Though our Fall Retreat was a few weeks ago, the effects of such a powerful weekend are still impacting our students. Thank you for your prayers! Here are some pictures from the weekend.
Camp Tecumseh on the left here. The Retreat weekend was full of opportunities for Confession Mass, Adoration, small group time, and powerful talks. When you stepped outside to this view, it was yet another tangible sign of God's love!
It was a true privilege to be able to serve on this Retreat! I spent a lot of my time caring for the girls on the retreat, talking with them about their Retreat experience, and what they felt like God was saying to them throughout the weekend. If I have not said it already...I really LOVE being an intern.
Super storm Sandy hit soon after our retreat! New Brunswick lost power for a while, but I think we made the best out of it here at the Catholic Center. The picture below is one of us having a Ladies Grill Fest (with a few guys mixed in there too:) with all of the food that was going to go bad in the freezer. You can't tell by the picture, but we had this hurricane dinner by candle-light. After dinner the girls in the picture spent the night in the CC. It was actually a fun way to spend time with the girls!
In light of the storm and it's impacts on Jersey, especially the Shore, we had a women's service day yesterday to help those impacted by Sandy. We traveled down to Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey to help with "Operation Blessing." We labored for the better part of the day clearing out a whole U-Haul Truck of clothes that were donated to families who lost everything in the storm. "Operation Blessing" provided us with free t-shirts, food for the day, and a great opportunity to serve! We ended the day back at the Catholic Center with a home-made meal made by one of our Women's Staff! A successful day of service and fellowship for the women's community! Below is us being transported to the sight in an ambulance (awesome I know) and a picture of the cleared out truck that we worked on.
The Campus Ministries at Rutgers (including CSA) will be hosting a "Hurricane Prayer Rally" on campus this Wednesday for all those affected by Sandy.
Between Retreats, Hurricanes, service days, and out reach it has been quite a busy couple of weeks. This week I will be doing a ladies dessert pizza and poker night in one of the women's dorm on campus. I'm hoping that this can be something that helps get some more girls connected to the CSA community. I'll also be starting up a new Evangelization program for the women here at Rutgers this week. Pray for me and for the girls who have decided to be a part of it. I'm very excited to share about my own passion for sharing about what God has done in my life! More to come on this new group in future posts.
The struggles, challenges, and situations of these past few weeks have taught me something very important that I'd like to share with each of you. God is on an endless quest for us, for our hearts. Whether it's been through power outages, shuffling around to find hot water, service trips to the Shore, or in my one-on-one meetings with students, God is continually showing me how He wants us to know how He loves us. I am becoming more convicted of His endless search for us and of our own search to find true happiness and Love.
God’s heart is restless for us. God is waiting for us. He is looking for us. He knows no rest either, until He finds us. God’s heart is restless, and that is why He set out on the path towards us – to Bethlehem, to Calvary, from Jerusalem to Galilee and on to the very ends of the earth. God is restless for us, He looks out for people willing to “catch” His unrest, His passion for us, people who carry within them the searching of their own hearts and at the same time open themselves to be touched by God’s search for us. - His Holiness Pope Benedict XVII read this and felt like it articulated what I want people to know about the Lord who I love and who I am coming to know more and more through this missionary year at Rutgers!
Be assured of my prayers for you all!
In our God,
Ericka
