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. :)