LBH2011 Schedule

Hello LBH Friends,


Praise the Lord! It's a beautiful weekend here in the Madison Diocese and not only because we have found ourselves blanketed in a nice covering of fresh snow. This past Friday evening two men were ordained to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ for the Madison Diocese. Congratulations to Fr. John Putzer and Fr. Chad Droessler! The LBH Family is certainly going to continue praying for you and your priestly vocations.


On that joyful note, we're also very delighted to announce the schedule for Love Begins Here 2011. Keep checking back here to see where these are going to be living... For now, we're thrilled to announce that our final two weeks are going to be taking place at St. James in Madison, WI home to 2-Year CT Member Gina Pignotti, Joe Tiller (LBH Superfan), and many LBH2010 Alum. It's going to be a great few weeks. 

High School 1: June 19 - 24
High School 2: June 26 - 31

Middle School 1: July 5 - 8
High School 3: July 10 - 15

St. James - Madison, WI

Middle School 2: July 19 - 22
High School 4: July 24 - 29

If you haven't taken time lately to join our facebook group, now's the time. Feel free to check out www.facebook.com/lovebeginshere! If you are already a fan, please help us in spreading the word about the good things happening on LBH by suggesting that your friends also "like" us.

We pray that your Advent is continuing on well; enjoy the start to this third week.

Peace,

Lindsay

LBH 2010 Evaluation Highlights

Happy Advent, LBH Blog Readers! We here at LBH hope and pray that this season is preparing your hearts to more fully receive our Infant Lord into your hearts in a few short weeks.

It's been a busy fall for the Core Team, as we have returned to the routine of the school year - which for most of us means devoting our time to the youth of the Madison Diocese in the classroom, at youth group, or even on the wrestling mats. However, this does not mean that LBH is far from our minds or our hearts, as often recall the fond memories of this past summer and pray in thanksgiving for the Holy Spirit touching and changing so many hearts - including our own.

This afternoon, I (Lindsay) had a chance to take a look again at ALL of the evaluations from this past summer. Once again, I was blown away by the work accomplished and good things to be said about LBH. I thought I would throw a few highlights out there for you to look at...

• I have learned that beginning love here is not only about loving others, but also about loving yourself. - Danielle, Waunakee

• The Daily Mass was EPIC. - Jimmy, McFarland

• Love Begins Here means this is where you find your Love. - Andy, Darlington

• LBH means to me that any time I am questioning my faith, I know I can come here or think about this and be reassured. - Haley, Cross Plains

• I expected to like parts of the week and not like parts, but I loved every second of it. - Luke, Cross Plains

• Love Begins Here means a ton to me. It means that we have to be that example of love to others in this hard, cruel world. We, in Christ, must show others his love through our actions. This I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I will do little things for the dignity and value of others. - Khauten, Madison

• I have opened my eyes to see how love can help give others hope in our generation. - Dominick, Beloit

Big THANKS to the Catholic Herald!

Hey blog readers,

I, along with the rest of the Core Team, hope that you all have had a great week of continuing to begin love in your own homes. It's been a good transition week for all of us, and we're still up for the challenge of loving our family members and friends in our "normal" lives.

We got some great press this past week about LBH in the Catholic Herald, and we wanted to share it with all of you. Thank you to Kat Wagner for visiting us in the Mission Field last week and hearing about LBH2010.

Feel free to stop by the Catholic Herald website to read the story:

http://www.madisoncatholicherald.org/news/around-diocese/1548-lbh.html

With that, enjoy this summer weekend. The Core Team will be reunited to process the summer, and we will certainly be lifting up prayers for all of the participants of this summer and our supporters!

Peace,

Lindsay

All Things New

Hello faithful blog readers,

We're sorry that we've kept you so long without an update. We promise that a lengthier entry will be coming your way later today or tomorrow with a bunch of good details about this week, but for now, a few highlights...
- We were blessed to spend Tuesday evening with a generous parishioner who let us see the Madison area from new heights.
- The HS has been working overtime - Mohawks, weather and so much more.
- So much love has begun in this community and other places in the Madison Diocese. "Love begins when painting buildings," as one participant says.

Thank you for your support and prayers. Please keep them coming as we wrap up this final week.

