Parish Exhibit in Wichita, Kansas

Saturday, August 7 - Sunday, August 8, 2010:

During our trip to Wichita, we also conducted a parish exhibit at Church of the Magdalene (http://www.magdalenwichita.com/) after the Saturday and Sunday masses. The pastor, Fr. Patrick, his associate Fr. Roger and the parishioners welcomed us very warmly. Sr. Rebecca and Jackie gave pulpit talks at the masses to share some of our media and explain our mission to the congregation . We learned that the Church of the Magdalene is a vibrant parish and has over 1000 families! Sr. Connie, the pastoral associate told us that the parishioners come from many nations. Most of the parishioners have young families and so it was beautiful to see how many of them took resources to help their children grow in the faith. Some parishioners has already obtained our media from our website but there were also many who asked for our website information so that they could our media there. We praise God for using us as instruments to bring His love to the people of Wichita!

Catholic Family Conference in Wichita, Kansas

Friday, August 6 - Sunday, August 8, 2010:

Sr. Rebecca, Jackie, and Laura all traveled to Wichita, Kansas for the annual Midwest Catholic Family Conference (www.catholicfamilyconference.org/). There were hundreds of families there! We brought some of our books, music, and DVDs and set up an exhibit at the conference along with many other exhibitors. The conference featured some great speakers who shared their knowledge and personal experience on topics such as "End of Life Issues", "Dangers of the New Age Deception", and "Laughter: the Sanity of the Family". We took turns attending some of the talks and taking care of the exhibit. Sharon Lee Giganti gave the talk on New Age and was very powerful! She was deeply involved in the New Age movement before she realized that she was wrong and that God was the answer to all her life's difficulties. Sr. Rebecca met her during the weekend and found out that she is a novice in the Pauline Holy Family Institute (www.vocations-holyfamily.com/). This Institute is one of the 10 religious orders founded by Blessed James Alberione including the Daughters of St. Paul (www.alberionefilm.com/). Since she is a novice, she is still in formation for the Holy Family Institute, but will take her first vows this fall. It was so nice to meet someone from our Pauline "family" while we were out in Kansas! We also met Sisters from different communities including the Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church (www.sistersofmarymotherofthechurch.org/) and the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters (www.olivben.org/). We stayed with Sisters who are from the Congregation of St. Joseph (www.csjoseph.org/wichita_kansas). Their convent was beautiful! One of their charisms is hospitality and it really showed. They were so kind and generous to us, willing to help us in any way. All in all it was a great weekend. We met so many kind people trying to help their families grow in their faith and grow closer to God. We are thankful for the opportunity to be able to share the Word of God with so many families.

Young Adult Retreat in Chicago - Coming up!

Are you a young woman between 18 and 30 years looking for a summer get-away with Jesus? We have one planned just for you!

You are all invited to our Young Adult Come and See Weekend in Chicago this summer from Friday August 20 - Monday August 23, 2010.

Please contact Sr. Helena Raphael at 617-850-5584 or HelRaphaelfsp@aol.com for more information.

The retreat will be held in our convent at 172 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illinois, 60601. Jesus, Our Master is waiting for you! You can count on our prayers!

Enjoy the pictures from the retreat that Laura and I attended a couple of years ago :-)

Back in St. Louis...and off to Wichita, Kansas!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

We returned to St. Louis from our summer experience at our Motherhouse in Boston about a week ago. We are slowly finding our bearings now that we are back "home". It was great to see the sisters again and we truly received a warm welcome! Now that we are getting back to business, we will be hitting to road again tomorrow (Fri) for the weekend. Our destination: Wichita, Kansas where we will bring God's Love through our media to people there attending the Catholic Family Conference (www.catholicfamilyconference.org) and a parish exhibit at Church of the Magdalene (www.magdalenwichita.com). Please keep us in your prayers as we do keep you in ours. Stay tuned for our missionary news when we get back!

Fun in Vermont!

Friday, July 23 - Sunday, July 25, 2010

Being in Vermont for the weekend was great because we got to see all the "must see" sites. Laura gave us the grand tour of her hometown (Newport). On Saturday, we went for morning mass to her parish, St. Mary Star of the Sea (http://catholicparishesofnortheastvermont.com/) overlooking the beautiful Lake Memphremagog. After breakfast, we got to see the US/Canada border which was just about 10 minutes from Newport. We then made a trip to see how maple syrup is made at one of the local sugarhouses owned by a friend of Laura's family. We learned that it takes almost 40 gallons of sap from the maple trees to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. No wonder the stuff is so precious! We even got a bottle of the "real" maple syrup for keeps at the end of the tour :-) After a tour of Burlington, University of Vermont campus and following our parish exhibit in Winooski, we had dinner with one of Laura's former pastor's of her parish. On our back to Boston on Sunday, we made sure to stop by Vermont's very own "Ben & Jerry's". The home-made ice-cream was quite refreshing. It was really cool to be in Vermont and experience the breathtaking scenery and fresh air - there's nothing like it, you've just gotta go there yourself!