Cultivating the Soil

Happy New Year!

We are a week in to the new semester here at Winona State University, and things are well underway for God's powerful love to continue taking root in hearts here. It feels sooo wonderful to be back in Winona! I had a great time at home in Colorado for almost a month-- spending time with family, getting in lots of mountain air, and reconnecting with many of my mission partners--but I deeply missed the active aspect of ministry. It's been wonderful to catch up with the students, catch up with my teammates, and be fully immersed in the mission.

This semester, we are really focusing on how to cultivate good soil within ourselves, our students, and the WSU campus. We are basing this off of the parable of the "Sower and the Seed" (Matthew 13:1-9), in which the word of God is sown upon different types of ground, but the only ground it takes root in is the one that has rich soil and bears fruit a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. We are working with our students on developing and cultivating this rich soil, which is given by the grace of God but maintained by what we do to sustain our relationship with Him.

This past week has been fun-filled and hectic as we get back in the swing of things. I enjoyed spending time with students and catching up with them over coffee, meals, "Casino Night" at the Newman Center, sledding at St. Mary's campus, watching movies, and going ice skating. The only downfall of the week was the Broncos loss :'-(.

Some updates:

Later today, our new teammate, Aaron Lofy, will be arriving by train from the great state of Wisconsin. Aaron is a December graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This will bring our team back up to a full team of four missionaries-- we are all very excited for Aaron to join Team Winona!

This Thursday evening, we will be embarking on a 20-hour bus trip with eight WSU students and about 20 students/missionaries from Mankato, MN and journeying to Baltimore, MD for the FOCUS 2012 Student Leadership Summit: Illuminate! This Summit is a wonderful opportunity for students to gain tools on how to live out their faith on campus and in their lives while bringing their peers to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. There will be about 1,000 people total from all over the country, including students from all 60 FOCUS campuses nationwide, all 300+ on-campus and support center FOCUS missionaries, and many priests and religious. The Summit will begin on Friday, January 20th and conclude on Monday, January 23rd with a trip up to Washington D.C. for the annual March for Life. You can check out all the details of the Summit by clicking here! Please keep us in your prayers this weekend as we travel to and from the East coast and for the success of the Summit on our students' hearts! (My next post in two weeks will be a recap of how the Summit went)

A few weeks ago, the Denver Post ran an article on the front page about FOCUS! Many of you may have seen it by now, but just in case, check it out: Emissary of Faith article. It was refreshing to see such a positive, accurate, and for the most part well-received article in a secular newspaper about our faith-filled organization and the work we're doing for the Church and the New Evangelization.
 

Curtis Martin, kneeling at center, prepares to take Communion during a noontime Mass on Wednesday at the Genesee offices of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Martin is the president and founder of FOCUS. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post )

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers! Have a blessed week!

In Christ,
Emily