and brought up a lot of great questions.  Other sessions included meditations, team-building games, and exercises identifying different types of leaders.  It was pretty empowering to see the transformation in some of the youth and seeing how they grew throughout the two days. 
  Another really cool thing we do on retreats is have the youth share their gifts together at Mass. They can choose to do either sign language, music, dance or art and they're given 45 minutes to come up with something to share with the group during the service.  Larissa (from Germany) and I led the dance group-which meant we pushed play on the song while they came up with the dance...it was pretty amazing. It was a hip-hop song, not the type of music you expect to hear in Mass, but they rocked it! I asked some of them if they'd seriously consider giving me dance lessons after that.
   One of my favorite parts of the retreat was the Night Prayer we had later that evening.  As they entered the chapel at All Saints Pastoral Centre (imagine really big, really old, beautiful Catholic church) they received a tea light candle and the chairs were set in rows facing inwards, towards each other, with an aisle down the middle.  The room was all dark, except for the candles towards the front that were placed in the shape of a cross. After I read Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world..." the song "Where is the Love?" was played and we lit the candles at the end of each row.  Before we started lighting the candles, the room was so dark, you couldn't see anyone's face, the walls showed no life.  But as the light started to spread, it became more clear.  Shadows danced on the walls, they came to life. You could see the faces of those around you, you could see the hope.

   All in all, our first retreat was quite successful.  No serious injuries, nobody got lost, and we had SO much fun!  I feel so blessed that I get to be a part of something so incredible. As I looked around at the faces that night at Night Prayer, I knew at that moment that this is where I'm meant to be. We get to show the kids that they are worth something, that they are capable of doing the most extraordinary, and that they are beautiful children of God.

You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.  [Matthew 5:14-16]

They tell us that we'll never forget our first retreat.  

To that I say, Praise God.