I started my internship at Presentation Convent on May 3rd, well that's when I flew to Aberdeen. I didn't really start until May 5th because my aunt who is also my boss didn't get here until the 4th late at night. I completed one of the 3 main things I needed to do while I was here. I planned and directed a 2 day retreat for high school girls. It was a challenge, but I made it through and everyone said I did a good job and it turned out well, which brings me to things I have learned during my internship thus far...(this is only some..there's a lot)
1. Be flexible. (I already knew this..it was just confirmed)
2. I was blessed with the "Cadillac" Peer Ministry team(as my Aunt calls it) back home and I won't have that everywhere I go.
3. Living in the same building where you work is pretty sweet. No expenses for commuting and you can wake up a few minutes before you should be in the office. Oh, and if you forget something, you can just go up and get it!
4. Living in the same building where you work can be pretty bad. The people who live here and that you work with see you all the time and you are with them all of the time so things can get a little tense.
5. Socialization with people my age is important. I am with these Nuns all of the time and there's n young adult groups because it is summer so I have been having to find ways to keep myself going. I found an adorable coffee shop in town that I like to go to, but of course getting drinks there costs money, so I try to go there as little as possible.
6. You are going to disagree with people. Sometimes it's better to just go with it.
7. It is frustrating when you do something as part of your job and then someone goes and changes it completely. I guess I can't get mad though..I still get paid.
8. Wheel of Fortune is awesome...and Sister Josita and I need to go on the show and play together because we are awesome at it!
9. Don't do laundry after 9pm if someone is staying in the room by the Laundry Room.
10. If you get scolded for things every day or every other day, shrug it off and learn from it (how I learned #9) and move on. Laugh about it if you can if it isn't too serious.
11. You are going to get in trouble if you are 20 and living in a convent with people who are no younger than 50. Accept it...move on.
12. Thank you letters are a must for almost everything.
So these are just a few things...
Next week I am headed to Iowa for a camp for hispanic middle school girls...They come on Monday and leave on Friday I think and I am driving the whole 8 or so hours by myself with a van full of supplies on Saturday (Mom Don't freak Out...it's okay!). Pray for me and everyone working the camp. Pray that we also make it there safe because there's a lot of water covering the roads that would make it easier to get there!!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Be Faithful. Listen. Pray.
My prayers today started with Isaiah 6:3-8, (Verse 8 is one I got from one of my favorite missionaries I know, so thanks!). Listening. Key to prayer. Listening. No matter how loud you yell, "HERE I AM, SEND ME!", if you don't listen to God's voice, we won't know where he is calling us.
I opened my Bible next and got to Sirach 6:5-17 which is a passage I have read many times before and I have notes written next to it, but none of that matter today when I was praying with it. Some things that stuck out to me were these words:
One word that I loved and thought was very important is "faithful". You can't just act like or be their friend for a week, you need to be there for each other and the retreatants after the weekly bowling trips, parties, and random hang outs fade. You need to be there for them once school starts and they are faced with struggles, hardships, and also great moments. You need to be a faithful friend.
I really like what I learned from some missionaries not too long ago and guess what?...we are ALL called to be missionaries!...so back to what I learned. While you are in ministry, be friends, be brothers and sisters to each other. As Peer Ministers, as Missionaries, we are called to minister to these people and to each other and I have seen a lot of relationships ruined with people because they tried to act on being in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship which effects their ministry. I learned that if this is what you think is right, God will open that door once your ministry is over in that place. We need to first learn how to be good brothers and sisters to each other and be out of ministry together before we can think about a dating relationship with those people.
Brotherhood.
Sisterhood.
I am not saying don't be friends with the opposite sex, but have a brotherhood or sisterhood as your main support. I saw how important and amazing that was on my NET interview retreat where there were these beautiful, Holy, men who were so filled with the Spirit that I wanted to just be around and hear about God working in their lives and talk about what we've gone through, but I learned that my small group that was all women made all the difference in the world. It was so rewarding because we had a common bond already that no guy friend of mine could understand and I'm sure it's the same for the guys. I look at an example of looking to Mary and Joseph for guidance. Women will learn and follow Mary and Joseph in different ways because of our connection with the two in different ways. Mary was a mother, Joseph was a father, a carpenter. Children look to their father's and mother's for different things based on their gender I think a lot of the time so it is the same with our spiritual life.
