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.