Peace,
Lindsay

Extreme Church Makeover

The 4th Week of Love Begins Here is off to quite the fantastic start, and we're really happy that you have stopped by to hear about it. While you're reading about the latest and greatest in the LBH world, feel free for up a few prayers for us.

There have been some definite themes emerging in the midst of our work this week - mainly those of Church remodeling and renovation or extreme competition. Let's get you caught up to speed.

On Sunday evening, much to the surprise of the Core Team, there seemed to be a secret competition among all of the families dropping off young people to be the first to arrive; in fact, this was taken so seriously that the majority of our participants had shown up 5 minutes before 5pm. With all of that eagerness, we quickly transitioned into getting to know one another in the kitchen, making dinner and playing silly games for quite some time. The following is the second place team (minus me) in the name game ball game.


Though competition was stiff, if paled in comparison to the train wreck we experienced next. After enjoying a delightful dinner of stir fry, we were on to more games and prayer, as we explored the darkness in our lives and gave them over to Jesus.

On Monday morning, we woke up bright and early to head over for 6:30 Mass at St. Maria Goretti in Madison. Not only was it wonderful to have the chance to get spiritually filled up for the day, but we also has the chance to go to Mass said by Fr. David Caranno, one of the two priests ordained this past month for the Madison Diocese. As an LBH-alum from last summer, it was great to catch up and have the pleasure of benefitting from his priestly ministry.

Anyways, after a quick breakfast, some lunch packing and getting on the road, we were ready to more formal begin LOVE in the greater-Madison area. One of our groups headed down to Ridgeway to give some help to St. Bridget in the form of beginning the task of cleaning and repainting the entire Church. Quite the task, but this fine crew was up to starting this task.


You can see a portion of the task that laid ahead of us behind them. It was amazing to see what fan be done by a small crew like that in one day.

The other half of the group stayed back in Verona, where we set to work painting, cleaning, repairing, and more around St. Andrew's. Again, we blew ourselves away with how much good can be done in the course of a day where people are giving all of their efforts over to Jesus. It probably didn't hurt that a pair of Jean shorts were thrown into the mix.


The above picture was taken while doing some work cleaning in the cemetery next door. Many analogies were brainstormed while literally clinging to the Cross.

After this hard day of work, we met up for dimmer, swimming and showers at a nearby state park. We encountered many new opportunities for competition, including scavenging for dive sticks or holding the first ever LBH dive and dance competition, which provided for many great laughs.


Upon returning home, we held one intensely fun BIRTH PARTY, because we're all alive.


We chatted about the tragedy of abortion, what it means to CHOOSE LIFE, and learned a lot about human development in the womb.

With such a busy day, we hardly had the energy to keep our eyes open as we brushed our teeth and crawled into bed, after praying Night Prayer together.

With that, blog readers, we're going to have to sign off for today. Tune in tomorrow for more good news from the Mission Field.

- Your LBH Correspondant, Lindsay

Location:E Harriet St,Verona,United States

Weekend Reflections

As the Core Team and some of our favorite LBH2010 Volunteers has the chance to get away for the weekend to take in beautiful sights and experience new adventurers, we had a bit of time to reflect, as well. We have all been thankful for the ways that this summer has brought us closer to Christ, the youth we work with and each other.


A few of my favorite reflections and quotations from evaluations follow...
- A fellow CT member told me this weekend that they would be ready for a 5th week. The Lord has certainly provided us with an abundance of energy to go about this work for Him.
- "I realize that all of the small ways that you can help, even in your own community, are all very powerful, especially if you go about it for Jesus." - Week One HS Participant
- There has never been a shortage of work for us to complete or people to share love with. God is faithful, and these past weeks have been a great opportunity for us to learn to trust Him in deeper ways.
- As three different sets of parents dropped off their kids for this week, we had the chance to hear how their Middle School kids were impacted, changed and grew last week. We are always thankful for the positive feedback and words of encouragement from parents.
- We have been blessed by encountering many new supporters of LBH and have been humbled by their generosity towards us.

To wrap up this mid-summer reflection, I will leave you with the words of our very own Madison Seminarian, David Johannes, as he was reflecting on the question: What does Love Begins Here mean to me?

