Joslyn Wiebelhaus

"Life with Christ is a wonderful adventure." - St. John Paul II
  • My Goal:
  • $15,000
  • Raised So Far:
  • $17,885
  • # of Donations:
  • 345
$17885 of $15000 goal

The whole month of October!

Update #1  •   Posted 2709 day(s) ago

Hello everyone.

 

Happy almost November?! Where the heck did that month go... It's crazy what we missionaries have been up to in the whole month of October. From Retreat groups to ropes training, weddings, and prepping our middle school Retreats. It's been overwhelming how much joy I have had from working and meeting so many new people along with journeying with some awesome teens. This update is to just inform you all what we have been up to the whole month and I hope you enjoy it.

 

Week 1:

Week 1 a man named Andrew came and trained us on our high ropes courses. We learned safety and the importance on how to be successful when facilitating when participants are using our ropes course. This was not easy for me. Although, it did bring back a lot of memories from Girl Scouts and a lot of the things I learned like different ways to tie knots and such, but in the end it was a fun time to use our zip line, rock climbing wall, and high ropes course and try to overcome a lot of our fears such as heights, thoughts of "I can't do this with how much I weigh." and it built an opportunity for us to trust one another and build that in a community sense. My teammate Kerrianne and I did this thing called Jacob's ladder where we as a team have to try and make it to the top and there were many times I wanted to quit because of my weight and size that I just couldn't get up anymore. I cried many times in front of the guys because I was embarassed but it led me to really trust in the Lord and in my community to help me overcome this. I prayed an immense amounts of Hail Mary's and made it to the top. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but truly motivated me to start working out more every day and I have since then. Praise God. Below are a few photos from the week.

 

Secondly,

The missionaries got to go to Camp Hidden Lake and participate in the first ever EDGE training conference. I got to take photos and participate chatting with Youth Ministers all across the U.S. who do middle school youth ministry. It was nice to have West Point EDGE Youth Minister, Lisa Hunke here along with a couple of her CORE members. It was nice to have a piece of home and truly witness Youth Ministers give their yes to reach out to middle school youth. Pray for them <3 Here are a few photos I captured from the weekend.

 

 

Week 2:

Week 2 was a week of training along with finding out our champions. Champions at camp are what we as missionaries are in charge of for the entire year. My champion for the whole year will to be planning birthdays, feast days, baptismal days, and holiday parties. This champion is an opportunity for our community to come together and not have to worry about anything going on and simply just enjoying community gatherings. It's a lot of fun being creative and since we're missionaries, we don't really have a budget so it requires a lot of creativity which I am slowly growing in more and more every day.

 

Over the weekend we had 4 Retreat groups. It's pretty normal, but we as missionaries are spread out the entire weekend and I was paired with St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas Aquinas hosted a freshman Retreat and I had a great time. I got to help lead worship by singing, help out in a small group and just have fun. I grew a lot and got really close with my small group. If anything is hard about being a missionary it's getting to know these people for 3 days and then we have to send them forth because it's one of those things where I can give them my A game or just be another person sitting in on a Retreat. I am grateful it's easy for me to just jump in with a group and feel like I've been journeying with them for a long time. Here are a few photos from the Retreat.

 

 

Week 3:

Week 3 was a crazy fruitful week. We planned our 1st middle middle school Retreat and I gave the opening talk "Who do you say that I am." It was nice because I used some of the material from JC Camp - the Retreat that started the journey of my faith life 10 years ago and worked every year since. I had a great small group who made my job easy. We did many things from praying together, crying together, our rock climbing wall, the trust fall, getting over the wall, and many other fun activities. They were a very great small group and I cried when they left because I felt like they were teens I have been journeying with for years. We were able to connect and truly encounter the Lord through honesty, vulnerability, and love. Praise God.

 

 

Now:

This week has been a pretty relaxing week. We have an upcoming Retreat in 3 weeks called Shift and have already started planning for that. I was assigned the talk before Adoration. We missionaries also have been on the home team which means we have been serving our Hidden Lake missionaries by cooking food, facilitating our ropes course, and helping them in any way we can. Basically the behind the scenes crew.

This weekend will be our first weekend not having a Retreat, but we were invited to a Life Night in Athens, GA so we missionaries will be going to that along with a halloween party at the University of Georgia Catholic house.

What's going on next month?

Next month in November will be a month of planning and putting on Retreats, but we also start our weekly mentoring at the County middle school. My girl's name is Stella. The school doesn't know much about her home life, but I am very excited for this to be a weekly thing. We will also be prepping for our Haiti mission trip at the end of November. We will be spending thanksgiving here at camp, which I haven't processed yet because I haven't missed a family thanksgiving back home so that's been a little hard for me, but right after thanksgiving we will be going right into our mission trip to Haiti. I will be sending an update soon with more details on that.

 

I want to thank you all so much for everything you have done for me. I know some people haven't gotten my thank you cards yet. We are very busy and I know that's no excuse but I have a goal to try to send out 5 a day. I have been carrying you and your prayer intentions in holy hour every Wednesday at 7 AM. If you would like to add how I can pray for you, please simply email me, text me, or even facebook message me. I love you all and thank you for helping me lead teens closer to Christ.

 

Agape,

 

Joslyn