One Word: Chaos

I have been SO terrible with blogging this time around. Sorry about that!

I visited Franciscan University's Austrian campus in Gaming with Fr. Remus and Iulia at the end of August for a long weekend. It was a wonderful time - it's so beautiful there and no where has ever felt as much like home as the Kartause. While there, I spoke with the students about the mission trip that always comes to Romania for the 10-day break. After talking to about 80 students, 52 signed up!! So, 20 will be coming here to Turt on Saturday and 16 will be going to Cluj-Napoca to another priest that we know. Please pray for these mission teams.

I was also very blessed to have a visit from my friends who live in Dubai. Ann and her husband Keith came out for a few days and helped me keep sane while trying to design an orphanage. Their support of me and what I do has been amazing and I'm so happy to know them!

The best way to describe things here in chaotic. We are so busy all the time! We've been running running running all the time. I've been to Satu Mare the last 5 of 6 days (Not going today. Thank God. Haha). We've made some progress on the project. We have the property and the final paperwork will be done next week. It's a 30 meter by 100 meter property right at the entrance of our town. It's a beautiful property and the perfect spot.

We have had some issues, but whatever is worth doing doesn't come easy, right? The architect is not really working on the project as quickly as we had agreed. I was hoping to have at least the foundation in before I left, but it's too cold here now, so the concrete would crack. So, it's looking like everything will be happening starting in March. So, hopefully by the end of the summer, we'll have some major progress!!

Speaking of summer, I am so insanely excited to be able to say that the wonderful Anna Buckley will be serving here next summer! She's a student at Franciscan who came here on the mission trip last year. She is amazing and I cannot wait to have her here for the whole summer!! Anna, prepare yourself for the best and awesome-est summer ever!! Help her out if you can by going to www.bringhope.org/catherine and choosing her designation to donate to.

After the group from Gaming is here next week, I will be taking some MUCH needed retreat time. I was invited by the Missionaries of Charity in Rome to visit and take some time away. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to take them up on it, but God has definitely made it possible. And as it just so happens, one of my best friends is getting married and will be on her honeymoon in Rome the same week. It's amazing because if it had been a week earlier or a week later, I would not have been able to go. Praise the Lord for some time becoming a better missionary with the MCs and seeing one of my favorite people in the world.

Just 3 days after I get back from Rome, another group from Gaming will be coming for 4 days to help us out. And just a short month after that, I will be back home in the States for Christmas with my family and to continue fundraising for the project. Can you help make my time in the States shorter and help me get back here faster? Donate to the orphanage fund or my living expenses (remember, I don't get paid a single cent for what I do and I have living expenses on top of the fundraising for the orphanage).

Please continue to keep me in your prayers. This is very tough sometimes - God is definitely doing some painful purgation in my life right now, but I know He is doing it so that I can be a better missionary.

Also, in July, I started blogging for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's blog "Being Catholic." My most recent post, titled "Broken People Help Broken People" has been the most popular post lately. If you haven't seen it, you can read it here. I hope it inspires you. It's also a bit of explanation as to why I need prayers. To those of you who sent me texts, Facebook messages, and emails about it, thank you. Your words of encouragement and support have been amazing. I couldn't do what I do without the support of my prayer warriors.

If there is any was I can pray for you, please let me know by emailing me at cathering@bringhope.org.

"The Lord Himself will fight for you; you need only to be still." -Exodus 14:14 

A Few Changes and Some European Travels

I know I haven't written in a while. Sorry about that. Here's what's going on.

Things have been CRAZY lately. We are hoping to meet with the architect in a few weeks, but first, we have to go with the mayor and a topographer to mark the property lines next week. We will be building near the edge of our town. I'm very excited about it! There's a change in plans though. We've decided that while I continue to fund raise to finish the orphanage project, we will use the building as a day center for kids in our town. I'm looking forward to that because then it means things will be up and running sooner! We've also decided to shift the name around a little. As we are in a country where the Eastern rite of Catholicism is more prominent, not as many people know who St. John Bosco is (He's a Latin rite saint). So, in thinking and praying about it, we've decided to use the name "Our Lady of the Way" because it's more commonly known here in the East. It's cool because that icon is actually a variation of my all time favorite name of Our Lady: Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I'm thinking we will name the chapel after St. John Bosco or the Sacred Heart, but that's all technicality stuff that will be worked out later. St. John Bosco will definitely be one of our patrons.