"The experience of Love Begins Here opens the participants heart and eyes to God's love. God initialized the love which calls out in our hearts to love our neighbor and this program responds to just that, I witnessed a joy from the youth that I didn't expect. Love was poured out to one another in this group, to other Catholics, in their homes and through a space designated to encounter Christ in a closer manner. Love was witnessed in the preparing of meals and then delivering them via meals on wheels, love was sweated out in the clearing of homes and conversations with the elderly, love was the compassion to a family with a disabled child needing treatment, love was the witness of the joy of Christ in our hearts to the disbelieved and non-Christian, and love was the friendship amongst brothers and sisters who would have otherwise called each other "stranger".

Love Begins Here is the response of love to the Father who loved us first and continues to love each of us with an everlasting love."

Praise the Lord! Please keep praying for LBH, those who lead it, those who participate in and those who so generously support us in prayer and through other means, that we can continue to serve the poor with joyful hearts.

Thursday and Friday in the MS LBH World!

We sure had a busy couple of days... let's take a look at a few photo highlights of the past 36 hours or so to see where we have been and where we are going. Yesterday, we continued on in helping out the Nazareth House, which literally is right next door. Love was begun all over their gardens in the form of weeding, clearing, tilling and sweeping. They were looking quite nice once all was said and done. A number of residents even came out to visit with us, thank us for our work or just watch these good things happen.

During the day yesterday, we all also had the chance to visit Three Gaits, which is a therapeutic horse center. We painted, cleaned, helped out with office work, and even had a chance to meet some of the animals who are crucial in the treatment many people receive there. Here is a crew of kids who spent their morning painting and freshening up the property.

Another group yesterday afternoon tackled a large project of cleaning up a beautiful statue of the Holy Family, which was buried under a large amount of dirt and grime from years of build up. It took a large group of kids, a lot of elbow grease, and a little bit of Dawn. Mary, Jesus and Joseph were looking pretty good by the end of the day.

After our afternoon showers and rosaries, we had the privilege of experiencing a Seder Meal, as Jesus would have experienced it himself at the Last Supper, followed by the Living Stations of the Cross. When you see a Week 3 LBH Participant, feel free to ask them about what they learned about the 4th Cup. It will blow your mind. The following is Simon helping Jesus carry his cross.

While keep our good friend Sharon occupied, we got together one pretty awesome birthday party, because she was celebrating the beginning of her 50th year of life. We brought her outside for a beautiful sunset, sharing of the "Happy Birthday" song, and more, before heading back in for a birthday treat of pizza and ice cream cones. With all of that fresh nourishment, we were ready for an energetic session of Parish Time, followed by a game of reflecting on our weeks. All in all, we averaged a 9.74/10 for how we are feeling on the end of our week. That's pretty much an A+ week...

And if you ever doubted that 57 middle schoolers could make a difference in the world, check out this statistic: overall this week, 700 hours of service was given by our group in the Madison area. That equals a little more than 29 full days (24 hours a day) of "love beginning" all around us.

While we're in the business of sharing statistics, how about this: in 2 summers of Love Begins Here so far, 3,188 hours of service have been given to the greater Madison area by Madison area youth. That equals nearly 132 full days. Holy guacamole, God is good!

Stay tuned blog readers for all the updates of our final week of LBH starting Sunday. :)

Middle Schoolers GALORE.

Well, faithful readers. We've kept you in the dark long enough. I bet you want to hear all about the goodness of what has been one crazy, fun, service filled week with a LOT of Middle Schoolers this week.

On Tuesday afternoon, a slew of enthusiastic pre-teens rolled into St. Ann's in Stoughton, WI, where we have been in the midst of an action packed couple of days.


(That action packed photo was snapped during a great game of Ship, Ship Cross My Ocean last night.) Upon arrival Tuesday evening, we spent a good deal of time getting to know each other in crazy ways, like playing train wreck and one intense name game competition. We also shared a meal of pizza and veggies, before we spent some time learning about how our lifestyle at LBH would resemble the lifestyle of the Missionaries of Charity (the order that our patron Blessed Mother Teresa founded).

Our evening gathering included some contemplating of the darkness in our lives and how to let in Christ, who is the light. We also enjoyed some birth cake while chatting with our friends who came with from our own parishes. After a busy day, we enjoyed a good night's sleep, so we could be well rested for the day of work ahead.

On Wednesday morning, we had the pleasure of waking up and celebrating Mass with each other to kick off our day. After having the great gift of the Eucharist come and nourish our lives, we were ready for breakfast and leaning about what the day held in store for us.

