NCYC: I'm back!

Wow! NCYC was really fun, Very inspiring, and super amazing.
I got to listen to a lot of great people, and talk to a lot of great people. I met people from all over. There were even people there from Alaska and Hawaii! I did not have the pleasure of personally meeting any of them, but I met a lot of other people!

There were a lot of great talks. My favorite talk was "The perfect trap". The person giving the talk was trying to teaching us that comparing ourselves to others is a trick of the evil one. He also told us a touching story about I boy who has Down Syndrome. I instantly connected with it because my own little sister has down syndrome. It was a very nice story (with a happy ending!)  and I think nearly everyone in the room was a little teary eyed by the end.

There were also a lot of great musicians there. My favorite was Matt Maher. He seemed like a really nice guy, and seemed to be very humble, and looked actually a little nervous. It was actually nice seeing a big name Christian musician seem a little nervous. That probably seems odd to you, but I get really nervous when I have to do a public speaking thing, so it doesn't make me feel so awkward. During part of the show he said "I didn't come here to preform. I didn't come here so that you'd like me" I can't remember what he said after that, but just that line was so great.

On Friday morning we helped pack meals for the poor. We were only packing for about maybe a half hour, but during that time our group, along with lots of other people, packed almost 5000 bags! each bag serves 6 people, so you do the math. That alot of people! During the entire conference, people packed more and more bags. I can't remember what the total number of bags packed was (I am still super tired!) but it was A LOT!

My favorite part? Well, it's a long story that starts out sad, but ends real happy!
So I bought an official NCYC hoodie, and i also bought an NCYC patch. I thought it would be cool to put the patch on my AHG uniform. I'd be the only on in the troop with that patch! Anyway, some time around lunch I lost the whole bag, hoodie and patch. I went back to look for it, and couldn't find it. I checked with lost and found, they didn't have it. I gave them my phone number, they never called. Someone must have stolen it or something. Well, the next day, one of our youth leaders, whom we will call P., asked me if i would like to go back to Inspiration Junction and get a replacement. Having food allergies, I had to bring my own food, so they had leftover money for my food. Our leaders decided that I could use this money to replace the stuff I had lost. (We have the best youth leaders, just saying.) anyway, we went back to both of the NCYC official stores in the inspiration junction, and both of them were out of both small, and medium hoodies! A large or above would be way too big for me. ah, disappointment.

 So, P. and I walked around the junction to see if there was any other cool stuff that I could get in replacement of the hoodie.  As we were walking, these nuns were handing out yoyos saying something like "if you already have a yo-yo, take another! Take a whole bunch! Give 'em to your friends! Give 'em to your friend's friends!" so P. took a few, and I took one for each of my younger siblings. Then I saw some cool t-shorts, and the guy there offered me a deal, I could get 2 t-shirt, a cd, a poster, some buttons, and a guitar pick for $25 bucks! that was really great, and I really liked the t-shirts. (Now things actually start getting interesting.)

So, P. and I are walking around with a bunch of yoyos, and I've got my little bag of stuff, and we are probably going to drop something any second. So we are walking around, and we see this Priest with a bunch of bags! P. walk over and asks if he's giving them out. He is, so we each get one with great relief that we don;t have to worry about dropping everything now. I realize that this priest is a Redemptorist priest! "The redemptorists were started by St. Alphonsis, right?" I ask. Well, the answer was yes, and then we got to talking a little about St. Alphonsis (who is one of my favorite Saints) and then P. made me explain my Halloween costume (I went as St. Mellangel.) and the guy looked pretty impressed that i knew so much about Saints that "weren't in the top ten" as he put it. Then he asked me if I had ever considered  a religious Vocation. I told Him yes, and this is what he replied. "It's there. You just need to. . .  Massage it a little"
Funny way of putting it, but it got the message across! He took my name and said He'd pray for me, and we parted ways.

So, all of this may not make much sense to you, so i'm going to try to make it a little clearer. I really am seriously considering a religious vocation. I was going through alot of stress about the trip before hand, and I just remember thinking to God something like, "Oh God, I am so stressed out about this, Maybe you'll just let me know my vocation while i'm there?" I was trying to we hopeful, I was really stressed.
 St. Alphonsis is one of my favorite Saints. I'm going to share something with you that is a little uncomfortable for me. I suffer with something called Scrupulosity. Long story short, Scrupulosity is religious OCD. St. Alphonsis is the patron Saint against scrupulosity, because he suffered with it too. Anyway, this message about my vocation, coming from someone in the order that St. Alphonsis started really hit me. Later on, P. brought to my attention that Losing my hoodie may have been Divine Providence, because if I hadn't lost that hoodie, I would never had met that priest. it was really cool, and I am so glad to have had that experience.  Thank you God!

isn't it so cool when God sends you a message in the little details that only you would notice, or that would only have meaning to you? I LOVE when He does that! I admit, I didn't think of losing the hoodie as Divine providence until after P. had mentioned it, but I do believe it was. I was just so excited to have met a Redepmtorist Priest, I didn't even think of it!

Well, I had a great time. There were some weird part, but most of the event was really fun. I had a great time. God is just so amazing!

NCYC!

I am very excited (and blessed!) to be going to the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) this year. My Parish is starting a youth ministry program, and I was selected to be in the leadership. All 7 of us leaders are going to NCYC to get really motivated and Set on Fire with the Holy Spirit so that when we come back, we can start up our youth group and share that fire with others.

I am very excited. I am also quite nervous. I admit that I have never been to anything like this before. I also admit that it is a bit out of my comfort zone. But I really want to go and learn more about my Faith, and I really really want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and I am sure that He will be there to fill each of our hearts, who ever will ask for Him to come to them.

I am also hoping to learn more about discerning ones vocation. There are several workshops there that are made to help youth learn to discern, and learn more about the vocations that they may be called to. Over the last year or so, I have really been thinking about what my vacation may be. I am quite drawn to the Religious life, and I think about what it might be like everyday. I am thinking that I may be called to that, and I hope that this event will help me discern what God wants me to do.

 I am trying to stay as open as possible to anything that God wants me to do, and not get distracted by dreams. It's hard, and I admit that I do have a preference. I am more attracted to the religious life or chaste single life, but I am trying to be more open to whatever God's will may be for me.

I am very excited.  This will be my first Youth Ministry trip, and I hope to get to know the other leaders more. I pray that the other Youth of our Parish will be inspired to join us when we come back, so that we can share the fire with them. Wouldn't it be great if we could get all the youth of our Parishes to join us! I hope that we can help a lot of other youth learn more about their Faith and grow closer to God!

Well, I hope to write an update about my experience(s) when I return, and let everyone know how it went, and somethings that I learned..

Come, Holy Spirit!