We spent a week in Campia Turzii, which is near Cluj-Napoca (about 4 hours from Turt). We were taking a mini-vacation to Iulia's parents' house. It was nice to finally get to visit the city I always fly into and had never actually visited. In the center of Hero's Square, they have a huge Roman Catholic church. It was incredibly beautiful. It reminds me a lot of St. Stephen's in Vienna. It was stunning.

On August 8, I returned from a week-long pilgrimage in Medjugorje. I'm still trying to process everything that happened, but I'm hoping that writing about it will help. The first time I visited Medjugorje was 2 1/2 years ago when I was studying in Austria during my junior year of college. I actually was very against going because I didn't believe that the Blessed Mother appeared there because the Church hadn't approved it yet. My spiritual director actually begged me just to go. I very reluctantly agreed and ended up having a radically life-changing experience. After returning from my semester studying abroad, besides Romania, I found myself missing Medjugorje the most. I was extremely blessed to be able to spend a week there with Fr. Remus, 3 people from our parish, and 40 other Romanians from the Transylvanian area. It happened to be the annual Mladifest (International Youth Festival) while we were there and it was like a mini-World Youth Day. It was so cool!! While there, I met an amazing Australian priest, Fr. Stephen, who is currently living in Rome. I met him in Confession (and had the best/most intense Confession of my life) and had lunch with him the next day. It was during our lunch I found out that he is a Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's order) priest and he spent 9 years in India before being assigned to Rome about a year ago. Hearing his stories was amazing. In our conversations, my passion for missions was reignited. I'm so thankful to have met him and to have been able to spend time with him.

I'm very excited to be able to go visit the Kartause in Austria where I studied abroad in a week and a half. Fr. Remus studied there for 3 years and Iulia has never been to Gaming (pronounced GAH-ming), so we decided to take a long weekend to Austria before school starts up again in mid-September (Iulia is a teacher).

I'm pleading for your prayers for me in the near future. Sometimes being a missionary is exhausting physically, emotionally, and spiritually and I know that it is my prayer warriors all over the world that keep me going when things get tough. A quote was posted on the Missions of Hope Facebook page the other day and it was perfect: "If you are ever inclined to pray for a missionary, do it at once, where ever you are. Perhaps he may be in great peril at that moment." -Amy Carmichael, 1867-1951, missionary to India. Please keep me and all missionaries in your prayers. Also, please pray for rain. It hasn't rained here in over a month and the crops are being affected and the people here rely greatly on their crops.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." -2 Corinthians 12:9 

One More Chance For Hope

I'm sitting here in my apartment, super sore from helping move wood up in the forest today. It's the prime time to be moving wood from up in the mountains down here to town because we've got a lot of wood that needs to be moved. In the winter, this wood heats the houses of some of the parishioners, Fr. Remus, and the church. I only helped with 2 truck loads, but the guys estimated that it was going to take 7-8 truckloads of wood. But that's not why I'm writing. Haha.

I was sitting here listening to some music when the song "The One" by Brandon Heath came on and caught my attention. Listen to his acoustic version of it here. 

These lyrics seem to be ringing very true in my life right now:

If there's one thing that I'm sure of
If there's one thing that I know,
You could be one in a sea of faces
Or you can be one more chance for hope.

When I think of what could be
If we let our hearts believe
That it takes just one
Just one to turn this all around

And if we're living history
How will they think of you and me
If it takes just one, just one,
What if, what if, what if I'm the one?

------------
These lyrics, every time I hear them, are a bit of a reality check for me. Sometimes I get so used to being in Romania that I almost forget I'm here - I become complacent. Then, I'll be walking somewhere, like to the store or to the church and God will randomly hit me with a reality check. It happens in the simple things, like a simple (okay, VERY simple...I understand most Romanian, but my ability to respond in Romanian isn't all that great. I'm working on it!) conversation with someone on the street, looking at the mountains, or I just have this feeling. And I fall in love with this country all over again. It happened today when I was up in the mountains. I was sent to get water from the stream and as I got there, I stopped and took this picture, then closed my eyes, listened to the stream, and took a second to breathe in the fresh mountain air. In that moment, I fell in love with Romania all over again.

These lyrics aren't just true for people like me. They're true for all of us. We all have the chance to just blend into everyday life and just be regular people. Or, we can do something radical for God and be a witness to His glory each and every day. It's all about walking the walk and not just talking the talk. You can talk to someone about the Gospel until you're blue in the face, but if you're not living it out, what's the point? The person isn't going to listen.

In the 7 years since I came back to my faith, I've found that nothing brings me greater joy than living out the Gospel, specifically, the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). I named the mission after the concept of being a witness in everyday life simply by loving those I encounter each day, whether it's the kids at the orphanage, people from our parish, or just someone walking past on the street. I want to be (and I pray that I am) used by God each day to be someone's chance for hope in Him. His hope never disappoints (Romans 5:5).