Some of us spent time visiting with elderly members of the community and playing cards at a neighborhood nursing home.


We also got to work in the gardens in the courtyards of this nursing home.


And, some of us painted in classrooms here at St. Ann's.

There was also a crew of hard workers that put together our dinner of tacos and all of then fixings.

After these hours of hard work, the LBHers headed to the local community center for a quick shower and a time to rest for a few minutes. Upon returning to St. Ann's, we enjoyed that delightful taco dinner that was prepared for us by our fellow Mission Trippers. Wow, that feast was pretty much nothing compared to the feast of grace that we enjoyed by receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation later that evening. We would like to give a big shout out to the three priests who heard our Confessions - Fr. Randy (Holy Rosary, Darlington), Msgr. Healy (St. Ann's, Stoughton), and Msgr. Baxter (St. James, Madison). After loving our Lord and the gift of forgiveness, we headed out for the aforementioned game of Ship, Ship Cross My Ocean, some quality time with our Parish groups and got ready for bed, so we were able to spend the whole day ahead of us serving the Lord by way of helping our neighbors in need.

We'll give you the update about todays good work tomorrow, so stay tuned! In the meantime, keep offering up the prayers for us. We appreciate your love and support in that way.

Trees, rummage sales and ice cream stops, oh my!

What do you get when you mix Madison Seminarian David Johannes in with a handful of high school youth, some good tunes, him driving his red Volvo, and a final destination? Well, you some serious detours through the greater Madison area to find the best ice cream or custard possible. This was taken to new heights yesterday, as his car group made a 9am pit stop at the local Culvers for some tasty breakfast custard. Mmmm... at least that stop was well deserved for that car group because they were the first out the door on the way to morning Mass.

Anyways, we are jumping the gun just a bit. Let's take a look at some highlights of the recent days.

Tuesday evening we spent a bit of our evening in Governor Dodge State Park playing, laying in the sun, competing and catching some air. Many beautiful sights were taken in.



On Wednesday, we took off for Middleton where a new project of garage cleaning and garage sale preparations laid before us. Upon arriving, a crew got to work moving a van and camper out of the driveway and the others took some senior portraits and cheesy family photos.


After such successful distractions, we got to work cleaning and sorting. Some of the items we found really took some time to get acquainted with.


Once Seminarian David got this tree working, we had some serious tunes to jam to. Lucky us.

As we were busy in Middleton, a group resumed work in Mount Horeb with some older members of the community. This great photo was snapped while working at our good friend Jerry's house, who we've had the pleasure to spend lots of time with both this year and last on LBH.


The final group worked spent one last day in Dodgeville at the Kramers clearing out some very large trees in order to see more easily the beautiful cross on the far end of their property.


Those who worked out there definitely recalled being able to see the God face to face in their work.

After all of that great work, we made a stop by the O'Connor Center for a swim before heading home and enjoying the 2010 LBH hit meal of chicken stir fry. We are loving the fresh foods and meal preparation by the kids this year. During dinner, Fr. Bakke joined us taking the total of priests in our presence to two, as Fr. Randy from Darlington had already joined our group for our afternoon of work. Good thing they did, because after dinner, we were ready to receive some serious grace in the Sacrament of Confession. We are so grateful for there presence and love of LBH. After receiving the Sacrament, we played some ultimate spoons, ate peach pie, an shared about our days.


Before praying Night Prayer and turning into bed, we also got in a game of sardines. David revealed some interesting talents during the game, and we found out about one thing that CT member Aaron... he's not a huge fan of creepy laughing voices.

Thursday brought the aforementioned trip to morning Mass and a lot more cleaning, organizing, and mulching. We certainly had a lot of fun beginning love in the Madison area, and some of our car groups even had a little bit of time to spare so they made a quick trip to the Madison zoo.


A lot of fun ensued and even though we were tired when we got back to St. Mary's, a quick round of naps and a rosary got us through before the EPIC events of the night. Those events are too much to be included in this post, so stay tuned for the post to come, which will detail the awesomeness of our Thursday night and Friday morning.

Location:Trees, rummage sales and

Week Two Has Begun!

