In the JOY of Christ!

As promised many months ago, I will not only bring my blog back to life, but also newsletters to you benefactors, family, and friends that have waited long enough. I have been so horrible about bringing you on this journey and sharing with you the countless joys that have filled my heart and life in the past few months. I promise that this is the beginning of something new and a renewal of my desire to blog, shoot photography, and share stories of God working in my life. All for His glory and praise!!

Men’s Conference

This past weekend I was blessed to be invited to participate in a one day men’s retreat in the parish that Kristen and I will be married in. It was at the invitation of Deacon Chris who has been involved with FMC on a regular basis and has blessed our community on many occasions. In addition to this, Joseph Summers, one of our veteran missionaries played worship for the whole day and the main speaker for the day was my friend and mentor from Steubenville Ohio, Deacon Ralph Poyo.

Deacon Ralph’s words of encouragement, challenge, and wisdom really hit my heart and convicted me of the need to grow more into the man of God who I am called to be for the Kristen, my future marriage and family, and for the whole world. The world is groaning and longing for men of virtue, who recognize that they are not the provider, God is. Men who realize daily that they must embrace the cross that has been given them and carry it with passion and drive. We must become the men that bless our wives, families, and communities. We must cease to run from sacrifice, pain, and suffering and instead become true disciples who have died to our sinful ways and past and become men of God. We must stop listening to the lies of the evil one and his “solutions” to our problems, remain in the Lord and make a plan to get to heaven because, “Satan has a plan for us not to get there.”

We were instructed to lead prayer in our households instead of remaining silent like Adam at the side of Eve while she was being tempted by the serpent. We must make our lives firstly about living in Christ and not all about making money. We cannot just “play Church,” instead we must become the Church which is filled with men committed to the kingdom of God.

The Eucharist must be the source of our life and the source of grace pouring into our families for their growth towards heaven.

Many thanks to both Deacon Chris and to Deacon Ralph for their words that challenged us to become the men that our families and nation are desperately needing to lead them to Christ.

Peace. Love. Jesus.

Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year!

May the peace and joy which surpasses our human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in this season of love!

Just wanted to wish all you faithful readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This was the very first year that I did not spend Christmas with my family in Ohio and spent it with Kristen’s family in Crowley, Louisiana. It was such a richly blessed time, bringing some of my own family’s Christmas traditions into her family and celebrating with some new ones for me. It will most definitely be a very memorable Christmas for me as Kristen and I spent it in eager expectation of our own future as a family together. Pray for us as we continue to draw nearer to the Lord to conform ourselves more fully to love and selflessness. May the Holy Family, whose feast we celebrate today, be a powerful example for all our families and a constant means of grace to live committed to one another in love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baptism of Therese Regina

This past Thursday afternoon one of the missionary families here at FMC had their little baby, Therese Regina baptized and it was such a lovely little occasion to celebrate. It was so amazing to be there as the water was poured over her head and she became the newest member of our Catholic family and for that moment the newest child of God. What a wonderful life we live that we are invited into relationship with the God of the universe at such a young age to be committed to Him and to be commissioned to mission from our earliest days. Our youngest missionary, Therese will be, without a doubt a great missionary and witness for our world living in so much darkness and without the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God be praised for the grace bestowed in His sacraments and for the life of this little missionary.

Donor’s Dinner 2010

Sunday night we at FMC hosted our annual Christmas time, donor’s dinner to update many of those who regularly support us that live close enough to come for the evening and any that are invested enough to travel from further away. The night was very blessed, with reports from all of the missions of the past year including time in Spain, Ecuador, Mexico, and Ghana Africa. We were so blessed to be able to host the dinner at the Dominican Convent, Our Lady of the Bayou, which I have spoken of before and it provided a very intimate, and familiar atmosphere in general. Here are a few photos from the delightful evening.

Send Off Mass for Intake 2010

“Go You are Sent!”

It has been such an immense blessing to have been able to live at Big Woods these past three months throughout the 2010 Intake process. Although I was limited in my attendance by the amount of activities, sessions, and talks that regularly take place during Intake, I was able to watch closely as each of the 24 missionaries grew in new understandings of the mission, of their own relationship with the Lord, and of their passion and zeal to spread His Gospel. Last night was their send off Mass at Our Lady of the Bayou in addition to the younger missionaries putting on a play about St. Francis and the first Christmas crèche  and the true generosity that Christmas calls us to. I am so excited for wherever the Lord is taking each of them and for the abundance of fruits I am sure that their presence’s in the mission field will be sure to bring.