I have the wonderful opportunity to return to Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina for a pilgrimage in 3 weeks. I first went when I was studying in Austria and my view of the Blessed Mother was never the same. I always thought she was kinda cool before I went, but it was there that I had what I call my "Marian Conversion" and I realized how freakin' awesome she is. Fr. Remus was asked to be the spiritual leader for a group in Baia Mare. But, here's the kicker. To go, I need 250 euro, or $320. Any chance you can help with that? Go to bringhope.org/catherine and donate. If you can't donate, please pray that I can get the money. There's a saying about Medjugorje that goes "If the Blessed Mother wants you there, she'll get you there, no matter what." I'm trusting in that.

Romanian Adventures

It's hard to believe I've been back almost a month already! It's flown by. Seriously. And now that I have internet in my apartment, here I am, blogging for ya!

First, I just want to tell you what an incredible blessing it was to have Ellen here for 3 weeks. She is a young woman who is amazing. We laughed (a lot), experienced the things that just don't happen anywhere else but in rural Romania, we were frustrated at the lack of internet together, and became friends very fast. I must say that I'm really happy knowing that there is someone who loves Romania the way that I do. Come back soon, Ellen! We all miss you. George keeps saying that he loves you and not me. Hahaha.

Look at Ellen rocking that Mission Romania shirt!

My first weekend back, I was very blessed to have my friend Jordan visit. He's been traversing the world for the last couple months, and he was in Budapest, which is only 4 hours from here, so he decided to come visit. I was ecstatic to have him here. He got to experience trying to drive through the cattle drive and me getting hit with a cowtail because my window was down. Jordan, Ellen, and I also went to Ukraine...without a Romanian...The border is just a 15 minute drive from here, so we were like YOLO! (this is an example of the phrase used properly. Hahaha) It was quite the adventure. Let me tell you that. The Romanian border police officer was joking with us asking why in the world we, 3 young Americans, wanted to go to Ukraine. We told him we wanted the stamps in our passports, to get some gas for Fr. Remus' Land Rover, and Jordan wanted a postcard. He laughed and said, "You Americans are crazy. Don't go." So, we got through the neutral space and then through the Ukrainian border and that's when the adventure really began. It all started when we had the old English license plates from the previous owner of the Land Rover in the trunk, which then caused the Ukrainian border police to ask to look at the registration and the VIN number on the car. Turns out there was a typo on the registration and that made them decide to send us back. It was quite an adventure because the border people spoke no English and only one of them spoke a little bit of Romanian. I'm pretty sure I spoke more Romanian than he did. So, we got like 10 feet into Ukraine and we got our stamps. And we have one heck of a story. So, we were happy. When we got back to the Romanian border station, the same guard was there and he was like "Back so fast?" and we told him we had issues with the license plates and without a second of hesitation, he goes, "Told you so" and start cracking up. So, we went to Ukraine and got our passport stamps. That was enough for me. Jordan, thank for an amazing weekend full of laughter and craziness :)

I was recently asked to start blogging for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's blog "Being Catholic" and I wrote my first post the other day. You can see it here. I hope to be writing for them a couple times a month.

Update on Casa de Copii Don Bosco: the town hall has offered us 3 buildings. They area all schools that are barely in use. We would have to make some major changes to all of them, but we can do it. We hope to find out soon which is the final building they are giving us. Money wise, we're at just over $32,000. So, if you can donate anything at all, even just $5, that helps. You can find a link to the donation page on the top right side of my blog.

As always, please continue to pray for the mission. Prayers are our driving force. I ask especially that you pray for a new missionary. We need another full-time person in the near future to help keep things going. If you know of anyone who would be interested in full time mission work, have them check out the Missions of Hope website (bringhope.org) and consider applying for the mission.

"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." -William Carey, missionary to India

New Logo

I'm SO excited to be able to finally show these to everyone. These are the logos created by Cassie Pease (cassiepeasedesigns.com) for  ETL and they are perfect! She did a phenomenal job. I am thinking about making t-shirts. Please let me know if you'd like to buy one! E-mail me at catherine@bringhope.org

Also, please pray for Ellen. She is traveling to Romania today. She will be serving for 3 weeks at the Franciscan orphanage in Satu Mare and then for 3 weeks in Turt. I've posted a link to her blog on the link section at the top of the page.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to Romania in a mere 20 days. I can't wait to hold the kids in my arms again! I can't wait to hear my favorite sound in the world: their laughter! I can't wait to see the people in Turt who have shown me so much love! I can't wait to get the final blueprints from the architect and begin construction on Casa de Copii Don Bosco! Right now, I have raised $26,000. As I've said in pretty much every single blog post since I announced this project, if you can donate anything, big or small, please click here. The smallest donations really do add up, so please don't think that a small $5 can't help. It does. Trust me.

