End of the summer mission

After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned. Acts 14: 21

Thank you all for your steadfast prayers and love throughout this summer. I am grateful to have been yolked with you all in the mission of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Please continue to pray for the Church of Europe and the communities that we spent time with.

Your Brothers and Sisters

It has been an amazing week... with an amazing group of people.    God has been so evident in everything this week.... in the fun, in the Word, in the Mass, the homilies, in the worship, in the love between everyone.  What a gift that God brought me here!

Truly it is the same whether I travel through the U.S., to Europe, Australia or China.... the truth is that God is renewing His Church through young people.   I am amazed always to meet so many young men and women desiring to radically give their entire lives to God.   It is so beautiful.

I leave today to meet up with the rest of the team in Shoenstatt, Germany for the European Catholic Youth Conference.   We will be gathered there with teens from U.S. military families stationed throughout Europe.

WELL..... CAUGHT IN THE END.....

There I am .... innocently trying to pass through!

Gathering for camp

Arrived in the Roermond, today the teens arrive for Life Teen Camp- Netherlands.  There are parishes from 3 cities in the Netherlands and from Germany who are journeying here today.

We will begin this afternoon... please pray for us all this week!

Unexpected Encounter

As I journeyed to Switzerland, I did not expect that this brief stop-over would be an extension of my prayer for all of Europe in such a way.   

I arrived during a national holiday and was blessed to attend many local gathering and meet with many many people who live here.   It was good to get a sense of what life is like here.

This place is breathtaking... such beauty of His Creation.   There are many signs of the Church here... you see beautiful little Churches like this one in what seemed like every few miles, stations of the Cross set up along hiking trails, and grottos for Our Lady cut into every hillside... yet, to most, God is very far from normal life.   

I stopped here to pray ... and, a woman who was watering the plants in the church, came over to me.  She had tears in her eyes and held her heart.  I was wondering if there was something wrong or something she needed prayer for.   Then, she said "It is so beautiful to see a young person in the church praying.  We never see any young person come here".   A woman moved to tears at the hope that young people might come here to know and worship their one true God, their Father who loves them.

To me, my time here was a revelation of the attentiveness of God to all of His creation... that there is no remote location on Earth that He is not passionately pursuing His children.  My heart was so drawn to pray for this place.... for renewal of the Church here..... for Jesus to be proclaimed here..... that the restlessness I saw in so many young people I spoke with would be settled the true love of God and His purposes for their lives.