This topic is something that has been tugging on my heart since I left my interview weekend because I saw how much I loved having that Catholic Sisterhood and I wasn't focusing enough on it in my life back home. Peer ministry, no matter where you are needs to have a strong sisterhood and brotherhood before anything else. Without that, I find it really hard to really do what we are called to do. This last year I loved the women in the peer ministry program I was working in because the women were so supportive and understanding and that bond is like no other bond I could have with guys in my life.
I have watched many Peer Ministry programs change over the years and some things that I miss seeing is the brotherhood and sisterhood and Catholic Fellowship among the group, the energy and love that the programs used to be given and most of all, letting the Holy Spirit take charge of our lives in ministry and in our daily lives.
People may just be a part of a peer ministry program because it's just what's next to do to keep us busy in the program, it's fun, or it's cool, but LISTEN to where God is calling you.
Are you where God is calling you to be and do?
Praying for you all.
God Bless,
Erica Jean
I opened my Bible next and got to Sirach 6:5-17 which is a passage I have read many times before and I have notes written next to it, but none of that matter today when I was praying with it. Some things that stuck out to me were these words:
16-17 "A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself."
My Bible also had a note at the bottom that really caught my attention:14 " A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure."
I was asked yesterday if I would like to be included in a prayer chain for a retreat that will be happening in July, so I decided, why not! Today I prayed for the retreatants, peer ministers, Abbot Issac, the Youth Ministers, chaperones, and the Holy Spirit to come into every aspect of this retreat and the peer minister's lives so this could be the best retreat ever. These verses really stuck out to me though when I was praying for this retreat..."True friends are discerned not by prosperity but through the trials of adversity: distress, quarrels, sorrow and misfortune. Such friends are rare and their value is beyond estimation, a gift from God."
One word that I loved and thought was very important is "faithful". You can't just act like or be their friend for a week, you need to be there for each other and the retreatants after the weekly bowling trips, parties, and random hang outs fade. You need to be there for them once school starts and they are faced with struggles, hardships, and also great moments. You need to be a faithful friend.
I really like what I learned from some missionaries not too long ago and guess what?...we are ALL called to be missionaries!...so back to what I learned. While you are in ministry, be friends, be brothers and sisters to each other. As Peer Ministers, as Missionaries, we are called to minister to these people and to each other and I have seen a lot of relationships ruined with people because they tried to act on being in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship which effects their ministry. I learned that if this is what you think is right, God will open that door once your ministry is over in that place. We need to first learn how to be good brothers and sisters to each other and be out of ministry together before we can think about a dating relationship with those people.
Brotherhood.
Sisterhood.
I am not saying don't be friends with the opposite sex, but have a brotherhood or sisterhood as your main support. I saw how important and amazing that was on my NET interview retreat where there were these beautiful, Holy, men who were so filled with the Spirit that I wanted to just be around and hear about God working in their lives and talk about what we've gone through, but I learned that my small group that was all women made all the difference in the world. It was so rewarding because we had a common bond already that no guy friend of mine could understand and I'm sure it's the same for the guys. I look at an example of looking to Mary and Joseph for guidance. Women will learn and follow Mary and Joseph in different ways because of our connection with the two in different ways. Mary was a mother, Joseph was a father, a carpenter. Children look to their father's and mother's for different things based on their gender I think a lot of the time so it is the same with our spiritual life.
This topic is something that has been tugging on my heart since I left my interview weekend because I saw how much I loved having that Catholic Sisterhood and I wasn't focusing enough on it in my life back home. Peer ministry, no matter where you are needs to have a strong sisterhood and brotherhood before anything else. Without that, I find it really hard to really do what we are called to do. This last year I loved the women in the peer ministry program I was working in because the women were so supportive and understanding and that bond is like no other bond I could have with guys in my life.
