August, already?

Hello Love Begins Here friends,

We're sorry to keep you waiting for almost a full month here. There will be a lot more reflecting to come in the next week or so, before 10 of us from Love Begins Here head to Spain for World Youth Day together. However, today we got a very sweet card from a parent of a two year LBH veteran with some words I wanted to share with you all, along with a few photos from the past couple of weeks.

"This program my daughter has attended for 2 years, and she actually beams and glows when I pick her up. She also says, "LBH is the only camp I ever want to attend!" The Holy Spirit is truly alive, growing, burning and shining in all of you and our children. Many blessings to all of you. My deepest appreciation and gratitude."

Well said, LBH mom! Thank you for your kind words and encouragement. The Core Team feels incredibly blessed to be able to do this work for the youth of the Diocese of Madison and beyond, and it would not be possible without parents entrusting to us the lives of their stellar children!

Yes, you are seeing correctly in that center photo. Our great Bishop - His Excellency Robert Morlino of the Diocese of Madison - visited this past week on our final night of Mission Trips! What a blessing.

Look forward to more from the Mission Field coming your way very soon.

Peace,
Lindsay

The Holy Spirit is moving!

Hello Blog Readers,

Happy 4th of July! We here at Love Begins Here hope that this day brings you a chance to offer up some prayers of thanksgiving for the great gift of freedom and spend some quality time with your loved ones. I know the Core Team has spent a few days off doing just that. Before we totally switch gears to the awesome 35 Middle Schoolers coming our way to Baraboo tomorrow, we wanted to share a few reflections from High School Week 2!

Interspersed with these notable quotations from our evaluations will be photos from the car groups. These small groups provided for much fun, some spontaneous stops along the journey and a community to share the experience of service with throughout the week.

LBH is many things. It means a conscious choice to embrace Jesus. It means the beginning of a joy that remains constant and burning within all present. It means songs from our lips and our hearts. It means my cow and roundabouts and mulberries. It means inspiring people doing inspired work. It means hard work. It means the greatest of rewards. It can mean whatever it is made to mean, and we made it to mean everything. Love begins where love is given. Love begins here. - Erin, McFarland

In response to the question: What in your life might change as a result of your experience on LBH this week? Pray more. Love people. Serve them. Make more turkey meatloaf. Eat a lot of bacon. Rosary. Go to Kwik Trip more often.

To me, Love Begins Here means that anyone can spread the joy that is Jesus Christ. It means that a bunch of high schoolers can work to change lives and spread that joy. Love Begins Here means that anyone can bring love to others, no matter where they are or who they bring it to. - Dan, Madison

I have learned that although people need help all over the world, sometimes people in your own community are the ones who need the most love. Whether it's pulling weeds for them or just sharing a smile, any act of kindness is an act of love.

I've grown to appreciate our Catholic faith, our Blessed Mother, the Saints and the Trinity. After this week, I will try more to find Jesus in every experience and in more people. I will also become more aware of myself as a living tabernacle.

(This car group was missing Blaine, Susan & Ana who all had to duck out before the photo session!)

 

All in all, we had a marvelous week filled with so many blessed opportunities to serve our neighbors in the Madison Diocese. A special shoutout to Shileng (Christ the King's - McFarland) Youth Minister, Alex (a CtK Catechist), and Jessica (Sacred Heart's - Sun Prairie) Youth Minister. It was a blessing to have you all on board. We look forward to seeing most of you more often this summer.

With that, please pray for us this week as we welcome 35+ Middle Schoolers to Baraboo for a week of local, life changing work on the Mission Field!

Happy 4th of July,
Lindsay

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