Week 1: SUMMARY!

Well friends, LBH Week 1 2011 has come to an end, and boy, did we have a phenomenal week. To summarize some of the beautiful lessons learned, I will treat you to a few photos and quotes from evaluations. Thank you to the beautiful young poeple who come and shared their hearts with the poor of the Madison Diocese from Madison, Dodgeville, Watertown, Ripon, Waunakee, Baraboo, Cuba City and more wonderful places!

The force... or the Holy Spirit really guided us through the week! Lots of Star Wars learning was completed, along with some seriously awesome learning about the truth and beauty of our Catholic Church.

Our opportunities to serve were widely varied this week from spending time at the Ronald McDonald House, Second Harvest food bank, the Mount Horeb Senior Center, helping out the Make A Wish Foundation and helping one another out in our community, we encountered the poor in many ways in our own backyards!

Everyone is jumping for joy in honor of evaluations like this:

Love Begins Here has changed my life. This experience has brought me so much closer to God and has helped remind me that everything isn't about me. I would be back to Love Begins Here in a heartbeat.

LBH is the chance to connect more with God and serve others in God's name. It's a chance for personal growth and self examination. It develops great friendships and makes everyone laugh. In short, LBH means I'm going to have the greatest week of my life.

For me, LBH means rejoicing for young people who are getting formation and catechesis that so many never have and might never receive... I am edified that this and future generations will be much more prepared for a world that can be toxic towards faithful Catholics. I look forward to the day when, as a priest, I will be able to support this program financially and spiritually. - Garrett Kau (Third Year Major Seminarian, Diocese of Madison - Pictured below with leftovers from the most incredible dinner of the week.)

And two quotes from a very profound evaluation from a young participant:

People may not be poor, but they may be sad, lonely, depressed or feel hopeless and unloved. We can serve people by just loving them and offering ourselves to them. Also, there is so much you can do to help people nearby; you don't have to go very far to find someone that needs help, everybody needs help in some way, and everybody and give it.

I definitely learned more about the vastness of Love and how I can love people better and more completely. I also find myself yearning for God to fill me up completely, so I can experience His love the same way I see the Core Team experiencing it. This experience this week has really healed part of me that I felt was broken, and I didn't know how to fix it. It may not be perfect, but it has been a start... This week has been amazing.

Well, that about wraps up our Week One reflection, and good thing, because we have 25 young people coming in tonight to experience another week of local, life changing mission trips. Thanks to all of the great people from Week One. The Core Team definitely loves you very much and is keeping you in our prayers.

A special shout out to the stellar adults that joined us this past week: Jenna, Renata, Tess, Garrett and Jared! You guys were all star chaperones and great models of holiness. You're all welcome back anytime.

Week One Video Blogging Adventures

Hello blog readers,

We're happy that you have stopped by. This week has been one full of tons of adventure so far and many great friendships being formed! We hope you are keeping up with our Vimeo Channel where we are posting our videos every day: www.vimeo.com/channels/lovebeginshere. We have posted a new video every day so far.

Some definite highlights of this week so far has been getting to serve the poor in so many cool ways, lots of fun at the Bishop O'Connor Center Pool, some epic relay races, the creation of some delicious, gourmet dinners and much, much laughter in the midst. From helping out on the East side of Madison with the Schoenstatt Sisters to the Senior Center in Mount Horeb we are truly finding that Blessed Mother Teresa was onto something when she encouraged us to find the poor right in our own communities before looking elsewhere.

Our spiritual lives have also been rocked lately with the beautiful homilies of Fr. Rick Heilman and the inspiring Collatio talks by the Core Team Members! Tonight we are in for a good helping of grace as we partake in the Sacrament of Confession.

Thanks for staying in touch! Try to begin some love in your own home today.

Peace,
Lindsay

Are you as EXCITED as we are?!?!?!!!

So, Blaine here.  Lindsay has been getting everyone excited for my first submission and I can finally say that it is ready.  Head on over to Vimeo to check out our first week of preparation for Love Begins Here.  Go ahead and bookmark this page because that very same page will be where we upload the daily vlogs.  Go ahead and tell your family and friends to check us out and check out the awesome service that everyone is doing... and how much FUN we are having!

Follow this link (www.vimeo.com/channels/lovebeginshere) and sit back and enjoy watching great people do great things!  We can't wait for High School Week 1 to start!

Core Team Fun

Hello LBH Readers,

This morning we are pleased to bring you the first official photo of the Love Begins Here 2011 Core Team. It sure looks like this is going to be a stellar summer with this energetic, faithful and super cool group of 6 leading the way.

Ned, Lindsay, Peter, Blaine, Molly and Nicky = CT LBH2011

We've been busy in the northwoods bonding over the past couple of days taking in the sun, tons of laughter, enjoying the lake and planning our hearts out for what's to come. Get ready to experience the first day of the rest of your lives in a whole new way!

Keep praying for us. We're definitely praying for you all.

The video is still to come! In the meantime our official A/V guy Blaine is updating our facebook page, so check us out there too: facebook.com/lovebeginshere.

Peace out!

Lindsay

Coming soon... the official Core Team Trailer.

Hello readers!

A special welcome this day to any of the good people out there joining us on the blog after reading the most recent write up in the Catholic Herald. We're excited to share the good news about LBH with you. Feel free to come back and visit our blog often.

Things have been very busy in the LBH world this past few months, hence the lack of blog posting. However, you can start to expect big things in the next week, as our summer kicks off on Sunday with a week of preparations for the Core Team. This group of six really spectacular young adults will be journeying to the northwoods, planning, bonding and setting up our first site at St. Mary in Pine Bluff. We are in for quite the summer.

One of the coolest things you can be looking for on our blog this summer are vlogs (video blogs for the less hip). One of the CT members is our resident social media expert this summer, and he is quite jazzed to bring you the latest and greatest with me through film, along with write ups and photos like you have experienced throughout the past two summers.

To formally introduce ourselves, check back next week for a little video, but for now, enjoy the photos and brief descriptions.

From the right:
Science expert and lover of the UP, Molly is fresh off a year of teaching Middle Schoolers in Platteville and is excited to be spending her first official summer on the Core Team, after volunteering for 75% of LBH2010.

Next up is our resident videographer, Blaine who has recently graduated from Platteville this spring and is very happy to have the summer to discern what God wants from him next.

Like Molly, Nicky spent a fair amount of volunteered time working with the youth on LBH2010 and is going to be spending her summer away from her 2nd grade classroom to change lives on the Mission Field.

The only brand new face to the LBH world this summer is Peter, who hails from West Bend, is a very proud Badger, and could not be more happy to bring his previous mission experience to the Madison Diocese this summer.

The fifth face there is me - Lindsay - the usual voice of the LBH blog, who is SO excited to announce that this summer I will be changing jobs, beginning a position as Coordinator of Youth & Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Madison. (This means I get to spend even more time on LBH an the like!)

Last but certainly not least is Ned, coming back for his second summer on the CT, to experience more of the "best thing" he's ever been a part of.

That's the team, and like I said, those coming on the trips better be ready to have the time of their lives because these folks are a whole lot of fun and inspiration all rolled into one. Please pray for us during our week of preparation!

Until next week,
Lindsay