MORE.

Over and over again, Shauna Niequist nails it. This time, it was her post Less. Do yourself a favorite and go read it, immediately.

Did you read it?

Good. Glad you're back.

What I love about Shauna Niequiest and her writing is in the most eloquent, yet simple way, she speaks words that are vulnerable, beautiful, and exactly what I need to hear. 

My theme this year has been More Jesus, Less Stuff. And as we enter the halfway point of June, I think it's time to evaluate my progress.

I gave up TV for lent because I wanted more space for community and for Jesus. Instead what I allowed to creep in that space was a gaping loneliness, that left me lying in bed alone, fighting back tears of isolation while I was with other people, and a lingering sadness that would hiss lies in my ear about being unloved and uncared for. 

I am used to a full life. In college, I scheduled myself 24-hours a day with class, activities, events to plan, people to see, and meetings (on meetings on meetings) to attend. As a missionary, I ran around conforming my schedule to be present in the lives of 8+ women on a weekly basis, and trying to have a fulfilling team life with relationships with 9 other missionaries and their families. 

And now, when I am living in the wake of "less stuff," I see how this emptiness and dark can be unbearable. It seems that I have run full speed ahead with "Less Stuff," but have forgotten to fill it with "More Jesus."

And somehow, in the midst of all this, I remember a phrase that has stuck with me since Christine shared it on our 11PM drive from Ft. Myers to Ave Maria whilst taking a Divergent Factions Placement quiz (in case you are wondering, I am Amity & Christine is DIVERGENT!!!): Everything is God's Mercy. 

I believe that everything is within God's will. Yet somewhere along the road the connotation of that phrase was twisted in my heart to picture an angry, heartless God forcing me to feel miserable for a little bit because it pleased Him. The idea of God's will being a part of His Divine Mercy somehow sits better with my heart. 

Mercy allows me to see the other things He is protecting me from. Mercy allows me to see Him constantly calling out to me, doing everything He can to keep me on the path that leads to Him. Mercy inspires me to crawl out of the confessional, dust myself off, and to start again.

As I am remembering that everything is God's Mercy, and that I need to focus more on putting "More Jesus" into my life, I am already down here at FOCUS Summer Training for a full month where I am being presented with the opportunity to choose "More Jesus" at every moment. Whether that's attending prayer and scripture classes in my spare time, choosing kindness in my meetings and management style, or choosing daily Mass & prayer, the opportunities for "More Jesus" are readily available. Everything is God's Mercy. He knows what He's doing. 

Never would I have chosen a season of emptiness and loneliness, but because that has been my year, I now get to choose to return to Him in a way is real and relevant to our relationship. And who knows what's down the road - maybe this season of less will be a way my heart has been prepared to minister to others, or maybe it will propel me deeper into my relationship with Christ. 

So as Shauna continues along in her season of less, I will enter into a season of More (Jesus), all the while remembering every moment of my day is His Mercy.

7QTs on Traveling to 10 Cities in 8 Days

If you were to count airports, I was in 10 different cities these past 8 days. Woof. Please enjoy the following quick takes that chronicle my cross country journey this week.

--- 1 ---

City #1: Leawood, Kansas. My whole family was home for a hot second with enough time to go to lunch on Saturday. It was great to be back Friday & Saturday afternoon to spend time with those that were home. I didn't do much, so it was a nice, relaxing way to start this cross country adventure.

--- 2 ---

City #2: Kansas City, Missouri. Megan, a friend from Drake, lives in town, so I got to spend a bit of time with her Friday night. Also, she's watching my cat before my allergic roommate moves out, so that was fun.

--- 3 ---

City #2: Lincoln, Nebraska. Read about this trip in more detail here. This trip was filled with ALL THE NOSTALGIA. It was great.

City #3: Omaha, Nebraska. AIRPORT.

City #4: Chicago, Illinois. AIRPORT & being reunited with Carol!