As Sunday morning rolled around and the Core Team gathered back together, the excitement built and things moved along so smoothly, that we could hardly wait for 5 o'clock to come. Not only were 16 or so awesome kids from around the Diocese coming to join us, but we had a seminarian and four awesome adults on their way. Even Nicky, who chaperoned last week, couldn't get enough and was on her way back for another week. Anyways, here is three quarters of the Core Team ready for everything the week is going to throw at them.


Quickly upon the youth and the aforementioned phenomenal chaperones, we began getting to know one another. Through a very cool, newly invented ball rolling game and a quick game of train wreck, we felt like great friends before it came time for a dinner... well, everyone except for Ned and Brooke who got into a bit of a quarrel when he found out that she's not a Green Bay Packers fan. Thankfully, this is the only thing even resembling drama that we've seen this week.


We were treated to a round of root beer floats after a delightful dinner of lasagna soup, garlic bread and salad. While enjoying gout dessert, we got to learn a bit about MoT (Mother Teresa) and the Missionaries of Charity, who we model the work and prayer of LBH after. The night ended with some nice sharing in Collatio, including some stories about where we have spent time in the darkness away from God's love.

After going to bed with that on our minds, as well as the new adventures that await us this week, we popped out of bed somewhere in the neighborhood of 5am to take this sight in. How beautiful is that?!?


We chatted for a bit about being alive again and living in the light of Christ, as well as about out theme for the summer of LBH, which is CHOOSE LIFE! We made some plans to choose life all week long in everything we do.

This sunrise session was followed by a great breakfast of pancakes and bacon, as well as packing up our lunches to enjoy at our worksites. We then headed off to a little slice of Heaven, both literally and figuratively. Our host priest Fr. Rick came down to a chapel tucked away in the woods, conveniently on the same property that a lot of our service is happening this week, where we spruced up the area around the outdoor stations and huge rosary walk. Mass was beautiful, as always.


After Mass and learning more about the Kramers who own the property, half of our group got to work there and the other half headed to Blue Mounds to to give a hand to some Senior friends who needed help in their homes or yards. It was an action packed day of service, which everyone approached with a whole lot of enthusiasm!






After our work wrapped up, we stopped for a quick swim and shower, before heading back to Pine Bluff for a much needed rest hour, due to our early morning. While rest hour and rosary praying occurred, a couple of us adults got ready for a serious celebration of our lives. (Happy Birth!! You're alive!) This included pizza for dinner, birthday cake and ice cream, lots of balloons, some lively discussion of how thankful we are for the gift of life, and a rousing game of saltine cracker eating.


Wrapping up our evening in the best way possible, two seminarian friends of ours taught us about Night Prayer and we gave it a shot. It definitely felt good to wrap up the day by chatting with Jesus about it.

Today has been another great one, but you'll have to tune in for the update on it tomorrow. For now, please remember all of us in your prayers as we go about serving the poor of our community.

Week one comes to a close.

As noon on Friday of this past week rolled around, the youth may not have been exactly jumping for joy quite like this, as the country side of Pine Bluff was the site to the goodbyes to to our newly made friends.


In the midst of our goodbyes, the leaders heard a whole lot of great things coming from the kids. They watched the lives of others get brighter and came forth out of the darkness in their own lives to truly be alive again. I think it would be accurate to say that we did in fact see the light before the sunrise this past week, if we could take our inspiration here from both St. Augustine and Matt Maher.

With many youth this past week coming into their second week of LBH, many of us knew or had heard from those we knew and convinced us to come on the trip that the week held great promise. But, only God could have clued us in on exactly how bright this world would become and the many new things we would experience. Some of us went whole days or the entire week without complaining, we didn't update our Facebook statuses constantly and we went without some of our usual comforts - cell phones, iPods, makeup, comfortable beds... really, the list could keep on growing. Through all of that, Mother Teresa's promises really held up - by living simply, we were able to love others and the One who gave us life more deeply. And, that's what Love Begins Here is all about.

The Core Team would like to thank all of those who came on this week of Love Begins Here. You growing desire to persevere throughout the week, your love of each other, and your excitement about LBH truly inspired us and is continuing to do so as we are in the midst of our second week.