I have watched many Peer Ministry programs change over the years and some things that I miss seeing is the brotherhood and sisterhood and Catholic Fellowship among the group, the energy and love that the programs used to be given and most of all, letting the Holy Spirit take charge of our lives in ministry and in our daily lives.
People may just be a part of a peer ministry program because it's just what's next to do to keep us busy in the program, it's fun, or it's cool, but LISTEN to where God is calling you.
Are you where God is calling you to be and do?
Praying for you all.
God Bless,
Erica Jean
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Adventures, Birthday, NET, Catching Up...
So Since I have last written (as I am getting worse at keeping up with this...sorry!) I have moved to South Dakota for the summer to live in a Convent to be an intern in the Vocation office to help with 3 different youth camps. One of them is for high schoolers, it's 3 days (June 14-16) and I am planning and directing that whole camp..That's Live Out Loud. The next one is a Hispanic Camp, L.I.V.E., and it is June 27-July 1. My role in that camp is a lot actually..I am in a small group there, putting together a video by that Friday of the camp (so no sleep for me!), doing a lot of pre-camp planning such as prayer services, organizing supplies, and sort of being a liaison between the Convent team that will be helping and the team in Nebraska that is planning most of it. The last camp is the Storm Mountain Leadership Camp in the Black Hills (July 25-29) and my role is very small in this camp pretty much. I am just going to be a counselor in a small group, which is a big task actually, but small compared to the other camps. I have a few things to plan for that but nothing major, and I have to take supplies to camp since they are all stored where I am staying. So that is my internship pretty much. As I said before, I am living in the convent, so I have a little room...very little..smaller than my dorm room, with a desk, closet thing, dresser, and a tall shelf thingy, tv, bed, and a rocking chair :) It's a really nice room though..and it has a great view of the prairie I think it's called and the starry nights are beautiful. I have this tree outside my window and the little flower blossoms fall off all of the time!
Enough about the actual internship...I celebrated my birthday here! My Golden Birthday--I turned 20! I had an exciting week for my birthday. I ended up in Nebraska/Iowa for the days leading up to my birthday. I went into this awesome Christmas shop in the Old Market in Omaha, NE and I had meetings on the 19th, but that night I went out to eat with two of the Sisters and we ate A LOT! Wings, Queso, Pizza, Fries...then DESSERT which was hot cookies with chocolate ice cream on top! (SO GOOD!) Friday, my birthday actually, I met Rosa (who is in the process of becoming a Sister) in Sioux Falls in South Dakota at Applebees and ate some more..queso and dessert shooter! Then I got back to Aberdeen and some of the Sisters met me at Culvers where I had Chocolate Custard and Fries....
Soo to say the least..it was a birthday full of food...and that's not even the end.. On Sunday, the Prairie House, which is where a few of the Sisters live, invited me over for dinner where we had hamburgers, chips, potato salad, apples and caramel, and then ice cream sundaes! I think it was a pretty fantabulous birthday. I also celebrated in Florida before I left there with some sisters and friends. We went bowling and just hung out and it was amazing <3
Other than those two things, I am just trying to figure out things here and with NET. I am leaving for NET on August 25th! I finally bought my plane ticket today! I have been praying a lot this summer about NET, for the financial donors, for the other NET missionaries, and for the strength to actually do this mission. It is going to be a change for sure, this summer is pretty good and they are long days sometimes, but nothing like NET I am sure. I have so much prayer support and support from friends, family and sorority sisters that I feel very confident about going after I continue to pray about where I am supposed to be going. I have been sending out a lot of letters asking for people to financially support my mission by joining the Partnership Program and praying for myself and the other missionaries, as well as the NET program. If you haven't gotten a letter, email me your address and I will be sure to get a letter out to you, otherwise you can go to NET's website (click here) to learn more about NET and their mission and to support my mission financially. If you choose to donate online, make sure you mark Team Member and write my name 'Erica Jean Boehm' so it goes toward my mission directly :) All of your support is greatly appreciated!