--- 4 ---

City #5: Nashville, Tennessee. SEEK 2015 is a mere 8.5 months away. Crazy. I am so glad I was finally able to see the space so I could stop picturing the Hyatt in Dallas for this event. The Gaylord Opry is HUGE and has three giant gardens indoors. It's amazing. I could start to picture what it would look like with 8,000 college students bustling through there. Our CSM, Banquet Manager, & Sales Manager were great - it is always nice to have a face to all the emails you're getting.

The best part was spending time in the exhibit hall with EideCom, our production company, and the marketing team brainstorming ways to implement the theme and the feel into the set and the space. I am so excited to keep working on it and to see what happens when it comes together. #whatmovesyou

Something I don't think I'll ever get quite used to as a meeting planner is the VIP status the hotels treat you with. When we check in at the Gaylord, they took us into a room called Celebrity Services. What!? I am not a celebrity. Regardless, it's fun to be treated well every now and then, even though it can get awkward when they discover our whole team is under 30.

City #6: Atlanta, Georgia: AIRPORT.

City #7: Ft. Myers, Florida: AIRPORT.

--- 5 ---

City #8: Ave Maria, Florida. We returned to the tiny, tiny town near Naples to prepare for New Staff Training (NST). Not only was the trip fun, it was essential to the success of NST. For the first time we had the Event Managers (the events team), the Collegiate Outreach Representative, Formation, the Committee Heads, and Ave Maria together in one place to talk about NST. We toured, we planned, and we had a lot of meetings. But mainly, we had epic golf cart races from Queen Mary's Pub back to Xavier Hall. Brian, Cait, & I totally beat Christina, JP, & Mark. This team is great, and I think we are going to ROCK NST2014.

--- 6 ---

City #9: Indianapolis, Indiana: AIRPORT. When we got off the plane I mentioned to Christine that every single time I've been in this airport the last few years I've run into someone I know. To which she responded, "well, today is the day that will change." Such a naysayer. Approximately 10 minutes later we were waiting for our lunch and Paige, a former camper of mine strolled by. I had her in Teton in 2011 when she was a baby sophomore. Now she's 18 and graduating in 19 days! I'm old.

Paige is Mt. Wister in this picture.

City #10: Denver, Colorado: HOME.

--- 7 ---

You know you've been on a site visit when the last 25 pictures on your phone are of different meeting spaces.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7QTs on Camping, Reading, and Spontaneous Piercings

--- 1 ---

Tomorrow, I will have been back in Colorado for a whole week for the first time in what feels like forever. And I'm not leaving the state until April 17. A whole month of stability. I forgot what this feels like. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself now that I'm not traveling. Maybe I can finally get unpacked from all these travels and moving.

--- 2 ---

On Tuesday, Carol & I were spontaneous. Well, as spontaneous as you can be when you sent an outlook calendar invite the day before. We told Christina of our adventures the next day & she sent out this email to our team:

"Let's play two truths and a lie...

1. Michelle got her eyebrow pierced.

2. Michelle got her ear's triple pierced.

3. Carol got her cartilage pierced."

Christine guessed #2 was the lie, Zach tweeted "THIS IS TOO HARD," and Brenda guessed that someone actually got a giant tattoo. Any guesses?!

--- 3 ---

My team is about to start reading this book and I cannot wait.

I'm also really scared of it. I feel like it is going to kick me in the pants, nonstop. When we read 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Person, it transformed the way we plan our weeks and interact with our work. I'm interested to see how this next book will change the way we interact with each other.

--- 4 ---

I have another cross-country adventure coming up in a month. Part of being an event planner means going on site visits. Which I think is just so fun! You get to see the space, meet the staff, and start to visualize what your next event is actually going to look like. So our team is doing two site visits in one week. First we're headed to Nashville to check out the Gaylord Opry. I'm excited to stop visualizing the Hyatt Regency in Dallas and actually learn the names of the ballrooms at the Gaylord! Then we're headed to Ave Maria, Florida with all of the committee heads to rev up for summer training! Site visits with the team are so fun, and I can't wait for SO MUCH QUALITY TIME.

--- 5 ---

Speaking of adventure, I want to go camping so bad right now. Seriously. Hurry up and turn into spring, Colorado so I can sleep outside. For some reason my team has been talking a lot about tents and camping this week, and we recently learned that Christina has never actually been camping. When she was a girl scout, they set up tents with persian rugs. What!? It reminded Carol and me of this:

image via.

