2nd National CYJOY Conference

“The Holy Spirit desires unity, he desires totality.
Therefore, his presence is finally shown above all in missionary zeal. Anyone who has come across something true, beautiful and good in his life hastens to share it everywhere, in the family and at work, in all the contexts of his life.”
~Benedict XVI

Last weekend, September 19-21st, I attended and particpated in the 2nd National Meeting of the Collaborators of Your Joy. As I have mentioned before, Collaborators is a group that meets monthly with the religious order, the Apostles of the Interior Life (AVI).

Within the Collaborators is a small group in formation who will take promises to this lay movement. We are currently preparing for our promises which will take place on January 1st, 2009.

This conference was centered around the Apostle St. Paul since the Pope has declared this to be the year of St. Paul. The conference offered talks, meditations, the Sacraments, fellowship, and of course entertainment! Below are several pics of the weekend. Near the end you find several pictures of the entertainment. I will explain more below!

The participants in front of the old stone chapel at Holy Trinity, Lenexa, KS.

The Apostles of the Interior Life. The reason why we all desire to be Collaborators of Your Joy!

Troy Hinkel, MC for the weekend, speaker, and Collaborator.

Mike Scherschligt, speaker and Collaborator.

Sr. Elena, AVI

Taking it all in!

The Sacraments

This was the most beautiful hour of adoration I had been to!

And now onto the ENTERTAINMENT....

The family, those who are taking promises with the Collaborators, put together a skit titled, A Collaborator Carol. This was taken after A Christmas Carol. Basically, I played myself as a teacher who woke up one morning and had a terrible day. I overslept, my students were discipline problems, and so I headed to a bar to drink my troubles away. But as the Carol goes, throughout my day I ran into several people and ghosts. I constantly found myself running into the sisters who asked me what the purpose of my life was. Then when I went to the bar, I ran into a bar tender who had just met another sister and he suddenly became a Collaborator of Your Joy. As he tries to spread the joy, I met the Ghost of the Past. He asked me, "What is your story?" After meeting with him, I ran into the Ghost of the Present. She invites me to a Collaborator Party, there I find myself surrounded with joy, but can't seem to find joy myself. At the party I run into the Ghost of the Future. He caused me to overhear a coversation of the sisters who said it was a shame that I never found joy. I then pleaded to the Present to help me change my ways. He sent me back to my bed, where I found myself awake on the same day, realizing that I had just dreamed all the aforementioned interactions. This caused me to change my ways and become a Collaborator!

I have a video footage of this, however it is too large of a file to download, so hopefully the pictures suffice!

These are my rowdy students, please notice Mike in the background with his grimace smile...

Drinking my troubles away...



Dozing off...


to be rudely awaken by Ghost of the Past. The video is far better, but little did I or the crowd know that Mike was not going to awake me by knocking as planned...rather he decided to dump a large pitcher of warm water on me!


The Collaborator Party, where the joy was busting out in dance by the Collaborators.


After this skit, several witness talks were given. Following the talks, Jessica and I wrapped up the evening with a little yodeling! She shared about our time with the Apostles while visiting Cortina, Italy this summer.


The video says it all...


but here are a few stills for you!

The Aftermath!

My roommates once a month! Jessica and Aubrey come and stay with me on the weekends we have collaborator meetings!

Even if you were not able to be there with me, you were with me there in spirit. To each of you who receive my emails, you are a blessing in my life an bring me much joy! Thanks for your support and love!

God Bless,

Lauren

Long Time No Blog!

Today is a beautiful fall day....cool, breezy,and hooded sweatshirt day, so I thought I would take the opportunity to update!

It's been just over a month since I last posted. I now have one month of the new academic year complete....crazy.

This school year is going quite well. I am really enjoying my students, the courses I am teaching, and my colleagues. Nearly every day I am affirmed that I am at the school I am called to be at, at this time.

This year is quite more enjoyable than last year. Don't get me wrong, last year was great, but this year I feel much more comfortable in front of the students, I feel more on top of things, I feel more in control, I have been able to encourage some students that I may not have been able to reach last year, and I have the fortune of having fairly well behaved students. Praise God :)

I don't yet have any funny stories to reveal, but I have a feeling that this semester of students could have a few. When I do, I will be sure to share them!

Below are some events that have taken place in the past month. For those of you that I have seen in the past month, both in St. Louis and Kansas City, it is always my pleasure spending time with you!

In the upcoming weeks, things are not slowing down. Next weekend I am attending/helping at a Conference on Discipleship put on by the Collaborators, then I have parent-teacher conferences, followed by the Divine Winefest (the fundraiser event for the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center), playing flag football on the weekends, small group, and staying on top of school work! I hope to update a little more often, but I'll let you know when I get around to it!

God Bless You All!

Love, Lauren

Portraits

Robyn and I decided that it had been way to long since we had taken pictures (our fault of course!). So we decided to surprise our parents with updated portraits. Here's a sample. My favorite is the next one! The resolution may not be too good...I will update that when I have the originals.

Anne Marie's Birthday!

Monday, September 8th, marks the day of my roommates birthday!

In order to celebrate and to recreate a memory of the past, some of our friends and I decided to surprise Anne Marie with a morning wake up call. This wake up call occurred at 5:20 am and was no ordinary alarm. We came in dancing to Billy Jean by MJ! Following our dance party, we had breakfast and then sent Anne Marie on her way to school! Thanks for collaborating ladies!

Anne Marie, Michelle, Katie, and me

Michelle's Mad Skill

Anne Marie, Michelle, Sarah, and me

Happy Birthday!

Adrienne and Steve's Wedding

Congrats Adrienne and Steve! May God Bless your marriage!

After being home for Labor Day weekend, I traveled back to St. Louis for my high school friend's wedding. I love when my friends get married because we have a mini reunion everytime! Adrienne and Steve had a beautiful ceremony and reception at Queeny Park!

The gang!

Roderic and Jessica

Lauren #1 and Lauren #2

Kelly, me, and Rachel

Jessica, Kelly, and me

our attempt to dance or maybe the camera just doesn't capture the action

Nathan and Kelly doing the MC Hammer Shuffle

Don't ask! I think I am trying to do the MC Hammer

Michael's KHS CC Debut

The weekend after Labor Day, I made a second trip home to St. Louis to attend my friends Adrienne and Steve's wedding. Since the wedding was not until early evening, I took a road trip with my aunt Jeannie to Jackson, MO to watch my cousin Michael run his first CC race. It was so much fun and it reminded me what a great sport CC is and how blessed I continue to be with the values and friends I gained from participating in this sport.

Since this was the first meet of the year, this meet had grade level races rather than freshman, junior varsity, and varsity races. Michael along with his freshman teammates ran in the freshman race. We were able to watch the start, see them around the one mile marker and then at the finish. When the runners came by us at the one mile marker the only one to be seen was Michael, with another runner a little behind him! Wow! We were so excited. The next time we were going to see Michael was at the finish! Here he came around the tree in first place. The second place runner started gaining distance on him, but Michael held off and won the race! No matter if he won or not, it was my pleasure to experience his first meet with him and to see my old coaches!

Here are a few pics and video clips. I tried to put a small video together, but my program was not cooperating!

The Start...

Michael taking the lead...

The proud mom!

What a stud...

The Finish

Congratulations Michael!

Yeah KHS CC!!! Good luck this season Michael!!!!