We would also like to thank those people who helped us out in big ways this past week, including Fr. Rick, Fr. Francisco and Fr. Vernon for celebrating the sacraments with us and for giving us a home. To the Schoenstatt Sisters, St. Vinnies in Monroe and the good people at the Mount Horeb Senior Center for allowing us to serve them and alongside of them. And, a great huge thank you to Tony Butler for being a great example of what it looks like to answer Jesus' call to serve, being our biggest fan and helping us find projects to work on this week. And, of course, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to you - our blog readers and supporters. Thank you for loving us and keeping us in your prayers.

Speaking of prayers, please keep Madi and her family in your prayers. It's going to be a long road to recovery, but with people like you all supporting them, the journey will be filled with Christ's peace.

Stir Fry Kind of Day

Phew, it's crazy to believe that we're already halfway done with our last full day of this first week of LBH! Let's take a moment and check in to see what happened since we updated yesterday.

There was a bit of yawning yesterday as we awoke to a new day of serving the Lord and our neighbors. Fr. Rick, who is our host priest this week, has become a favorite of this crew. Understandably so, as he has given us a home, delivers awesome homilies and celebrates the sacraments for us. Yesterday was much the same, as his words and the Eucharist definitely nourished us for the day ahead.

After all of that goodness, we packed up for the exciting day ahead. Two carloads of servants headed out to the Schoensatts to finish up the last of our yardwork, painting, and hanging of changing tables. The rest of the cars headed to the Mount Horeb Senior Center for some new adventures meeting new friends, disassembling trampolines, cleaning up yards, and delivering meals.









At the end of the afternoon, we could pretty easily say that we saw the hardest work yet. Good thing we got in a quick swim, some friendly diving competitions, a couple games of 500, and a shower before returning for our evening rosary and dinner. Speaking of dinner, Abby and Aaron's car put together a stir fry for the group, and it was phenomenal. Gina Pignotti, returning Core Team member from 2009, remarked, "I think this is the best meal LBH has ever seen." Some debate continued.

Post-dinner, we had the fine pleasure of hearing Ned share with us about the awesome Sacrament of Confession before having the chance to experience it for ourselves. These LBHers were definitely feeling the sanctifying grace, as Fr. Rick and Fr. Fransisco (who made the trip from Lodi) spent some very quality time with us. Praise the Lord!

Add some funny stories, peach cobbler, and God moments into the day, and it was time for bed.

Today, we would ask that you would continue to pray for us as we finish out our week. Also, an update on Madi... Her spirits are still super high. Today she is receiving here first chemotherapy treatment, so prayers for that to go well would be great!! Her family and friends are loving all of the LBH pray support.

Offering up our work!

"And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our feet, and learn to be at home." - Wendell Berry

Tuesday morning of this week kicked off with a number of blessings, including a beautiful homily from Fr. Rick on making our work great for Jesus and a chance to fuel up for the day at breakfast. As we got off and on the road for the day, we got some rough news, and we would like to share it with our blog readers, so you may off up prayers with us for it.


The beautiful lady on the left side of this photo is Madi. She had been counting down the days until joining us on her second summer of LBH this year. When she came on Sunday, with very high spirits, we knew she hadn't been feeling all that well over the past couple of weeks, and after one awesome day of work and play, she left on Monday night to see the doctor. That trip led to Madi being admitted to Children's Hospital in Madison with leukemia, which we found out as we were driving to the sites on Tuesday. The rest of the day was marked by a lot of prayer for Madi and much hard work offered up for her. As Madi assured me on the phone as she delivered the news, she is a fighter and will do everything in her power to beat this! Evidence of that determination is pictured below... She dominated Matt in some intense battles of strength and balance on Sunday night.


Some of that work we offered up for Madi included more weeding, cleaning and a whole lot of gazebo painting. The Schoenstatt sisters are loving the color of the gazebo and our hard work, which they have shown us by baking delicious cookies for us each afternoon for a snack.


The other half of the group returned once again to Monroe for hard work sorting and organizing for the local St. Vinnie's. Much laughter was shared throughout their day! Here is just a glimpse of the massive work they had undertaken.


After our work was finished, we headed home where a delicious taco dinner had been prepared by the wonderful people in Nickay's car, which we enjoyed after praying our rosary together. As dinner came to a close, we finished making cards for Madi, donned some brand new Love Begins Here tshirts, and took some group photos. Much success was had in that department, as you can see below.