--- 6 ---

Answer to two truths and a lie: I did NOT get my eyebrow pierced! I'm mainly confused as to why Christina and Christine thought this would be something that I would do. I'd appreciate the insight. haha.

--- 7 ---

Next week is the saddest week of my entire time on the events team. Carol is moving back to Illinois so she can get married (dumb). I will be protesting this move every step of the way.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes on Keeping in Touch, SLS, and Florida [5]

--- 1 ---

One of my favorite things about camp is doing highs and lows during devotions every night. I think it's a simple way for kids to start reflecting on their lives, about what they love and what makes them uncomfortable. Sometimes it moves to further discussion, sometimes it's just about getting in the practice of self awareness. But what I think I love most about highs and lows is it really gives you a chance to get to know your kids. Especially the quiet ones who don't talk much. Hearing their best and worst moments of the day gives you a picture into what they're going through and it is a springboard for conversation the next day.

This is Maddie.

Aren't we so fun in our camp swim attire!?

Maddie is one of my favorite friends from Camp. We have so much in common and she is just an all around great friend. I haven't actually seen Maddie since Summer 2011. Which is pretty depressing when I think of that. We did a great job of keeping in touch for awhile, but then life got busy and we stopped. Now she's in DC & I'm in Colorado, making it really hard for our schedules to connect. In order to combat that, we recently started sending each other our highs and lows of the day. No explanation, no back story needed, just what's going on in our lives, our hearts, and our relationships with God. It's been so great to get a glimpse into her life into this way and it has really helped us stay in touch this year.

--- 2 ---

I went to Florida last week. Then I forgot to write about it because I was SO TIRED. Whoops. Enjoy this photo of the beach instead.

--- 3 ---

The reason Carol & I went to Florida was to attend the Rejuvenate Marketplace Conference.

It was so interesting to see the business side of conference planning. We met with 44 supplies (hotels, conference centers, universities, etc) each to see if what they offer (ie. space) will meet with our needs (SLS, SEEK, New Staff Training, etc.). It was a cool networking experience and I met some really interesting people. It was fun to hear about the sales and hotel side of the event planning process.

The concept was interesting because this event was only for religious meeting planners. Carol and I were two of 850(ish) meeting planners. Which was kind of overwhelming. It was great to represent FOUCS professionally and the Catholic Church as a whole. I had a lot of conversations about Pope Francis, the new evangelization, and just being young and Catholic.

The most awkward moment of the conference was when Carol & I were out to dinner with a lot of sales people and I confused Liam Neeson with Liam Hemsworth.

 

THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!



We were already being teased about being the youngest people at the event. Confusing Aslan/Zesus/Qui-Gon Jinn/Oskar Schindler/Jean Valjean with MILEY CYRUS' ex-fiance did not help my case. Insert face palm here.

--- 4 ---

Work is getting CRAZY right now. We have hit the two month mark until the event. AH! But I'm actually really, really getting excited. Yes, it is crunch time, but I think this event has the potential to be a game changer for every student that attends and the people in their lives. I'm so excited to keep working and see God work when we're in Dallas.

Please, please, please pray for all the students who will be attending the Summit and for our team as we continue to prepare for the event!

--- 5 ---

Speaking of SLS...

This is our branding:

This was my view walking out of the office Thursday night:

It was bluer in person.

Look familiar!?

--- 6 ---

This is my cat.

She's a huge weirdo. Also, her name is Kateri Tekakwitha.

Will the REAL Kateri please stand up!?

She's currently halfsitting on my leg, scratching her face on my computer. So I thought I'd include her in this week's #7QT. You're welcome.

--- 7 ---

One of the many things I get to do on Sunday's is teach Kindergarten Religious Education. I have 8 rowdy 5-year-olds and oh my gosh they are precious. I am an over ambitious teacher and have been walking through Salvation History with them with the hopes that they will know how the Old Testament is all about Jesus before they become FOCUS Missionaries. This week we learned about Noah's Ark. Check out how adorable these kiddos are:

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!