Media Nuns go to the National Catholic Youth Conference!

Hello, again everyone.

We have been busy over the past couple of months, and thought we'd share a little of what we've been up to. 

A major event that took up quite a bit of our time was preparing to attend the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) in Indianapolis. Two of us (Julie and Danielle), along with Sr. Rebecca and Sr. Laura got to attend as vocational witnesses. We were so excited for this opportunity, that we made a video so that people would know that we were coming!

We had a ton of fun making it, as you can probably tell. We took those "Special" stickers with us, along with some other goodies, and got involved in the NCYC tradition of "trading" items.

Another fun project we did in preparation for the convention was to create some amazingly awesome cardboard cutouts. Danielle and Putri got Sr. Laura and Sr. Rebecca (and a statue of St. Paul) to pose for some photos. After a few hours of editing, some confusion at the print shop, and a case of X-Acto knife blades, we finally had our finished product:

Putri and Julie try out the new cutouts.

Everyone wants to hang out with St. Paul!

Julie peers over the cardboard
in the back seat of the van.

Then, it was time to head out. Of course, we didn't quite realize how much of the car these things would take up, so conversation in the backseat was a little...strained. 

It didn't take too long, though, and we were there!

It was a blast, hanging out with 23,000 excited teenagers, 13 bishops, over 300 priests, and who-knows-how-many seminarians, nuns and religious brothers.


Sr. Rebecca and Sr. Laura got to spend time with young people discussing discernment and religious life, and Julie and Danielle got to spend time passing out Special stickers, checking out the booths, and even answering questions on a Q&A panel for young girls open to religious life.

Danielle, Sr. Laura, Julie, Sr. Rose, and Sr. Rebecca
Srs Laura and Rebecca are wearing the Vocations Team shirts.

We ran into Sr. Rose, who was there to give a couple of workshops on Jesus on the Silver Screen. Several kids came to find us afterward and told us how awesome her presentation was. Yay, Sr. Rose!










When we weren't assigned a place to be, we took our cardboard cut outs to a busy place in the hall, and let people go nuts. It was so much fun to see people's reactions. Some of our favorite responses were from parents: as one girl posed in the tall stand-up with the tech symbols and Media Nuns hashtag on it, her mom exclaimed, "Oh, look! My girl's a Media Nun! I'm so proud!" Ha!

While we were there, some of our peeps back home were doing long-distance support work:

And we may have spent some time with a VIP.

In all, it was a blessed, fun, awesome, and exhausting experience! Have you ever been to NCYC or a similar convention? What was your favorite part?

In that country they call Texas...

The Texan Postulant Community

Last week, Carly, Sandy and I became honorary Texans! (Sister Rebecca is already a native Texan, so she just got to reclaim her identity...)

Two weeks ago The first-year postulants and Sister Rebecca pulled out of our driveway at 4am to begin our 16-hour journey to Texas! Thankfully Sister Rebecca, our fearless leader, graciously took the first driving shift. (Because Lord knows that if I had the 4am shift, we might have ended up in Canada instead of Texas!) Thus began our 10-day apostolic trip at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Welcome to Aggie Land!

Why in the world were we in Texas???

At Texas A&M we met up with all 8 of our regional vocation directors from US and English-speaking Canada, for updating and collaboration.

What did we do?

We spent most of our days in meetings, but when we had pockets of free time we got to hang out with the college students at St. Mary’s Student Center on campus. It was such a blessing to meet so many young people on fire with their faith and in love with the Lord.

Even though we were in meetings most of the day, our evenings were choc-full of activities! Almost every evening one of the sisters was giving a talk on campus. On Tuesday evening, the postulants even gave a talk… (I know, scary, right!?) We were able to share some of our vocational journey with the students and gave them time to ask questions. It was such a beautiful and grace-filled evening.

Playing black-light minigolf!

Speaking of evening activities, we even played laser tag with the students one evening! (And yes, believe it or not, this WAS the NUNS’ IDEA!). During the game, two of the postulants, (who shall remain anonymous) received the titles of “most accurate player” and “highest scoring player”. I think some students were taken by surprise. Those who didn’t participate in the laser tag extravaganza, played black-light minigolf. It was a super fun night filled with a lot of joy and laughter!

Just hanging out with the "Pope"
 at the Student Center

At the end of our trip, we had the opportunity to bring our materials to three local parishes to provide book and media exhibits for the parishioners. After every Mass, I was told countless times that they would be praying for all of the postulants (AND the sisters!) especially this Lent. I was just so impressed by how genuinely warm and friendly these people are…never have I been hugged by so many strangers! It was such a beautiful example of faith filled community and it was so encouraging to be able to visit with these people.

This time we spent in Texas was so wonderful. It was such a fantastic experience, filled with a lot of joy and “Howdy’s”. 

We hope that we’ll make it back to Texas soon!

God Bless! 

-Chelsea 

Gig 'em!