I was really moved by a line from an address Pope Francis gave at World Youth Day in Rio:

Where does Jesus send us?  There are no borders, no limits: he sends us to everyone.

The Gospel is for everyone, not just for some.

It is not only for those who seem closer to us,

more receptive,

more welcoming.

It is for everyone.

Do no be afraid to go and to bring Christ into every area of life,

to the fringes of society,

even to those who seem farthest away,

most indifferent.

The Lord seeks all,

He wants everyone to feel the warmth of his mercy and love.

Maybe that was a little more than a line... more like a paragraph or section, but still it's pretty convicting!  

I've been in some form of ministry either as a college student missionary or a full-time missionary for the past four-ish years, but I can't remember taking that call seriously ever.  I would always spend my time in ministry of those who I thought would hear me.  I would wait in the pews for them to come sit next to me at mass.  I was missing out on the life-giving nature of ministry, the risk of being a passionate disciple of Jesus and ministering the life-giving water to those who thirst.

I went into fall outreach with this challenge on my heart and with a conviction to spend my time "on the fringes of society" and to live out the Gospel, preaching with words only when necessary.

Fr. Jason loves to talk about Jesus's encounter with the woman at the well.  He sat down and began to talk with her, and by the end of that short encounter she left with her heart ablaze, sharing her love for Christ with everyone she knew (John 4:1-42 -- check it out, seriously powerful stuff).  I thought that that was as good a model as any to try out, so there we all went as a team to find the women by the well and to sit and talk to them.  I wanted to evangelize in silence, preaching the gospel by listening with love and empathy.  (You hear some really crazy stuff come out of peoples' mouths, so this is easier said than done at times).

This last week I had some great encounters.  I sat down with a Muslim brother named Fahad who I'm looking forward to getting to know more.  I had a two-hour conversation with the president of a popular atheist club on campus called the Free Thinkers.  I talked about the existence of God with an apathetic agnostic guy who started off the conversation making snide comments about "our loving God sending a flood to drown all the people of the word" and comparing organized religion to Fascist Germany.  He ended the conversation saying that on a scale from 1 to 10 he was only a 5 in terms of believing there was no God.  It was beautiful seeing some light enter that guy's eyes.  Fahad thanked me for talking to him and gave me his number.  My free thinking friend and I saw eye-to-eye on so much that we couldn't come up with a topic to hold a debate we were trying to set up about (which was the reason we were meeting in the first place).

The Gospel of love is moving without words here, but hearts are being moved here by an open heart and open ears.  I never would've dreamed of starting up these types of conversations before.  I didn't think these people would want to talk to me, but I haven't been more wrong about anything.  

Go and try this out!  Seriously, I'm feeling more alive in my ministry than I ever have before and I'm growing in my ability to see Christ in others.  It's worth the first few awkward seconds, trust me.

-Zach

The Zombie Apocalypse

A little vision on why we do bible studies on campus and why desperately want students in them (as addressed to a college student).

Why should you join our on campus bible studies?  For one reason only, to survive the zombie apocalypse.  If you don't think we're living in the land of the undead, pay a bit more attention on your way to class and you'll see glazed-over lifeless eyes looking back at you and people stumbling over each other because they're looking at their phone and avoiding eye contact with anyone that passes by.

What comes out of our mouths in conversation is mindless dribble about the weather or our class schedule or explaining our major for the hundredth time.  And if it's not that, it's a buddy relaying his drunken stories until you feel the brain cells melting out of your ears.  And we're starving so we gorge on mindless fillers.  We play endless hours of video games, pour over senseless internet sites and watch a season a day of that show that we really aren't enjoying but can't stop watching on Netflix.

We sit up in our beds at night and wonder:  Is this all there is to life?  We're starving for something of substance, for happiness.  We think that college will make us happy but when it ceases to do that we find the next thing.  We attend parties, drink and make shallow friendships looking to fill up but that doesn't work, so we find ourselves a girlfriend or a boyfriend.  But eventually we realize they annoy us sometimes and their poop stinks, so that comes crashing down.  So we pour ourselves into getting good grades so we can get into that prestigious program or "get ahead" and find a good job that pays well when we graduate.  I could keep going in that vein.  It never ends.

