"Occupy the Womb!"

Yes, I'm finally getting around to writing about last weekend!  It's been a little challenging to get back on track as far as school is concerned, so that's been my top priority.  Anywho, I'll do my best to do this day by day.

On Thursday night I decided to spend the night at the missionaries' house so that they wouldn't have to worry about picking me up in the morning with everyone else (only problem being that I left my phone charger at my house that night so they had to run by my house in the morning so I could get in anyways...oh well).  Friday morning we got up around 6 and Marilyn and I rode with two of the men in our group, and the dad of one of them drove their family van.  We picked up Kara and Jenna and went to the airport to meet the other group.  Our plane took off around 8am or 8:30am (details are fuzzy to me) and we were on our way to Baltimore!  I sat between Kara and Bob, a student leader at UMKC, and he got started teaching me how to do a rubix cube, which I was highly excited to begin to learn.  Our flight was between an hour and a half to two hours, and from the Baltimore airport we took a small train to downtown Baltimore, where our hotel was located.  We had a little downtime before our group began to help with hospitality.

Love it

Conference banner

View from the hotel

That evening we had opening Mass (which was beautiful...the homily had me in tears.  Good start to a weekend!) and then Curtis Martin, one of the founders of FOCUS, gave the welcome address.  Eventually I'll be able to download the talks, so I can remember the material and share some of the points that hit me the most.  I took some notes, but not enough to do it justice.  However, from that first talk I did finally learn what was meant by the New Evangelization and the springtime of the Church (go and say the St. Michael Prayer!).  That night our group of women split between Chipotle and an Asian eatery, and we came back for entertainment and to settle in for the evening.  I roomed with three awesome women of God and we shared our faith stories, which was beautiful.

We woke up to this weather on Saturday morning:

Yuk

That 20% chance of rain had arrived.  But it was fine, we were inside except for whenever we went to eat dinner.  The first talks of the day were centered on prayer, and we had a chance to pray with and for each other before Mass began.

Holy Spirit, come to our aid!

The breakout sessions for Saturday were focused on evangelization.  It really impressed me how detail-oriented and goal-driven evangelization is for FOCUS.  They are really intent on having any resources available for students to evanglize on campus.  Favorite quote from that day:  "Eternity is worth the awkwardness."  I've been really hesitant about leading a Bible study and evangelizing and discipling because it's just so darn awkward.  Now, I'm comfortable with the awkwardness (enough to the point that I waited outside my French classroom really awkwardly the other day to wait for a couple girls to come out to ask them into Bible study!).  That evening there was Adoration and entertainment again.

A view of the lobby, where religious orders and post-graduate schools and other organizations set up their booths.

Sunday came with Mass and talks on discipleship.  I just began being discipled in October, so I think I will wait a while before I have some strong, meaningful contacts to begin discipling myself, but the day definitely gave me some thoughts and encouragement as to how to go about it when it does come about.  Favorite quote from that day:  "Never despise small movements."  It's hard to figure out the direction of FOCUS on Rockhurst campus sometimes, especially with our campus ministry not exactly open to their presence on our campus, so it was an encouraging reminder that the work that we're doing now is not for the sake of any organization, but to bring souls to Christ through His Word and the Sacraments.  Adoration that evening was really powerful for me.  I went to Confession beforehand and really poured out some stuff to the priest, and the peace that followed in Adoration was a blessing.

Monday began with our room being a little late to Mass...we still got there in time, but it was a little rough hustling around our room getting bags packed.  We had Mass and had a little time to eat breakfast before riding with U.Conn, MIT and Boston College to the March!

Kara and Marilyn

Jacob's excited!

Group pose :-)

Bob's covered in pro-life stickers.  Spreadin' the word.

This was really funny.  Jacob, right, has a twin on the left who goes to a different school on the east coast.  Not only were they both wearing green and white polos...

...but even the same shoes.  They even had the same hard-core Minnesotan accent.  'Twas grand.

Some of the men

I can't help but think police officers on horses are cool.

And then, of course, we marched!  And acted like ninjas and evaded the news somehow.  Yeah.  Read this if you're as upset as most of us out there.  And met BadCatholic.  You have to understand why I like this blog so much...blogging is quickly becoming a great avenue of apologetics and preaching the Gospel to the younger generation.  His blog is relevant and witty and awesome.  Check it out, really, you won't be disappointed.  Anywho, if you haven't seen the viral video yet, check it out!

Nice views of the March

After the March, we went to Union Station and caught our metros to the airport (there's a good chance I got stuck in the door of the metro at one point and had to wait for another train...yeah...tourist).  We flew out about 7:30 that evening from Ronald Reagan, had a connecting flight in Dallas, and made it home by 1am!  It was seriously a blessed weekend, and I was excited to share it with awesome, beautiful people.  If you've stuck around until now, congrats! You made it through quite possibly my longest blog post to date.  Go celebrate (life)!