We're back live!

Ok. So it's been a looooooonnnnnnnnngggggg time! I had a good spring break in Nicaragua. I got to know a lot of different people, and do a lot of new things. For service work we: did door-to-door evangelizing for the purpose of supporting Catholics (a lot of Latin Americans are converting to various Protestant denominations); put on a "Faith & Fun" program for children at an orphanage and a soup kitchen (i.e. singing, games, & skits); and led an afternoon retreat for local high school students. On the second to last day we helped the Ave Maria Latin America (AMULA) students to put on a mission. The AMULA Mission Club has one mission per semester. The Mission activities combined all our experiences from the preceding week: door-to-door evangelization, children's program, and talks about the Faith.

In addition to mission activity, we also did some sight seeing (hosted by AMULA). We went to two volcanos; one had a cave, the other a rain forest; visited Cuapa, the only approved sight of a Marian apparition in Central America; swam in a lake which was almost as big as El Salvador; toured the islands in the lake (we saw monkies on one island!); and sawm in the Pacific Ocean!

It was a good to experience a different culture, to see poverty close up, and to realize the universality of the Church. It pulls you out of yourself and into the service of others.

Getting back into the routine of classes has been hard. I've really had a problem with procrastinating and not studying. I've also felt bored and in need of something diverting to plan/organize/daydream about.

Today I went out to breakfast after 7 a.m. Mass with a group of my friends to celebrate one of my friend's birthday. Then we all went to an abortion mill to pray for a few hours in spiritual warfare to defend the babies and the mothers. NO ONE CAME FOR AN ABORTION!!!! Praise God!!!!!! And thanks to Our Lady of Guadelupe whose image we brought with us!!! We returned around lunch time. I went to a study session for Ethics, and have been doing homework ever since. Consensus regrading homework: the Holy Spirit is ineffably AWESOME, and Andrew Jackson was mean.

Spring Break: Voy a.....

Guess what I'm doing for spring break.....................I'm going on AMU's mission trip to Nicaragua!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This past Saturday, totally out-of-the-blue, one of my friends mentioned that a student had her plane ticket double booked (turns out that she had signed up for both of Ave's mission trips - Ecuador and Nicaragua - so both groups bought her a ticket). Between Saturday night and Monday afternoon everything fell into place for me to go in her place. I'm exceedingly excited! I do not know what God has in mind for me during this trip, but if He went through all the trouble to surprise me with it I know it will be good! :)

Needless to say, I have been rather distracted during midterms. My two biggest tests (Latin poetry and American Civilization) are on Thursday so I would appreciate prayers. Praise God, my second ethics paper is done and I've printed it off to turn in tomorrow. I can't wait until Thursday evening when this is all done and I can focus on packing (so much fun!)