We need substance in our lives.  We need to sit down and figure out the truth to the most important questions in life; questions of its meaning and our existence.  We need those real friendships, and that's what we desire to do with you all.  I finally met Jesus Christ in college and my chain of searching for happiness has ended.  It ends at Him, and as missionaries we have begged for money and moved hundreds or thousands of miles away from our homes to tell you about Him.  We have the way, the truth and the life and we want to give it to you.  So let's meet up and start that dialogue and breathe a little life into ourselves for once.

-Zach

A Day in Owensboro, KY

Yesterday was great! We started the day bright and early with daily Mass before we all loaded up to drive to the great city of Owensboro! Owensboro is the diocese that Murray is in, so we were getting a chance to have lunch with the Bishop and tour the newly renovated Cathedral. We had a bit of jaunt ahead of us though, Owensboro is about 2 1/2 hours away from Murray. Luckily, Flannery is still in her road tripping mindset and went to sleep for the entire drive. The Krueger family drove separate from the rest of our team, so we took advantage of the ride to read.

We may sound dorky, but we've found that we LOVE reading out loud while we're driving. We each have such a long list of books we're trying to get through, so this speeds up the process when one of us can listen and the other reads (usually it's me). We discovered this when we had listened to all the available Fr. Mike Schmitz podcasts on one of our long road trips and needed something else to pass the time. This week the whole team is reading 'Forming Intentional Disciples' by Shelly Weddell, so naturally we decided to read the assignment for this week. Even though we only go through the first four chapters, I think THIS BOOK IS GREAT! I highly recommend it.

We made it to the Bishop's house and were greeted warmly by Bishop Medley. We spent some time getting to know one another and filling in Bishop about FOCUS. He had a lot of questions, but was so excited to have this program in the Owensboro diocese. We sat down to a lovely lunch of barbecued chicken because as Bishop Medley puts it "Owensboro is the barbecue capital of the world". After spending a year in Texas, that's not the first time we heard that line. Everyone wants to be famous for something! It was a great lunch, but the climax was definitely dessert. Bishop Medley has an interesting hobby- he makes homemade ice cream! It was delicious. He wouldn't let us get away without seconds, and I was okay with that!

Bishop Medley and Flannery got along great! She just loves being surrounded by habits and collars! So, I snapped a few good shots of the two of them!

Next, we made our way to the Cathedral. It was so simple and beautiful.

 It still has some of its original stained glass. But the new side chapel was one of my favorite parts!

Flannery slept through most of the tour, but I managed to catch a cute picture of her with her daddy anyway. We are so thankful to have so much support from this diocese and Bishop Medley. We are looking forward to a great year working together!

- Meghan

Fools for Christ

Today Flannery and I made it to campus for the Racer extravaganza! We joined Zach and our two other teammates at Murray State's Student Org fair. It was a 'slow' event you could say. We had high hopes of getting a lot of people to sign up for bible studies, but there just wasn't much traffic. Even though circumstances weren't ideal we made the best of it and still met a few new faces!

Zach and Sarah showing their Catholic Racer pride!

The team had donned their 'Catholic Racers' shirts so everyone knew what we were about. Since Catholics are pretty rare in this area, you can imagine our surprise when we saw a freshman guy wearing a 'Catholic Racers' t-shirt across the room. Zach didn't notice him until he was a ways away so he hurried over to him, assuming the shirt was a big BULLSEYE for a bible study sign up. After Zach "broke a sweat trying to catch him" (his description of the ordeal) the young man was reluctant to hold a conversation, and was not interested in bible study, he said he just goes to Mass Saturday night. We were all looking at Zach hopefully as he returned- glistening in the sunlight. He told us of the less than exciting news and then turned to me, wiping his brow, and said "so we're going to Mass Saturday night, honey!". I couldn't help looking at my disheveled husband and remembering St. Paul's words:
"We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me" - 1Corinthians 4:10-16

Flannery of course was a big hit, and naturally the best evangelist of all of us. She spent the day showing off her bow and sundress to all the students.

She really hit it off with the students manning the Girl Scout table. Which was great because as I was talking to them I noticed one of them was wearing a medal of Our Lady of Guadalupe! YES! Foot in the door! Her name is Shelby, she's Catholic but hasn't been too involved in her faith. Pray for her and that I'll be able to run into her again and introduce her to the person of Jesus Christ! We met a few others today that we would love for you to keep in your prayers: Lindsey, Olivia, and Taylor. And obviously our mysterious Catholic Racer t-shirt guy- pray that we can have a good encounter with him on Saturday!

That's our update for today! We're off to change a diaper!


-Meghan and Flannery