I will try to keep you all updated more often about my South Dakota adventures, in the mean time, please prayer for the development of these camps and that the Holy Spirit will really take over with them especially the Live Out Loud Camp which is coming up very soon and we started from scratch to plan!
God Bless,
Erica Jean Boehm
Enough about the actual internship...I celebrated my birthday here! My Golden Birthday--I turned 20! I had an exciting week for my birthday. I ended up in Nebraska/Iowa for the days leading up to my birthday. I went into this awesome Christmas shop in the Old Market in Omaha, NE and I had meetings on the 19th, but that night I went out to eat with two of the Sisters and we ate A LOT! Wings, Queso, Pizza, Fries...then DESSERT which was hot cookies with chocolate ice cream on top! (SO GOOD!) Friday, my birthday actually, I met Rosa (who is in the process of becoming a Sister) in Sioux Falls in South Dakota at Applebees and ate some more..queso and dessert shooter! Then I got back to Aberdeen and some of the Sisters met me at Culvers where I had Chocolate Custard and Fries....
Soo to say the least..it was a birthday full of food...and that's not even the end.. On Sunday, the Prairie House, which is where a few of the Sisters live, invited me over for dinner where we had hamburgers, chips, potato salad, apples and caramel, and then ice cream sundaes! I think it was a pretty fantabulous birthday. I also celebrated in Florida before I left there with some sisters and friends. We went bowling and just hung out and it was amazing <3
Other than those two things, I am just trying to figure out things here and with NET. I am leaving for NET on August 25th! I finally bought my plane ticket today! I have been praying a lot this summer about NET, for the financial donors, for the other NET missionaries, and for the strength to actually do this mission. It is going to be a change for sure, this summer is pretty good and they are long days sometimes, but nothing like NET I am sure. I have so much prayer support and support from friends, family and sorority sisters that I feel very confident about going after I continue to pray about where I am supposed to be going. I have been sending out a lot of letters asking for people to financially support my mission by joining the Partnership Program and praying for myself and the other missionaries, as well as the NET program. If you haven't gotten a letter, email me your address and I will be sure to get a letter out to you, otherwise you can go to NET's website (click here) to learn more about NET and their mission and to support my mission financially. If you choose to donate online, make sure you mark Team Member and write my name 'Erica Jean Boehm' so it goes toward my mission directly :) All of your support is greatly appreciated!
I will try to keep you all updated more often about my South Dakota adventures, in the mean time, please prayer for the development of these camps and that the Holy Spirit will really take over with them especially the Live Out Loud Camp which is coming up very soon and we started from scratch to plan!
God Bless,
Erica Jean Boehm
Friday, April 29, 2011
Royal Wedding
Today was the Royal Wedding of Kate and William...ohh so beautiful! :)
Before I get to that though, let me brief you on my day and such..
I had blood testing at 7am so I left by 6:30 this morning then cam home by 7:45, showered, and left to go to 8:30am daily mass at St. Mark. After that I decided that it wasn't worth going home since I would fall asleep and miss an appointment I was supposed to have at 1:30 so I decided to shop instead since I still need some clothes for my internship and for NET. After that I got my haircut, went to my appointment then I went to Channelside for my first Hooter's experience with Chelsea. Then I got to hang out with my mom and shop with her in Brandon for other stuff I needed for the next year which was a lot of fun actually. Amanda Arce, one of my amazing sorority sisters, and Charles AKA Sparkles came over for food and to hang out for a little bit which was awesome since I leave on Tuesday :)
Okay, so back to this wedding...it was AWESOME. So beautiful and...well, beautiful. Her dress was amazing and the style was gorgeous.
Now to what was really great...I got to go to daily mass this morning at my church. It was at 8:30, so I showered really quick when I got home and then headed to mass. Daily mass at my church is great..I don't know why I love it so much, but I do. It's a big worship area with few people, but the people are very much there. Fr. Ed, one of my favorite, if not my favorite, priest presided over mass this morning and he talked about The Polar Express in his homily which was awesome since I love Christmas, I love that movie, and his point was legit.