Following all of that action, we jumped in our cars and paid Madi a visit. As we came home to join each other after a quick stop at the pool and showers, this entire group came to a mutual consensus that we had seen God most clearly in our days during our visit to Madi - she was full of smiles, courage, funny stories and a whole lot of joy.

It was another long day, arduous and humbling too, but we know we arrived home, having continued to begin love.

We would ask that you continue to pray for Madi, her healing, as well as her family and friends who are making the journey with her.

4:45am and a little bit of sacrifice.

As the sun was rising yesterday, so were we. Praise the Lord for being alive! Watching this beautiful sight was a great way to learn more about this summer's theme: Choose life!





Feel free to visit Deuteronomy 30 to learn more about and hear it from Moses himself. After our early morning adventures, some napping and pancakes were greatly needed. After praying our rosary, we headed out for our day of service. Some of our group made their way to the St.Vinnie's in Monroe to sort through donated clothing. The other half of the group paid a visit to the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary on the East Side of Madison to help with a variety of projects including painting bathrooms, cleaning and preparing outdoor furniture for painting, encountering scat of various kinds, garage domination, and weeding all over the place. These five spent an extra hour of service finishing the garage domination project and definitely had a lot to be proud of at the end of their day.





Many of vehicles took an almost overly scenic route to Mass after their service projects were finished. However, a slightly late arrival did not keep us from a definite highlight of the day - receiving Jesus into our bodies and having the classic opportunity to have Fr. Vernon encourage us to think and pray hard about our vocations. (Speaking of Fr. Vernon and vocations, let's keep Greg Ihm and David Caranno in our prayers this week, as they will be ordain priests for the Madison Diocese this Friday. Come Holy Spirit!)





The above photo taken during the day would be an adequate way to describe how we were feeling when it came to eat pizza and veggies for dinner and share funny stories about the day. After a brief period of male and female bonding during a storm warning, we headed to the pool for a good amount of jocularity and playing with crazy pool toy. Our evening was capped off by a reminder of what it means to work as Madison's own Missionaries of Charity and an opportunity to examine our consciences.

Today has been another great day, but you'll have to wait for the update tomorrow. Keep up the prayers for all of us and those we are serving. We truly would love to continue bringing light and love to this world.

With an exciting few final weeks of planning underway, the Love Begins Here Team was more than ready to get to work today. Though our preparations today were not without hiccoughs, like forgetting the set of keys in Baraboo and someone forgetting their own pin number while checking out at the grocery store, the Holy Spirit provided in the way of spaghetti noodles and the events of the night going ever so smoothly.



(These ladies from the greater Baraboo area are ready to begin love in Pine Bluff!)

At 5:04pm this evening, 16 of our 21 youth this week had safely arrived, with some super cool chaperones to boot. (No need to worry - we were anticipating the late arrival of the other 5 young people and are still eagerly awaiting out final friends tomorrow morning.). Anyways, as the clock struck 5;05, a group got started on a delightful dinner of Lasagna Stoup, while the other half of these young missionaries headed out sided to challenge each other in various competitions. We even had the chance to learn some of the Native Pine Bluffian language. Lucky us.



(Core Team members Ned and Gina face each other in intense physical competitions.)

Anyways, as dinner neared completion, we took some time to get to know new friends and connect with friends from LBH's of the past, as well as be inspired to get to work at making our own stories. We had plenty of time to do so over the aforementioned dinner, which got rave reviews, thanks to the hard work of those who prepared it and Rachael Ray for giving us the Lasagna Stoup version of Strega Nona. We may have some left-overs on hand.



(Feeling like legit missionaries, these cousins jumped in willingly for dish duty.)

Post-dinner was followed by more jocularity and a round of root beer floats to celebrate Rudy's birthday. Happy 15th!! Now that we were all feeling comfortable with each other, we headed to the local crypt. Yes, it is as ballin' as it sounds. Over there, we did some sharing of and praying about the darkness in our lives and how we can avoid the light of Christ at times in our lives. Despite the heavy topic, our attempt at turning out the lights was filled with much laughter, both from the boys and the girls lairs. With all of the joy we experienced in only our first evening together, there is truly no telling what is to come during the next 5 days.

Please continue to pray for us as we head into the community for our first day of service tomorrow!

