Transforming Renewal

Greetings in Christ!

The past two weeks have been an exciting whirlwind of meeting new faces, greeting anxious incoming freshmen, spending time with the students who are regulars at the Newman center, and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to all on the beautiful campus of Winona State University.

Just after my previous post, the freshmen arrived on the WSU campus. The FOCUS team helped with the frenetic day of freshmen move-in on that Tuesday, which was quite a blast from the past of my own move-in to the dorms my freshmen year. The rest of the week, we worked with the Newman center to greet and engage students during our on-campus outreach activities, which included an ice-cream social, a pizza party, a club fair, a bonfire on the Mississippi river, Ultimate Frisbee, and a hike on the bluffs up to the famous "Sugar Loaf" (pictures below). We had great success in drawing in many students for all of these events. We provided surveys and sign-up sheets for students to describe how they wanted to grow in their relationship with Christ, and received an amazing response of over 250 students who are hungry to learn more about their faith! (and okay.. some who were just hungry for pizza ;) )

 Our group of students that came on the hike up to Sugar Loaf. 

The WSU FOCUS team posing on Sugar Loaf pinnacle rock. 

This past week was spent cultivating relationships with students who are interested in growing into a deeper relationship with Christ. I have met up one-on-one with many young women who are excited to explore more about their faith now that they're in college. It is quite the inspiration to see these students with such conviction, curiosity, and excitement about continuing to grow in their relationship with Christ. They truly exemplify the message of this weekend's second reading at Mass, in which St. Paul says: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds" - Romans 12:2. 

This week kicks off with the start of our men's and women's small faith groups/Bible studies, which will launch us into a somewhat "regular" schedule for the semester of building students up in their faith, while also continuing to reach out to new faces on a daily basis. I feel truly blessed to be a part of this growing ministry, and I am deeply thankful to all of you for helping make it possible for me to be here. Thank you for your prayers for me, my team, and the students at WSU... they're definitely working! You are all in my prayers daily. May God bless you and your loved ones always.

In Christ,

Emily 

P.S-- By clicking on the pictures you can see a larger version of them! :)