Whenever I receive the Eucharist, I really remember why I am Catholic. He is fully present here, not just symbolically. How totally amazing is that....
Anyway, since today is a good day and there is no better time than the present, start going to daily mass when you can..even get up earlier to go maybe...just as if you were getting up early for the Royal Wedding, but this promise is much more amazing. :)
See you in the Eucharist.
God Bless.
-Erica Jean Boehm
Before I get to that though, let me brief you on my day and such..
I had blood testing at 7am so I left by 6:30 this morning then cam home by 7:45, showered, and left to go to 8:30am daily mass at St. Mark. After that I decided that it wasn't worth going home since I would fall asleep and miss an appointment I was supposed to have at 1:30 so I decided to shop instead since I still need some clothes for my internship and for NET. After that I got my haircut, went to my appointment then I went to Channelside for my first Hooter's experience with Chelsea. Then I got to hang out with my mom and shop with her in Brandon for other stuff I needed for the next year which was a lot of fun actually. Amanda Arce, one of my amazing sorority sisters, and Charles AKA Sparkles came over for food and to hang out for a little bit which was awesome since I leave on Tuesday :)
Okay, so back to this wedding...it was AWESOME. So beautiful and...well, beautiful. Her dress was amazing and the style was gorgeous.
Now to what was really great...I got to go to daily mass this morning at my church. It was at 8:30, so I showered really quick when I got home and then headed to mass. Daily mass at my church is great..I don't know why I love it so much, but I do. It's a big worship area with few people, but the people are very much there. Fr. Ed, one of my favorite, if not my favorite, priest presided over mass this morning and he talked about The Polar Express in his homily which was awesome since I love Christmas, I love that movie, and his point was legit.
Whenever I receive the Eucharist, I really remember why I am Catholic. He is fully present here, not just symbolically. How totally amazing is that....
Anyway, since today is a good day and there is no better time than the present, start going to daily mass when you can..even get up earlier to go maybe...just as if you were getting up early for the Royal Wedding, but this promise is much more amazing. :)
See you in the Eucharist.
God Bless.
-Erica Jean Boehm
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
It's been WAY too long...
Let me do a quick update on my life. A few big things that have happened since January. I will be serving with NET Ministries, which is a 9 month mission program, starting in August of this year. I have been really busy with everything going on. I went to Immokalee, FL this weekend with some other students, Dr. Woodard and his family. I learned so much and still haven't really figured out my feelings yet. It was a lot to take in in a very short amount of time. I am doing my final art project on Immokalee farm workers though which will be really awesome hopefully.
Okay now to real stuff..
I have been stressing out a little bit because I am leaving May 3 for my summer internship in South Dakota and I have a lot to get done before then, specifically raising $4200 for NET and getting my life in order and packed for this year. It's crazy to think that in less than 150 days I will be flying into Minnesota for 9 months of serving with NET. Tonight I really just needed to talk things out so I went to my sister's room and just spilled out loud because I wasn't sure what to do. After the fact I realize that I keep thinking about my plans...It's not about me!! God's got this crazy awesome plan for everything and things will work out how they need to.. How awesome is that..I don't need to worry.
Well, I will write more about NET and SD later so everyone know what is going on more, but until then, Breathe and Smile <3
God Bless,
Erica Jean Boehm
Okay now to real stuff..
I have been stressing out a little bit because I am leaving May 3 for my summer internship in South Dakota and I have a lot to get done before then, specifically raising $4200 for NET and getting my life in order and packed for this year. It's crazy to think that in less than 150 days I will be flying into Minnesota for 9 months of serving with NET. Tonight I really just needed to talk things out so I went to my sister's room and just spilled out loud because I wasn't sure what to do. After the fact I realize that I keep thinking about my plans...It's not about me!! God's got this crazy awesome plan for everything and things will work out how they need to.. How awesome is that..I don't need to worry.
Well, I will write more about NET and SD later so everyone know what is going on more, but until then, Breathe and Smile <3
God Bless,
Erica Jean Boehm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)