I'm really excited about my next 6 month stay in Romania. Huge things are going to happen. I know it. And hopefully, by the summer of 2014, Casa de Copii Don Bosco will be open and as insane as it sounds, I'll be a mom. I never would have thought that by the time I'm 24, I'll be the mom to 10 kids. Well, here it comes. Haha.

As always, please pray for the mission. As A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, once said, "Prayer is the mighty engine that moves missionary work."

Just An Update

Here's what's going on.

My shoulder is getting better slowly but surely. I no longer have to wear the sling, but I'm still in quite a bit of pain. It gets a little better each day, so, I'm keeping my head up. I'm going through pretty tough physical therapy right now. That's probably going to be going on pretty much until I leave. 

I am leaving for Romania on June 9 and I'm very excited :) I plan to be there until December. What I am even more excited about is the fact that I am going to have a summer missionary with me for 6 weeks! Ellen is a freshman at Notre Dame (GO IRISH! My older brother went to Notre Dame, so we are big Irish fans at my house). She visited Romania for her spring break about a month ago and wanted to come back, so we made that happen. Welcome to the Missions of Hope family, Ellen! 

I made a video of some of the pictures from my first couple months to the song "Kings and Queens" by Audio Adrenaline. I wrote about the song in an earlier post - the guys wrote it about the kids in their orphanage in Haiti and I found that it really rang true to what I'm doing in Romania. Click here to watch the video. 

I am very excited to be working with graphic designer Cassie Pease (cassiepeasedesigns.com) to design a logo for the mission (maybe I should make t-shirts. Hmm...Now there's an idea!). Her designs are beautiful and you should check out her website!

Fundraising wise, I've hit kind of a plateau. At the moment, I'm sitting right at about $21,300. I just applied for a grant from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and I sent letters asking for help from two very large foundations in Cincinnati. I'm praying that I can get help from all three places because fundraising from Romania isn't going to be easy and I would really like to have the orphanage open by next summer, but whatever God wants and in His time. If you can help financially, large or small, please click here. 

I saw this picture on Facebook today and it reminded me EXACTLY why I chose to name the new orphanage after St. John Bosco. That man was just so plain stinkin' awesome. I am so insanely excited about the future and what God has in store. It's more than I ever would have thought when I began praying about being a missionary 2 years ago. 

Please continue to keep ETL: Mission Romania in your prayers because it's the prayers of our supporters that keep us going.

The Smallest, Most Heartfelt Donation

Today, I received a letter from a 10-year-old girl named Sarah who I used to babysit when her family still lived in Cincinnati. Here's what it says:

Dear Catherine,
Happy Easter! I hope yours was incredible! Mine was. My family has a tradition of putting up charts so we know how well we are doing with our give ups and take ons for Lent. If you do both give up and take on correctly, you get 2 nickels. The first one you earn goes to the Church and the second one you keep. This year, however, I am not giving my money to the Church. I am giving it to your orphanage in Romania. It isn't much ($2.30) but I hope it will help you.
Love, Sarah

When I read this letter, my eyes began to tear up. What a beautiful witness this young girl is. She has always been such a delight and her generosity has really moved me. It reminds me of the Parable of the Poor Widow: "And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put more in than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she our of her poverty has put in everything she had." -Mark 12:41-44. Her donation has even humbled me. If someone as young as Sarah sees the need, then I, as someone who has the chance to change the world, shouldn't pass up the opportunity to do so.

Sarah's donation brings the grand total of fundraising to date for Casa de Copii Don Bosco to $21,002.30. Everyone who has donated has been so generous and I could not be more thankful for our benefactors. I am so excited about this project and God has made it very clear that his is what He wants.

I had surgery on my shoulder 3 weeks ago and everything went well. I will be in a sling for another week and a half and then I will have 6-8 weeks of physical therapy after that. I'm hoping to be back in Romania by mid-June.

If you'd like to donate to the orphanage fund, on the side bar is the link to the donation page. Just choose the orphanage fund designation.

I find great joy in these words. I hope you do too. "My greatest pleasure if to serve the Lord in His poor children rejected by other people." -St. Damian of Molokai