Ready, Set, Go

This weekend the Columbia Catholic Ministry undergraduate board went on a retreat and invited us along.  I was all for it, since it was an opportunity to get out of the city and a great chance to spend some quality time with students and get to know them.  The retreat took place at the residence of Father Benedict Groeschel, well-known writer, speaker, and founder of the awesome religious order, the CFRs.  We got to spend some time with him at meals, which was super cool.  It was also nice to fall asleep to the sound of trickling water, rather than screeching tires and car horns.

While on the retreat, Leah (our Team Director) had the chance to share with the students a little bit about Salvation History and our role within that story.  In short, that Christ died for all, restoring our relationship to God the Father which had been broken by the sin of our first parents, and that He left us a mission here on earth, namely: Go and make disciples of all nations.  Since not everyone has come to believe in Him, then that mission is not yet complete and we still have a job to do.  She then explained in more depth how FOCUS answers Christ's call to evangelization, why we do it on the college campus, and how they could be a part of it if they wanted to.  Our students are awesome, and the response was positive.  We are so excited as missionaries to get to teach them how to be missionaries themselves!

The steps

Today our team did outreach on the steps.  The steps is the area in the center of campus where students hang out or do homework.  We handed out ice pops, which we've done before, but this time we did it simply to hand out ice pops and nothing more.  It was a hot day, you see.  And who doesn't like a free ice pop on a hot day?  Many people did not come up to us because they assumed we wanted something from them, which is true for most things people are giving away for 'free', especially in New York City.  We just chatted with people and, if they asked, we told them we were Catholic missionaries.  Some people were skeptical, but many were appreciative.  We even made it onto the campus blog, Bwog, which keeps students updated on what's happening and where they can get free food.  Here's the link, with our picture.  The girl on the left is one of our students, Jen.  Unfortunately, some people took us to be "ingenuous" when they found out we were missionaries, but I guess that's to be expected.  I had a lot of fun and met some really cool people.

All in all, a great couple of days.  Busy, but that's the way I like it!