Omelette Festival

Each year in the little town of Abbeville, Louisiana, a multitude of cultural traditions take place and one of the most famous and largest is the Omelette Festival.  According to legend, when Napoleon’s army was traveling through the south of France he feasted on an omelet in a certain small town and enjoyed it so much that he ordered that all the eggs in the town be collected and an enormous omelet be made the next day for all his army. This tradition traveled with the French into Canada upon their mass immigration and later to Louisiana when the Cajuns were displaced from Canada by the British for their Catholic faith.

This year 5,026 eggs were cracked in the main plaza, and over twenty-five chefs from France, Canada, and Louisiana who come each and every year in November cook up a delightful omelet which is shared with all those present. The recipe as it appears on the celebration’s website is as follows. Enjoy the photos!

5026 Eggs
50 lbs. Onions
75 Bell Peppers
4 Gallons Onion Tops
2 Gallons Parsley
1 1/2 Gallons Cooking Oil
6 1/2 Gallons Milk
52 lbs. Butter
3 Boxes Salt
2 Boxes Black Pepper
Crawfish Tails
Tabasco Pepper Sauce (to taste)

(http://www.giantomelette.org/index.php)

Baby Therese Regina!

This past week, one of the families here at FMC had their third child, Therese Regina, and what a wonderful little bundle of joy she is and brings to their family. She joins Maria and Anthony as some of the cutest little missionaries and her life is a huge blessing to their family and to our whole FMC family. She marks the fourth FMC related  baby born this year and there are many more to follow for sure with many newly married couples beginning their little missionary families and three engaged couples soon to be married. God is so good, building for Himself a community of new, young, and excited families to go out to all the nations. Be praying for more little missionaries to come in His timing and enjoy these first few “day old” photos. More to come soon.

Legacy of Love

Over the past few months I have had an amazing opportunity living stateside right now to more regularly call my parents and even spend time with them. Back in early October, Kristen and I were able to spend more than a week with them, camping in New York state and traveling to see Niagara Falls together.

It has brought me to a much greater appreciation for who they are in my life today and who they have been for me for the past 25 years. I owe my Christian formation in faith and virtue and my desire to serve the Lord in missions from them. From my early childhood I remember that my parents not only instilled the desire and longing for a life of faith and active participation in the work of building the kingdom to us, but by their silent witness and yet radical testimony of family life in Christ, I grew in a deep yearning to serve the Lord and to be faithful to Him.

This has made me reflect on the “legacy of love” as I want to call it, or the bedrock of faith which has been passed down in my family from my great grandparents to my grandparents, to my own parents and lastly to me. This bedrock of faith in the Lord and a faithfulness to an active life of prayer, worship, and service in the Catholic Church has been laid for me for decades, and now I walk in the confidence of a man who has been formed by the word and deed of a faith-filled and holy family. My gratitude to the Lord for blessing my family, from generation to generation with faith and love for Him increases each day that I remember how very blessed I am to have such a devote and prayerful family. Thanks Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa Spencer, and Nana and Papa Weiss for your faith in a God who loves me passionately and in a desire to serve our world that so desperately needs that love

“Holyween”

At Family Missions Company we try to remember that the holiday that is celebrated by the Church on October 31st is not Halloween, but all Hollows Eve, the vigil before All Saints Day. So last night instead of trick or treating in the typical american fashion, our missionaries hosted a “Holyween” party, our version of an All Saints Day celebration. All of the children came dressed as different saints and upon arrival to Our Lady of the Bayou, all of them gathered in the chapel to pray a litany of the saints. It was such a beautiful thing to see and hear all the little ones, calling upon the intercession of the saints that they chose to imitate by their costumes and take pride in their virtues. The rest of the night was spent playing many different Saint themed games in which you could win candy for playing as well as having a cake walk with saint’s names on the floor. All around the night was so blessed and such a testament to the reality that we must be set apart for God, holy and righteous, living apart from the world and its vices and remembering our life in Christ and our call to all become saints.