Location:Gammon Pl,Madison,United States

5 Days Away

Last night, as Gina and I hung out with Jesus, substantially present to us in the Blessed Sacrament, in beautiful Minocqua, WI, we thought about what we would be doing one week from then. We don't want to reveal too much at this juncture, especially as some of our readers will be participants in next week's kickoff of LOVE BEGINS HERE 2010. However, we can tell you that it involved a good amount of fun, some intense math problems resulting in numbers well into the 9,000s, and contemplating a lack of sleep - for one reason or another.

Mysterious. We sure think so.

We have a whole lot of work to do in the hours... days... weeks to come, but we are sure looking forward to doing it all for the greater glory of God. Please pray for us, as we go about this mission, as well as for our fellow Core Team members, Aaron & Ned, as they travel to opposite ends of this fine country of ours, as we are left in the Northwoods of Wisconsin planning our little hearts away. Seriously, they went on vacation this week, and we want them to travel safely home.

If you're feeling in the mood to pray, we might also suggest praying for the participants during the next couple of weeks, especially that they are ready to work and serve with joy and are open to everything the Holy Spirit has in store for them.

Perhaps we'll update once or twice more over the coming couple of days, but in case we don't have a chance to do so, stay tuned next week as things get started and we begin blogging daily about our adventures.

Welcoming the 2010 Core Team!

Over the past two days, the 2010 LBH Core Team had a chance to bond and get started on the planning. It's going to be a life changing summer, no doubt. Come Holy Spirit!

Given we are 11 days away and counting until our first Mission Trip of the season, I figured it was about time to give a little introduction of this year's CORE TEAM for the trips.

Lindsay Becher
That's me. The most common voice of the LBH blog. I have many special abilities, which include always having a story to tell about my roommate Nicky (who gets to experience her first LBH trip this summer), predicting people's temperments, and always picking the wrong lane to check out in at the grocery store. During the school year, my time is split between evangelizing the youth of the greater Baraboo area and daydreaming about my two favorite summertime activities - LBH and playing at my family's cabin. This past year, I also took some time to travel about the US and experience new things, like kayaking in the Everglades, marching for life in DC, and running my first half marathon in Madison. I look forward to sharing these experiences and more with those beginning love here in the Madison area this summer!

Ned Lease
Having lived in the Madison Diocese most of his life, this Core Team member has a special love for all things requiring heaving lifting - or in the case of this picture, making sure heavy columns outside of the Bishop O'Connor Center are secure. Having wrestled in college, while attending the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Ned continues to pursue this passion in the realm of High School Coaching. Outside of coaching and teaching tech ed classes during the school year, he spends time loving his family - especially his nieces. Speaking of his nieces, Ned's dream way to die is by being mauled by a demonically possessed bear (who also dies in the altercation), while trying to save his nieces' lives. Ned also has a special gift for catching rabbits with his bare hands. We will make sure to report all such occurrences during LBH right here on the Official Love Begins Here Blog.

Aaron Lofy
This new LBH Core Team Member hails from Hartford, WI, though he currently lives in Madison as he anticipates his final (5th) year at the UW. This past year has been a busy one for Aaron, as he has been trying to live life to the fullest, praying and asking for the intercessory help of St. Joseph (his personal fav), teaching catechism to HS students in Mount Horeb, and having fun. Typical summertime activites Aaron enjoys include water skiing, boating, bonfires, hanging out with family and friends, and sunsets. While taking in new vistas this summer, he is quite excited to get to know all of the young people on the Mission Trips and having the opportunity to serve alongside of them. He knows that serving in this way gives him a sense of joy and happiness, which comes from giving of oneself. Check back often to see how this giving of himself goes this summer.

Gina Pignotti
This tap dancer hails from Kenosha, WI, where she still returns often to visit her family, whom she is very close to. Not only does she tap dance, but other athletic persuits she engages in include climbing mountains, playing water polo (which she did at the UW), and dominating on the basketball court. This past year, in the midst of loving and teaching Middle School kids at St. James in Madison, her mad organization skills sure came in handy; however, no matter how organized she was, she never looked forward to correcting the piles of math homework left behind by her students. In her spare time, Gina spends time loving the Blessed Mother, enjoying snap peas and salmon, and getting excited for what the summer holds in the Love Begins Here world. Stay tuned to see what kind of fun Gina has while serving those in need in the Madison Diocese this summer.