Life.

My life is a crazy whirlwind of beauty and learning and growing and seeking Him and becoming myself and trying to pass classes and ministry and changes and worship and surrender and laughing and tears (sometimes at the same time) and friends and family and a general sense of breathtaking chaos.

I don't have time to give my usual novel-style life update, so here are a few basics....

Academics
Two huge projects due on the same day (Oct. 30th.) Thesis. Reading all of the things, and for the most part that's not an exaggeration. Two days into the school year, Sister Johanna (a Catechetics professor and also my ASL prof) was trying to explain our workload to the non-catechetics students in the ASL class. She said "You don't understand. They're already behind, and they'll probably stay that way." It's true. I've accepted that I'll never actually catch up on assignments. We're basically just trying to keep our heads above water. It's like being a med student, except we are in the business of soul-healing. Well... body healing too sometimes, but that's another story...

Health
The cold from three weeks ago is hanging on with lovely cough-ness, but that's pretty normal. I'm sleeping as well as can be expected, and the past almost two months of no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no gluten has kept me feeling better than I have in two years, which is pretty great.

Ministry
I'm involved in a lot of ministries, but honestly, I think they're the only thing keeping me sane at this point, so I refuse to consider myself over-committed. Please pray for us!

• Homeless - I'm on core team, which is fancy-talk for "I help coordinate things." We travel to Pittsburgh every Thursday, rain or shine, and hang out with our homeless friends under an overpass. We bring hot food and clothes on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th weeks of the month, taking turns with a Catholic Parish that covers supplies on the 2nd and 4th weeks. I. Love. It. 
• Born of the Spirit - This is one of my favorite ministries. It's a three day retreat dedicated to helping people encounter and form a personal relationship (or deepen their personal relationship) with the incredible 3rd Person of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit. It's basically a weekend of diving into Catholicism, seeking to come to know Him through the Scriptures and learning about ways He has worked in the history of our Church. Passionate worship, powerful prayer ministry. Healing. Freedom. Radical love. I've been on core team for three semesters now, and I absolutely love it. [This is what I did with my weekend, and there really aren't words to describe what happened. There were several points where part of me expected literal tongues of fire to start falling. God. Is. AWESOME.] 
• Festival of Praise - FOPs, as they are affectionately called, happen once a month on campus. They are what happens when you shove around a thousand college kids into a gym, crank up the p&w, and call on the Holy Spirit. I'm on prayer teams, which means that after two hours of praise and worship, we book it from the gym to the Chapel, and we break into teams of four(ish) prayer ministers and pray over a few hundred students individually. Just the best. 
• Moses Family - Jenn Moses is a single mom here in Steubenville. She has three sons. Weston has a mild form of Asberger's Syndrome. Alexander, aka Xan, has a degenerative neurological disorder that is taking away his ability to move, see, and hear. Seth, the middle child, is so stressed about the problems at home that he has developed ulcers. Long, painful story short: When Mr. Husband Man found out that the kids had these problems, he said he couldn't deal with it and left. Jenn is a woman of incredible faith, and strength (those things often go together). The Angels and Knights have adopted her family and we help in whatever ways we possibly can. We threw a HUGE surprise, Star Wars-themed birthday party for Weston a couple weeks ago, complete with Knights dressed up as Jedi. Weston said it was the best day of his life. I love my brothers and sisters. 
• Red Light - Every Friday, men from Franciscan drive out to Weirton and pray outside the strip clubs there. We women stay back on campus and cover them with intercession. It. Is. Beautiful. 

Social Life
This is what happens at ministries. Otherwise, it is what I experience with the people who sit near me in the library (which I avoid because I can't focus to save my life), or in between the library and Jazzman's, our campus coffee shop. Household also does a decent job of keeping me socialized. My sisters constantly challenge me and love me and give me opportunities to love them. So do my brothers, for that matter. I am blessed.

Christopher
Well. We all know that the only people who read this blog are the people who are going to be grilling me for details in ELEVEN DAYS when I get to go home and hug/hold everybody. I have to write a paper and put together a project and prep an hour-long presentation and read Catholic things, soooo...... you'll just have to wait till you see me to hear everything. For now, know that I am happy and at peace and that Chris is an incredible man of God, and we're pretty pumped about what He's doing in our lives. To say I'm grateful would be an understatement. Please pray for us. Nothing good comes without buckets of spiritual attack, and this has been very good.

I love you all.

"Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch." - Blessed Pope John Paul II